Ask the Expert

Natalie Waldecker, Portfolio Manager Food and Pharma, knows the challenges of the demanding industries inside out. With her broad application knowledge, she is at home on topics such as hygiene design, certificates and cleanability. As product manager for pressure measurement technology, she is also responsible for one of the most important measuring principles for the industry. Natalie gathers her knowledge as close to the application as possible. Preferably directly at the customer’s site, experiencing “real world” practice. She has thus gotten thoroughly acquainted with international customer requirements and knows the ins and outs of the market. With this background, she is able to not only explain technical relationships in an understandable way, but also offer valuable tips and convincing solutions. In the 12 years she has been with VEGA, she has steadily improved her expertise which makes her the right person to contact for new product ideas and tailored customer solutions.

Paul de Waal is Dutch and educated as a Measurement and Control /Electronics Engineer. After a start as Instrumentation Engineer at Delta Controls, often outsourced to Shell, he became Managing Director of Sierra Instruments b.v. for almost 25 years. In 2012 he moved to the UK and now works as Business Development Director at Vögtlin Instruments GmbH in Switzerland. Paul has been active is several ISO committees and has a wide network of international relations that he can call upon to support him. (Vögtlin is part of the TASI group). He has practical experience with about every flow meter principle available. Currently his professional focus is application support, product development and international sales promotions. His main interest and experience lies in non-fiscal gas mass flow measurement/control systems and calibration. Gas mass flow meters and controllers used in applications like consumption measurements and distribution, gas dosing, mixing, (leak) testing, flame control, furnace, glass, heat treatment, packaging and analysers. Application for this can be found in industries like Food, Bio technology, Surface technologies, Welding, Medical, Pharma, Energy (Solar, Fuel cells, combustion, etc), chemical, semiconductor, metal industry and many more..

Pete Graniello is a 20-year sales professional in the process automation marketplace. He began his career working for major national distributors of instrumentation, pumps, valves, and engineered thermoplastic piping systems. Pete’s technical proficiency encompasses all these product segments. In his career, he’s served as an operations supervisor, a technical sales support specialist, a sales & product trainer, and a business development rep. As a subject matter expert, Pete has worked closely with clients in the semiconductor, water & wastewater, chemical, food & beverage, automotive, biopharma, and oil & gas markets to help them find solutions to their process automation needs. He has extensive and varied experience in the process automation world. His current position is as a Business Development representative for Macnaught USA flowmeters. Based in Houston, Texas, throughout his career Pete has been responsible for helping customers find the right solutions to their most challenging process measurement applications.

Jan Christensen has nearly 40 years of experience in precision flow and pressure control instrumentation. He began his career as a Canadian Service Specialist where he traveled out to the field and repaired valve instrumentation and control systems. Now with 35 years at Brooks Instrument, he assumes the role of Regional Manager. As a Regional Manager he is responsible for the northern part of the United States and Canada learning about the exciting projects our customers are working on and how Brooks Instrument can serve them. Jan has worked extensively in oil and gas, biotech, and semiconductor industries as a flow, technical, and application expert. He is a global traveler, fluent in Danish, German, and English, and has visited every continent except for Australia. Jan has a diploma in materials management from Seneca College and a diploma in electronics from Sheridan College. He also served in the Canadian Air Force for seven years where he learned about electronics specifically repairing radar.