My BASF Story was a project to mark BASF's 140th year in the chemical industry. Employees were invited to tell their story, whether personal or work-related. Here are a few of those stories...

Being able to be me

My name is Walter Ohrbom. I have been employed at BASF (Southfield, Michigan) since 1987. My story is about my co-workers, and how fortunate I am to be working for BASF.

I have dyslexia. As a result, my reading/spelling abilities are that of a nine year old. To say that I have problems with my written abilities is an understatement. I usually do not make a good first impression. I struggle with oral presentations - quite often what I would say out loud will have no correlation with what I wanted to say - and I will not be aware of that fact. I have a hard time with linear discussions. To say it mildly, I do not fit the type of person that you would think would or should work for a chemical company, let alone be involved in Research and Development. When I joined BASF many years ago, I was very worried as to how I would be accepted by my co-workers and management. Would I have to be someone I am not, and try to hide my disabilities? Could BASF look past my disabilities to focus on my abilities? I need not have worried.

My co-workers here at Southfield allowed me to be me. They accept me for who I am, not on my spelling abilities, etc. That is a simple but very powerful statement. I do not have to hide away in shame factors that I had no control over. It is hard to describe in words how much time and emotional and creative energies that I used to have to spend before working for BASF to hide who I am - time and energy that I can now spend doing chemistry. I firmly believe that my co-workers here allow me to use my dyslexia (and the alternative ways that I may perceived reality) to do my job better. I have over 80 issued U.S. patents, and I am recognized as a major force for creativity and problem solving. I have had major impact on many of our commercial product lines. Yet for everything that I have given to the company, the company has given back. Acceptance being the most important thing that BASF has given me.

Let Me Fly

My father once dreamt that his children could escape the remnants of war and live a "normal" life. With this hope, he took me and my older brother through the landmine-filled jungles of Cambodia to the Thai border, in search of something greater than the poverty, destruction, and deaths that overtook Cambodia during its Holocaust in the mid-70s.

We spent the next two years in the refugee camp in Thailand. My father is an educated Cambodian who, ironically, in Cambodia, was targeted for death, but whose education, in Thailand, was the key to our survival. His ability to speak Cambodian, English, and French brought him a chance to work as a translator in the food distribution area at the refugee camp, which meant we would never starve!

The day finally came when we were accepted to leave the refugee camp for the United States. And what a hard choice for one man to make...to leave behind his parents, his siblings, and his country so that his children could live a better life than the harsh reality awaiting them if they stayed behind. We left with the clothes on our back and gave life another shot. After all, nothing could be worse than the past we left behind.

Sept. 4, 1981: The day we touched ground in the U.S. was a day none of us will ever forget for it marked the beginning of a newly found freedom. It was a freedom filled with struggle, hard work, and like most fairy tales, also filled with triumph. Fortunately, I lived a very "normal" childhood in a poor part of Houston, and my parents made just enough money to provide us with our basic necessities. I went through the normal school ranks and finally graduated Valedictorian of my high school class and obtained a B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University.

I joined BASF right out of college six years ago and am currently working in Germany on a four-year delegation. For me, BASF represents more than just a chance, but the realization of my father's dream. The opportunity to learn another language and to see the world was beyond my father's imagination. I've been to and seen places he will continue to dream about only in his next life. And what a great feeling it is for a father to watch his daughter live a life that was once just a speck of hope in his mind.

My being here today has been a combination of hard work, luck, and having met the right people at the right time in BASF who saw something in me and let me fly! They know who they are. Thank you!

First Day

For my second "tour of duty" as a PDP engineer, I reported to a BASF Clear Lake site in early August of 1999. I came in a bit early, trying to beat the morning crowd and to settle in at my new work place. For those who are not familiar with this particular site, I have to explain that it is rather small, employs about 40 people in total, and utilizes a public announcement system for communications between control room and workers in the field.

One can only imagine my surprise, when fifteen minutes after reporting for duty, I heard over the loud speaker: "Dmitry, please report to the maintenance shop!" I was shocked! I did not know anybody here yet, I was early, and I did not even know where the shop was! After a few minutes of stumbling around, I finally made it to the maintenance group and had the pleasure of meeting the second of only three "Dmitrys" working for BASF in North America. I was Russian, he was Hispanic, and there was significant age difference, but this did not prevent us from becoming good friends and reflecting fondly on our first meeting.

Where else?

Where else, can you gawk at tons of steel and concrete, miles of pipeline, gargantuan reactors and towering columns like in Port Arthur, TX?

Where else can you say, driving past a little building in Orange, CA, "Oops, I missed it, that was the Specialties plant!"?

Where else can you hold an international conference call at 7 am, well, actually it's 8 am (Brazil), no, it's 1 pm (Germany), let's move on, it's 7 pm and dinnertime (Singapore)?

Where else can you suddenly realize that you are...an Indian emigrant, an American citizen, working for a German company, in a London pub, talking about paint on Japanese cars?

Where else can you get lost within the company headquarters, while driving around?

Where else can you leave the office, step out of the elevator in SunTec towers and go shopping?

Where else can you work for 20 years, switch from working for IT to Logistics to Human Resources, implement SAP, convert to metric measures and introduce eLearning?

Where else can you meet and talk to such a great variety of folks with so many charming accents, and words like Y'all, fixin' to, harrrrd, eh, Noo Joisy and that's just in North America?

Where else, but in BASF...