With two decades of experience in water and wastewater treatment, Luke Mickelson brings his positive energy and industry knowledge when serving his Biotifx® customers. We’re so proud to have such a force on our team!
1. What drew you to Microbial Discovery Group (MDG)?
I believed that there was a better way to handle common wastewater problems. MDG is unique when it comes to offering a solution and I knew back then that I wanted to be a part of it.
2. What does your typical day look like?
Each day is a little different. Most days I’m in the field with my distribution partners, working hands-on as we qualify, propose, treat, and report on different opportunities. Other days I am troubleshooting with our technical support team on how to best tackle a specific application. In efforts to expand my reach within the western territory, I’m also continuously collaborating with our marketing team.
3. What are you working on right now?
There are many different opportunities within the Western States territory, but I’ve been really focused on bringing Biotifx® to the lift station and collection system markets struggling with H2S issues. Traditional treatment methods for H2S merely treat the symptoms and neglect to fix the actual root of the problem. I am working hard to educate and promote our Biotifx® platform because it’s an environmentally friendly solution that actually treats the issues many customers are dealing with.
4. What is the most inspiring or exciting part of your job?
Being a part of a real, viable solution to problems that have been plaguing customers for years is the most satisfying and inspiring part of the job! Many of these pains have been around for a long time and cause a great deal of damage. So, to bring the solution and provide that service for my customers is really what it’s all about for me.
5. What is your favorite aspect about working at MDG?
Working with people at MDG has been such a joy. The corporate culture of most companies is sometimes a trick to navigate, but the management at MDG makes the job fun, challenging, interesting, and rewarding. No one day has been the same and every challenge is unique, but it’s comforting knowing I have a supportive staff who shares the same passion as I do: to help, serve, and support our customers.
6. What do you like to do when you’re not at the office?
My office is a bit different than most. Since I do a great deal of traveling for both work and other obligations, I am learning to appreciate my time in my office even more.
Outside of my job here at MDG, I am lucky enough to act as the Executive Director of a charity that aims to provide needy children with a bed of their own. My wife and I founded Sleep in Heavenly Peace back in 2012. Since then, we now have 173 chapters across the world and have built enough bunk beds to get over 8,000 children up off the floor.
When I’m truly “out of the office”, I enjoy cheering on my three kids in their various sporting activities, spending quality time with my wife, and getting out into the great outdoors of Idaho.
7. Professional goal for the next 5 years?
My main goal is simple: I want to expand my territory to the point that it is self-sustaining.
With my background in business, sales, management, and service, I see myself in a long career as I continue to develop these skills alongside the enormous growth of this company.
8. Let’s talk about MDG’s unique approach to lift stations and collections systems…
I recently surveyed a lift station for a city that was experiencing H2S concentrations well above 400 ppm. This concentration was causing the rate of corrosion to increase throughout the entire collection system. They were treating this problem with a solution that was not only costly but also doing nothing but masking a symptom of the problem. With a treatment plan in place, we were able to reduce the H2S concentration to an average of 9 ppm – a reduction of 84%!
This success showed my distribution partner and their customer that the SR 10X is a superior product and can solve issues that were otherwise unsolvable.
