The CWB Association brings you a weekly podcast that connects to welding professionals around the world and unrepresented communities as we continue to strive for a more diverse workforce. Join us as we celebrate Black History Month to learn about the incredible contributions of African, Caribbean, and Black Canadians to the welding industry and our communities.
When Leon Hudson speaks, the welding world listens—and this month, we're bringing you his story straight from the source. As Fronius Canada's Perfect Welding Technical Support National Manager, Leon shares his remarkable career trajectory, from his formative years in Jamaica to leading a trailblazing team in the industry. We uncover the pivotal moments that have not only shaped his professional journey but also highlight the transformative power of mentorship, community, and technological evolution within the field of welding.
Follow Fronius Canada:
Website: https://www.fronius.com/en-ca/canada
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/perfectcharging/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/froniuscanada/
Thank you to our Podcast Advertisers:
Canada Welding Supply: https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/
There is no better time to be a member! The CWB Association membership is new, improved and focused on you. We offer a FREE membership with a full suite of benefits to build your career, stay informed, and support the Canadian welding industry. https://www.cwbgroup.org/association/become-a-member
The CWB Association brings you a weekly podcast that connects to welding professionals around the world and unrepresented communities as we continue to strive for a more diverse workforce. Join us as we celebrate Black History Month to learn about the incredible contributions of African, Caribbean, and Black Canadians to the welding industry and our communities.
When Leon Hudson speaks, the welding world listens—and this month, we're bringing you his story straight from the source. As Fronius Canada's Perfect Welding Technical Support National Manager, Leon shares his remarkable career trajectory, from his formative years in Jamaica to leading a trailblazing team in the industry. We uncover the pivotal moments that have not only shaped his professional journey but also highlight the transformative power of mentorship, community, and technological evolution within the field of welding.
Follow Fronius Canada:
Website: https://www.fronius.com/en-ca/canada
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/perfectcharging/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/froniuscanada/
Thank you to our Podcast Advertisers:
Canada Welding Supply: https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/
There is no better time to be a member! The CWB Association membership is new, improved and focused on you. We offer a FREE membership with a full suite of benefits to build your career, stay informed, and support the Canadian welding industry. https://www.cwbgroup.org/association/become-a-member
Alright, I checked, checked, I'm good. So I'm Max Ron. Max Max Ron, shitwb Association Welding Podcast podcast podcast. Today we have a really cool guest Welding Podcast. The show is about to begin.
Speaker 1:Attention welders in Canada looking for top quality welding supplies, look no further than Canada Welding Supply. With a vast selection of premium equipment, safety gear and consumables. Cws has got you covered. They offer fast and reliable shipping across the country. And here's the best part All podcast listeners get 10% off any pair of welding gloves. Can you believe that? Use code CWB10 at checkout when placing your next order. Visit canadaweldingsupplyca now. Canada Welding Supply, your trusted welding supplier. Happy welding. Hello and welcome to another edition of the CWB Association Podcast. My name is Max Ron and, as always, we're looking for the best talent in the world to interview. And today, and this month specifically, we're celebrating Black History Month, which is a very important day for all the black people and people in the black community and people of color around the world. As a part of this series for this month, we have Leon Hudson coming into us from the GTA. I believe I didn't even ask, but I think you're out there.
Speaker 1:Hey Leon, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:I am doing excellent. How are you, Max?
Speaker 1:I'm doing fantastic, so I wanna get your title right. You work for Fronius and you are the manager of the Perfect Welding Technical Department and Technical Support for National something, something, something. It was a long, long title. What do you got?
Speaker 2:So, in the shortest form, as it shows up in our system, I am the Perfect Welding Technical Support National Manager. Oh, okay, all right. So what does that mean is we have a few different departments or business units Welding, solar and Battery Charging. In terms of the welding division, we're called Perfect Welding and I am the manager of all the technical support in Canada for that.
Speaker 1:So as a manager for all of technical support, that means that you gotta know, kind of how every machine operates, all the pieces, all the parts, and you gotta be able to. You're not necessarily the one fixing it yourself as a manager, but you gotta be telling people what to do and when they call in right, or training them at least.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So we do a little bit of everything. We do the. Let's start from the start. Certain welding challenge is in industry. They knock on doors a lot of times and the sales team says, hey, I'll introduce you to my technical guys and they will try to solve your problem. That's my guys, those are my guys. So we're talking from okay, let's get to the main potatoes of your project. We'll start welding with whichever solution we think it's best with this robotic, maybe a hard automation, like, maybe a tractor or something right or manual welding.
Speaker 2:So we, this department, will do all the welding for it. Okay, proof of concept to the customer. He likes it, he loves it, he buys it. Now my department's also configuring everything, for all the nuts and bolts and pieces to make this black box into a working system. Let's say Then it goes to the customer or the integrator to put on a robot. We go with the equipment, we show them how to set it up, to make it work, to arcs and sparks, and then another section, we go and we train on how to use it and then if it breaks, we also do that and everything in between data, documentation, everything. So I manage the department that handles all that.
Speaker 1:So the sales team gets it easy.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, they do get knocked on a door sometimes From time to time to get to knocking on a door, but they get to drop it in their laps and say, make it work. Yeah, and from a welding standpoint, we have to make it work.
Speaker 1:So that's a very specific technical field that you're in. So, in order to get to the spot we're in right now, let's go right back to the beginning, because it sounds like it's gonna be some type of a path to get from inception of Leon, baby Leon, to manager of all the nuts and bolts and everything welding for Ferronis Canada. So where are you born? And let's start at the start.
Speaker 2:From the start, so born in Jamaica.
Speaker 1:Where in Jamaica?
Speaker 2:Montego Bay.
Speaker 1:Montego Bay, all right.
Speaker 2:Right, so I'm born on the beaches of Jamaica and Montego Bay, the tourist area, brew up with an extended family, pretty large family we're talking about. Grandma had 22 dinner plates on the table. Yeah, kind of extended family, right. That's a big table.
Speaker 1:I mean people are sitting at the couch people are sitting at the table.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was 22 dinner plates at the table. I tell people all the time they can't believe. So from there you're learning from all your older cousins and all that, right, and it's competitive in that environment, right? You wanna win all the races, you wanna have the biggest dinner plate because you're the biggest boy around, right, or whatever. So we grew up like most Jamaicans. We're playing soccer or football. We're a little bit British still, so we're still playing cricket, right, and we grew up in the British school system.
Speaker 2:So we're doing grade one, two, let's say five, six, in a primary school, and then in grade five, you get to take an exam. Now you pass this exam, you skip grade six, go to grade seven. So I was one of the lucky, let's say, 50, 60, 70%. Skip grade six, get to grade seven and I get to a technical high school. This is where it gets interesting. Not many of these schools are run, but a technical high school in Jamaica allows you to do grade seven, grade eight. In grade nine, you start choosing what you wanna be in life. So I'm like, okay, I wanna be in engineering, right? So in grade 10, I go in engineering. Now the options you're learning metals, so you're grinding, you're welding, you're designing different metal projects, you're doing some woodworking stuff, you're doing your physics, your chemistry, all those engineering sciences right To prepare you for a full secondary. So that's grade 10 and grade 11. Now, at the end of grade 10, my dad decided he lived in Canada at the time.
Speaker 1:He decided so what was he doing in Canada?
Speaker 2:already he was working at CarMax.
Speaker 1:So CarMax is a magna company and they do automotive, automotive parts, right, right and he had come up on a contract or on a foreign worker program, or was he living already in Canada?
Speaker 2:He lived in Canada a couple of months before I was born. Okay okay, Right, so my mom is pregnant in Jamaica. He comes to Canada, you know what?
Speaker 1:Make more money send home. Yeah, make a better life make money, send home Right.
Speaker 2:so that all happened. And I remember in grade seven if I turned back to grade seven and I was in the library with the library teacher at the time, cause you had to learn library sciences and I'm like, yeah, my dad's in Canada he builds cars for a living. I don't need to go to school.
Speaker 1:Right, I'm gonna do that right.
Speaker 2:I got it all figured out.
Speaker 1:I'm like, yeah, I got it all figured out.
Speaker 2:I'm grade seven. My dad's in Canada, he's making cars, and at that time he had a pretty nice car. So he sent the picture back. I was like, oh, this is nice, I'm gonna do exactly what my dad did, right? So the teacher looked at me at the time and said your dad makes cars for a living. If he went to school he'd be the manager of the people who makes cars. And that stuck with me from then until now.
Speaker 2:I remember that conversation. She beat me, but I didn't let her know that she beat me in that conversation. So he fast forward. My dad is living in Canada. He's living in the GTA, in Toronto area, and he just wanted at the time to celebrate the success of his kids. Right, you passed that exam in grade five, skip grade six, go to grade seven. He's like okay, let's come up and we'll celebrate in Canada. Right, he tried to do that for me and my brother, but he was all successful. So he said okay, you know what? Let's just move you to Canada so we never have to worry about this happening again. So we moved to Canada in grade 10, in the grade 10.
Speaker 1:Come to Canada, in Toronto, in the Toronto area and how many of you came up to Canada together At a time three.
Speaker 2:Okay, my oldest sister. I don't know if she's allowed me to tell this story, but she's now a doctor nurse.
Speaker 1:Nurse practitioner yeah, With a PhD now With a PhD, yeah, awesome.
Speaker 2:So I'm like you're a doctor nurse.
Speaker 1:That's it. That's top game, yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, doctor, nurse, and my brother. Now he is an inspector for the Toronto police, right? And little old me I'm the youngest one at the time, so I'm just chasing behind their tails wherever they go. Whatever they do, we try to do the same, right? So we get to Toronto and go to Westin Collegiate. I'll bounce back and forth to that school in Jamaica in the future as we talk. So we get to Westin Collegiate, know nothing about the system, right, how it works. We know you go to school. We don't know anything about school credits. How many credits do you need to go from here to here? Which classes do you need to do? What even happens after high school?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, there's no path. Yeah.
Speaker 2:None of that. So it's just like, okay, we are living day to day, test to test, quiz to quiz, get a quiz, pass a quiz, get a test, pass a test right, and the support to navigate the path isn't really there. It wasn't at the time. It's getting better now. I know teachers in the system now who were educating me on the things that I saw back then.
Speaker 1:That wasn't right, yeah it's still a struggle, though, man, it's still a struggle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure right, because I remember when I came into grade 10, they had me do a test. And I'm like, guys, I did grade 10 already in Jamaica. They're like, oh, your age says you have to do grade 10. I'm like, well, I skipped a grade because you know, and I also did grade 10. So he's like no, you have to. So I did the test and then they put me in a certain grade and then, four days after school starts, the teacher takes me and goes no, you shouldn't be here, you should be someplace else. It's you're not supposed to be here. This is right. But I also got lucky because at the time it was an English class. No, I hate doing English classes, I'll tell you the truth. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1:I hate them.
Speaker 2:I'm a math guy. Yeah, right, for me, I was a math guy.
Speaker 1:And I love to read, but I hate doing English. There's a difference.
Speaker 2:Right, Right, Exactly so. My math teacher, my English teacher, takes me to where we're doing a book written by a Jamaican lady. So I'm in class and I am translating the Jamaican Patois to English, right, and somewhere in that he's like no, no, no, you shouldn't be in this class, you should be in a different class. Right, and just that move from him noticing something and moving me someplace else, sort of set me on a path to, let's say, success. I would probably have still been successful doing something else. I don't know what that would have been, but I think that was a turning point in Canada where somebody saw me and go no, no, no, no, no, you shouldn't be here. You should be here Because, again, I don't know the system, I don't know anything. That sort of set me up on a path to get back into engineering from a university sampling.
Speaker 2:Now my brother. He took his path, my sister took hers. Again, she gets in at grade 12. Where do I go? I graduate and I'll do nursing, right, you don't know the system, right, she ends up in nursing. Now when we're in our school. I remember in our school it had probably 100 different languages and countries in the school Toronto, it's all a mix of everything. Luckily there were some other Jamaicans in the school. And then you go in on a soccer team and then you start making me a tour.
Speaker 1:Then you got your gang, you got your gang Right.
Speaker 2:I was walking in class my first day of class and I heard a Jamaican word and that calmed me right down. I was nervous Because I'm in Jamaica, I'm watching TV and you see kids get the stuff to locker rooms and stuff like that, or lockers and stuff like that. That's what you sort of expect, right, bullying and all of that stuff. I didn't really know what to expect other than what I saw on TV. I get to school and I hear Jamaican words and I'm like, oh, it's OK, it's going to be OK. There's other Jamaicans here and stuff, right. So that was common. But you get into school, you're doing it, but there was no pathway.
Speaker 2:Well you bring up a bunch of different things.
Speaker 1:I want to start with you here, because there's a few points here that are very interesting. First of all is the difference between school systems in Canada versus other countries which, as North America, has this habit of thinking that we just do everything the best and better than everybody else.
Speaker 1:That's just kind of the North American way of thinking, which take it for what it is. But there's one thing I'll tell you about other countries. This is a school systems and the way they divide out into skills practical skills, educational skills. I love that. It's the same in Chile, it's the same in lots of other countries. By grade 10, you're already working towards either university, technical school, and it saves you money, it saves you time, it saves you a headache, because you already have people working with you to be like all right, let's get you on this path. And if you decide to change your mind, by the time you're in grade 12, you already have skills to work.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. So that's something that I've brought up for decades, being like why don't we have a system like that in Canada? We kind of have a system like that for kids that fall under the radar or like, oh, you're like a problem kid, or you got issues, or you got something, oh, ok, well then maybe you should go look at this tech school. That's not the right attitude, though. We shouldn't be looking at it like that. It should be like oh, you love to work with your hands and you're a super smart, straight-a student Tech schools for you too. You know what I mean Exactly.
Speaker 1:And so that's the one point I wanted to bring up, and especially for the listeners that don't know this about other countries. The other part was is how important having that right teacher at the right time can make in your life. Because when I came to Canada with my family I was just a little kid, so I was, spanish was my first language. I started kindergarten didn't know any English, didn't like I was just an immigrant. But luckily, because of the way immigration was back in the 70s, all the kids in my school were immigrants, so no one spoke English. It was like we got Somalis, we got three, we got Spanish, we got Russian, ukrainian, all these crazy languages everywhere. So we kind of got along.
Speaker 1:But then in grade five weird little Mac story my dad went to lottery, Not a lot but a little bit enough to move us out of that neighborhood and into a nice neighborhood. And when I ended up in the nice neighborhood it was like the worst time of my life. I swear to God it was the worst thing that ever happened to me, because now I was the only Spanish kid in an all-white school, like it was just like out of a TV show with the bullying First day of school I got. So I went home crying. I just like I hated life, like this is the worst thing that could ever happen. I was literally singled out for my clothes, my looks, my face, the way I talked, everything was made fun of right on day one.
Speaker 1:But I had a teacher in grade five that noticed that I was really good at math and science like exceptionally good and they made such a huge difference in my life. Being like you know what. You're here, you're only gonna be here for like three years and you're gonna go off to high school Just power through kid, just power through all these people. You'll never see them again. You'll start a whole new life and you'll be fine, and I always think about that. Like you know, things can be really right now but, you'll get through it, you know.
Speaker 1:just keep your eye on the prize, focus, go forward, right. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2:So here you are. Yeah, for sure, and that's a very similar story to many immigrants, let's say, who come from wherever, where it's the South or East and all those places, right. So I get to high school, you're like going at the grade 11 slash 12 now yeah 11 slash 12. Graduated in grade 11, officially. Don't tell me when I told you that they still don't believe that. I feel like how are you graduating grade 11? If you got the?
Speaker 1:credit, it's OK.
Speaker 2:My brother right there. He's graduating right behind him. So I graduated grade 11. Did one more year. At the time we had OAC.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Right, then I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know. I just literally stole a dart to the dart board and whatever it stuck on, all right, I'm going to York University for computer science.
Speaker 1:Right. What happened to the thoughts of engineering from back in Jamaica? Kind of just fell off the radar there.
Speaker 2:It's not necessarily. I was in school and they brought in a speaker and the speaker goes in the next 20 years everybody in computer science is going to retire and there's going to be jobs. So that's what I heard. So I'm like, ok, I will do that in school. Right Again, I don't know the system. All right now here I have to pay for school. Ay, ay, ay, ay ay. How do I pay for school? I ended up getting a summer job. Did pretty well in the summer job, saved up enough pay for my first university. Now I can't afford books, yeah, so I go to university. Can't afford books, can't afford a computer to do computer science, so I'm basically living at the school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, living at the university.
Speaker 2:Right, I'm living at the library, because if I need to type something, I can't do it at home Because I don't have a computer at home. So how do you be a computer scientist without a computer? Yeah, right, so we did that and eventually I was pretty successful at that. But eventually my family moved and the access to school became difficult. Now you've got to work to help support the family my brother's in school, my sister's in school OK, so I go to work to support the family. And then after that I said, ok, what am I going to do now? Right, I was successful at school in computer science. It wasn't really missing my passion, engineering, my passion. So I ended up going back into engineering, going back to school for engineering Again, no mentor, no, nothing, just hey, this is what I did. So I'm going to do it again, right, and we fast forward and I'm successful at that and I get a job at ESAP.
Speaker 1:All right, and now you're done with engineering, or you're still in engineering.
Speaker 2:I'm still in engineering. I was in school Humber College at the time, and because now I've got to start back over to the engineering.
Speaker 2:Right, I get to Humber College and it's a co-op program, right, right, all right, I'm doing a co-op program and it's in electronics no co-op position. So I go online and I apply to everything I see. I get a phone call from ESAP, I go in and go in for the interview. It turned out that the topics they were asking in the interview is literally what I just learned at school last week.
Speaker 1:Oh perfect.
Speaker 2:He's like I'm hiring you right now, right here, we're going to do it. I'm like perfect. So he gives me a tour of the facility. Now I'm in electronics engineering and I'm touching five amp power supplies, right.
Speaker 1:And the teacher's like. Be careful that five amp power supply will give you a real shock.
Speaker 2:Right. So that's exactly what's happening. He brings me to the back for a tour of ESAP and he's like, yeah, so this one is 1,500 amps and this one is 1,000 amps power supply. These are big sub-art machines at the time and I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah, yeah I am nervous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got 575 volts coming out the wall.
Speaker 2:Right. Normally it's 24 volts, five amps. That's how we're touching the school Right. I get to ESAP and it's the, it's the.
Speaker 1:And sub-art is as big as it gets Like I mean you're looking 15 on your amps on two machines chained together. Just you know what I mean, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, ok, ok, you know what, I need a co-op position. I'm going to figure till I make it. So I'm like, yeah, I passed the test that he gave me, so I must be half decent. And I get into first day of school, first day of work, and it's just, I don't know who puts these people in my life. From time to time I pop in and it's this Trinidadian man and he used to work at. He's retired now, but he's done so much in the welding industry in terms of preparing welding machines, right, wealth and knowledge. And this is like my first mentoring type situation Right, showing me all the ropes, helping me be safe, get through that experience. The downturn of 2008 happens. Economic downturn happens. Esap keeps me on full time. I end up going on a major, major project in the US. We were doing wind towers.
Speaker 1:OK, so you need gantries and stuff like everything.
Speaker 2:No, I'm the gantry guy, I'm the one that's installing these massive gantries and what was the largest wind tower manufacturing facility, I think globally, but definitely in the US. It was absolutely massive, right, and that started to set me up for things to come. So at ESAP I was doing the welding gantries, the subarct welding gantries, I was doing the plasma cutting tables, also water jet, so I did the full gamut of everything. Right, they say you've got to cut before you weld. So I was cutting and I was welding. Now, at the time there wasn't anyone that was doing both cutting and welding at ESAP, right, so I did the full manual repair systems, cutting, welding, automation. So I had a really great, let's say, experience at ESAP building and building into the welding industry.
Speaker 1:So that question when you talk about your mentor from Trinidad, was there a sense of comfort because he was also a person of color, or was it just a luck of the draw that this person just happens to be from Trinidad? Because I know, I have appreciated, especially because English isn't my first language. Any mentorship I've ever gotten with someone who can speak in my language is always like, hmm, perfect, you know what I mean, but that's few and far between you. Don't get a lot of those right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't. I said I lucked out because if I look around in the industry there's not many black faces. No Right, eventually we'll get there across the board, right. But there was definitely a level of comfort and at one point he was like an uncle right how he provided information, he made sure everything was, you know because removing from 24 volts DC to 600 volt, three phase, really big welding machines, right. So he took really really good care of me. I remember when I was leaving ESAP he cried that day right, and that's when I realized who I had in my corner right when I left. So that was really really something I never realized at the time until it was almost at the end.
Speaker 2:I said well, he really took care of me right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he counted on you too, right yeah?
Speaker 2:So we developed a really good relationship. He ended up retiring and then I let me see it I was the only other black person in the welding part of ESAP.
Speaker 2:Now we had finance, we had support there, we had you know, so we still had enough of a footprint at ESAP. But yeah, he definitely helped me navigate right and I won't let they minimize the effect of everybody else here, because they had some really really good people at the time, people of different races and color, languages and stuff like that. So it was a nice team. The same effect that you had as a new immigrant when you see other people who are immigrants also. So they had that team. But I remember him specifically. He took real good care of me and helped me develop right Into where I'm at.
Speaker 1:So you're in the co-op program with ESAP, which turned into a full-time job. So I assume here you finished your engineering, you got your I see your ring on your finger so you got your P&J and then you stayed on at ESAP for a number of years and worked on the giant project, right?
Speaker 2:I've worked on. So there's a bit more schooling in the future, right? So there's Humber, there's. I went away to Lakehead, so pretty close to where, not super close to where you are, but close to where I'm at right now. So I did some other schooling and I remember when I was leaving that I had a whole bunch of friends who went to university after and I was like you know what guys I'm going to come in. You know we're going to have a blast. So we end up at university but at the same time back and forth with ESAB, still learning, still growing, still developing, and graduated. Then back at ESAB, again full time, again. Now all the let's say the more senior guys are now gone from, let's say, the welding and repair and I'm now called the senior guy. Yeah Right, I'm called the senior guy. And then Ronius came knocking and I left.
Speaker 2:So you got boats, ronius. Yeah yeah, somebody called me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I was wondering, you know, because it sounds like you're having a great time at ESAB, you know, and my question was going to be why did you leave?
Speaker 2:Um, why did I leave? Now? I've had at ESAB the system, how the system was set up. You have kids graduating from conestoga and stuff like that and they get, they get hired on, and I end up developing relationships with those guys because I had access to the technology.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right. Right, they were either in some kind of sales position or you start off understanding the system and then you move into a welding, a more full-time welding position. But I had access to the technology and we were all around the same age. So I ended up hanging out with a lot of those guys over time and learning, let's say, the welding technology and getting better at the welding technology, even though I did electrical getting better at the welding technologies through those relationships and ESAB Fronius came knocking just randomly and I reached out to some of those guys hey, what do you know about Fronius? They're knocking on the door and I remember a couple of them like, if you have a chance to it, right? So that's how I end up now. Esab has a work culture that they make people like really resilient at ESAB. Esab, people are really resilient and they don't move on very much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know Right. I know a lot of people that have been doing their time at ESAB. They got no desire to leave. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Exactly. I was like what am I doing here? Because I look at this guy he's 25 years. This guy is 30 years. He's been here since he graduated school and now he's a general manager. This guy is the VP. Like, no one leaves ESAB yeah, it was not the easiest decision to leave, right, and I still have relationships with those guys to the state, right, see them at trade shows and stuff like that, and they always say the welding is a big industry but a small world right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a big community, but we all know each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So it was great fun, still have great relationships with those guys, still talk to a lot of them today's day.
Speaker 1:So the Ferronius shows up knock, knock, knock on the door, being like hey, look at our shiny, cool machines, we're the Ferraris of welding over here, bright, red, let's look. And they have a way different background, like Ferronius is a different company altogether, even just how they got in the game, you know like they're over a hundred years old in the energy department, you know, and welding kind of came last. So it's very interesting how they got in the game, right? Oh for sure.
Speaker 2:They started recharging batteries right. So they still have a battery department to this day, which is one of the things that helps them be successful be diversified in different things. But yeah, the battery came first, then the welding and now solar energy is is a surviving part of the business. So I get in. I remember in the interview they go oh, I hope, I hope your automotive guys are listening to this one, you're like in there In the interview. They asked me so you're in an automotive facility and it's costing so much an hour for downtime and it's 200 machines and one's not working. How do you handle this level of stress? I say it's only one that's broken If it's only one, it's okay.
Speaker 2:They're like it's only one that's broken, yeah, and I can't like it's only one, it's okay. I thought it was like all 200 are broken. Now we got a problem right. So, yeah, we got in. At the time, I was the only we call electrical systems, welding systems, engineering person. And what year is this? And this is 10 years ago. So 2014? 2014. Yeah, yeah, so the company is growing right.
Speaker 1:Because even 10 years ago there was not, I would say, huge Ferroni's footprint in North America.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, the US started a bit before, but, yeah, the footprint was super small. So I came on and there is now a team that is a lot of guys from Conestoga College welding engineering program. Then we're bouncing ideas, learning even more on the welding technology side, right, right, I think that's where. So I think, esa brought me into the welding equipment. Ferroni has brought me into the welding technology. I see, right, all right, understanding the arc, understanding all that goes into the perfect arc, or, you know, completing a job with the right process, the right welding speeds, the right parameters, right? So this is where I learned all that through the last, let's say, decade of working on Ferroni.
Speaker 2:Now, sometimes I get calls and like, hey, leon, I got your number from so and so I'm looking into this project. And I'm like this is a different place from where I started to know somebody called me reaching out for a solution for a welding problem. I think that's one of the coolest things I do, right, that whole call like, hey, leon, I'm working on this. And who is this? Oh, I got your number from so and so and I'm working on this problem and can you help me? Oh, yeah, come by the lab, we'll do some development and try to prove out the problem that you're working on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2:So let's take a break right now.
Speaker 1:We're right at the half hour mark. This is perfect. We'll take our sponsor break because when we get back we're going to talk about what it is that you do on the day to day, what are the projects you're working on with Ferroni and the future for Leon. So we'll be right back here on the CWB Association podcast with Leon Hudson from Ferroni. Don't go anywhere. And we are back here on the CWB Association podcast. My name is Max, so I'm thanks for tuning in and listening along.
Speaker 1:Today we have Leon Hudson on our special Black History Month episode celebrating the success of wonderful Black Canadians here in Canada. We were just talking about the recap coming from Jamaica working it out, dad's working the automotive, built the family up, got everyone over, then the school, the university, then ESAP, then now Ferronius comes knocking. You make the jump over to Ferronius who at that point I would say is a much, much less established company in Canada not worldwide necessarily, but in Canada and they bring you on the team. And you were just talking about how you're transitioning from a problem solver to a solution solver, which is a little bit of a different way, and you're saying how that's exciting and explain to people maybe, the difference of both sides of that equation From before, where you're just trying to solve the problem after it's already happened, to the other side of it, where you're trying to make sure the problem never starts Right.
Speaker 2:So in the ESAP days it was a field service specialist. What does that mean? You jump in a car, you go on a plane, you go to facilities all over North America to go to Canada to install your machines or fix them when you're broken, provide some training, right? There's a lot more that we did, but that's, let's say, the heavy jest. Now I come to Ferronius. It's a little bit of that.
Speaker 2:And then it starts growing. It starts growing, the knowledge of the products and the processes starts growing. The knowledge of the industry starts growing. You're in MiGMAG, tig, stic, laser, hybrid dual wire processes, plasma welding so the breadth of processes starts to expand and your knowledge of them starts to expand. And then, as Ferronius starts growing and people start seeing the name around, then it's the okay, I'm working on this problem that I've had for X amount of years or whatever. I'm developing a new process. How do I get there with the best solutions? And then the questions come Right. I remember once, ferronius, we ran a little program called what's your Welding Challenge, right? So the idea is you bring your most difficult welding challenge here and we have to solve it. Now, one of the things that makes my job so interesting is that's every day. Now, right, right. What's your welding challenge is every day, right. So you want to build rail cars and you want to put down 60 pounds an hour off MiG wire, right, yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:How do we do that? You want to weld something a half a millimeter thick with plasma because you've never been able to do this before. Yeah, maybe you're in XYZ, you're in food and beverage, you're in oil and gas, you're in pharmaceuticals. Now, the range of things that's welded, it's mind blowing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's never ending.
Speaker 2:Really, it never ends, and I think that's one of the things we don't really discuss as people in the welding industry, right, how vast and how wide the industry is and how many things that we build.
Speaker 1:Well, I always tell kids if it's not made of steel, it was made by something made of steel Exactly, and there's no way around it. Literally every single thing in our society is either made of steel or made by a machine made of steel.
Speaker 2:So there's no way around it. So remember I said I was going back to my high school in Jamaica. Now I still do that. I still go back to the school, right. First I used to bring safety equipment because they have a welding department and last time I checked in they were like the best welding department high school in all the Caribbean, right From the competition. So I used to bring them your auto darkening helmets, your gloves, your jackets, you know safety stuff. Okay, it's one thing that you're welding, but let's do it safely. So I've always gone back and go back for vacation. I would leave a date to go visit. I give the chats to the engineering students and that was always a part of what I did right For that school. I remember late last year they called me and he goes hey, leon, we got a problem. Like what's the problem? We got 174 students in engineering and we don't have a welding machine. Can you help us out?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we don't have a welding machine right. All right, let me know the process to get you one. So I bought a welding machine from Fronius. We work together. We get me a welding machine right Safety gear. Some other colleagues donated. Hi, greg, if you're listening, you donated a helmet safety gear for the kids. So this is still something that I'm passionate about is given opportunities, because the first time I ever struck a welding arc was in Jamaica to school right.
Speaker 1:So it's like so what you're saying is we need a Jamaican chapter at the CWB Association.
Speaker 2:If you did, you would do very well for yourself.
Speaker 1:All right, because let me tell you we just started up our Chilean chapter last year in Chile and it's kicking, so they're doing an amazing work down there. Yeah.
Speaker 2:If you had a Jamaican chapter, it would be successful. Yeah, I promise you that, because the teachers they tell me now that they do the AWS testing for their students right, so it's not super hard to convert them over. It's not hard to convert them over.
Speaker 1:It's not hard to convert them over right, I mean, then you're going to a better standard anyway.
Speaker 2:So they are embracing a North American welding. So for sure, if that's compensation and the Caribbean has got lots of shipbuilding.
Speaker 1:It's got like. I mean, I applied for a job in Bermuda when I was like 24 years old as a welder for Carnival cruise lines because they needed welders.
Speaker 1:And I was like that would be the best job and they were looking for onsite welders. So, like you, go with the cruise ship to be a part of the staff in case anything needs to be repaired. And I applied for that job. I had big dreams. I had, like I already thought in my head, I had the job and I never even got an interview, damn it.
Speaker 2:Ouch, ouch, they regret it. Now I promise you that, yeah, yeah, that would have been a good time, but hey, man, everything.
Speaker 1:I was for a reason, so for sure.
Speaker 2:So that's. I think that's the thing that I do the most proud about.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's a very typical immigrant thing to want to give back, like when I was sitting in board meetings with the CWB and they're talking about expansion internationally. I'm like chili, I'm from there, like, why wouldn't we go? Like? There's a few obvious reasons. Number one like I mean chili's part of NAFTA trade agreements. We got that, okay, that's, it is what it is. But you got someone on your staff that has a connection, used a connection, because it's not, it's not, it's not what you know, it's who you know, and we all know that in the industry, for sure it's, we all know that. So you use your resources. You're from Jamaica, connect to Jamaica. Why wouldn't?
Speaker 2:you Right, Like, exactly. So yeah, I haven't told Conestoga like eventually you're going to have all bunch of Jamaican students showing up.
Speaker 1:Perfect, perfect yeah.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So race yourself, right. Yeah, yeah. So that I think that I've always wanted to do that and I'm happy to have the opportunity to do it.
Speaker 2:Um, now I remember it was when I lived in Toronto. I talked to a friend of mine. We lived, we grew up in the same apartment building in Toronto, right? He went off to McMaster, did an engineering degree, working for, I think, hydro, one at a time, and he's like, honestly, I grew up in Toronto and the furthest I went from my house was four stop lights that way and three stop lights that way. I'm like, really, and I thought that you know, you come to Canada, people are going everywhere and seeing that, right?
Speaker 2:Um, it was Jamaican also. He didn't go places, he didn't see things, he didn't experience things. There was no, let's say, outreach program or pathways to, so he had to figure out on his own how to start where he was, to make it to where he is Right. So we always discussed what can we do for kids like us who grew up in that community, to have them experience and give them opportunities? So now, as the manager of this department, I have the access to some of the coolest technology in the industry, right? So every chance I get a school calls up we're looking for co-op students or something, I try my best to either get a co-op shooting in or guide them into that area.
Speaker 2:Or guide them the best I can. Right, come for a tour of the lab, right, um, steve Welding. Come, weld, right? Daniela, if you're listening, I also think you should come to the lab.
Speaker 1:Hey, not without me, not without me, I'm coming too, I'll be. I'm in Toronto every few months or every six weeks or so, so I'll be there.
Speaker 2:Give me a shout. Give me a shout, it'll make you happy. So yeah, I always try to um, to give um students an opportunity to see the cool things that's happened in Welding right. First time I went back to Jamaica and um, it's probably about 40 students in the class and I'm giving my first, first little chat. Right Now. All the desks are turned around and turned this way. No one's paying attention to me. But I made a presentation right and I said, okay, what I'm going to do is just show them the coolest things that is in the welding industry and I swear within. They gave me an hour to talk to the kids. First five minutes everybody's turned around. After that, everybody straight, full focus. Um two hours, two hours.
Speaker 1:So the kids, they want to.
Speaker 2:They want to learn, they want to know, they want to be a part of something cool, and I think we have something cool going in the industry right. We do we do and you get to, it also helps you travel.
Speaker 1:Oh for sure, If you want. I say that all the time, Like I mean, I've been all over the world with this industry and it was easy, honestly.
Speaker 2:Like right, I'm like I've been like, oh my goodness, I want to go to Europe and I'm like, wait, how many times have I been to Europe because of welding?
Speaker 1:Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:How many times, how many provinces have I seen because of welding? The last time I saw you was a different province because of welding, right? Um, I've been out, uh, I've been to Vancouver once in my life and it wasn't because of welding. Uh, we were doing something at C-SPAN.
Speaker 1:Right. C-span is massive. That's massive. Yeah, the four shipyards are huge. Most people don't even see all four.
Speaker 2:Right? Um, I was like I was here the day they were in or during the time they were installing the big blue crane, and there was a helicopter flying under the crane and I was like I am here, this is happening, it's a helicopter flying under a crane. This is some big list of places, right? So I've I've honestly seen um the coolest things, um being in the coolest um manufacturing facilities, the, the best um, and the people, the skill of the people here, um, that's working in the industry is. It's absolutely amazing Um, and it's I think it's part of my duty to to help um. Let they push that um in my community for sure.
Speaker 2:Um, because a lot of things, because, as, as I told you, when I was growing up, there was nobody to guide. Really, right Now I'm the one guiding, like. I have friends calling family, calling Um. One of my buddy calls is like hey, my daughter wants to get an engineering. Um, what? What's the pathway? Um? I went to a wedding. Hey, I heard your engineer. My son, my kid, wants to be an engineer. What's the pathway Um? Hey, I'm in, you're in welding, I'm going to get into welding. What's the pathway Right? So I'm seeing a lot of um, let's say requests from from people in my community.
Speaker 1:Opportunities to mentor you.
Speaker 2:Right, um, yeah, mentition Mentoring, uh uh, student now in engineering, right, um. So the opportunities are there and, um, it's not something I shy away from 100%. I will never shy away from, you know, given that, given my knowledge, whatever it is, um, because there could be one sentence that triggers somebody to feed a whole family.
Speaker 1:Well, you brought it up earlier, you know, to having that one person step in at the right time and then when you had the next person step in at ISAB at the right time and and you have that? I do not. People always ask me what was my secret for success to go from a welder. You know, when my dad was a welder, I was a welder kind of like. That was life. And now the director of CWB. And it's like mentors the right people at the right time, keeping your eyes open being friendly, don't burn your bridges.
Speaker 1:It's the network you know and it you can be as skilled as you want. Skills Don't get you all the way. It's gotta be. It's gotta be driving personality, ambition and and those are the things and and a desire to give back. Cause when people, when people see you given back, then they're not afraid to give you more. Right? Because, because, because, when you give out, people will give you more to give out, because a lot of people want to give but they're not built for it, right?
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Because people that give are a different type of people. Like you got to have that energy you got to have, people will see you give and then support you because you're the one that's going to give it, and that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, and that's. That's just life, that's just the way it works. And and knowing you're that person and be like all right, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, and yeah, it's going to be some long nights and yeah, that's going to be working on my weekends and yeah, I'm on vacation, but I'm still going to be working. Fine, it's fun. It's really no big deal, right.
Speaker 2:For sure, and and that's exactly how I look at it and, as I said, I just tried to be present for I could be the opportunity for somebody else to see something, to do something, to be something, and and I try, right, I was from a super, I'm from a huge family, right, in terms of an extended family, yeah, that's funny.
Speaker 1:My dad's got 15 brothers and sisters and my mom's got five, so it's a. I totally know what you mean buddy? Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we've always right, We've always had our own small community, but the idea here is community, right, we're always supportive. You know, given, given and given back. My, my, we learned this from my grandma, right, she was always taking care of the whole community. So it just a part of me naturally to get back into, to be there and be supportive of anyone, not necessarily Blackful or anybody else. I give, but I do have your pet part of my heart.
Speaker 1:You got your stuff.
Speaker 2:I got my high school at my heart and I will forever be, be by them, support them. And I, when I was, I met this, this, this one engineer, when we were in school together. This he's from Africa and we were talking and he says, leon, just remember this Always do what's right before you do what's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, and that stuck with me. So I'm always like always going to do what's right before you do what's good, right, I like that. So that's, yeah, it stuck with me and it was like because we're talking, and I'm like he's like what do you want, what we're talking about, what do you want to be and what do you want to do? And I'm like my aim, my goal, is to open a school. Yeah, awesome, right. So my aim, my goal in life, is open a school and at the end of it that's what came of it Do what's right before you do what's good. So if the right thing to do is to open a school, that's the right thing to do. If it's a good thing, you just want to do it for a vanity project. Don't do it for that. Yeah, right, do it for the right things, right. So that stuck with me forever and I take that. So yeah.
Speaker 1:So a couple of questions about the actual technical side of Pharonius, because I'm curious, you know, because you've been there 10 years and I've seen. 10 years ago I was teaching at the college and I remember we had a Pharonius presentation come by. It was a guy from Austria Because at the time there were still flying people from Europe to do training sessions here because there was such few Pharonius people on the ground. And even back then the I think CMT had just started rolling out, there was a few. Like that was kind of the idea, Like the heyday when everyone was coming out with their own modified waveform of some kind. And in your 10 years how much have you seen Pharonius kind of change or expand?
Speaker 1:And I'll tell you, this is the criticism from the outside that I hear about Pharonius. To be honest I'm just going to slay it out Is that Pharonius is just for rich people, like there's no, like you know, pharonius at Princess Otto or a Canadian tire. There's no Pharonius that's accessible to somebody who just wants to pick up a welding machine for their garage. And that's always been the thing. Like I mean, it's like I said at the beginning, it's like the for, like the Ferrari of welding, right, right there. The awesome machines are the best machines. Good luck if you ever get one now. How do you feel about that statement?
Speaker 2:There is a little bit of truth in a lot of what you said. Um, we are, let's say, the Ferrari of welding. I talked to a customer once, or a potential customer, at the last fabtech and he's like he's like who's Pharonius, tell me who's Pharonius. So I said, well, a lot of people say we're in a Ferrari of welding, right. So it's like okay, tell me why. And I Introduce him to one of her machines and I'm give them the thing that's gonna work for him and that he had. He's like Leon, pharonius is not the Ferrari of welding, pharonius is the spaceship of welding. So it is, it is true, right.
Speaker 2:And that's not a bad thing, because we all wish we had a spaceship, right, like I mean it's yeah right, it is true, but the Bright side is we are starting to come with a lot of single-phase equipment mm-hmm for garages and stuff like that. And the people who build the spaceships that we make mm-hmm it's the same guys who build the stuff that you use in your garage.
Speaker 1:Yes, your single-phase stuff the same tech, the same quality, the same, the same innovation yeah, the same factory, same designer, same everything, and technology is trickling down.
Speaker 2:It's the same High level of protection that would be in your automotive factory or in your production facility. That's inside this, these machines. Even more interested, or just as interesting, is the conversations that Pharonius is having, as they, that's the adventure into the market is coming directly through Canadians. Yeah, I will be in the meetings with R&D and we'll say, what about this, what about this? And they say, okay, maybe, what about this, what about this? So we are in the ground floor on the design and the, the technology behind the latest machines that's coming in specific for even a Canadian market. Remember, once I was, I was in. So the machines are designed, manufactured, built, everything out of Austria, right? So I was in Austria one night. We're walking to go for dinner and then it is this, this man just coasting on his, his skateboard. He's like Leon, like hey, he's like Leon, you don't remember me. I'm like no, how do I play the song?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:He's like come on, you're the black guy that was in the meeting. I will never forget you. You're the black guy in the meeting, it's it. And it ends up being one of design engineers for the welding machine right right.
Speaker 2:So a Few weeks ago I'm in Europe and he's like hey, come to my office, I'm designing a new machine. I need your feedback About what it needs to have for the Canadian market, right, what are you looking for this? What are you looking for this, right? And we started as, let's say, a little niche. Well, the machine that is, let's say, the Ferrari, that only the rich people could afford to make it more Accessible. You know to everybody, right at different price range.
Speaker 2:Now we still have some that it's anything to save up a little bit, but we do have some that not necessarily can't eat entire yeah but you're definite, your, your normal distributors, that you would go to your World and and those guys and you, the stuff that you can buy on a credit card because you know is not a decent number, right, yeah, and it's the same technology with the, the fronious Innovations and know how built inside there's some, actually some really cool things. I remember one of the simplest things I saw that actually blew my mind Was stick pulsing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I got to play with that.
Speaker 2:Why would you need that?
Speaker 1:and then I tried it and I was like oh, why wouldn't you need?
Speaker 2:yeah, right. So we do a lot of things for For industry and we try to. One of the things that we do is we give the technology for the highest level of Welling engineering right. If you've been doing it for 30 years and you have the inside out of well, that we give you that control off the machine. You could control one drop of the wire if you want. Yeah. And then we make it easy for the guy who just walked off the street, because I remember the first time I ever welded and you, you have the, the bucket, in your hand, like this, holding it, and then you're scratching, trying to get the stick to the start, you know yeah right and your location is all over the place.
Speaker 2:You don't know where you are. So they like okay. They develop a technology called tracking arc. You strike and it gives you a really, really low light that allows you to position the arc, and I want you position the arc. Then it starts welding at the welding current Right. So for a guy like me who's never done it before and I don't know where to start or where to go, it brings that guy into welding and make it easier for him. And then the most senior guy who, hey, I want one drop of the wire because this heat input on this part is super precise and my interpass temperature has to be this and this has to be perfect and my definition rate has to be this.
Speaker 1:Be giving that kind of control to I remember being at a fab tech like Eight, no, six years ago, five, well I forget a few years back and I was in a. They're like hey, that's getting this welding competition. Actually, I have the thing that I welded back there. I lost the welding competition but it was on a phronius machine and I remember being like I don't know how to set this Like I know, I don't know what I'm doing and it's just go like a dial in the front and you can push it and move it around. It's got like million Settings and and I was like kind of lost and I feel like I did poorly in the weld competition because I didn't understand the machine.
Speaker 1:That's a cop out to the people that were watching. Sorry, I I'm not the best welder, but I wasn't a disadvantage because you do need to know how to use a phronius machine like there. And I think that the new ones are way easier. If you look back ten years ago they were pretty, pretty Intricate on the front, you know, and they've they've gotten a lot more user friendly. But to be honest, that's not really phronius is game, in my opinion. I think that their game is high-tech. They want to be at the top, leading edge of development. I think that's kind of where they put their, their beans.
Speaker 2:You know, I Would agree with you that there is a push on technology Because we like to say we're a technology company, not necessarily a welding company, but it's nothing about being a welding company, we're a technology company and it's the innovation there is is ridiculous. Yeah, I've been. I've been, I'm lucky to be, in the the welding technology space, where I'm having conversations with the R&D department, right and Now that I have buddies in the R&D department and I go here to see something on laser hybrid and I go here to see another big process and these guys are competing to see who could weld faster and give the least distortion, right. Yeah, the competition between, even internally, our process, that's awesome. Yeah, it's actually part of what this thing, right. But there is a push to make it simple For the person who's starting and I think that's that's easiest thing and one of the things I tell people.
Speaker 2:Now, with Synergic welding, you just need to Crank one button. And for the guys who are like, oh, I just like welding at 21 volts because this wire works perfectly at 21 volts, okay, crank the 21 volts, pull the trigger, everything else is done for you. For a guy that goes, I don't know. I like welding at about 180 amps. Right, because this is what I use. This is what I'm used to Mm-hmm 180 amps in you, out for somebody who just walks off the street and have no idea about anything. They just measured a thickness of the material and tell the machine the material is a half inch, pull the trigger, go.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:So they have. They have gone veer in terms of simplifying it for somebody walking off the street, right.
Speaker 2:And they have gone into the technology space even further with welding data application and Taking information from the welding machine and making let's they use in a welding wire to do a seam tracking yeah right, seam tracking on aluminum welding, which is never done before. So they've done some really, really, really cool things. It I am super excited to work here, to be honest with you. I'm so excited because every day it's a it's a new challenge. Yeah, and that's what it is. It's a challenge, right, guys come off the street Looking for a solution, right, and I'm happy I do have a team across Canada that, you know, facilitates, facilitates this stuff.
Speaker 2:We have four main Main topics. We have the welding systems the guy who are responsible for putting all this together and making the system perform. Then you have the welding applications those guys take the arc and, you know, develop your, your procedures, mm-hmm. Then we have the welding data All about communicating with yeah right, um, stuff like that. Tell you when the contact tip is worn out, hey, we need to, you know, get this information to the right person. Um, all the way to Um now training. So that's a four department that I'm in charge of right now. Um, we have our own little ecosystem and it's, it's fun. I, I don't think about the days, just just fine by, yeah right, I sort of hate it because just means the grace come more and more, oh man.
Speaker 1:Tell me about it. I'm getting up there now. I don't even play out. I was 30 years old a minute ago. I don't know what happened. Man like.
Speaker 2:But it's, it's, it's actually it's so much fun to work here and it's so. The people we meet, they're, they're, they're so, let's say, diverse In in there's in their skill sets and their needs and their wants and their vision, and the projects are so different also right, so it's, it's a, it's a bunch of different things. That keeps, keeps it exciting in in my welding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's amazing. All right, we're getting close to the end of the interview. I got a couple more questions to wrap up here. I've been making some notes, but I got a couple things to ask you. First of all, what's your future plan, your 10 years in now? Fronius, where do you see yourself in the next 10 years? I mean, I pin you somewhere in your mid to late 30s Maybe, and so, like you know where, where do you see yourself? Do you see? Do you see yourself like and this is like your performance review from your boss? Do you see your, your division, your department you want to grow that or do you see yourself moving into a different position? What's, what's in it for leon?
Speaker 2:so, um, leon, the, um, the educator I always like, I want my guys to develop and be better than me, that than I ever was, and I also want them to take my job at some point.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:So leon in 10 years is probably Not doing this job Because one of this guy is is doing it. Where does that leave me? Fronius, from a fronius standpoint, if ronus is in 10 years, the growth is is like this um, the technology is, it's out of this world. I have, after I came back from um that trip to you, brunswick, to you guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's when I realized what I want to do. It is I want to be involved with the people, the products, um, creating excitement around welding. So I don't know where that takes me, because it's only been. What was that? Uh, three months ago, two, three months ago.
Speaker 1:No, I was longer than that. Four, five months ago. No, it was october, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:Was it october? Yeah, all right. Three months ago, yeah, yeah, right, um, and when I lefty, I'm like this this is when I'm having the most fun, right, yeah, um, it could be, it could and probably will be a fronius, because it's the. The stuff that we do here is absolutely amazing. Um, um, um. And I feel like we'll be doing my job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like they they're. They're all in on you too, right? So I'm sure they're looking to see what opportunities they can give you as well.
Speaker 2:Oh for sure, my department, for example, has um Probably grown doubled in the time I've been here. Yeah and it X thing is to have in my, in my vision, is to have regional hubs. Right, miss, saga right now is is the hub which you're gonna have a regional hub in the west, a regional hub central, regional hub east Um then you're gonna have regional managers and you know um, and there's so much coming.
Speaker 2:Uh, for us there's um new industries coming. There is um the push in automotive sector going away from gasoline to um Hybridization and ev. So is that a new place where we have to get a guy and focus you on the ev world? Right, um? And especially with my electrical background, that could make sense, right yeah yeah. So there is, there is so much happening, and if ronius canada once say, hey, leon, here's the keys, I will put um nitrous in it and take off, you'll get that spaceship going hardcore.
Speaker 1:And you know, let me tell you, we would love to have a fronius hub out in the west, because Out in the west we don't have a lot of fronius representation.
Speaker 2:I think we have less and less the more west you go, um, and it would be nice to see a lot more red machines out here, you know for sure, for sure, if we open a team um Recently in in bc and you know I'm gonna get you for you what got a building mold and build right Um, we like to say, Uh, make babies, you get one, and then it makes babies and it has two, then it's four, and then there's. You know, so we, we are spreading our wings um across canada and I think it's it's essential because you really have to um Stand behind your product anywhere you go. We don't just one thing we don't just do is just ship it and just and let it go. We ship it and walk behind it, make sure we follow wherever it goes. So we're definitely growing Um and, yeah, definitely big things to come. Especially from from what I see and what I know. There is some really fun and interesting things to come and I want to be around for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely so that. So that's future leon, professionally. Now the second to last question. There's two left. One more is what's leons Next few years look like personally? What's pet projects that you want to get going on? Do you want to expand on your Jamaican support, on your mentorship opportunities in the gta? What are the things that that you're looking at as kind of like passion projects for yourself?
Speaker 2:I'm definitely, um. It's like I tell the family. I'm like, yeah, so I have one machine from school and I want to get maybe four or five. And they look at me like, how much money do you have?
Speaker 1:Well, you got to find sponsors.
Speaker 2:You got to find sponsors, man fear, fear I'm, I'm just so used to just doing it myself, right, but for sure. Nothing wrong with finding sponsors, um, so definitely I want to. My dream, my dream, is to put a welding robot in Jamaica, nice. Why? Because there's so much reshoring of work coming to the, coming back to the west, um, and Okay, we bring it back to Ontario and then, uh, we don't have anybody to do the job. Right, get robots. Okay, that's good, but if we could unlock three million people um in an island with robots um Helping support our supply chain, that would work right. So, in in my head, I that's my next. My next thing I want to do is bring automation um to the island and hopefully, and hopefully, they could um multiply that to make a, to make an industry that feeds into the industry that I'm currently in in.
Speaker 1:Canada. Well, that makes sense. Yeah, and I'm on the same boat, I'm trying to do the same thing, so I love it, yeah right.
Speaker 2:So that's, that's my, um, my and I've. I've set it out loud To a few people and no one. Yet I told me I'm crazy.
Speaker 1:Well, you're just setting out loud to like 40 000 people.
Speaker 2:So Right, no one says I'm crazy yet, but I definitely, I definitely want to do that locally. Locally. I also want to get involved, um, with, with, with the kids. Here I am still, as I said, mentoring kids um, but if I could do that on a scale, I think I'll thoroughly enjoy that also, right. So cwb needs needs, um, some representation in my community. Give me a shout.
Speaker 1:Oh man, you have no idea what's coming down the pipeline. Then you already sent me a message during this podcast being like ask me about this, ask me about this. I like relax, relax, we'll get, we'll figure it out, we'll talk after, but uh, yeah, so definitely yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm all about um, let's say uh giving, but I'm also about um nurturing, right, nurturing the next minds, the next um, and there's so much that we have here. I took a um, I took a tour of Waterloo University um and met their um, their welding department yeah, awesome right, and I'm like we have so much talent here it is. It is mind-blowing how much talent it is. But then, um, I will reach right. Um, so we don't have to go to the us to.
Speaker 2:No, no, we could be great, we could be great right here, right, so I'm definitely um looking forward to, to giving and growing um personally and professionally. Um, I think, personally for me, I think there's some big things to come Um in in the future. Um, my, my, uh. My slogan for this year is that you are the CEO of you, right? Yeah so, um, I think there's some big things to come this year and in roll forward.
Speaker 1:All right, and last question here for you, leon, is what advice would you give young black canadiens or young black immigrants, people of color coming to this country you know, maybe in your same situation in your teen years To succeed? What are the things that they should look for to to help them get ahead and and be successful canadiens?
Speaker 2:All right the things. My best advice to Young me, somebody who was young, leon um, there is so much information available now that wasn't available, um, because I'm in canada, I came to canada, google wasn't even a thing at the time. Um, there was so much, so many resources available now for you to tap into. Um, from the information how to go to school, what is your passion? You find your passion. Research your passion. Find somebody who Looks like you, who you could identify with and be that person Right? Um, I remember when I was playing soccer a lot growing up and they say, okay, you want to be like pelle, go play just like pelle.
Speaker 2:He was successful doing that you could be successful doing that right. So you Find your passion. Um, I think I'm gonna say Um, invest in your passion, research your passion. Find someone who you could identify with Mentor. It doesn't have to be somebody who looks like you. If it is and you feel comfortable, great um. If it isn't, um, there's the canadiens are giving people um, you could find um that mentorship, that guidance. Uh. Go talk to your, your, your student Um council Uh rep at school. Go knock on a door in a business and talk to the business owner. Um, whatever it is you're passionate about, you could do it, believe it, research it Um and strive for it. So that's what I'd say find your passion.
Speaker 1:Awesome, love it. Yeah, any shout outs anything you want to say to anybody. This is your, this is your window now.
Speaker 2:Daniella. Um, so there is. There is some awesome people In in in my corner the whole fronius family, your great isa family awesome too. Um, and the the engineers, the welders, the welding engineers, the um Robot texts everybody who we I've come across. Thank you for being a part of the journey. Um, I think you guys are awesome. I learned a lot from multiple people. Um, thank you, max, for this opportunity. As I said, we've met in person. I love your energy. I love um bouncing ideas off you and and and um you know learning from from your experiences. Um, so Another 10, 20, 30 years who will have some more fun doing this thing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got time, man, we got time All right. Well, thank you so much, leon, for being on the show and thanks for everyone for tuning in. We're gonna have a wonderful month yeah, for black history months. We got lots of great guests and Leon's kicking it off for us. So stay tuned for the rest of the episodes and, uh, support your community. That's the lesson today be involved, give back, take what you know and and if you have the opportunity or the wanting to mentor you know, help the next generation. Come on up. We need, we need as many people to help support the next gen as possible. So, thanks a lot and thanks for tuning in and following the show. Thanks again, leon.
Speaker 2:Thanks max, thanks cwba.
Speaker 1:And for all the people that have been downloading and sharing and commenting. Keep it up. Keep sending us the requests for people to bring on the show too. I love getting emails where say, hey, I met this person or I met this company. We chase every lead down. So if you know anybody out there that you think would be great on the show, send them our way and keep commenting, downloading and sharing the podcast. We appreciate it. Stay tuned to the next episode. We hope you enjoy the show. You.