What We Do Matters: CEO Javier Ormazabal’s Town Hall Message to Orgalim
Wednesday 2 September: There was a familiar feeling in the air at Orgalim last Wednesday: the sense of a new beginning that comes with the start of a new school year and a return following the summer holidays.
For Orgalim President Javier Ormazabal, it was an opportunity to bring colleagues together, share some reflections from his own experience in industry and, above all, talk about the people behind Europe’s technology industries and the work they do every day.
Javier began with his own story. His family busines was founded in Bizkaia in 1967, during a period of rebuilding for the Basque Country. Visiting the company as a young man, he was struck by its constant sense of forward movement. This is a quality that remains central today.
What was advanced in his father’s time is no longer advanced today. The same factory is now home to entirely different technologies, systems and capabilities, and he discussed how this is a powerful reminder that progress depends on a willingness to keep learning, adapting and improving.
That spirit of curiosity connects Javier’s experience at Ormazabal with his role at Orgalim. Europe has an extraordinary industrial and technological base, he said, but this strength brings responsibility as well as pride. At a time when global competition is intensifying and Europe must decarbonise while remaining competitive, the challenge is to ensure that sustainability and industrial strength reinforce one another.
For Javier, this means being a strong and constructive voice for industry: speaking up when legislation risks undermining Europe’s ability to invest, innovate and manufacture, while also bringing practical solutions grounded in the realities of factories, laboratories and engineering departments.
The strongest theme of the Town Hall was people.
Ambition is a contradiction. It is deeply personal, yet almost always makes you very dependent on others.
Javier stressed that a strong team is one where people are willing to engage, understand complexity, find solutions and show loyalty to their colleagues and their profession. The best organisations are those where people know they are not working alone, and understand that their individual contribution matters. After all, the policies and decisions taking place in Brussels ultimately affect factories, industries, regions, workers and families across Europe.
The Town Hall concluded with an engaging Q&A, giving colleagues the opportunity to put their questions directly to the President and continue the conversation.
To see all the photos from our Orgalim Town Hall, click here.