Latvian Success Stories

By Ojārs Kalniņš

There is one extremely successful Latvian company that just begs to be described with every high flying metaphor you can think of. “Their business took off.” “They have reached new heights.” “They have gone above and beyond expectations.” “Their reputation is sky high.”

Their name is Aerodium, and they make the world’s best vertical wind tunnels. If you can imagine skydiving without jumping from a plane, then you have an idea what vertical wind tunnels are all about. Most of the world was first exposed to Aerodium during the closing ceremonies of the Torino Winter Olympics in 2006, when Latvian flyers soared 25 metres off the ground in a breath-taking performance watched by billions of viewers.

Not only were the flyers Aerodium acrobats, but the equipment used to loft them in the air was specially designed by Aerodium engineers in Latvia. What may have seemed like a novelty a few years ago is now rapidly becoming one of the hottest new attractions in the entertainment and recreational industry. Aerodium’s state-of-the-art vertical wind tunnels are being used to add a spectacular new dimension to special events around the world. Since they seemingly appeared (out of thin air?) in Torino they have highlighted trade and sporting events in London, Turkey, and Dubai. They will also be the main attraction at Latvia’s pavilion at the World EXPO 2010 in Shanghai later this year.

While Aerodium uses highly skilled flyers to perform at shows, the company is turning the international recreational industry upside down by offering a totally new type of “ride” for amusement and theme parks. Call it bodyflight, body flying or indoor skydiving, the Aerodium experience is both a sport and entertainment. It is definitely something your grandfather never dreamt of (unless he was Leonardo da Vinci.)
Latvians have been getting high at the Aerodium facility in Sigulda, Latvia for years, and a permanent facility opened in Montreal, Canada in 2009, but soon there will be full-time Aerodium rides in Denmark and Thailand. Aerodium vertical wind tunnels have also been rented for recreational facilities in Egypt, Greece, Finland, and Russia.

You could say that the sky’s the limit in Aerodium’s future, because as they continue to refine and develop their unique technology, the potential market for this type of active entertainment will only grow. (If Walt Disney World is paying attention, guess what, you can now turn every customer into Peter Pan!)
In fact, the market for Aerodium vertical wind tunnels has already expanded beyond the entertainment and recreational industries. You see, flying this way is a great way to train for skydiving without ever getting into an airplane. Both the Pakistani and Saudi Arabian governments have contracted with Aerodium and installed units in order to train their military paratroopers.

Aerodium’s vertical wind tunnels come in six models of different designs and sizes which allow for mobile or permanent installation in any setting. They are equipped with diesel or electrical engines and are custom designed to meet every customer’s special needs. The Aerodium guys know how to get you up and will never let you down. (Metaphorically speaking, of course.)

Without a doubt, Aerodium is one of Latvia’s biggest business success stories in recent years. But there is another aspect to their story which is worth mentioning. You see, the first vertical wind tunnel was invented by a Canadian named Jean St-Germain in 1979. He established Aerodium Canada Inc. which for years was the global leader in vertical wind tunnel technology. In 2004, Ivars Beitāns and his colleagues in Latvia decided that they wanted to develop this technology further, so they established their own company, and began working with the Canadians. Their ambitions and ideas far exceeded what the Canadians were interested in, and in 2009, the Latvians made an offer to purchase Aerodium Canada Inc. lock, stock and tunnel. The offer was accepted, which may be the first case of a Latvian takeover of a Canadian company.

Thus, if you go to their web page, don’t be confused by the Canadian domain address. The owners, constructors and operators of this highly innovative and globally respected business still like to celebrate the Midsummer “Jāņi” holiday by jumping over bonfires in the Latvian countryside. They just tend to soar a bit higher than your average Latvian.

More than 50 years ago Georgs Jankovskis started a completely new method of medical treatment- osteoreflexotherapy. Georgs Jankovskis is a scientist and a doctor who at the age of 88 still regularly receives patients.

Under the treatment of osteoreflexotherapy stem cells are released from the bone marrow, and spread through the body to renew damaged cells. Put simply, - osteoreflexotherapy is a puncture into bone. This method is based upon the discovery that bone nerves are connected with the spinal cord and brain, and that by irritating the receptors of bones it is possible to affect other systems and functions of the body.
„We have been doing this for more than 50 years. No one else knew about this possibility before We opened another classical chapter in the world’s history,” says Georgs Jankovskis.

„Osteoreflexotherapy helps treat more than 80 diseases including depression, but you can use this method also as a prophylaxis to keep yourself fit and healthy, it gives a possibility to live longer. It has no side-effects, except some possible pain in the place of puncture that disappears after a few days,” says the scientist.

Approximately 30 persons came during a reception day to receive the treatment.

„We have 28 inventions and are working on a patent right now. It is planned to patent equipment together with the method so that it would be possible to measure bone density,” says the scientist. Jankovskis says: „The biggest satisfaction comes from knowing that osteoreflexotherapy has spread around the world and is helping people.” The doctor frankly reveals that many people don’t believe in this method because it is so simple and so different from the casual treatment with medication from the drugstore. „They ask what we put in there. But we don’t! We can’t convince them that we use only pressure.” A cell is spherical and when it is squeezed new bone cells are created. „Like this we can heal, for example, Osteoporosis without using medicine that costs much but doesn’t help.”

„Ever since my study years I have been conducting orthopaedic surgery. I used to operate on knees, backs, thighs, and as anaesthetic we used a tourniquet and „Novokain”. In 1957 when my boss wasn’t at work I had a patient whom I decided to puncture without a tourniquet. I tried it and there was a huge effect- that is how I got the idea.”

Georgs Jankovskis remembers how in the beginning he tried to apply „Novokain”, physiological fluid, Streptomicin and other stuff, but at the end he observed that the main effect comes from the pressure in the bone and no medicine is needed. The body treats itself, creates the material it needs; we just need to help in this work. The scientist doesn’t exactly claim that his method helps him to be fit and healthy himself; a healthy lifestyle and overall health is important. But he doesn’t deny that whenever he has some pain that can’t be relieved in other ways, - he just punctures the bone.

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2009)
© Foto: Toms Grinbergs, LU Press Centre

From the production of haberdashery tapes to the weaving of blood-vessel prosthesis – the work and life of scientist, and author of several inventions, Ms. Viktorija Kancēviča, is full of surprises.

The Rīga Center for biomaterial innovations and development was founded in 2006. This is the place where Ms. Kancēviča works at an experimental tape weaving loom. There are many similar looms made by Swiss company Jakob Müller, however this one is unique – it’s the only loom of its kind in the world which is fitted to weave aortas. Obviously not the real blood-vessels, but its prosthesis.

There are various technologies for production of aorta prosthesis; however this particular one is unique. The blood-vessels are being woven from polyester and polyurethane. The right combination of these yarns produces the required elasticity of the prosthesis.

As any textile fabric, this prosthesis is porous, explains the scientist. „In a living organism the blood is flowing under pressure, therefore through the pores it could leak through the prosthesis. For that reason the prosthesis is impregnated with bioactive preparations, which promote a faster growth into the living organism and eliminates inflammation processes. After the impregnated materials are dried, small, elastic membranes are developing from the preparations. These membranes don’t let blood leak through. In the course of time the membranes dissolve and the pores are filled with blood cells and the small blood-vessels start to grow into prosthesis.”

Complete prosthesis growth in occurs in 1-3 months, but it starts to work and pulsate in the rhythm of living blood-vessels from the moment the prosthesis is been implanted. There is also an artery prosthesis developed with the same kind of structure. The artery prosthesis has been tested on 40 animals and has received positive evaluations.

There are also other technologies for the production of prosthesis. „In Poland, for example, there are knitted prosthesis produced. However this prosthesis, just like knitted socks, gets deformed and becomes long and narrow. It is not suitable for a blood-vessel, because it disturbs the blood circulation. For its part Gore-Tex prosthesis are not able to pulsate. We are the first ones who developed pulsating prosthesis; moreover with this technology it is possible to produce also very small arterial blood-vessel (3-4mm). Thus it will be possible to operate the small blood-vessels too,” narrates Viktorija Kancēviča.

Under the guidance of Ms. Kancēviča a technology for hernia patches is also developed. „If the hernia is big, for example by diaphragmatic hernia, then the hernia patches available to date can not really solve the problem, as after the implantation they can adhere to intestine and cause disablement. We have started to solve this problem. Our hernia patches have been tested on rabbits and the results are good. We have received a patent for this development too.”

In the beginning we developed the blood-vessel prosthesis just for fun, so to say – will try and see what comes out of it, confesses Ms. Kancēviča. „It was interesting not only for me, but for my students also – there is a great difference if you design some sheet or suite, or something completely offbeat, out of the ordinary.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2008)
© Foto: The Rīga Center for biomaterial innovations and development

There are two small rooms at the Latvian Technological Center Juris Lauznis calls his sanctuary. Here you’ll find parts of equipment still in developmental phases, computers, oscillographs, and everything that is necessary for his work. Recently the company Integris, co-owned by Lauznis, completed the project Heart Guard.

Individual wireless electrocardiography registration and transmission equipment with warning systems were developed in collaboration with partners from Latvia and Lithuania. The electrocardiography is being registered in a box that is as small as a matchbbox, and the box is connected to a computer via Bluetooth. “The electrocardiography can be e-mailed to a doctor. This equipment can be run for a week or month - as long as it is necessary for an observation or assignation of illness. And the best part - during that time the patient is not required to stay at the hospital,” tells Juris Lauznis.

At the moment Integris is working on three projects. One of them is related to car electronics, says Lauznis. It is a black box or event registration system for cars. „There are similar developments, however they are so expensive, that most of the local road transport companies can’t afford them. Furthermore other similar devices are not able to register the amount of fuel in the tank with sufficient preciseness. Our device digitally registers all events related to fuel - when, at what time and in which amount the fuel is refilled, and how it’s been consumed. The preciseness is within couple of liters.”

Integris is trying to realize one more interesting project - an electronical babysitter is being developed. We like such crazy projects, smiles Juris Lauznis.

Integris develops the devices through to their experimental prototypes. Further development is up to the manufacturers. At the moment the largest workload is being dedicated to cooperation with an American corporation Welch Allyn. The cooperation began in the 90’s when Mr. Lauznis worked at one of the first US-Latvian joint companies - Amerilat.

„At the end of the 90’s many medical devices were constructed as adjunct devices to computers, and their functional resources became much wider. The Dutch company Cardio Control, that later became a property of Welch Allyn, started to produce cardiographs that were reconcilable to a computer. At that time the laptops were still pretty big and heavy, however the first personal digital assistants (PDA) were offered for sale. Our doctors came up with the idea that the same program could be developed for a PDA also.” Latvians offered this idea to the Dutch, however it was rejected, so to say - it has been tried earlier, it won’t be a success. “However my crazy tenacity said something else,” recalls Juris.

“At that time I was the technical director at Amerilat and all of the plans had to be approved by the president, who didn’t believe anything without proof. We created the first version of the program in our free time, without saying anything to him. When the president learned about this, he hinted that I should start waving goodbye to my job because the Dutch won’t be interested in this development.”

But the same day in the evening the technical director of Cardio Control called - he was very interested in the development. In 2000 this device was demonstrated at the Congress of the European Society of Cardiology as the first Pocket ECG - cardiograph on the basis of PDA. Within one year the device was put on the market.

“When working with new projects, the most interesting thing is the creative process,” says Lauznis. “And there is great satisfaction when the device is ready and working.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2008)
© Foto: Latvian Technological Center

The scientist Anna Muceniece discovered how to use a virus in the treatment of cancer 40 years ago. Now her discoveries have been confirmed  by the world’s latest research. It was as early as the 60’s that Muceniece discovered that an intestinal virus from young children was able to destroy cancer cells. By using the methods of selection and adaptation, a live gastrointestinal virus was obtained and its preparation was called Rigvir.“Unlike chemotherapy and radiation therapy Rigvir doesn’t have a damaging affect on inner organs.  And the long lives of patients who have used Rigvir testify to this” explains the scientist. Her discovery is described in the book “Oncotropism of Viruses and the Problem of Virotherapy of Malignant Tumors, “ that was published in 1972 in Russian. For now Rigvir is the only virus that has the ability to mobilize the innate antigen and to destroy malignant cells.

Muceniece admits that she came to these discoveries accidentally. “In the 50’s I was working in Latvian Microbiology Institute. That was the time when the poliomyelitis was a major calamity in the world. While looking for the viruses of the poliomyelitis I isolated many intestinal viruses, but soon medicine for the poliomyelitis was discovered and I had to discard my investigations. However, before that I decided to check how “my viruses” treated cancer cells. The results were surprising- it turned out that only intestinal viruses from young children can mobilize anti-human cells and destroy them”.

It has been proven that Rigvir is harmless and does not proliferate in the adult’s organism. None of her patients have complained of side-effects or an inability to accept the preparation. The main result is extending patients’ life time.

Anna Muceniece says that cancer represents many different diseases and her preparation can help with some but not with others. “I have managed to find those which can be helped.”

“I have no business gene and I have never had a passion to make money, either. I don’t think that medicine is business. Medicine is love. You have to love humans if you want to help them.”

Even at the age of 85 the scientist doesn’t deny consultations in virotherapy and immunology for doctors. Last year together with her daughter she wrote a book about the value of immunity. “I have been thinking for a very long time whether we are guided by destiny or our will. I decided that it is destiny and I think I have had a very good one.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2009)

How does it feel to give a new heart, and thus a new chance to live to a person? It is impossible to describe, but it is a feeling well known to cardio surgeon Gundars Katlaps. He is director of Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center’s Program for heart and lung transplantation. He transplants not only human organs, but also artificial hearts.

This unique device was approved in the US only three years ago. At the same time Gundars Katlaps began his work in the US as a certified, independent surgeon and his place of work is one of the first three medical centers in USA, which were assigned to work with artificial hearts. This makes the 40 year old Dr Katlaps one of the most experienced heart implant surgeons in the world.

Last year Katlaps performed 12 heart transplants, and all of them were successful. Transplanting hearts and lungs is the part of his work which brings the most satisfaction, says Katlaps. However, in practice they are not more complicated than a routine heart or lung operation, which he also performs.

To study and work in America became a clear goal in the beginning of 80’s when Professor Kristaps Keggi invited Katlaps to come to Yale University Hospital.

„Learning for exams to enter the residency in USA was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Several months in a row I did nothing else but sit at home and study until I knew eight medicine textbooks by heart. Once again I mastered the same thing I have been learning in the Medicine Academy for six years, only now I’ve learned it in English.”

It seems hard to believe that he could achieve it, but Katlaps was inspired by the words of the best player in the history of the NHL, Wayne Gretzky: „You miss 100% of the shots you don't take”. In the end he was one of the applicants with the highest scores.

Gundars Katlaps enrolled as a resident for one year at the Stanford University Medical Center. „From the first day on I needed to prove that I was good, that it is worthwhile to keep me on for five full years of residency. There were five people starting with the one year position – me and four Americans. In three years I was the last one there. They saw that I have good hands.”

At the end of his residency Katlaps understood – he wanted to specialize in cardio surgery. There is no doubt that Stanford is one of the best places to become a specialist in cardio surgery and transplantations. And Katlaps received such an offer from the man who performed the first successful heart-lung transplant – from Bruce Reitz, director of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford University Medical Center. However, Reitz’s resident education program lasted for three years, but Katlaps’ visa was valid for only two years. He used the two years to complete a resident education program for cardio surgery at the Hospital of Medical College of Virginia.

„The appetite grows by eating, and I decided to obtain a deeper specialization and picked, to my mind, the most interesting field in medicine - surgery in cases of heart failures and the use of ventricular devices including artificial heart, which was experimental at that time. There was such an opportunity in Cambridge.”

During the two years at Cardiothoracic Surgery Center at the University of Cambridge Katlaps performed 25 heart transplants and 25 double-lung transplants. At the end of the program Gundars received an offer to become a director of the program for lung transplants, as well as one of four transplantation surgeons in on of the biggest cardio surgery centers in United Kingdom. Gundars Katlaps however decided to go back to Virginia Commonwealth University.

Would Gundars Katlaps want his son to follow in his footsteps? „I would like my son to become a surgeon, but only if he loved it as much as I do, if he couldn’t imagine himself doing anything else.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2008)

After regaining independence many Latvian scientists left to work abroad, but Jānis Sīpols did the opposite. The researcher of neurobiological processes who had a laboratory in the University of Washington in Seattle has now lived in Latvia for more than 10 years.

His main field of research is the regulation of appetite and body weight control that is controlled by chemistry in our brain.

Jānis Sīpols grew up in the outskirts of Seattle in the US and visited Latvia for the first time in 1990. He had a diploma in biophysics and biochemistry and his research work was professionally recognized. He came to Latvia because of his hobby - music. His musical group was invited by the Minister of Culture and it turned out to be a marvellous trip.

„Without any exaggeration I can say that Latvia was on a different planet. It wasn’t possible to teach Latvians how to organize the country, politics or business. It was impossible because Western experience and knowledge was often useless in those conditions.”

In taking the decision to move to Latvia it was important that the scientist was able to keep his laboratory in The University of Washington and continue his research in medical science, because there were no comparably equipped laboratories in Latvia.

„Education is a value that no one will be able to take away from you - this is a belief that was implanted in American Latvians in early childhood.”

„My first interest in neurobiology was created by my parents’ observations that after coming to America, average Latvian life expectancy had decreased. In America Latvians started to suffer from diseases, arthritis, cancer etc. and that didn’t happen because of genes, because you need thousands of years to change them. It became clear that it was linked to eating habits. Latvians started to eat lesser quality and less healthy food in America with fewer vitamins and more sugar and preservatives. People started to gain weight that caused diabetes, heart diseases, arthritis etc.”

„We can’t solve these problems by diet, we have to research the parts of the human brain that control appetite so you can lose weight naturally. „

„What we do is more basic science that is based long-term and not on immediate return. If you want to invent, patent and sell something, you need to do the basic work before. Nothing appears in empty place.”

„Practically it would be possible to produce products that don’t create addiction, like rich cakes, but it will not seem attractive to producers.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2008)

„Future scientist” is one of the international awards that doctor of pharmacology - Maija Dambrova has received from France where the European Association of Euro-Pharmaceutical Companies names one scientist from each country to „draw” a portrait of the future of science.

International scientific data bases contain approximately 30 articles that were written by Maija Dambrova and have contributed to many pharmacological discoveries. She is a co-author of 3 international patents.

But the EAEPC has called attention to not only her internationally acclaimed discoveries in medical chemistry and pharmacology, but also to her ability to direct a modern research laboratory that is the best equipped cardiovascular research centre in the Baltic States.

Maija studied abroad in Switzerland, Finland, and Sweden. „It was my choice to return to Latvia with international working experience and publications, so I don’t see it as a burden. I could be in Sweden now and talk about how nothing is happening in Latvia’s pharmacology, but instead I chose to be here and do something. Sometimes I am a pathological optimist, but it helps to survive hard times.”

Maija calls the last few years a „honeymoon with the European Union” because it was precisely EU assistance that provided the laboratory with all the equipment it needed. As a result a good team has been created. „I have realised that colleagues don’t have to think identically. The most important thing is to find the common vectors and if there is someone who turns them in one direction, great things can be done.”

„I like to see a package of medication in a drugstore that I helped develop, even if my name is not mentioned on the label.”

„We find projects that are interesting to both scientists and pharmaceutical companies. We also try to help small companies.”

„No matter how small the summit you reach may be, if you realise it is a summit is bliss to be there. It’s the same when there are loads of papers on your desk with the results of experiments and you don’t understand from which point to start, and what the main idea may be. Then suddenly there is a „click”. It is the feeling that comes from a first time discovery, when you realise that no one has known this before.”

„The work of our laboratory - the research of biological activity - is very complex. Doing something for the first time in Latvia, that is common day-to-day practice here. And sometimes, what may be a „first” in Latvia, may be a „first” for the world.

It has happened before and I believe it will happen again.

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2008)

Dace Oliņa is the first professional from Eastern Europe to have earned the honour to direct pharmacy company’s Roche branch office in Western Europe.

Since last summer Dace Oliņa has directed the branch office of „F.Hoffmann - La Roche” in Finland. The company is one of the largest and oldest pharmaceutical companies in the world.

Previously she served for 3 years as the director of Roche in the Baltic States. This is not typical for a Western corporation, because Dace is an East European and a woman.

From 80 thousand „Roche” employees around the world only two other women have similar positions in Western Europe – in Norway and in France. Also the geographical division of Eastern Europe and the West is still relevant in business. „Not only because some countries are poorer than others, but also because we have a different way of thinking,” say Dace.

„In the West people work with selling themselves, they try to show themselves, but we wait until we will be seen, until somebody will see and appreciate us. It is the thing we have to learn, because if we compare professionalism, we can’t say we have less professional people here in the Baltic Sates, actually it is vice versa, we just don’t know how to show our selves. We have been taught to be modest and not to lift our heads too high from the ground As an old belief says: If an ear of rye corn is longer than the others in the field, then it has to be cut.”

„Many things are done differently in the so called Eastern bloc countries compared to the „Old” Europe which has been living in a stable, prosperous environment. In Finland people are used to stability and safety. As I’m from the land that has been changing a lot for the last 20 years, my point of view is a discovery for them.”

Dace admits that she has had to adjust herself to a different tempo of work in Finland, by slowing herself down from time to time. In comparison with the Finns, we can say that Latvian way of communication is more southern - there are more smiles and honesty”

She has ascertained that the most effective communication is an involvement in the decision making and as soon as possible.

„From a more complicated job I came to an easier one. I was responsible for the 3 Baltic States and although West Europeans think we are the same market actually we are very different, we have different health care systems.”

The broadest Roche segment is preparations for oncology, which is why Dace’s previous experience in children’s oncology is an advantage. „In contrast to Latvia and other East European countries, in Western Europe it is not typical for doctors to work in a pharmacy. Doctors talk with doctors differently as they do with business people. I have a completely different level of talking with doctors who know I am an oncologist, doors are open.”

In the beginning Dace gave lectures to doctors and for a while she worked as a radiation therapist while working in a pharmacy. „I ended that because I have a belief that I can’t do both jobs equally well.”

Developing new medicines is an extremely slow process. One idea out of 10 thousand gets to the market. It takes approximately 14 years –for examining, creating a preparation, clinical research and introduction to the market. A lot of things have been changing in oncology for the last 10years; many incurable patients now can be saved.

In Finland darkness is longer and sky is much lower. Dace keeps a light therapy lamp on her desk and assures that she will return to Latvia, to home. It probably won’t be to work in a pharmacy anymore, because that would be a step backward.

„Always when I reach a point where I have to change myself, destiny gives me a possibility to choose. The assignment is to choose the right option and that is not easy.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2009)

A lifelong dedication to creative technical work has enabled Imants Keišs to invent a unique fuel control device.

Imants Keišs is the director of Latvian Technological Center’s company Vizors, which has obtained three patents for the device „Supervisor” and for a technology which ensures the highest possible precision in fuel control. Six years of research were devoted to the device and the inventor is ready to speak at length about it, since he is proud that there is no analogue worldwide.

„Until now the means of production powered by fuel were maintained without special supervision, because it was impossible to control the real fuel consumption. Until quite recently fuel was cheap, and people didn’t feel a great need for precise fuel control. But it should be kept in mind that the fuel tank is the “strong-box” of company’s liquid assets, through which millions of dollars can flow away. It is reckless to keep running the business without supervision.”

„Fuel is so variable, that industrially its amount in a tank hasn’t been yet depicted precisely. For example, the amount of fuel changes as soon as the temperature changes. In a 120 ton tanker the amount changes by 98 liters when the temperature experiences one centigrade of temperature fluctuation. None of the car manufacturers can precisely measure the amount of fuel in a moving fuel tank; therefore they identify mmentary engine consumption, which is calculated by the flow of fuel there and back. How much fuel has been tanked, how much has been poured off – up to now it has been technically impossible to measure within a moving tank. And yet, we are able to measure it even on the move and on a slope up to 20 degrees,” explains Imants Keišs. „We have drilled through a whole truck full of fuel tanks, until we figured out how to measure it and get the result.”

The fuel control device itself is a small, black box that is constructed in such a manner, so that the signals arrive without any interference whatsoever. A great deal of time has been devoted to finding the most appropriate details. For example, the wires are ordered from a German company working for military aviation. „You can destroy this little box only with an axe.”

„There will be a demand for such device, as it pays-off in 2-4 months.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS

Juris Zariņš, the chairman of the board, designer and inventor, has worked with microphones for more than 20 years. At first he repaired them and produced spare parts, but later he created the Violet line of microphones at the company Scruples. The Violet has already won several music industry prizes.

The distribution rights of Violet are owned by American and Estonian companies. Inspired by its great success Zariņš decided to create a brand new, totally independent company - JZ Microphones. His business plan was to offer innovative products and design in high quality sound reproduction equipment.

The production base for the new microphone remains the Scruples company originally founded in 1991. Currently the company employs more than 50 people. „We monitor the whole process - starting from production to packing. Currently we form our distribution network in California. It’s the only way to ensure a good relationship with partners and not to lose the product,” says Zariņš.

Protection of copyright has always been a painful issue in the production of new, innovative products. „Scruples owns 24 patents. However it is complicated to compete with companies who copy our products, because the lawsuit can last years, cost much and bring no result in the end. The original producer is very much unprotected,” concludes Juris Zariņš.

„If our product is accepted by the global market, we have one and a half, two years time to distribute it. If it is indeed valuable, others will start to copy it. In some ways it’s an acknowledgement of our product. There is only one way to protect oneself - by producing something new all the time.”

„I am a workaholic with great ambitions - I want to create a product that will put Latvia on the map around the world. The bar is raised very high. Our main goal is to be the best in the whole world and I am not ashamed of it,” stresses Juris.

Ideas are born as soon as you notice some unoccupied niche. Zariņš has earned his money in many ways - working as a jeweler, breeding 14 species of fishes in 42 aquariums, producing bijouterie. Later Scruples focused on the production of medical ware, which still is one of the company’s profiles. „The involvement in the medical business was a pretty crazy move,” recalls the businessman. „One day my friend told me his surgery was canceled because there were no osteosynthesis screws delivered from Moscow, and that nobody produced these screws in Latvia. That was like a push for me. I promised that in  a couple of months the screws will be plenty. So I went to Rīga 2nd Hospital where we obtained a small work space and in half a year we produced screws from titanium and stainless steel. That was the beginning of medicine phase, which I never had in mind in the beginning. I just wanted to help.” But the production expanded and Scruples started to build special constructions for surgery and produced scalpels for optical surgery.

In the course of time Scruples started to fulfill different orders for hardware, among them microphone holders and several spare parts for microphones. The company gathered its experience and decided to produce the microphone itself. „The main goal was not to profit. We simply wanted to create the best microphone ever,” reflects Mr. Zariņš.

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2008)
© Foto: JZ microphones, www.jzmic.com

To leave the earth’s orbit in the first mini-satellite built in Latvia - that is a professional goal of Dana Reizniece, a Ventspils High Technology Park (VHTP) board member.

Developing space technologies is one of the activities of the Ventspils High Technology Park and building the first Latvian mini-satellite- Venta-1 is the beginning. 36 km from Ventspils in the town of Irbene, in the territory of an old military base, is where a modern satellite control centre is being built. Dana Reizniece is coordinating this project.

„Either the first woman on Mars or the next President”- says Juris Žagars, the director of Ventspils International Radio Astronomy centre, as he praises Reizeniece’s professionalism and energy. Where a year ago there was only rubble, today a comfortable work and recreation facility has been created for satellite technology specialists and Ventspils University students. „In Europe, a year’s turnover of space technologies is 40 billion euros. Latvia could get some part of that too” believes Dana.

Siemens, Inspecta Latvia, Ventspils Electronics Factory and other enterprises including the Engineering Research Centre of Ventspils University College work in Ventspils High Technology Park and almost no signs of financial crisis are seen there. They just keep working. „Our working fields are export capable- electronics, information technologies. But to develop these fields we need people”.

„Now VHTP tries to interest an internet solution enterprise from France -„Adipso”. They would like to work in Ventspils if there were specifically qualified programmers. It is hard to find such specialists and we understand that if the university will develop, our city will develop. The IT faculty is already functioning at Ventspils University and we are working on the Faculty of Engineering Sciences” says Dana Reizniece.

Juris Žagars- the director of Radio Astronomy Center reveals that Dana is a real discovery. „She is able to bring together scientists who tend to act like big children and business people who don’t always understand scientists. As a fourfold chess champion she has a strategic mind set.”

The main directions of development for the future are information technologies, nanotechnologies and biotechnologies. „Atom, gene and bit are the three bricks from which the innovation economics will be built. How capable will Latvia be in these fields, will depend on how much we will invest in sciences and education.”

„For such a small country as Latvia it is important to find our own niche, because we can’t cover a broad field. That is why we chose satellite technologies in Ventspils, it merges IT and electronics and at the merging point of different technologies always some innovative ideas turn up. If we specialize, we could be strong and compete in the world scale.”

Dana’s best achievements in chess are 2 titles of the European Chess Champion and the World Chess Vice-champion in competition between young players.

„Chess taught me a principle that nothing comes for free in life. To gain success you have to do everything you can only then you will earn help from above.”

„In chess, just as in life, you have to see the playing field as a whole, you have to work out a plan and have to realize it. Even a bad plan is better than no plan, and almost always it pays off if you stick to your plan.” If you have a concrete plan and a strategic plan, then a crisis can deter your efforts, but it can’t make you lose your way.

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2009)

Nikolajs Vederņikovs is a scientist at the Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry and he is one of the world’s most knowledgeable specialists in technologies of manufacturing furfural.

In recent years Vederņikovs has been invited to consult in the building of the first furfural factory in Iran and has consulted in China, where more than 70% of furfural in the world is manufactured.

Translated from Latin, „furfural” means the oil of bran, because it was derived from bran for the first time. It is the only monomer (made of plants, not oil) that is used in synthetic manufacturing. It competes with oil chemistry products. It has bright prospects in the future. „When oil becomes very expensive, most synthetic materials will be manufactured from furfural since it can be made from renewal raw materials - softwood and farming waste materials, which are practically inexhaustible resources”.

Although manufacturing furfural was begun in the 1920’s, until the discovery of Nikoljs Vederņikovs it wasn’t possible to produce more than 55% of the theoretically possible amount and to recycle the leftovers of the raw material. He solved both these problems although it was believed to be impossible. „In the beginning no one believed in my theoretical researches, so I had to prove them by producing practical results. And I succeeded!”

„I have been in many furfural manufacturing plants. I even know the Chinese technology used and I can say there is no one else in the world, who would master 6 different furfurol producing techniques.”

What interests Nikolajs Vederņikovs now is producing bioethanol. It is broadly used as an additive to fuel, which is why this research is very important. Based upon his theory and research, the simultaneous production of furfural and ethanol from soft wood is possible. „To create an invention and introduce it in practice you need interest, the skills of an organizer, and a talent to convince others that your invention is needed. You need an untraditional mind set and approach.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2009)

Andris Ambainis is one of the most gifted new scientists in the world in quantum computation and the youngest academician in the history of the Latvian Academy of Sciences.

Andris Ambainis began working with quantum computation 12 years ago, “I was a traditional computerite and mathematician and about quantum physics I knew only from popular-science journals. My first dissertation was on conventional computing, but then the first scientific publications in quantum computation appeared.”

It coincided that already in the first term of studies in the USA Andris was able to attend a course on quantum computers. He was carried away with this idea because there were so many unknown things in this field.

The idea of quantum computers exists since the 80’s, but for a long time people didn’t know what to do with those computers until the 1994 when Peter Shor realised that it is possible to break classical schemes. Quantum computers use these schemes to send information through the internet, for example when using internet banking. He discovered that problems that are too complicated for normal computers are easy for the quantum computer.

“I was also fascinated by the fact that this is an interdisciplinary field- here you can use your knowledge from computer sciences, physics and mathematics.”

The professor explains that Latvian quantum computation explorers deal with theory. “We are searching what could be possibly done with the quantum computer if it were built.”

“The main gain from the quantum computer will be that many computation operations will become faster.” Latvian scientists have engineered a method how to search identical words or numbers in a big data quantity with the quantum computer.

Great attention has been made to computing quantum in cryptography - that deals with data security problems. Quantum encryption is also explored in Latvia. Some of the quantum encrypting ideas of Andris Ambainis are already used in practice.

“In some of the quantum encrypting systems it was possible to modify encrypted information, without reading it. We have introduced a method how to avert such attacks in quantum system.”

Andris Ambainis is one of the best European scientists who receives a grant from the European Commission. It is granted to those scientists who have worked outside the Europe for at least 5 years and then decided to return.

Andris returned to Latvia mostly for personal reasons- “It is much easier to communicate with Latvians, we have much more in common.” Andris also wants to create his own scientific group that would deal with quantum computing and other related fields. “I am one of the few in Latvia who have entered the international circulation of this field and I want to help others to do it too, because I see people who are willing to deal with it.”

The professor believes that “No scientist can exist alone. In competitive field of mathematics you can put somebody alone in a room with 6 assignments to solve, but in the scientific society everyone reacts to one another’s work. The scientific society as a whole is a much greater force than one scientist alone.”

For his achievements Andris is thankful to his tutors, although an equally great role is played by talent and environment that since the early childhood he has been enabled to approach sciences.

“My parents were chemists, my dad- a very gifted engineer. At home we had many books about chemistry and other sciences and sometimes when I took some of them it turned out that they were interesting for me as a child too.”

“At that time in Daugavpils I didn’t have a computer, I read about programming without a possibility to use it. For my classmates it seemed weird that I was writing programmes on paper sheets that I would never be able to make work, but still it turned to be my profession at the end.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2009)

Although Biosan (a producer of biotechnological equipment) has claimed a strong position in the world of biotechnology over the years, they now have to make a difficult decision on whether to keep developing its unique equipment or to turn to mass production.

15 years ago Jānis Stabulnieks, the director of the Latvian Technological Centre, told to Vasilijs Bankovskis, the head of the board of Biosan, that he would become a millionaire. He wasn’t far from the truth. Soon, laboratories replaced big flasks with small samples and needed new technologies to analyse them. As a producer of such technologies, Biosan became known in the world. Now, their main aim is to conquer Japan, which is the most prestigious market of medical technology.

Vasilijs Bankovskis and his wife Svetlana are a good example of profitable science. They started their business on the premises of the Latvian Technological Centre. At the moment, they are thinking about their own building, but they still have to negotiate it with their English partners.

One of the most important steps in Biosan’s development has been the collaboration with Grant Instruments from Cambridge. For further development, half of the company was sold to the English. It solved several problems, for example, the English partners helped to customize Biosan’s production to the EU standards and to include its products in international catalogues.

Apart from the English, Biosan has collaborated successfully with other companies and would not have reached that far without other investments. For example, a company from Moscow has been very helpful in producing high tech equipment.

Biosan’s biggest export markets are Russia and the CIS countries, which are followed by Europe. Biosan’s products are also distributed in Asia, the Middle East, North America, Australia and New Zealand. Recently, first steps have been taken to distribute Biosan’s products in Latin America and Africa. However, they are still struggling for the Japanese market.

Biosan produces equipment for clinical diagnostic laboratories as well as research centres of life science that study genetic engineering, stem cells etc. The company has included all four levels of diagnostics in its conception of the product line World of Boitechnomica: genes, immunology, biochemistry and cells.

One of the reasons Biosan is doing so well in the world market is their personalized approach to laboratory. They take each individual laboratory into account when producing equipment for them. Biosan produces compact equipment that consumes less energy and is thus cheaper. Other advantages of Biosan’s products include their biodesign, in which they use natural forms, and their uniqueness.

For now, Biosan is not thinking about moving its production away from Latvia, even though they feel that it is not the best place for middle tech production. Recently, a lot of European companies have moved their production to Asia, where it is cheaper to produce similar equipment in larger quantities. In order to keep its position in the world market, Biosan has two options – to turn to mass production or to pay even more attention to innovation, research and uniqueness. The decision is difficult, but Biosan believes that in any case, they will be successful also in future as they concentrate on the needs of individual clients and laboratories.

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS

The second most popular google search result for a „rudder” in English would be a link to the webpage dotan.com. The Dotan rudder was invented by Leonīds Čerņins and the award for „Best product of the year” testifies to its uniqueness, but now this entrepreneur is preparing to launch a new product - wind turbines.

Already in his childhood Leonīds was carried away with sailing, but later he „went a little crazy” about it. He started to take part in competitions and within a year he was the Champion of the USSR. After graduating from the Leningrad Boat-Building Institute Leonīds returned to Latvia and together with some friends started to build catamarans with canvas.

In the 90’s they founded a cooperative. „That was the most happiest time of my life! We built many interesting things, once we even received an order to build a submarine. We produced satellite aerials, car boots etc.”

He believes that his biggest advantage is that he is both a sportsman and engineer.

After the cooperative closed, Leonid went to Israel, still hoping to restore production after a few years. He didn’t need to wait long for fair wind: Leonīds became one of the 20 ‘chosen ones’ that responded to an advertisement and were invited to a special business school organized by the Israeli multimillionaire -Stef Wertheimer.

After completion of the studies, Wertheimer offered financing to 3 „student” projects. One of them was Leonīds’ business plan for building yachts. To him it was like a dream. He describes how after a month of courses, Wertheimer decided to examine his students and asked about their progress. When Leonīds was asked to report about his accomplishments, he mentioned that it would be very useful for him to visit some European boat producers for some market research. A few days later Leonīds went on a „school trip” together with one of his teachers. „We spent a month driving around Europe; I was like a prisoner of a concentration camp who had finally got some food.”

Although after graduation, Wertheimer promised to finance his business completely,  initially, he gave only 1/5 of the money. As the young entrepreneur didn’t want to wait for this moment, he applied for support from the Israeli government. He won and no more financing from Wertheimer was needed.

He needed to show his invention to the world; Leonīds built a yacht and took part in a competition in Israel where most of the participants used boats that were built in America. „In the first three runs I was the first, but in the rest of them some boats just encircled my boat and tried to sink it.” This episode later became a good advertisement for him.

His unique yacht rudder Dotan has been his main product for several years. His rudder is very light but extremely durable.

In 1997 Leonīds came back to Latvia, he still has some obligations with the Government of Israel, but they are covered with interests form the sale profits.

He has enough orders, but Leonīds already has a new project. He wants to produce wind turbines. „Those wind turbines that are installed in Europe bring profit in approximately 20 -25 years, but our model can do it in 5 years time, moreover for the first 10 years it doesn’t need any service.” He doesn’t want to reveal any additional details but the first sample will be ready at the end of this year.

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2010)
© Foto: www.dotan.com

The Design Academy Eindhoven is mentioned as „without question, currently the best design academy in the world,” by The New York Times. Māra Skujeniece started her studies there in 1995.

At that time in the Netherlands nobody really knew anything about Latvia. Currently the situation has changed. Māra has contributed to the popularization of Latvia too - starting with her degree project dedicated to the Latvian colors, shapes and materials down to her characteristic design with Latvian touch and her own design studio.

Together with like-minded colleagues from Amsterdam’s design office Bearandbunny Māra currently works on a design for restaurant interior. The restaurant is located in Eindhoven, in premises where in the past there used to be Philips filament factory. „It is a specimen of 1920’s architecture. The new interior should relate with the history of the building, and not creating retro at the same time.” The restaurant is planned to be one of the biggest in the Netherlands; its area is 1000 square meters.

Ceramics, especially porcelain, made by Māra has also become very popular. She started to work with ceramics during the studies in Netherlands, as this was a way to pay for her studies. „Twice a week I worked in a studio that belonged to one of my teachers, passed through the whole process and learned it in within two years. I started to develop my own ceramics design five years ago.”

In Dutch, the word „designer” can be meant in two ways - in one version it means „a creator of shape”, in the other it refers more to technical design and engineering. „At the Academy we learned precisely about the „creation of shape”. Presently I teach students how to get from an idea to the physical object. Sometimes looking at an object you see that the idea was good but it „sits” in a wrong body, something is unharmonious - the color, material or proportions. That’s the reason why many things live just for a moment and only some articles become design classics.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2008)

Textile artist Laima Kaugure’s works are recognized as one of Latvia’s modern design values.

Laima Kaugure’s Studio Naturals is one of the places in Rīga, which is frequently shown to visitors during state visits. The traditional linen weaving technology in combination with the original design creates up-to-date textile articles, which are admired in many countries. „We try to continue the practice of hand work - a tradition of our grandmothers - which is presented anew through my designer’s eye and experience,” says Laima. She has worked with linen for over ten years.

Studio Naturals was founded in 2000. „From the very beginning I realized that I should establish my own company and go to international professional exhibitions. So I started to participate in the best international exhibitions of textile design five times a year.”

Laima recalls how she brought traditional Latvian ethnographic textiles to her first exhibitions. „I realized that the international public is not interested in traditional Latvian ethnography. It is weighty and doesn’t fit in with modern interiors. That’s when I started to develop my new line. The weavers were pretty reserved when I asked them to weave brand new style textiles. Currently there is already a whole generation of adherents.”

„We started with 9 square meters, currently we have already 28 and we are proud to have conquered a location in the exhibition’s foreground, in the high-end position. The placement is determined by a special jury which appraises the quality of a particular production.”

More than 80% of Studio Naturals production is being exported. The company has excellent cooperation with US textile company ABC Home, Calvin Klein and several individual designers in France, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, Russia and elsewhere. Studio Naturals has its own office in Paris.

Laima is proud that her products always have a sign saying it is a hand made article from Latvia. She doesn’t agree to orders otherwise.

„To my mind linen is a very aristocratic fabric. It is well-matched to our environment and tendencies of minimalism in architecture and design. Linen is soulful; it brings lightness and purity into a room. I like the fact that linen can follow several generations, it can be passed on to children and grandchildren. And the more linen gets washed the better it gets; it starts to breathe and live. To me linen is a lifestyle.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2009)
© Foto: Studio Natural, www.studio-natural.lv

Antra Stare - the director and owner of SIA ASD Baltija, likes to call herself a designer, not a businesswoman.

She began her textile design goods manufacturing business 7 years ago and today her products are known in the market with the brand name „Anna Andrea.”

„I began with one sewing machine, a computer and 400 Ls in my own apartment, between teddies and perambulators. I was alone with 2 kids and my business project. I risked with all had.”

Market research was easy; - Antra took her car and drove around the city, watched people and looked at stores. „One day, while walking through some furniture shops, I noticed that furniture is very beautiful, but blank, no dustsheets, no pillows, no nothing! That is how I got the idea to offer textiles to furniture shops.”

In the first month the company’s turnover was 70 Ls, but the business idea was so successful that after a few months she needed to involve more people.

In those 7 years Antra Stare has gone through different business development stages. „It wasn’t only an upward movement and it is very important not to give up. Even if it is very hard, you shouldn’t take the easiest route, you have to fight, and then the results will come.”

She thinks that writing a business plan is useful only in the theory. „Life and theory are very different things. In business unexpected changes can take place which no business plan can follow. Intuition is more useful than calculations. I have never had a business plan myself, life shows what to do.”

The first brand concept was Anna Andrea linen textiles - the style from the 1930’s of the last century, „but after a while I understood I have to hange something, because interest was declining and turnover decreased, so I decided to change the concept.”

Antra took a risk and with visual elements and colours transferred from retro to a contemporary style with a motto: „A touch of magic”. She believes it was a good decision.

There are changes in distribution too. After admitting that selling in shops is not profitable, Antra decided to use mobile stands, and this idea proved to be right both visually and in terms of sales, plus it is less risky in an unstable financial situation. In general the crisis has spared Antra’s business. „What changes are the demands for merchandise lines”.

„We have enough work. We even have to think of how to manufacture enough, but I don’t need to conquer the world or to develop very fast and with a big risk. I choose a slow but stable rate of development.”

For now there are 9 employees in the company. The selection consists of 50-60 units - tablecloths, serviettes, curtains, bedclothes, accessory, bags and Antra’s most favourite product- aromatic pillows. They are made from linen, stuffed with dried plants from Latvia’s meadows, and flavoured with different essential oils. It is an ecological product but the main feature is the visual and printed elements I added. People tend to seek positive emotions and buy not only the product but also senses.„

„I have inherited much from my granny  -Anna, who knitted, sewed and crocheted until a very great age; she was a very bright and optimistic woman. That is why her name is in the company’s logo - Anna. The other half, Andrea, is my creative pseudonym.”

”It is much easier to do salaried work than deal with business. Of course you can sell it all at any time and get rid of this „burden”, but I know I won’t do this. For me this is something more than just a company.

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2009)
© Foto: www.annaandrea.lv

Magdalēna Treija does the thing she likes the best - she lives in Italy and creates beautiful dresses.

The young fashion designer has her own company in Rome - LM Studio, which works with fashion design, production, consults on style and shopping, as well as on interior design. Currently most of Magdalēna’s clientele comes from show business - TV hostesses and actresses.

Her cooperation with TV started after Magdelena Treija won second place in the Moda Movie competition in 2006. She immediately received offers of internships and participation in shows. That’s when Magdalena met agents from company CP produzioni from Milan.

2006 was an especially eventful year - she successfully completed her degree project at Accademia di Costume e di Moda and won two major competitions - in competition organized by Vogue and Italian Fur Trade Association, and in Moda Movie.

Magdalena’s parents are architects; therefore she has had a link with art since childhood. “My parents always took me with them when going to different exhibitions. However I never thought of devoting my life to fashion design. Later mom found my childhood drawings which show models from different angles. At that time I thought that all girls design dresses and make clothes for their dolls.”

At the moment Magdalena is the only owner of the company. “For the present there are no hired employees, as the flow of financial resources is not yet stable enough to take up the responsibility for other employees. I outsource the bookkeeper and seamstresses. Everything else is up to me - I deal with design, public relations. However I really like to sew, for example flounces - I see it as a very restful process.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2008)

The idea of producing bio cosmetics made from natural ingredients was born from personal experience. „My skin was allergic to one of the products I was using at the time. I started to study its ingredients. On the internet I found out that one of its ingredients has potential carcinogenic effect. I decided to never use such a product again,” recalls Lotte Tisenkopfa.

At that time it was difficult to find alternate products in Latvian market. „When talking to my friends, I realized I wasn’t the only one looking for natural cosmetics. Consequently we, a couple of girls, got together and decided – why couldn’t we be the ones producing natural cosmetics from Latvian plants,” says Lotte.

„At first the viability of MADARA was called into question. For example banks refused to give loans. We had strong convictions of our potential though, and we made it after all.” Now, Tisenkopfa is even happy about that the banks refused a loan. „That’s probably for the best. Initially we planned to produce many different products instantaneously – there were ideas of 20 products. Then the loan was rejected and we revaluated the whole project. Everybody considered how much money they could invest themselves, how much money could be borrowed from mom and dad, counted it all together and started with four products instead of 20. The banks’ „No” reduced our risk. There would much more to lose if we had a loan commitment. We started slowly and meanwhile we have learned much from the step-by-step development.”

The first products of MADARA appeared in shops in 2006. Presently MADARA produces 22 products and they are exported to more than 20 countries in Europe and Asia. In 2009 Switzerland, Denmark, Japan and other countries have been added to the export markets already conquered. „We started to establish export contacts at the very beginning of our business. It is not a short-term process and at this point it starts to bear fruit. The portion of export grows every month, at the moment it is approximately 50%,-70%,” says Tisenkopfa.

She is proud that even in her first year of work, MADARA succeeded in several international competitions by getting accolades for its packing and design. It is even more satisfying that the products themselves are certified by the international organization Eco Cert. This license guarantees that there are no synthetic ingredients used for the production of MADARA – it contains only biologic plants, mainly from Baltic region.

From the outset it was decided to build the company around a very Latvian identity in terms of design, ingredients, and company philosophy. „The brand of MADARA is based on our own childhood experience – running through a meadow, heeding grandma’s advice to put a plant on a bruised knee, or to wash our hair and face with chamomile flowers.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2009)
© Foto: MÁDARA cosmetics, www.madara-cosmetics.lv

One of the central devices in the Biomass eco-effective conversion laboratory is the nonstandard steam explosion auto hydrolysis device, where wood shavings or straw are processed.

During a steam explosion, the resultant chemical processes in wood can be used in several ways - for production of cellulose without adding chemicals, extraction of ethyl alcohol, production of new composite materials and wooden ceramics, explains  scientist Jānis Grāvītis. There is one more effect - the wood samples obtained after the steam explosion absorb heavy metals very well. Moreover the steam explosion device allows the combination of many technologies, so that the waste from one technological process can serve as a raw material for another.
Presently traditional industry is based on the utilization of chemicals, however they are becoming increasingly more expensive as they are tightly linked to oil prices. How the necessary chemicals can be obtained from wood and other natural materials – this is being studied at a laboratory directed by Jānis Grāvītis.

In the future, no small amount of this scientific work will be put into practical applications, Gravītis confidently says. „If you would say to a person that it’s possible to liquefy the wooden stool he is sitting on, he will probably think you are crazy. However it is possible - by combining the steam explosion method with the supercritical water treatment, wood can be liquefied.” The same infrastructure and logistics used for oil, can in the future be used for liquefied wood. “To make liquid fuel from compacted wood - that has to be Latvia’s way, because for us, the forest is our main resource.”

„One of the best ways to be successful in the future is through the usage of steam explosions,” says Jānis Grāvītis. „It’s the new renaissance and I mean it.” In his mind the future the entire industry will shift from usage of oil to biotechnologies, biomass and other renewable resources.

That is the task that scientists all over the world are trying to complete. The UN Institute of Advanced Studies in Japan, where Grāvītis worked from 1996 utill 2001, is doing the same. There are only a couple of such institutes worldwide and they are established to carry out research of global importance. To date, Jānis Grāvītis is the only Latvian scientist who was invited to work at the Institute of Advanced Studies.

He was invited to join the team of the Institute of Advanced Studies after his lecture at the Swedish Royal Academy, where he spoke about the model of plant cell envelopes and new technologies based on it. Grāvītis recalls that at the Institute, he was the most productive author of scientific articles.

Jānis Grāvītis, who is a member of the International Academy of Wood Science, still spends a great deal of his time abroad – he goes to international conferences, lectures at universities and research centers. He willingly works with foreign candidates for doctor’s degrees.

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2008)

Inga Ļašenko, leading researcher for The Rīga Center for biomaterial innovations and development, works with „noble” materials - silver and amber. Silver coating filaments developed by her are used to produce textiles with antibacterial and antiperspirant qualities. Hosiery with silver filaments is good for prevention and treatment of varicose veins. Unlike other silver filaments used around the world, Ļašenko’s product possesses a special structure with slow and long-term medical effects. An international patent has been obtained not only for silver filaments, but also for textile ware.

Currently 20% of her time is dedicated to silver but the rest to the new product developments using amber filaments. The scientist talks very deliberately about her work because there is a great deal of interest in Europe in patented inventions.

Lately amber has attracted immense interest both from the general public and scientists, and not only in Latvia but also all around the world. „It could be called the „Amber Boom”.”

The idea of researching amber came to Inga accidentally. „Everything old is new again. When studying materials in the Egyptian National Library in Cairo I accidentally stumbled across articles about amber. In the ancient Egypt, donor blood was stored in containers made from amber. This prevented the blood from coagulating and kept it warm for a length of time without adding any preservatives.”

In addition, the Egyptians were already trying to develop small tubes which would work as implants. This discovery didn’t last long because the amber tubes were hard and inelastic. Today, Latvian Inga Ļašenko is continuing the research that was begun un ancient Egypt. „Amber is being studied all around the world, but no one had begun to produce amber filaments, and therefore our developments are unique. Similarly, no one has ever tried to raise the amber dust onto the surface of textile.”

Ļašenko is also working to develop a technology that would allow the use of amber filaments for medical purposes, e.g. for implants in the human body. „In this case the amber will be incorporated in the structure of the filament, and its effect will be long-term.”

There are many types of amber and their chemical composition and characteristics differ. In Latvia alone there are three types of amber. At the Rīga Center for biomaterial innovations and development the transparent yellow amber or succinite is being used, since it contains the most succinic acid - 2-8% of the composition. „It is important because the succinic acid is a biologically active substance that has restorative, antibacterial and antiseptic qualities. Amber is a very special, warm stone, that isn’t available everywhere. It is wonderful that a material of such value is available in Latvia,” Ļašenko says with delight.

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2008)
© Foto: Riga Technical University

Mārtiņš Sirmais is the enfant terrible of Latvian cuisine. He tossed around local slang like a true city kid though he grew up and still lives in the Latvian countryside and has a seeming inability to say anything other than the truth about what he thinks, be it about music, travel, politics, or cooking. But this punkish irreverence is precisely what has endeared him to the usually tight-lipped, close-buttoned Latvian public. At 28, he has already become a star in Latvia, with his own TV show, a book of recipes, and a trendy restaurant in central Rīga (Istaba, at Barona 31a). Now Sirmais has opened a second, larger restaurant, Māja, in a charming wooden house inside a quiet courtyard on Kalnciema iela, just across the Daugava River from the Old City.

Māja (House) combines Sirmais’s freestyle cooking technique and preference for local meats and vegetables with the rigorous, almost academic style of the restaurant’s second executive chef, Kārlis Celms, who studied at the esteemed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in San Francisco. The combination of the two the scholar and the punk along with a team of hip young sous-chefs and sommeliers, forms the cornerstone of Māja, whose large outdoor terrace and rustic interior has been filled to capacity almost every night since the restaurant opened in mid-June. The menu feature a wealth of fresh ingredients from local farms and gardens, but prepared in accordance with the latest trends in international gourmet cuisine.

When asked where he learned his cooking techniques, Sirmais says that he went right to the source: the men and women who raise the livestock whose meat he later prepares. „Nobody understands lamb better than the person who feeds the sheep and takes part in their birth,” he explains. “They’re the people that take care of the animals while they were alive, and know how to prepare their meat better than anyone else. I learned most of what I know from them. The same holds true for vegetables: all our tomato pastes at Māja are made by the farmers and gardeners who actually grow the tomatoes and onions used in the sauces. They’ve been intimately involved in the process of growing the vegetables, and therefore know the right combination to get the most out of their flavor.”

This penchant for local meats and vegetables is immediately apparent from a glance at the menu, which changes daily. On a recent afternoon, the specials included smoked duck prepared onsite in a smoker, with wild rosemary and birch twigs and baby lamb, which are delivered whole to the restaurant every week by a local farmer. Cauliflower, baby fennel, and asparagus also had a strong presence, and desserts featured homemade rhubarb ice cream as well as a zesty lemon tart with peppermint sauce. Sirmais loves to prepare fish above all else, and therefore offers an incredible range of fresh local fish everything from cod, pike, and flounder to Arctic char, pilchard, and garfish.

The menu at Māja also has a number of more exotic offerings, such as beef from French Limousin cattle and crayfish from Azerbaijan. When prompted to name one source of his culinary inspiration, Sirmais cites a recent trip to Morocco, where he says he fell in love with tilapia, or St. Peter’s fish, which will soon make an appearance on the menu. Though he is quick to add that he is just as inspired by a recent night out with Latvia’s preeminent architect Andis Sīlis, and, of course, by his young son, who has given him a new appreciation for purees. But in a display of uncharacteristic modesty, he adds, „I’m still young; I’m still learning.” Though considering what Sirmais has already achieved, one can only marvel at what is still to come.

© Text : Rihards Kalniņš / Baltic Outlook

Fate carried Edmunds Bunkše away from war-struck Latvia and took him to the US and Canada. The professor has a fulltime job at the University of Delaware but, whenever possible, he travels to Latvia - to Hairgrassfogs. It is the name of his country house.

„I am interested in a person’s feelings about landscape, all his senses, not only vision,” says professor Bunkše. „The concept of how geography is sensed draws my attention more than just the knowledge of geography.”

When he began to teach geography, Bunkše threw out all topics that were not interesting for him  and bored the students too. „I felt that geography shouldn’t be dry, exact or a social science - a bean counting. I felt it had much more in common with art and liberal arts.”

Edmunds Bunkše recollects with glee how he defended his approach to a group of art history professors, who, every single one of them, were dressed in the uniforms of Harvard University - dark blue jackets and khaki trousers. The struggle however was crowned with success - cultural geography was included in the curriculum for liberal arts.

His dissatisfaction with the restricting framework of social sciences, and his revolt against numbers began during his student days at the University of California, Berkeley. The professor intends to write one of his next books on this particular time period, the 60’s. „We, both students and professors, were idealists who thought it was possible to dismantle the borders between the fields of science. And we did dismatle them.”

Currently Bunkše teaches cultural geography. „I’ve worked as a lecturer for a long time already, I started in 1967 as an assistant lecturer in Berkeley. I really like my job, because I see vitality in the students’ faces.”

Professor Bunkše’s book Geography and the Art of Life is recognized as a special contribution to geography studies and its impact is already tangible - during the last year four international symposiums on „writing geography in the same way as literature is written” have taken place in USA and England. Edmunds Bunkše is convinced that geography will change.

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2007)

„I am a fortunate person and a representative of a humanitarian profession,” says expert for food and veterinary medicine, Jāzeps Rimeicāns.

He participated in the establishment of the Latvian Veterinary Service and was its director for nine years. He represented Latvian veterinary medicine during Latvia’s entry negotiations for membership in the European Union and World Trade Union. Currently Rimeicāns is the leading researcher at the Veterinary Medicine faculty’s Preclinical Institute of the University of Latvia, and has served as an international expert in different countries since 2002.

Jāzeps Rimeicāns began fulfilling his duties as an international expert in Kosovo directly after the termination of hostilities. He helped create the State Veterinary Service and assisted in developing legislation and hygiene requirements for food companies. He also advised on veterinary education.

Since 2002, Rimeicāns has worked as an expert in six countries. „When looking for experts to work in Eastern Europe and Post-Soviet states, people with language knowledge, with publications and academic degrees, experience in conversion from planned to market economy, as well as with at least ten year experience in top-level management. I’ve got it all.”

However Rimeicāns doesn’t consider himself a scientist. „There are scientists-theoreticians and there are scientists-practitioners, but there is also a third category - scientist-organizer. It means you can patch together many different components. I consider myself such a scientist-organizer.”

In 2009 Jazeps Rimeicāns hits the road for another international mission - this time to Azerbaijan. Working within the framework of the EU Twinning project and in collaboration with experts from Holland, he will focus on quality improvement of fish products. This mission will last for two years.

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2008)

Much of Afghanistan has been destroyed in war and now the country is rebuilding very slowly. In this job, Jānis Platais serves as a consultant for the International Monetary Fund. Jānis Platais has worked in Afghanistan since 2004.

„For the first few years it was possible to walk quite freely but now it is not advisable, the security situation has worsened.” Jānis Platais took a brief vacation to visit his family in Latvia and to celebrate the summer solstice.

Unlike other IMF missions, he is not allowed to take his with him family to Afghanistan. In every yard there is a generator that is being filled with diesel regularly. Houses with common glazing are not heat insulated and in December and January it can be unpleasantly cold; at night it can be even -15 degrees cold. Kabul lies comparatively high in mountains; that is why it is not so hot in summers as in other places in the region. But dust is still a big problem since it has been created not only by the drought but also by interrupted water circulation.

Jānis Platais has been a consultant for the IMF for more than 10 years; he analyzes state processes in the finance ministries of different countries and helps to improve their work. There are approximately 40 such specialists in the world that are assigned to IMF long-term missions.

„I help to diagnose problems that reduce efficiency and offer recommendations on how to eliminate the problems.”

In Afghanistan Jānis Platais is a strategic consultant in the state treasury.

He participated in making Latvia’s first budgets and in organizing the work of the Ministry of Finance; he listened the recommendations of the international organizations then, but now he is in a different position. „It was interesting to work and create the pillars of independence. This experience will be useful to me later.” Now he advises and helps organize work in other countries.

„At the beginning I listened to others and decided about the recommendations but know I explain how and why things should be changed.”

„I am involved not only in training the local employees, but also in organizing the training. I work in collaboration with the specialists from the World Bank and the local specialists; we do a big part of the States Treasury work.”

In unstable environment there are more unknown factors. Jānis Platais admits that you have to accommodate to the local culture

„If you don’t go to check the local financial departments yourself, then the picture is quite incomplete, because reforms in provinces fall behind.”

Still the contact between cultures seems breathtaking to Jānis Platais. „It is always very interesting to contact different people especially if they take an interest in the world around them and try to find things out for themselves.”

Before Afghanistan, Jānis Platais worked in Mongolia for 2 years. „It was a similar assignment - reorganization and improvement of functions in the newly made State Treasury. I was positively surprised by efforts to minimize the state machinery and the ability to direct efforts.”

But his first IMF mission was to Ukraine where everybody was grateful to meet an international consultant who can speak Russian.

„I work 8- 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, but when I look back I see progress, a growth of people’s competences.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2008)

Andris Dambis has been fascinated with cars since early childhood when his father, who was a chauffeur, took little Andris with him to the garage. He was so interested in machinery that it wasn’t enough for him just to look and try the cars. He started engineering different pieces of machinery himself.

Since his teenage years most of his time was devoted to motor sports. „I took part in every race I could, with whatever car I could get. I even started to build a car for autocross here in Ogre.”

Now the bright yellow OSCar racing cars are well known in the world. They are built in Ogre in the OSC - Ogre Service Centre and since 2004 they have been in Africa and South America for the Dakar rally. The cars have been sold to customers in 4 different countries, including Saudi Arabia.

„Four years ago a group of people entered my office and said: Andri, let’s go to Dakar!”

„At the beginning it wasn’t planned to build a special car. Usually we use rebuilt street cars in rallies. But soon I realized that in order to have good results we need a specific car, built from zero ,the same as our competitors had.”

„I knew I could build a competitive car. Still I know my limits- I don’t think I could build an F1 car. If the OSCar is an airplane then the F1 is a spaceship. I can build planes, but not spaceships.”

Andris Dambis loves the process of inventing, creating and engineering, and rally cars give total freedom to the engineer, because they are built individually.

„Now we are constructing the third OSCar model and 14 cars have already been built. We need 9 months to build a car, just like a child.„

„I can build a good car because I want to do that. Every day I have a hobby, not a job.” Andris Dambis is not only an engineer and sportsman, he is also a businessman. „I couldn’t fulfil my engineering ideas without business basics.”

„Our first business was building trailers for motorcars. It taught us how to sell and earn money.”

Motorsport is expensive and Andris reveals that for now Latvians don’t have money for that.

„Now we also repair street cars and machinery. We have to survive this time and we have to think not only about Latvia.”

Today in Warwickshire there is a company called MML-Sports, MM - stands for Mitsubishi Motors, but L- for Latvia. 80% of this company is owned by Andris Dambis and Valdis Spredzis, but 20% -by an English partner.

MML-Sports has clients in Indonesia and negotiations are underway to provide Brazil with 20 cars.

Although the company got its name and experience in England, Andris Dambis believes it would be possible to also fulfil those orders in Latvia.

It is important both in business and sport not to anticipate failure in your head. You need confidence that you can do it. As soon as you start thinking that your competitor is stronger than you, the result is bad.”

The only fear about future is whether there will be skilful engineering specialists in Latvia.

To reject such negative thoughts and Andris Dambis thinks 3 days ahead. „It helps me very much, because I understand that these emotions are short termed. Different situations are going to come and today’s problems will be solved.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2009)
© Foto: OSC Ltd.

Inna Šteinbuka has had to master new skills in each of several jobs. She has done it again in Eurostat - Statistical Office of the European Commission, where she has been director of the Eurostat Economic and Regional Statistics for 3 years.

„I wanted to try out my abilities on an international level and when the first competitions were announced allowing individuals from the new EU member states to participate, I took the opportunity. I had to pass lengthy tests, meet with the EC commissioners and at last I was the best among more than 100 applicants.”

Now Inna Šteinbuka directs a department that employs more than 100 people. „One of our main assignments is to measure inflation. The Eurostat evaluation of whether inflation is measured correctly is significant. We have to evaluate what happens in the new member states, so we visit them to understand the situation completely.” „I believe that a statistician can’t just evaluate the adequacy to norms or normative acts, he needs to know context.”

The task of „Eurostat” is to direct the process of gathering data methodologically,to ensure that all information is mutually comparable. „You need to be diplomatic to harmonize this process between 27 member states” says Inna Šteinbuka.

„The beginning in „Eurostat” wasn’t easy. There was a handicap for women from a small country and with a Soviet education. All directors were men and some of them had 30 years work experience, but I had no experience in working with statistics.” „I have progressed as a director, without studying leadership specifically.„

Coaching has helped to fulfil the idea of team cooperation and has improved mutual loyalty and communication. Inna has summarized her experiences and is going to present them to board of directors and the EC administrative department, because no other department in the EC has practiced team coaching. The results have revealed that Inna Šteinbuka is a competent and respected person and no longer a stranger.

Inna comes to Rīga often. „I keep my connection with the University of Latvia and I work with doctoral students. I want to pass on my knowledge and I like to work with young people- they have unpolluted minds.”

Inna Šteinbuka was the first person from the Baltic States to achieve the position of IMF councillor. Before that only assistant positions were offered. „I felt how it is to work as the only woman in a group of men, also my English wasn’t as good as now, but I had great ambitions to prove that I wasn’t a less mentally developed creature that receives her salary for nothing. I couldn’t accept that, so I worked without breaks, frequently also at night to polish my reports.”Approximately after a year they started to look at me differently. There is nothing impossible if you have knowledge and will.”

„I have always been a Euro optimist. I honour the EU values.”

Inna was an optimist also before the European Union- by nature. „Scientists have proved that there is a gene of happiness; that is why some people are optimists from the beginning whatever happens and it helps a lot.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2008)

There are not many people, who would receive a factory as a birthday gift, but Ilmārs Osmanis is one of them since he „presented” it to himself on his 40th birthday.

On the 25th of May 2001, a car with the first machinery for the next electronics factory drove into Ogre. There were 7 employees and a clear business plan for the next 5 years.

Now the first machinery lies at the corner as a memento, but in the Ogre factory 6 million euros were invested and 90 people are employed, a factory in Ventspils was opened, and in 2007 a factory in Sweden was bought.

Hansa Electronics manufactures components for different electronic devices and their clients are such well known companies as Ericsson and General Electric.

„We feel the crisis because we are working with industrial clients that mean that we are heavily dependent on the fluctuations of the economy. We are the first ones to suffer from those fluctuations because our clients get scared and stop ordering until their storehouses are empty. Of course it works also reverse- when the economy goes up, we feel it in a positive way.”

A turnover for this year will be 20-25% lower, but for now the movement has stopped decreasing and goes up from the lowest point.

„We are not confined to Latvia’s market since we export more than 95% of our production. Directly we export half of our production, indirectly the other gets exported as well since our clients in Latvia are also exporters.”

The electronic manufacturing market in the Northern countries is 2 billion euro Ilmārs Osmanis is determined to gain 5 percent of it.

„We are the most up-to-date manufacturer in the Baltic and among the few in Northern Europe. There are very few factories that are able to work with the same technological quality. We are between the 5 most qualitative and technologically developed manufacturers. What we have to do is to turn this advantage into the market percentage”

Although now bigger housekeeping means bigger headaches, Ilmārs Osmanis believes that his decision to buy business in Sweden was economically based. „If we hadn’t done that we would have fewer problems but also we would have been thrown back many years in our development.”

„Businessmen are the only optimists. They are the only ones who can contribute in moving Latvia out of the crisis. There is no one else. I have a hope that people will use this time to start new, small businesses because they have nothing to lose. I believe that exactly now is the moment to promote people to start businesses. This is the time to undertake responsibility.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2009)
© Foto: HansaMatrix Ltd.

Normunds started to work in a furniture producing company at the age of 17, when he had an internship at the Woodworker Industrial School in Jaunpiebalga. His first job was to place planks from one heap to another.

„I had only one thought then- I wanted to become the director of this company. And after 6 years I did it. I am a proof of the idea that a human can do anything he/she wants.”

„A businessman has to work more than an employee, but business gives you more freedom.”

Although this year started with a decline of orders and with a 60% drop of turnover, Wenden Furniture keeps profiting. „It has been possible only because of a sharp cut of expenses that was done adequately to compensate for the drop in sales.”

„At the end of the last year and in the beginning of this year we had to dismiss a lot of employees. We agreed - as soon as there will be a better situation for the company, they will come back and work. I feel it will be possible soon. In fact we have already taken some of them back.”

„Just now I know: we are able to work more effectively by producing the same amount in the same quality but with less people. On the one hand: the crisis was the best thing that could have happened with us. It taught us how to work and live.”

„If the company hadn’t needed to take out loans, I would say: there is no crisis, we just have to work hard. We took out loans to invest in technologies, thus these loans were necessary. It was a big step forward. Technologically we definitely are the most effective company in Latvia in producing chairs.„

„We export 99% of our production and our main market is Scandinavia. We sell our production to wholesalers, but we plan to create our own marketing places in the future. If our chair costs 30 Euros, then in the shop it is already 175 Euros.”

„Only when we will learn how to sell our production to the end consumers, will wel be able to bring more money to Latvia.”

„We can be competitive enough and we can get everything West Europeans have and even more, the only thing we need is time, because competitiveness is tied to education and attitude about what we do.”

„Our export markets are starting to recover. In Latvia there will still be problems next year, but for exporters, next year will be better than this one.”

Normunds Brēmers is 29 years old; he is the oldest in the company’s management team, where he had involved his friends.

„The ardour of youth and maximalism are assets because lead by them, people are ready to do more. The lack of experience is a liability. No one came to this company as a professional, the company has created them.”

The director believes that his main assignment in the company is „keeping it together”. „I see the company from A to Z. The main thing is having a goal, if you have that, you can motivate people.”

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2009)
© Foto: Wenden Furniture Ltd.

Unlike other producers in Latvia, the company „Pure Food ” has increased its turnover this year. For this reason, Chairman of the Board, Aivars Žimants, was recognized as the Man of the Year in agriculture and food industries.

Žimants says that his priority has never been profit. „My priorities are relationships and attitudes, all the rest is subordinate. I believe that in many cases „humaneness” has been lost in business. Now people are starting understand that they have gone too far in this alienation and they want to come back.”

A genuine concern for employees and clients appears to be basis of the company’s success. Transportation, insurance, benefits, bonuses and regular payment are the norm. All that is asked in return is a sense of responsibility toward work.

„We are not coming on simply with an idea to sell our product; we offer some benefits that the company would gain in our collaboration.”
A big part of business of Pure Food is cooperation with industrial clients. One client is one of the Europe’s biggest dairy product processors - Arla in Finland. Production is also exported to other Scandinavian countries, Russia, Belarus, and Central Europe. Cooperation with China and Azerbaijan has also begun. Altogether, approximately 70% of production goes to export.

„In comparison with last year, this year’s turnover has increased and we foresee that until the end of this year it will be 14% more than in the 2008. By 2015 our planned turnover is at least 15 million Lats.”

Since 2008 a new product - chocolate truffles, produced by Pure Chocolate, is capturing consumers’ hearts and taste buds.

In 2008 a freezer was unveiled in a common project with the cooperative „Northberry” - the biggest big bilberry and cranberry grower.
Under the brand Pūre you can find juices with insulin, different tomato sauces and vegetable preserves.

800 tonnes of jam are produced monthly in Pūre, although one piece of equipment is a bowler bought 16 years ago. Its capacity is 50 litres and it is still functioning in the company’s plant. Žimants talks about the bowler as a living thing: „We have loved this bowler, repaired it and exactly because of it we have achieved the results we have. When it completes its service life, we will make of it a monument. We will put it in a highly visible place and each morning when coming to work we will greet it and every evening we will say „goodbye and thank you”.”

The idea of jam producing business came about when it became necessary to process berries that were grown in Pure agricultural region. (Pūre is the name of the town where the berries were grown and the processing facilities built.)

If everyone has a clear vision of what you are doing, people believe you and follow you and then the result comes. You need to work to achieve success. You need to perform all the time.

© Text: The newspaper DIENAS BIZNESS (2009)

© The Latvian Institute

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