Bent Bjerring Pedersen has been working for nearly 50 years. In that time, he’s had three employers. That tells you something.

He started as a machinist in 1976, worked a decade with metal in his hands, then retrained as a machine technician. When a serious foot injury made long days on his feet impossible, he moved to technical design full-time. It turned out to be where he belonged.

At CALDAN, Bent works as a Mechanical Engineer on the drawing floor. His core areas are the drive units that power the main chain systems, and the safety covers and guarding enclosures that go on CALDAN installations. He designs both in Autodesk Inventor 3D and genuinely enjoys sitting down and getting deep into the detail. New construction is where he’s most at home, and when a project calls for something outside the standard catalogue, he’s typically part of the R&D team working out what that something should be.

He’s also the person colleagues learn from. New designers on the drawing floor go through Bent’s training. He’s had apprentices, a student on placement, and several engineers who are now working independently. Right now he’s working closely with a younger colleague, passing on the knowledge that doesn’t come from a manual. That kind of knowledge is rare. Rarer still when someone takes the time to pass it on.

Bent joined CALDAN almost ten years ago. It’s his third workplace in a career that started before many of his colleagues were born, and he’s settled in the same way he settled into the others: by being exactly himself. Straight-forward, direct, and with a solid understanding of how the whole business fits together, built up by years of moving around to help out in different parts of the company. He doesn’t think much about job titles or professional boundaries. He talks to everyone.

He’s 66 now and works four days a week, around 30 hours. It was his choice, and he’s clear about why it works: more energy on the days he’s in, a longer weekend, and a working life that stays sustainable. He could retire whenever he wants. He keeps coming in because the work is interesting and the people are good. That’s the whole answer.

Some of the most valuable assets in a company are the people who have been there long enough to know things nobody else does. The instinct built over decades. The shortcut that saves a week. The quiet confidence of someone who has seen the problem before. Bent still brings all of that in every Monday. And as the years go on, he’s making sure it doesn’t leave with him.

Outside work, Bent has built a proper woodturning workshop and spends a lot of time in it. It’s the hobby he expects will fill his time when he eventually does stop. The garden gets attention too, with a little help from AI for the tricky questions.