Ferenc Varga, Vice President of European Operations,
General Manager of AFT Europe
Ferenc Varga has plenty of experience building companies that are green-field investment projects. But when he joined AFT as General Manager of the company's European operations back in June 2001, his project really was a field — a potato field. "At that time, I was the only employee of AFT Europe and the property consisted of a four-hundred-thousand square foot potato field in the Retsag Industrial Park," Mr. Varga says. "Six months later, we had built a world-class MIM facility on it." If building a state-of-the-art Metal Injection Molding (MIM) facility in a mere six months seems fast, consider AFT Europe's growth. Within the last year, sales have surged 230% and continue to grow. "We would eventually like to see sales growing at a faster rate than administration," Mr. Varga said. Born and raised in a small town on the outskirts of Budapest, Hungary, Mr. Varga earned a degree in engineering and started with Taurus Hungarian Rubber Corporation, where he held several jobs in both engineering and sales. Rising through the ranks, he ended up as the president of Taurus Emerge Ltd., a division of Taurus Corporation that manufactures and markets high-pressure drilling hoses for oil and gas exploration all over the world. During this time, Mr. Varga says he found sales and management more exciting and received a degree in international sales and management. After five years with Taurus Emerge, he then joined Weslin — a casting and machining company in Hungary — as Managing Director. At Weslin, he was given the opportunity to start a company as a multi-million dollar green-field investment project. "I was the lucky guy given the opportunity to build a team capable of creating a brand new company with world-class technologies," Mr. Varga says. "Based on the results, our team was very successful in this activity." So successful, in fact, that Mr. Varga caught the eye of AFT management when they considered starting a European operation in Hungary. The successes he had with Weslin have been more than repeated with his performance for AFT Europe. Mr. Varga travels quite a bit for his job and, as a result, has made it a hobby to learn various languages. Besides his native Hungarian, he has learned several languages and is currently studying Chinese — a language that will prove beneficial as China becomes a greater economic power throughout the world. "I speak, write or read several languages," he says. "But my biggest challenge right now is to learn Chinese — or at least be able to speak a little of it. When I was growing up in a little town not far from Budapest, I dreamt of traveling all over the world. Now that I have realized this dream, I now find myself dreaming of spending more time in Hungary." Despite a busy schedule that takes him across various countries and continents, when he's home he manages to fit in time to play soccer and go bowling with his friends. He also says he's recently started skiing again after a 10-year hiatus from the sport. "I restarted skiing this year after a 10-year break and I enjoyed it very much — even if I did spend more time in the snow rather than on it," Mr. Varga says. Looking to the future, Mr. Varga is enthusiastic about the team he has helped put together and sees much more room for AFT Europe to grow. "We have a young, gifted and enthusiastic team here that is capable of reaching any realistic goal," he says. "We have excellent opportunities in the market for future growth. In fact, AFT probably has the highest generic growth potential within PCC." | 
