Michael has always loved cheese. At age 17 he read about the Danish Skilled Dairyman education on a milk carton, and it just clicked. He wanted to make cheese, and at the same time explore the international world of dairy. Michael’s curiosity led him to move abroad with his family to Sweden then Saudi Arabia on a career journey of cheesemaking, commissioning of equipment and selling production lines. Now, he is back to cheesemaking as Production & Technology Development Manager at Arla’s external partner Amalgamated Dairies in Summerside, Canada.
Michael met his wife 23 years ago at the dairy college in Denmark. She has been part of his international career journey, also working at Arla Foods. Together with their two daughters, they live in a typical Canadian wooden house on Prince Edward Island on Canada’s east coast. For a nature-lover like Michael this is a great place to ride his Yamaha adventure motorcycle in the summer months to clear his mind.
How to make cheese and beyond
As part of the Skilled Dairyman education, Michael got a trainee position at Arla’s dairy in Hjørring, Denmark in 1998. "I was taught how to make cheese, why you add the rennet and the culture, why and for how long do you ripen the cheese, as well as how you ensure quality,” he says and continues:
“I enjoyed going to school and learning different techniques that I could use at the dairy, but I didn’t see myself working as a skilled dairyman my whole life. I wanted more adventures and dreamed of going to other countries to explore how cheeses are made differently.”
After three years of studying, Michael and his wife moved abroad for the first time to work at Arla’s Falkenberg Dairy in Sweden. They gained two more years of experience in cheesemaking before they went back to Denmark to study.
“If you want to travel the world, sell equipment, do commissioning etc., you need to study Dairy Technologist to learn how a complete dairy is working, how you manage a team as well as how you market and sell the products,” Michael explains.
Exploring the world of dairy
After finishing his Dairy Technologist education, Michael got a Commissioning Engineer position at Tetra Pak Filtration (DSS Silkeborg at the time).
“This was my dream job because I got to travel and experience the dairy industry in the whole world. I went to more than 30 countries in Scandinavia, Europe and the Middle East to start up the membrane plants and teach operators to run dairy production lines,” Michael says.
“Danish dairy people are known around the world for producing good quality and working with the best products and equipment. So, it was interesting to visit other countries coming with this strong brand. I typically stayed between one and three weeks to do training, finetuning and ensuring that the customer could make their products,” he explains and adds:
“The main reason I left this job was the birth of our first daughter as it required many nights in a hotel and being away from my family.”
A family adventure in Saudi Arabia
In 2015, Michael moved with his wife and two daughters to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to take up a Sales Manager & Dairy Category Leader role selling dairy equipment in the Middle East.
“In the first three months, you are super excited because everything is new. But after some time, reality hits you and you realize that you can’t attend your grandmother’s birthday or go to the sport you usually go to, the children miss their friends, and some friendships fade out. After that rough path, we started to feel at home and enjoyed being an international family,” he explains and continues:
“The seven years we spent in Jeddah were by far the seven best years we have had as a family and as a couple. We lived in a cozy compound with great people from around 60 different countries. Everyone is there for the same reason. You come to work but you don’t have family obligations to attend every weekend, so people are very open to doing stuff together.”
Closing the circle of cheesemaking
In 2022, Michael got the chance to return to Arla as a Production & Technology Development Manager based at Amalgamated Dairies in Summerside, Canada. Here, he supports the cheesemakers in producing Feta, Havarti and Cheddar aligned to Arla standards with the right taste, texture and composition.
“Canada seemed like a good fit for our family, and the job is a great way for me to close the circle of coming back to Arla and working with cheese production again,” Michael says and elaborates:
“As I see it, if you only work for companies supplying solutions to the dairies, you might know a lot about how the equipment like pasteurizers and the homogenizers are designed. But if you haven’t used it in a dairy, you tend to focus on the sale alone and not the actual purpose of the equipment. Same thing, if you only work in a production, you only know production.”
“For me, it is important to know what’s going on both sides of the table. After more than 15 years being on the supplier side, I wanted to go back to the dairy industry, producing high quality products.”
