Texaco people profile: Johan Luycx

I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial chemistry and after completing my national service, began working for Texaco in 1988 as a technician. During my time with the company, I have been involved in the development of many industrial product lines as well as providing technical support to OEMs and customers.

My current role is to provide technical product support for all industrial oils and greases across Europe and Northwest Africa, with a primary focus on standards and specifications. In addition, I’m also a member of organisations such as SET (German lubricant recommendation tables), the European Lubricating Grease Institute (ELGI), the National Lubricating Grease Institute (NLGI) and the Technical Association of the European Lubricants Industry (ATIEL).

What do you believe Texaco has to offer customers? 

Texaco provides access to global technical experts to support our customers, but with local relationships to back that up. We aim to help solve customers’ business challenges and meet their requirements with both our industry and product knowledge, and our range of high-quality products.

What is your most rewarding project to date? 

There have been a few, but my first example is from early on in my career when I worked on the creation of the application and OEM approval letter databases. For the first time, we were able to scan in the OEM approval documents and save them as PDF-formatted documents. Today of course, this is a very common process, but in the mid-1990s, it was relatively new and made a huge difference to the team. My second memorable project was a patent filed with my colleague Jan Arickx, on “electrical insulating oil compositions and preparation thereof.” The scope was defined as an effective composition of an electrical insulating oil from an isomerized base oil.

What behaviour or personality trait do you most attribute your success to, and why?

Again, I think it is my desire to learn new things that has helped me advance in my career. In my early days with Texaco, I travelled to the United States (U.S.) where I underwent in-depth training from my U.S. colleagues at a research centre in Texas. Later on in my career, I enhanced my knowledge of greases by attending training courses at bearing manufacturers, at industry organisations such as NLGI and ELGI, and from experts both within and outside of the Texaco organisation. Receiving training from multiple sources has provided me with insight into how people’s views differ depending on their own unique experiences. It was this understanding that allowed me to shape my own opinions and learnt how to manage my way around these different points of view.  
 
Apart from understanding the theoretical knowledge, I believe it is of the utmost importance to immerse yourself in your role. For me, being able to feel, smell and touch the grease is the best way to fully understand the product’s unique aspects.