Ralf Jutvik In Memorial
Ralf Jutvik was a serial entrepreneur long before the concept became a statement. When other people start to wind down and plan for retirement, he started his first company Jour Research AB in the stable on his farm at Råö in Onsala, Sweden. He did this based on his understanding of the growing needs of the scientific community after his long career at Perkin Elmer Inc. At Jour Research they developed and produced components for fluidic systems, typically for HPLC, and it became such a success that it was acquired by Vici to become Vici Jour Research in 2004.
Most people would have seen this as the crown of the career, but for Ralf this was just a beginning. His appetite for business and science was not yet satisfied. With a significant worldwide network of business contacts he became engaged in the Umeå based chromatography technology company SeQuant AB. Ralf took on the role as head of marketing bringing the disruptive zwitterionic ZIC-HILIC® stationary phase to the global market. This became a great success and the company was later on in year 2008 acquired by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt. For example, the ZIC-HILIC® column became the US-FDA recommended separation technology for analysis of melamine during the tainted milk scandal in China. The years before SeQuant was sold to Merck KGaA Ralf was getting close to 80 years of age. Due to some health issues the SeQuant team tried to reduce his workload to let Ralf rest and recover. However, that had an opposite effect.
With newfound time available, Ralf decided to start Biotech i Kungsbacka AB (later Biotech Fluidics AB) together with Anders Grahn. The new company had a flying start thanks to the two entrepreneurs abilities and networks. Biotech focused on degassing solutions for fluidic systems like HPLC, UHPLC, and SPR etc and became from start distributor of IDEX Health & Science and state of the art chromatography columns from suppliers like ChromaNik Technologies in Japan and HALO from Advanced Materials Technology Inc (AMT). During 2016 Biotech Fluidics became a Premium distributor of IDEX Health & Science and it strengthened the company’s stable growth.
The Covid-19 pandemic starting in 2020 was a tough time for Ralf. He had to accept that normal working days in the office had to be replaced by web meetings This was a challenge to us all but even more for Ralf that truly loved his work and the daily contact with the Biotech Fluidics team and our customers all over the world. Once he had had all his vaccine shots and incubation time he could finally return to the office, across the courtyard, in March 2021. This was celebrated and a video from the event ended up in social media. And as we all longed to celebrate such happenings at that timed the video became viral in Sweden ending up on the newspaper Aftonbladet Instagram account and the Swedish equivalent to Saturday Night Live reflecting the pure joy and positive feeling that Ralf, at the age of 95, experienced when he could come back to work at the office. The spirit of Ralf has always been a key cornerstone in the DNA of Biotech Fluidics. We set a pride and joy to live up to the standards he established!
Ralf had a marvellous experience of working under all kind of conditions starting in the post WWII Germany and later starting up businesses in China, India and the Soviet Union during the cold war and culture revolution. Although he never expressed it these experiences gave him perspective and durability, also under the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ralf made his last business exit in June 2021 and with that he retired at the age of 95 and stated to his younger colleagues that “if it all goes well you will one day be just as decrepit as me”. This is a fantastic way to tell anyone younger that there are worse alternatives than being dependent of a rollator walker to get to a work you love.