President's Column - May 2026
Hello Members and Industry Friends,
Each month in this column, I try to keep a balance between business insights and sharing a bit of the personal side of life. This month I’d like to talk about something new to our family, and that’s skiing.
Before we made the move to Switzerland at the start of 2025, we each wrote down a few things we wanted to do or experience once we arrived. We all had learning French as top priority but we each had learning to ski as well. None of us had ever skied before.
We arrived in Switzerland in late January and managed to get out on the slopes two or three times that first season, with very mixed results. My 14-year-old son took to it like a duck to water. From the beginning, he was confident, fast and fearless. My wife, on the other hand, not so much, though to be fair, Brazilians are not exactly known for their skiing pedigree! My 10-year-old daughter and I landed somewhere in between. If you’re not a good skier, it’s a lot of work. Certainly not the pretty picture of effortlessly carving down the piste. Classic case of being sore in muscles you didn’t know you had from fighting gravity all day. There’s no shortcut around that. But even in those early, awkward days, we found ourselves enjoying it. We left that first season excited for the next full one.
Fast forward to now, as we come to the end of the 2026 ski season (early April), and I can proudly say: We are a family of skiers!
This year, we went all in. We bought what’s called a Magic Pass, giving us access to nearly 75 ski stations across Switzerland and France. We did season rentals for the gear and made the mountains a regular part of our routine. In total, we managed 21 days together on the slopes.
I find it quite rare that the whole family is truly into the same activity. I mentioned before that hockey ruled our house. What that meant was driving my son to practice 5 times per week and multiple games over the weekend. So early morning wake up calls for everyone to drive to the matches. I still love the game, being in the rinks and hanging with the dads. My wife loves watching him play and became a full hockey mom. My daughter just hoped some of the little sisters would be there. Good thing there was always a pack of them.
This is totally different. We all love it because we all participate and we all share the same experience.
We are now the crazy people that leave before the sun is up so we beat the crowds and have the best snow conditions. We preach that everyone is responsible for themselves. This means packing your own lunch and preparing your ski and snow gear. It also means getting everything into the car and carrying all your own stuff! So, there we are the evening before, making sandwiches and packing snacks, laying out all the layers of cold weather gear. If it’s forgotten, you know who to blame (but it still ends up being mom and dad’s problem)!
We are still at different skill levels, but we have all made huge progress. We can now do all the same runs for the most part; my son takes the tree line next to the slope and my wife, slow and steady down the middle. It’s so rewarding to go back to some of the slopes we had such trouble with early in the season or even some that we were just too scared to attempt and drop in without batting an eye. My wife was convinced they had “changed the mountain” in one particular spot that was her nemesis when we got through it like it was nothing a few months later. Although my son still complains we can’t keep up with him, it’s been great to see how much we have supported each other and recognized the small personal victories. Like going down the run you didn’t even want to try or hopping on a lift that you didn’t know where it was going but now having the confidence you’d be ok no matter what we found up there.
Until this year, I would have told you I was a golfer. Spring meant the start of golf season, and I couldn’t wait. Now, as the temperatures rise and we’re forced to head to higher altitudes in search of decent snow, we find ourselves doing something unfamiliar: wishing winter would stick around just a little longer.
We originally opted to rent our equipment “just to see if we really liked it.” It turns out we weren’t prepared for just how much. Our rentals are due back at the end of the month, and we’ve already started looking for off-season deals to buy our own gear. We’re not just planning on doing it again next year, we’re obsessed!
I remember when I first took on this role and had the introductory call with my new team, they were much less interested in my work background and experience, the question that seemed to matter most was “Are you a skier?”
Today, I can confidently say: yes. Yes, I am.
How cool is that?
Still working on the French though!
Thank you and all the best,
Rob has 27 years of experience at Bobst, one of the world’s leading suppliers of substrate processing, printing and converting equipment and services for the label, flexible packaging, folding carton and corrugated board industries. He currently serves as Tooling Director.
Rob is based in Switzerland, with his wife Monica and their children, Leo and Manuela. His older son, Khai is engaged and remains living in New Jersey. Rob enjoys camping and cooking as well as being a full time chauffer to hockey and swimming practices.
He is proof that being one of those “take it apart and see how it works” kind of guys can lead you to a wonderful career, meeting new people and experiencing the world.
The President's Column appears in The Cutting Edge, the IADD's monthly magazine.
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