November 21, 2019
by Sanji Bhal, Director, Marketing & Communications, ACD/Labs
Welcome to part two of our three part blog series where we highlight employees around the world! If you couldn’t tell from part one, we have some impressive employees among our ranks at ACD/Labs and with it being our 25th year in business, we wanted to recognize who makes our company unique from the inside out. For this blog post, we spoke with four employees based in the US, UK, and Germany about their past, present, and future experiences in the industry and at our company.
Past Experiences
You know what they say – past experiences make you who you are today and we can’t help but share how this sentiment holds true for quite a few of our employees. Gabriela Cimpan, Senior Director of Sales in Europe, noticed while attending high school in Romania that half of her peers wanted to be a doctor and the other half wanted to study computer science. Fast forward to today, Gabriela’s exposure to computer science in high school has intersected with her interest in chemistry.
When ACD/Labs first opened its doors in September 1994, Andrew Anderson, Vice President of Innovation and Informatics Strategy, was busy recovering from an ankle injury that ended his college football career. He was a journalism major prior to the injury, but then decided to make the switch to chemistry. Also during this time, Carol Preisig, Regional Account Manager for the Western US, was getting married and honeymooning in Yellowstone National Park.
When Gerd Rheinwald, Senior Application Scientist in DACH/Central Europe, was a child, he was curious as to how the mechanisms in nature and technology worked. Gerd fondly remembers the live television broadcast of the moon landing and wanted to become either a chemist, biologist, or astronaut one day. ACD/Labs may not have an office in outer space, but I think he’d agree that analytical chemistry is out-of-this-world cool!
Speaking of cool, there is a common theme between Gerd, Andrew, and Gabriela’s favorite science experiment in school – explosions. Gerd liked making his own fireworks, Gabriela liked making her own chemical volcanoes, and Andrew may or may not have been suspended from school at age 12 for “blowing something up.” Explosions sure do excite!
Present Experiences
Personally, I am incredibly thankful for the path that brought our employees to ACD/Labs today. It’s a dynamic group of people: Andrew manages our solution areas and core technology, Carol manages strategic accounts, Gabriela leads the European sales team, and Gerd works with customers to share how our software can help meet their business needs.
When Carol is not at work, you can find her trail running, watching live theatre and arts performances, and learning Spanish. Gerd spends his spare time hiking, riding his motorcycle, and capturing moments with his camera.
As for Gabriela, she is fluent in four languages and is currently studying another two. In addition to her chemistry degree, Gabriela also has a degree in fashion design which is how she learned over 10 different textile and yarn/thread techniques. When asked if she could be anywhere in the world right now, she would want to be on top of a mountain: “I’ve been to the top of mountains many times and I can tell you that it’s not necessarily the height that matters, but reaching it and enjoying the moment. Returning downhill is fun only if it’s fast on skis.”
Andrew stays busy cooking, raising three daughters, and being an amateur Olympic Weightlifter – yes that’s right, Olympic! Although busy, Andrew wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world at this very moment: “I consider myself to be very fortunate. Last year, I was at a gas station and there was a long line of people buying lottery tickets for a large jackpot. The attendant asked me if I was planning to buy a ticket to which I said, ‘No, I’ve already won the lottery.’ My career and family is a far greater jackpot.”
Forward-Looking Perspectives
Looking ahead to the new year and beyond, Carol sees informatics-assisted medical diagnosis and treatment making a big impact on both science and IT, and Gerd sees artificial intelligence and gene therapy being important. Gerd also stresses that without chemistry and analytics, modern life would be impossible.
We are so thankful for our employees in the US, UK, and Germany. If you are interested in joining our team, visit our careers page for a list of current job opportunities. In just a few weeks we’ll be posting the third and final #ACDLabs25 employee spotlight blog – stay tuned!
About the Author
