Tom Dyrdal, Business Unit Director, Norway & UK, RBIS | Avery Dennison
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Tom Dyrdal, Business Unit Director
Norway & UK, RBIS

We don’t wait for someone else to do things for us; as market leaders, it’s important that all employees are empowered to bring their ideas forward, create a plan and get to work.

My name is Tom and I am the RBIS business unit director for Norway, and soon, for our teamsport unit in London, UK. I’ve been with Avery Dennison for more than 11 years, starting as an intern with the company while I was still in school, then joining the organization full-time as a controller on the Finance team.

My home base of Gaupne is a very beautiful, but very remote, part of Norway. There are only 5,000 people who live in the area, so Avery Dennison, which has a site in town, is a cornerstone of our local economy. In addition to glaciers and fjords, Norway is also home to the first of Avery Dennison’s ADX Labs, which serve as innovation incubators for our internal teams as well as our customers and partners. Avery Dennison has a strong track record of innovation. In fact, our Norway team developed our own mini incubator, taking over an old warehouse and adding offices, a chem lab and printing line. Being at the center of where customer and market solutions are developed is very exciting.

One of the things I enjoy most about working at Avery Dennison is the dynamic, global nature of the company. Even in Norway, colleagues and customers from around the world are visiting, and our team visits customers in Europe or suppliers in Asia too. No matter what part of the company you touch, you sense the global effect. Our Norway team has an about equal representation of men and women with ages ranging from 18 to 70, and representing 15 different nationalities. So we don’t have to travel at all to experience diversity and global impact.

Avery Dennison demonstrated its faith in me from the beginning. They took a chance on a young person who had little experience but a lot of drive. After one year with the company, I was promoted to Finance manager, and now I’m a business unit director leading Norway as well as a new UK site dedicated to our work for sports/Premier League. The opportunities here are everywhere, but you have to want it. I’ve learned that building a strong, exciting career at Avery Dennison requires energy, competence, teamwork and a willingness to work hard and try new things.

We don’t wait for someone else to do things for us; as market leaders, it’s important that all employees are empowered to bring their ideas forward, create a plan, and get to work. Lifelong learning is real here - your career can be whatever you want to make it.