Since 2022, Michael is serving at Arla as a Production & Technology Development Manager based at Amalgamated Dairies in Summerside, Canada. Here, he supports the cheesemakers in producing Feta, Havarti and Cheddar aligned to Arla standards with the right taste, texture and composition.
Meet Michael: The world-traveling cheesemaker that ended up in Summerside, Prince Edward Island.
Michael Jul Pedersen has always loved cheese. At age 17 he read about the Danish Skilled Dairyman education on a milk carton, and it just clicked. He wanted to make cheese, and at the same time explore the international world of dairy. Michael’s curiosity led him to move abroad with his family to Sweden and then Saudi Arabia on a career journey of cheesemaking, commissioning equipment, and selling product lines. Now, he is back to cheesemaking as Production and Technology Development Manager for Arla Foods Inc. based at Amalgamated Dairies in Summerside, Prince Edward Island.
Michael met his wife Heidi 23 years ago at the dairy college in Denmark. She has been part of his international career journey and is now working as Food Scientist at Bio Food Tech in Charlottetown. Together with their two daughters, 15-year-old Tilde and 10-year-old Tyra, they live in a typical Canadian wooden house on Prince Edward Island on Canada’s east coast.
How did you start your career in Arla back in 1998?
After reading about the Skilled Dairyman education on a milk carton, I contacted a couple of different dairies and got a trainee position at a dairy in Denmark where I learned to make semi-hard yellow cheese. I enjoyed going to the dairy school learning different techniques and how the product works, but I did not see myself working as a skilled dairy worker my whole life. I wanted more adventures and dreamed of going to other countries to explore how cheeses are made differently.
For me, it has been a great opportunity to work in the food and dairy industry, and have seen both sides of the table. I have the education required to make cheese and run a dairy, but at the same time, I have worked for 15 years on the supplier side of the business
After three years of studying, Heidi and I moved abroad for the first time to make cheese at Falkenberg Dairy in Sweden. We gained more experience making Swedish cheeses, but we both knew that we wanted to go back to Denmark to study the next level of dairy technology.
The Skilled Dairyman education teaches you to make cheese, why you add the rennet and the culture, why and for how long you ripen the cheese, as well as how you ensure quality. If you want to travel the world, sell equipment, do commissioning, etc., you need to study Dairy Technologist to learn how a complete dairy is working, how you manage a team as well as how you market and sell the products.
After finishing your Dairy Technologist education, you joined Tetra Pak Filtration as a Commissioning Engineer. How would you describe this role?
This was my dream job because I got to travel and experience the dairy industry in the whole world. I went to more than 30 countries, mainly in Scandinavia, Europe, and the Middle East to start up the membrane plants and teach operators to run the lines. I would typically stay between one and three weeks to do training, finetuning, and ensuring that the customer could make their products. For example, if a customer couldn’t produce feta cheese from an ultra-filtration feta cheese plant, I couldn’t go home until the plant was running properly.
Danish dairy people are known around the world for producing good quality and working with the best products and equipment. So, it was interesting to visit other countries coming with this strong brand.
The main reason I left this job was the birth of our first daughter as it required many nights in a hotel and being away from my family. So instead, I took up a Sales Engineer position at Alfa Laval which provides processing equipment to the food industry among others.
Later, you moved to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to take up a Sales Manager and Dairy Category Leader role with Tetra Pak. What made you decide to make that move?
I had a business trip to Italy to look at some new machines, and I was standing in line at the airport next to the Managing Director of Tetra Pak in the Middle East. We connected on LinkedIn, and maybe 10 months later he contacted me because he was looking for a sales manager in Jeddah, preferably someone who would get established with their family and stay for a longer period.
I remember showing the message to Heidi and then we started googling Saudi Arabia. We were both very excited about the opportunity but at the same time, it was very different from where we ever lived before.
We did not want to say yes to Saudi Arabia before we saw it, so we had a three-day trip to Jeddah to see the school, and the compound where we would live, and met with colleagues at Tetra Pak. We got a great impression and became convinced that this was a chance we wanted to take.
How did you experience moving countries with your family?
The seven years we spent in Jeddah were by far the seven best years we have had as a family and as a couple. Saudi Arabia is full of ex-pats from around the world. Out of the 30 million population, 22 are locals and 8 million are from other places. We lived in a cozy compound with around 200 houses with great people from around the world.
Everyone is there for the same reason. You come to work but you do not have family obligations to attend every weekend, so people are very open to doing stuff together. For example, on a Thursday evening we
could arrange for a camping trip to the mountains, and we would be away for two days with seven different families the following morning.
What were the biggest challenges in moving countries?
When you move abroad, in the first three months you are excited because everything is new. You are full of adrenalin, and everyone is interested in the move and says they will come to visit you. But after a couple of months, reality hits you and you realize that you cannot attend your mom's birthday or go to the sport you usually go to, the children miss their friends, and some friendships fade out. This is when you must be strong and not show your children that you are having second thoughts about the move.
After a short while, maybe 6 months, we started to feel at home and slowly accepted that we didn’t have a typical Danish life anymore. We are an international family and the best part is that we get to broaden our horizons to other people, nationalities, religions, and cultures – it makes the world smaller.
After seven years in Saudi Arabia, you got the chance to return to Arla Foods as Production and Technology Development Manager based at Amalgamated Dairies in Summerside, Canada. What made you decide to make that move?
At that time, we were already considering whether we should find a new place to live. Our beautiful compound in Jeddah with palm trees, pools, etc. was fantastic, but it was also a spoiled lifestyle. We wanted to provide our children with different life skills so they won’t get a culture shock when they will move back to Denmark to go to college or university at some point, assuming they do.
Luckily, the Production and Technology Development Manager position opened at the same time. Canada seemed like a great fit for our family, and the job is a great way for me to close the circle of coming back to Arla Foods and working with cheese production again.
For me, it has been a great opportunity to work in the food and dairy industry, and have seen both sides of the table. I have the education required to make cheese and run a dairy, but at the same time, I have worked for 15 years on the supplier side of the business.
What does a typical workday look like for you as Production and Technology Development Manager?
My job is to be the operational link between Arla Foods Inc. and Amalgamated Dairies (ADL) by supporting all aspects of the supply chain in the making of Feta, Havarti, and Cheddar cheese. I make sure we produce the cheese to Arla standards and make sure we have the right technologies in place.
Arla has produced cheese at ADL since the beginning of the 1990’ies. I spend time finding new technologies and teaching my colleagues here what the dairy industry looks like outside of Prince Edwards Islands.
If you are curious about Michael’s favorite cheese: It is Emmentaler from Switzerland.
