A futurist in his dream job – Marco Gavagnin

Marco Gavagnin laughs when asked how he ended up as a Technology Forecast Expert at AT&S because he is not exactly sure himself. He comes from Italy, studied chemistry and started his career in sunny Padua.

The lively Italian is a scientist through and through and loves challenges. That’s why he made a rather peculiar decision after finishing his master studies in chemistry: he moved to Vienna on the spur of the moment and enrolled as a PhD student in electronics. “Although chemistry and electronics are very different, I found the opportunity to learn even more very appealing,” he explains.

In the “flow of the challenge” – as he calls it – his studies flew by and just before he completed the degree, he got lucky: he came across the advertisement for the position of Technology Forecast Expert at AT&S. “I had no idea why this job had not been taken because it was the description of my absolute dream job!”, he says, eyes shining.

“My job is truly a dream job!”

At AT&S, Marco can combine what is most important to him: life-long learning, and passing on and applying knowledge. Because the goal of a Technology Forecast Expert is to collect information from outside the company, for example on technology, market or societal trends which cannot be controlled by the company itself. Subsequently, Marco and his team develop recommendations as to how the company can react to these trends. “3D printing was a big issue when I started with AT&S. At the beginning, we had no idea what effects this technology would have on the electronics industry and to what extent we would be able to use it,” Marco says, using an example to describe his job.

Although Marco provides the entire company with information on new technologies and helps to find the right direction in projects, it is important to him to point out that he is not a decision-maker. “The business units are clearly the heart of innovation developments, while I only provide some guidance based on the knowledge gathered on a certain topic,” the 35-year-old says, smiling: “I don’t want to falsely take credit for this!”

As mentioned before, Marco enjoys taking up a challenge, so he was thrilled when on his first day at AT&S, he had the opportunity to fly to Japan and visit one of the industry’s largest trade fairs worldwide. “I felt like I was an important part of the company right from the beginning. I find my work very motivating because I feel like I am an active part of a ‘bigger picture’ that my colleagues and I work towards.”

“I consider myself a futurist and AT&S helps me realize my vision of myself.”

Marco Gavagnin is also fascinated by the multiculturalism: Although you would hardly expect it in Hinterberg, a district of the Styrian city Leoben, this is where 39 nations work together for AT&S. Marco himself shares an office with people from Poland, China and Morocco. “We all come here and work towards the same goal. That’s a great feeling,” he says in conclusion. Ultimately it doesn’t really matter why Marco ended up here. The main thing is that he did.

Profile
Marco Gavagnin
With AT&S since:
June 2014
Technology Forecaster
June 2014 – present