Hi, my name is Mike Naughton from Newcastle Australia.

I started my career at ESKO back in 2003.
A very close American friend of mine, Joey Cross, showed me some Esko software (Deskpack) and I thought “Wow that is really cool, I want to learn that and show other people how cool that is too!” So I pursued a position at ESKO in the Dayton Ohio location. I could say the rest is history and leave it at that, but for those of you who know me this is way out of character, hahah!

I don’t think I really had any aspirations in the beginning except that I wanted to be a part of this company for a very long time (13 years & counting now). During this time - all spent working from the Dayton Ohio office - I was able to travel far and wide to so many different, wonderful countries and cultures. I will cherish forever the experiences that I had and the friendships that I gained during this time.

In September 2015 we sold everything in the USA and I moved with my wife, my son and our family dog back to Australia. I had been gone from Australia for 20 years.
A lot has changed.

I miss my fellow traveling “road warriors” - you know who you are.
It is a tough job to leave your family every week to fly to different parts of the continent and around the globe.
Why do we do it then? For me it was 2 things: passion & respect.
It’s about really caring for what you do and the respect you gain for your company, colleagues and customers along the way and in turn the respect you receive back.

My flights are very short now, maybe an hour or so to other Australian states. After being a technical guy for so long I started a new chapter in my life: sales, WOW how did I get to that?
Sales is not an easy job by the way. It’s a roller coaster of highs and lows, and you have to have some pretty strong resolve to get up, then go out and face customers and prospective customers every day. I am loving this new challenge though!

We have a small but dedicated and passionate ESKO team here in Australia and I want to contribute to that team to help make it a success. Thank You Oceania team for accepting me and making me feel welcome to be back in Australia!

The best thing about being back home in Australia for me is my family that I have missed for the last 20 years, the beautiful beaches and the chance to surf again. I missed the colourful parrots that fly around squawking & shrieking all day. Basically long distant memories, sights and sounds became real for me again.

But what I have learned over the years is this: no matter where you are in the world or what you are doing, there is always somebody or somewhere that you will miss.

In the end it is all about the stories, when you travel that much you end up with a lot of stories, people love stories, I hope you have enjoyed mine.

After all my ESKO compatriots, you are a big part of my life story.
"There was this one time in..." uumm on the other hand maybe I’ll keep that one to myself;-)

Love bleeding green!

Mike Naughton