Sanden Aftermarket Senior Manager Mike Rouse from Sanden USA has been recognised as one of the leading pioneers in the industry!

Mike Rouse was born at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas in 1964.  His formative years were spent in a little East Texas town called Lone Star.  Lone Star was so small that they had no high school, so he was bused to another town and graduated from Daingerfield High School.   Mike finalized his education at Dallas Baptist University studying Business.  It was here that he earned his bachelor’s degree in business science.  His major was on Business Management and Quality Control from which Mike would apply this degree throughout his Sanden career.

Mike has worked at Sanden International since October 1985 and has served the company in many roles before his promotion to General Manager Special Markets & Aftermarket Sales.  Some of the roles he has held during his 34 years at Sanden include positions in Engineering, Warranty, Program Management, and Sales for Heavy Truck customers.  The proudest moment in Mike’s career is when he received the promotion to Sanden’s Sales and Marketing division.

Sanden has recognized Mike over the years with two internal awards for his commitment and contribution to advancing Sanden’s products into new and growing markets: the 1990 Sanden International Employee of the Year award and the 2007 Sanden Contribution Award for capturing new markets and new applications.

From Mike’s first job in high rise construction to his long tenure at Sanden, he has represented each company with professionalism and integrity.  Beyond this industry recognition or his Sanden promotions over the years, the friendships he has established with Sanden’s industry partners have been the most important and will be lifelong.  Mike continues to follow the example of his father who was an Engineer and Draftsman for the Texas Lone Star Steel plant for over 45 years by working at Sanden for 34 years.  Mike has spent these years serving both Sanden and this industry with no signs of slowing down.

Whilst working in his new Sales and Marketing role, Mike recognized the need to quickly turn around small volume orders from Sanden’s Special Market customers and led an initiative to install a special assembly line that produces a variety of compressor designs for low volume orders and immediate delivery.  This special assembly line has significant flexibility and is now managed completely by Mike.  This assembly line allows Sanden to avoid excessive stock and minimizes inventory costs while supporting Sanden’s customers with near ‘just in time’ delivery.

Mike has had many mentors and advisors that made an impact to his successful career including Sanden’s Robert Bandeen and Norman Bilton, among others.  These mentors provided the foundation for Mike’s training in the mobile air conditioning field.  The most significant mentor and friend is his wife of 27 years, Danna Marie.  Mike and Danna Marie have a son and daughter that have gone on to successful careers outside the automotive industry.

Mike has a passionate vision for our industry which centers on developing products that support Clean Energy and electrified mobile air conditioning systems. This vision seems to be moving well and has the support of nearly every country in the world.  Mike’s other passionate pursuit is to one day be a guitar hero in a rock band.  This may be the only goal he has yet to accomplish.