Meet Johnny Sajland – SurfCleaner’s new CEO

Meet Johnny Sajland – SurfCleaner’s new CEO

SurfCleaner’s newly appointed CEO, Johnny Sajland, arrives with more than 25 years’ experience working for global brands – including Alfa Laval, Munters and Ecolean. With a burning passion for sustainability, Sajland is now refocussing efforts with an ambitious expansion strategy to build SurfCleaner’s global footprint and realise its far-reaching potential.

Sajland’s impressive resume has broadly followed the Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning sectors through to Power Generation. Forging his career with Alfa Laval in the mid-90s he progressed to Product Manager of the Food Technology Segment, based in the Benelux region by the early 2000s.

He went on to enjoy a decade-long stint at Munters, a global leader in energy efficient air treatment and climate solutions. During this period, Sajland was heavily invested in the Asia Pacific region, largely Japan and China. His final position as Vice President of Sales and Service, involved extensive work in multiple segments from Power Generation and Defence to Pharmaceuticals, Food and Electronics.

His most recent tenure at Ecolean, a system supplier for liquid food packaging, lasted close to 8 years, resulting in further exposure across Asia, before returning to Sweden as Chief Commercial Officer based out of Helsingborg.

“A ‘red thread’ throughout my entire career has involved working for companies with sustainability high on their agenda,” said Sajland. “Ever since Alfa Laval back in 1994 through to SurfCleaner now, sustainability has been very important for me. It all comes down to integrity and being honest with yourself about a product you really believe in and feel proud of. I need to feel good about what I’m doing, I need to feel confident that the product I am promoting genuinely helps the world in one way or another.”

Sajland attributes his passion for sustainability to his long-time hobby of fly fishing, enjoyed since childhood. After decades spent wading through waist-high water he has seen dramatic changes to the environment first-hand. This has informed his views on human progression, corporate social responsibility and environmental stewardship.

“In Sweden, sustainability is in our DNA,” said Sajland. “My passion for nature also comes from my love of fly fishing. When you immerse yourself in our creeks, rivers and lakes you see environmental changes very clearly, in terms of how fish species and stocks depleting. It’s been a visceral lesson on the fragility of our planet and the importance of taking care of nature.”

Notching-up its 100th official sale, through a high-profile South American steel-sector project, SurfCleaner entered 2023 with a bang. It has gone on to record its most successful start to a calendar year, exceeding sales projections. A key part of the future masterplan will involve leveraging an extensive international distributor network to drive exports.

“SurfCleaner has immense potential because it provides a service that no other firm can match,” he said. “Our products have huge potential across multiple segments, which means we need to penetrate in a targeted way.”

Sajland believes one of SurfCleaner’s greatest strengths is the simplicity of the products, which have just two moving parts with a low cost of ownership. Other comparable technologies require up to a hundred times more power to perform the same task, with lower separation efficiency.

“SurfCleaner automates water treatment tasks which many operators are still choosing to tackle manually using a range of different pumps and suction and skimming devices, which ultimately have low water separation efficiency and are a major drain on man hours,” added Sajland.

“When I explain the technology to my friends, I say you can put it in the same grouping as other ‘game-changing’ Swedish inventions like the refrigerator, zipper, wrench, liquid filling machine and evaporation pad – the list goes on. The technology is highly sophisticated, but the solution itself is so simple and easy to understand. I was hooked when I saw how easily it solved complex challenges like collecting oil sheens and surface pollution using minimal energy.”

Taking less than five minutes to be convinced of a move across to SurfCleaner, Sajland is now helping lay foundations for the long-term future, performing a detailed analysis of key growth markets. “I make no exaggeration when I say it took just a matter of minutes to be convinced by SurfCleaner’s business case. It has all the right ingredients to be a very big company in the coming years, due to the strength and unique qualities of its technology.

During 2023 we will be targeting a number of specific markets including steel mills, mines and refineries. Here, our products can make an instant impact to alleviate water surface contamination. We encourage any firms interested in learning more about SurfCleaner’s technology to get in touch and book a pilot demonstration.”