10 QUESTIONS


10 Questions with... Dr Mike Kalli Q3


Each month we ask a cleaning industry professional the Tomorrow’s Cleaning 10 Questions. This month, we chatted to Dr. Mike Kalli, Founder & Managing Director at Ideal Manufacturing Ltd.


Which three words describe your personality?


Positive, understanding and determined. Q4 Q1


What was your first job? After completing a PhD


in organic chemistry, I started working as Chief Chemist at British Hydrological Corporation (BHC) in London, but I soon realised I couldn’t be confined to the lab and began visiting sites all over the UK with representatives who needed technical support. This gave me the opportunity to witness real problems first hand and go back to the bench with a clearer understanding of what was required to solve them.


Q2


How did you get into the cleaning industry?


My real involvement in laundry began in 1976, when I was invited to solve a problem by the Joe Lyons Group. I worked on a new formula in the lab and visited a laundry in Letchworth. I was shown to a machine that was washing heavily soiled abattoir clothing. We loaded the machine, poured in the product, washed and rinsed. Afterwards, the operator opened the washer door and shouted “I don’t believe it. It’s clean!” The general manager then wrote out an order for ‘Four Tonnes of Kalli’s Magic Mix’, and I’ve been involved in making laundry and hygiene chemicals ever since.


28 Q5


If you could have any job, outside of the cleaning


industry, what would it be and why? I’ve always liked the idea of being a classical guitarist. Unfortunately, that’s an unfulfilled ambition. I trained to be a research chemist, and my real ambition had always been to undertake further medical studies to gain a complete understanding on the effects of pharmaceuticals on the human anatomy.


How would you improve the cleaning industry?


I would encourage more training to help all types of cleaning staff understand and appreciate the importance of their role in any hygiene situation. In addition, if there were even more specific qualifications and incentives to gain specialist knowledge then the status of people within the industry would improve, along with cleaning standards.


Q6 Q7


If an intern were to start tomorrow, what’s the one


piece of advice you would give them? Make sure you apply yourself, learn the industry you're working in and take pride in what you’re doing. Always be honest with people you are working with too.


If you won the lottery tomorrow, how would you


spend your fortune? I'd invest into developing Ideal Manufacturing Ltd. I’ve always thought that I might even like to go further downstream and start synthesising and manufacturing our own raw materials. I’d also make sure that a good proportion was donated to the Leukeamia Research Fund.


Q8


If you could host a dinner party and invite any three


guests, dead or alive, who would


they be and why? First on my list would be Mahatma Gandhi – a good man to show me the way. I’d also invite the Marx Brothers to make us all laugh and Sophia Loren, to share a love of simple Mediterranean food.


Q9


What, do you think, is the future of the cleaning


industry? There are so many changes going on. The quality that can now be achieved is far superior to any time previously and there’s a heightened awareness of the effects on the environment and the need to save energy. I can see that more will need to be done to improve efficiency, energy saving and responsible formulation, supply and use of cleaning products.


Ross MacMahon, Managing Director of Baileyhygiene, asks...


Q10


Other than now what era would you like to have


lived in and where? If I could choose any era in history to experience I would like to visit the time of the Ancient Greek Empire, to see my ancestors and see the way that they lived, and to see the Parthenon in all its glory, to visit the original Olympic Games and to experience the golden age of classical Greek culture.


www.idealmanufacturing.com Ideal


Check out the next issue to see what Dr Mike asked our next industry professional...


www.tomorrowscleaningireland.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30