INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY | FEATURE
CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS FOR IRIZAR FORGE
Maria Lasa Irizar is the fourth-generation family member and managing director of Irizar Forge based in Gipuzkoa, Spain, which celebrates its 99th anniversary this year. The Basque company is an industrial powerhouse for Rigging & Mooring appliances such as its and Subsea sector, and became part of Van Beest in 2017. “My role to become the successor and take leadership of the company was instilled in me since childhood and my education was a key driver towards this goal, completing a degree in Business Economics and a Masters in International Business Management. I started working for the company when I was 23, after gaining some understand all the disciplines in the industry. Sales is my passion and I love languages and diverse cultures. I realized immediately I needed a great team, built on trust to drive the company,” she said. “My biggest achievement to date is getting to know my strengths
and weaknesses and using those to my advantage and learning from previous generations of employees, gaining knowledge from their
experience. My biggest challenge is non-stop customer care and working to become an inspirational leader for the current and next generation of employees. “The next generation will change the industry
for sure and awareness about safety and sustainability has increased exponentially. The market is demanding smarter products in terms competitiveness and from an eco perspective. Last years’ products are developed with these drivers in mind to achieve a competitive result with smarter solutions with a longer lifespan, not forgetting about digitalization and product connectivity. “Now as part of the Van Beest Group, my personal milestone is to
have an active role in the upcoming strategical decisions of the group and to be a part of the next success of one of the most trustable and attractive companies I have ever seen. To be a part of Van Beest group is a honour for me.”
‘PUSHING THE ENVELOPE’ WITH R&M’S DIGITAL SERVICES & OFFERINGS
Erin Drake is associate director – Customer Service and Marketing at R&M Materials Handling. She has been at the company for 11 years, in a variety of roles. “My educational background is in architecture and business. I originally started in our New Equipment team as a sales engineer, which allowed me to use both my technical design background and my business degree. I have grown through our company and have been
try new projects, ideas, and positions. I think each of these opportunities has helped to prepare me for the next and to gain a holistic view of our company, products, and the industry. Working to improve our digital footprint from a marketing and product perspective has been my biggest achievement to date. I have learned so many new things and been able to work with some amazing and creative people through this process. It has been great to see the results from some of these projects come to fruition. “Getting through the initial learning curve is a real challenge for everyone in the have adjusted my mindset to meet this challenge. I no longer think of learning as a challenge to overcome, but as a life-long process of enrichening myself. It helps me to feel more comfortable with the things I do not know, and to stay actively engaged in learning new things in our ever-changing business. “In the future, we will see a greater integration of digital technology with equipment, and this will have a bigger impact on the operator and equipment owner’s experience. “Smart” cranes already exist at some level, but I think what will change is the way in which this information is conveyed to the user, moving to a more user-friendly, intuitive, feedback-focused experience. Changes in our labor force will lead to an overall increase in the acceptance and demand for these technologies. “The pandemic has brought about a whole new way of thinking about the way
that we live and conduct business. Going forward, I want to continue pushing our industry changes over the next few years.”
A DECADE AT HARRINGTON HOISTS
Jennifer Ferguson is a product manager at Harrington Hoists. She started in Harrington’s Engineering Department 10 years ago and has worked in its Business Development Department for the last four years. “I got the job when I was relocating to Pennsylvania, looking in the engineering sector. I saw Harrington’s ad for a Spanish-speaking engineer to provide technical support for their sales in Mexico, Central America, and South America, in addition to supporting new Harrington ever since,” said Ferguson. “My biggest achievement to date is overseeing the wire rope hoist made within the Kito Group and I had the joy of working with so many talented people with success. “Breaking the intimidation of speaking in front of people and training customers on products has been a challenge. “Practice makes perfect” and the more I’ve done it, the easier it has become. I always study my topics beforehand and try to understand the audience to whom I am speaking. “The increase in
telecommuting has provided many employees remotely. This may become ways to connect people, as a team with little physical interaction may be a new challenge for managers.”
40 | March 2022 |
www.hoistmagazine.com
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