Meet our team

Scott Drysdale

Canada Wireless Manager at TÜV SÜD Canada - Ottawa (Kanata) Lab

Email: [email protected]

Can you describe your role at TÜV SÜD?
Officially, my role is ‘Canada Wireless Manager’ and is mostly a technical manager role, and includes overseeing the wireless test programs we have going on in Canada as well as helping our Canadian customers with international wireless certifications.  Unofficially, I wear many hats, and generally my role is to help out as much as I can, mainly in the RF and EMC disciplines. This includes hiring assistance, training staff, etc.  My role covers both the Ottawa as well as the Gormley location, so even though I generally provide more hands-on support to Ottawa, I try to support the Gormley team as much as possible as well as work with our international brethren.

What is your favorite thing about working at TÜV SÜD?
The variety of equipment we test, meaning our customers are truly unparallel. Although this often brings with it its own set of challenges, being exposed to the wide variety of what is available on the market and never knowing what is coming in next is a favorite part of working in the regulatory compliance world.      

What are you most excited about for the future of TÜV SÜD?
Generally, TÜV SÜD is largely market driven and in itself technology agnostic.  Any changes to the market will affect what we are working on. Personally, I look forward to some market disrupting technologies that will change things, such as mass-market self driving and electric vehicles, commercially viable nuclear fusion, mass market non-beta low latency two-way satellite residential internet services, etc. I don’t think we’re that far off from those things and I am certain TÜV SÜD will be there to help with the regulatory aspects of these and any other future major disrupting technologies. Nobody can predict or control the future, and in a way that’s what makes it kind of exciting.

What are 3 words that you’d use to describe TÜV SÜD?
Technisch Überprüfung Verein or “Technical Inspection Association”.  We are technical, that is to say unbiased, science and evidence based. We inspect, but do not make, and we are a group of over 25000 professionals world wide.

Tell us about a project that you’ve worked on that you’re proud of.
Unfortunately, some of the projects I’ve been involved in are covered under non-disclosure agreements, and I can’t talk in detail about them.  I can say I’ve worked on equipment that has went to space, I’ve flown a 737-flight simulator as part of a test program which was very fun, and I’ve been part of the 5G movement. I’ve also worked on medical products that have obtained FDA and Health Canada approval that were used during the Covid Pandemic and may have resulted in saving lives.  I know I’ve also helped many clients navigate the complexities of regulatory compliance towards meeting their requirements, be it through compliance fixes recommendations or alternate administrative paths, where they might not have succeeded and certainly not easily without my assistance. I take a lot of pride in the support I’ve provided to clients to help them achieve their regulatory compliance goals.

Describe your relationship with customers.
Every relationship is somewhat different, and always professional. It can be hard to deliver bad news sometimes, which is unfortunately part of the job. I try to treat every customer like they are your only customer, although that is hard to do.

What is your history/industry experience?
In 1995 I graduated from Radio College of Canada.  For those who can remember, there was a big rush on ‘CE marking’ for 1996 at the time, so I was fortunate enough to find a position at a test lab in Ottawa. I worked in Ottawa until 2000, where I packed up and moved to California to work for one the major Silicon Valley companies for 4 years.  Although the weather was nice there, I missed home and family and decided to move back to Ontario in 2004.  When back in Canada, I helped start up a lab in Toronto from scratch and let me tell you that is no easy feat.  In 2016, TÜV SÜD fully acquired that start-up lab and in 2018 I moved back to Ottawa when TÜV SÜD opened our doors here.

Name something that makes what you do at TÜV SÜD unique or valued to the customer.
I think there is very few people who have worked for small startups, multiple labs, large organizations, worked internationally, and have also been customers of such labs. From a technical perspective, I’m one of the few iNARTE certified staff in TÜV SÜD.  As a one-time customer of a lab, I can see the point of view of the customer about what matters and what is not likely a high priority for them.  Also, internally, I am one of the very few employees in Canada to have worked at multiple TUV SUD sites doing multiple roles over the region, so I know each site well, as well as our people and what they do. I also have worked in the US, so when working with our US counterparts I can better understand some cultural differences which can occasionally help when working with them. I am also currently working on learning German because it is ‘mehr wert’.

Let’s get to know you a little more:

• What was the last tv show you binged on?
  Loki would be the last TV show I binged on, although I haven’t been able to finish it yet because between work and being a father of 3 young boys, I really don’t have much TV time. I generally like Sci-Fi and comedy.
• Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us.
  One of my hobbies is a card game that currently has a 257-page rulebook, which is ever expanding. Arguably hobby is for the most complex real-world game in existence. That is not a surprising thing, the surprising thing is that for a person working in regulatory at large German based company with such a profoundly rule based hobby, I am very distinctly not a lover of bureaucracy for the sake of bureaucracy or red-tape slowdowns.
• Which historical figure would you like to meet and why?
  That is a difficult question for various reasons, so I would like to keep it confidential. That being said, I will offer there are a few present-day famous people I would like to meet, such as Bill Gates or Elon Musk.