46 Years of Creating Magnificent Instruments

Daniel Ray, team manager at our Saint-Aubin, France manufacturing site has built a lifetime of memories working with his hands.

The saying goes that if you choose a job you love, you will never have to work a day in your life. This rings true for Daniel Ray, team manager at our Saint-Aubin, France site who for the last 46 years, has built a lifetime of memories by working with his hands.

A micromechanical specialist in fitting and machining by trade, Daniel joined MicroFrance, a surgical instrument manufacturing company in 1977. At that time, they had less than 10 employees. He became the seventh employee of the company which was later acquired by Integra in October 2014. The addition of the MicroFrance® and Xomed manual ear, nose and throat (ENT) and laparoscopic surgical instruments enhanced Integra's existing instruments portfolio, capabilities and international presence for our Neurosurgery business.

With the innovation, development and quality hallmark of their surgical instruments being recognized all over the world, MicroFrance moved to a larger space in Saint-Aubin, resulting in major new investments in new machining technologies to support the commercial development of these important products. This was momentous for Daniel and his colleagues who helped to revolutionize the instruments industry in Europe.

Since the early days of his career and over the last ten years at Integra, Daniel has always been motivated and fascinated by the intense level of detail and operational work required and the privilege of being able to contribute to new instrument designs and modifications. He is grateful to Integra leaders who have entrusted him to be a part of the evolution of these instruments and help him grow in his profession.

In addition to his role of fitting operator for ENT surgical products, he enjoys being a team leader at the Saint-Aubin site with a focus on training and developing a team of fitting operators. Some of these colleagues have taken on increasing roles of responsibility, which gives him a tremendous sense of pride.

His love of what he does inspires our next generation of colleagues to always be curious, be grateful for the opportunity of what we do and to stay focused on our mission of caring for patients by manufacturing high-quality instruments.

It also carries over into his personal life as someone who does many do-it-yourself (DIY) projects around the house and hunting for rare objects at second-hand shops, especially old telephones. When not working with his hands, he enjoys spending time with family and friends playing Pétanque, a form of lawn bowling in France and participating in local community events. His greatest joy, though, is spending time with his grandsons and cheering them on at their judo and football events.

He has so many fond memories of celebrating key milestones and holidays with colleagues while continuing his focus on what our mission means to him personally - "to maintain the knowledge, quality and recognition of our entire portfolio of instruments, for the care and well-being of our patients and service to our customers. We have everything we need to continue this beautiful and noble activity."