Retirement of George Byrne, Product Manager for Donaldson Membranes.
George left school at the tender age of sixteen and his career path took many twists and turns before joining the Tetratec team.
The many twists and turns have included jobs in a credit agency, assistant warehouse manager, working on the shop floor in a sweets factory and even slating and tiling with a roofing contractor.
His life in the filtration industry began in 1970, when he became warehouse and transport manager for Andrew Textiles, where after two years or so, his enthusiasm and people skills lead to a move to the sales team. Promotion to export sales manager follows and George spent the next fifteen years travelling throughout Europe and Scandinavia.
Following the birth of his son, Michael in 1982, George decided to quit travelling to spend more time at home with his wife, Pat, and their growing son.
This lead to the biggest mistake of his life!
George bought a newsagency in the Rossendale valley. The Rossendale valley is great, but working as a newsagent is not a job for a sane person! From 5am until 7 or 8pm for 365 days a year is just crazy and George soon decided to return to the world of filtration.
Contacts previously made brought an offer as sales manager with Hosokowa/Menardi selling filter products and George was soon back in the business he enjoyed. Setting up a Service and Maintenance Division, gaining contracts with several blue chip companies including Kelloggs, Mars and Proctor & Gamble.
After ten good years with Menardi, ownership and direction of the Company changed and George and his colleagues decided to move on.
George joined the Tetratec team at Donaldson in July 2001 and says his only regret is that he did not join much sooner.
George has provided many years of excellent filtration industry knowledge for the Donaldson rookies.
Mark Rigby: "I am sure everyone will agree that it's been a pleasure (most of the time!) to work with George. His drive, enthusiasm and energy, aligned with his great technical ability & expertise have been a major contributing factor behind the success of the Membranes business. I personally thank him for his exceptional contribution to our company over the years and especially the support extended to me"
So what can a man do with all that spare time on his hands??
George's plans are to continue to watch his football team Rossendale United, play lots of golf (but only when the sun is shining), learn to play the piano and drive his wife mad (a trait he has perfected over the years)!!!
With great sadness, though probably not from George, he retired his pencil on Friday 12th December 2008. Good luck George and best wishes for a long and happy retirement, you will be missed.