It is my parents from whom I learned the high work ethic. They came from Italy in the 1950's to live in Lyon, France and worked very hard to reach a respectable position in a company. I adopted their values and took correspondence courses and later evening and weekend courses to get my diplomas. In 1996 I received a diploma in Mechanical Engineering and in 2003 a degree for Executive MBA.
After having started my career in the automotive industry (company ITW), I joined ABB where me and my teams designed and manufactured "just on time" tailor-made functions for the OEM customers. A few years later I moved to Schneider to lead the R&D and Quality teams as the R&D Director. As I was looking for new challenges in 2011, it was important for me to find an average size company with a clear market focus, intelligible product offering, and lots of opportunities for growth. That was Ensto.
I started as the R&D Director for Network Automation in Ensto Novexia in July 2011. Today, I work as the Director, Products and Services in the same business area. My responsibilities cover defining the new offering for products and services, following the trends, and finding out how to help our customers to manage the low and medium voltage electricity network with better efficiency. In addition, I’m in charge of leading Ensto Novexia’s Product Management, Marketing Communications together with Services and After Sales activities.
Ensto values are Trust capital, Winning together and Creativity. I highly appreciate the fact that they are not only strong but also in line with the strategy and the core of the company communications. The three values are well understandable and realized in everything we do. The values motivate me to do my best every day. For me it is important that Ensto owners are so close to the company and the employees – for example the third generation is well introduced in the daily business through several operational positions. One of the reasons I like working in a family business is that the employees are trusted and given both responsibilities and the authority to get things done.
We at Ensto want to tackle climate change with our smart technologies for electricity distribution. It is vital to understand that the future generations cannot live as we have lived but true changes will be needed: further use of renewable energies, electrical transport and recycled raw materials, to mention some. Digital data management, predictive maintenance, and prevention of overconsumption by automation will help to limit the negative impact for the climate. We are developing solutions and products to influence that positively, and that is a very inspiring positioning.
There are several product achievements that I'm proud of such as the Auguste load-break switch for low temperatures, and the eRTU controller with cybersecurity but the most important thing is to understand our customers’ needs and to adapt our organization to meet those needs. My aim is to develop myself continuously and in Ensto, a multi-cultural communication and working method is of outstanding value as it enables learning new skills. The next quest of mine is to define a product road map for Network Automation for 2025. There, we have a real chance to propose new types of automated devices contributing for better electricity efficiency and flexibility, helping to integrate renewable energy in the main grid and offering scenarios for predictive maintenance. These are interesting and motivating challenges that we will tackle as the leading experts to enable better reach for renewable and carbon-neutral energy.
Pascal Pedrinelli
The writer of the blog works as the Director, Products and Services for Network Automation at Ensto Novexia in France.