A lover of thermodynamics

By: Héctor Gómez Pérez

If you ask the general manager of Thermal Engineering about his main challenge in life he will answer that it is to be happy. "It is the state that we all seek and it is the beginning and end of our existence," said Mauricio Baena Gutiérrez, our Professional of the Month for this edition.

Baena Gutiérrez was born 36 years ago in Medellín, the second most important city in Colombia. He is a mechanical engineer from the Pontifical Bolivarian University and during his university days he spent a year in the United States to learn the language and take a course in business administration at Wichita State University, in Kansas. "At university my interest in thermal sciences was immediate. I have always liked to know how theory applies to the reality of the world. It is useless to have knowledge if it is not applied in life," said Baena Gutiérrez.

That's how it all started
His professional practice was carried out in Zenú, a renowned Colombian meat company, where he was the field engineer who coordinated the assembly of the refrigeration system with ammonia. By 1996 his father, Raúl Baena, lent him and his brother Juan, also a mechanical engineer, the capital for a business project called G & B Ingeniería. This company was dedicated to the electromechanical maintenance, boilers and refrigeration equipment through outsourcing. In 1999 the company was liquidated as a result of a difficult economic situation.

At this point Mauricio Baena temporarily turned his focus of professional interest by linking up with a detergent company in which he held the position of manager, first in Barranquilla and later in Bogotá, the Colombian capital. In 2003 he returned to his hometown to work in a company in the specification of equipment for refrigeration projects; This is how Baena explains this period of his life: "It was a stage where I had the opportunity to share with professionals in the refrigeration medium who helped me with their experience to define what my professional future would be".

That future that our Professional of the Month was talking about came in December 2005 when he founded Thermal Engineering. "Our goal is to have a company where refrigeration professionals find an engineering solution that allows them to carry out their projects. From there we have created an infrastructure that has developed in several dimensions: for our suppliers to become the best ally in the development of their objectives, for our customers to be a company that provides them with the best economic technical solution for their projects and for employees to be a place of personal and professional growth", Baena Gutierrez said.

Baena: the husband and father
"I'm a very familiar person and that's why my wife and children are the foundation of my life. On the weekend I try to leave the city for a farm near Medellín. There we share as a family in a pleasant environment for the children in the company of nature," said our guest.

In addition to his parents, Raúl and Consuelo, and his two brothers, Juan and Ana María, Mauricio Baena's family consists of his wife, María Isabel Madrigal, and their children: Santiago, two years old, and Juanita who will arrive home in November. Baena is a lover of motorcycling, even in his youth he participated in trial championships and on weekends he did enduro. "This hobby was also adopted by my wife and we practice it whenever we can. In sports I like to jog and play squash," said Baena and pointed out as a joke that "I am a fan of Medellín, I think that has shown my persistence because the suffering has been infinite", alluding to the team of their loves and the countless sufferings that the fans have experienced as a result of the bad results, although for the first days of October he was the only eleventh qualified for the final phase of the Colombian football tournament.

Baena: the manager
This man comments that over the years he has realized something in the refrigeration industry: "The basis of the success of teamwork is communication and respect. I have a managerial style of empowerment, so I try to identify the competencies and skills of each one to be able to assign specific tasks that allow them to stay on the limit, all because I am very afraid of comfort zones and I try to avoid them as much as possible. "

On the role played by the manager in a CVAC/R industry, Baena believes that "the greatest challenge for a leader of this industry is to professionalize the company, to understand that we move in a global economy in which growing competition forces each company to be at the forefront of administrative and professional practices in the field." Likewise, he believes that issues such as efficiency, energy saving and equipment availability are permanent realities of this context and that force leaders to be in continuous learning".

About the region, he thinks that the refrigeration industry has a prominent future, especially because of the role of many countries as food producers. "Latin America has a great future for our industry. Countries in the region are becoming the world's food pantries. This situation means that the professionalization of the cold chain is increasingly demanded with responsibility," said Baena and said that both manufacturers, equipment specifiers, installers and end users are committed to this professionalization.

He also considered that it is necessary to learn from the other regions of the world to achieve the objectives that the industry currently demands. "In my travels I have been able to verify that Europe is a pioneer continent in refrigeration applications and a standard-bearer for energy saving; Asia is hungry for information and technology that has exploited the knowledge of European and American multinationals and the United States is the massification of equipment and its application. From all these places we must integrate these characteristics and apply them in our industry," he said.

Finally, he spoke of the parameters that have earned him and his company their recognition in the industry: "I have tried during all this time to exceed the expectations of my suppliers, my employees, my customers and even my competition." He added that the success of his company lies in the fair treatment of the employee, continuous learning, strong and long-term relationships with the supply chain and the application of three values: responsibility, honesty and compliance.