Who is project manager Malin Rudby, really?
Lina Johansson
Specialist Paid Social & SEM
Malin Rudby is a familiar face to many of Motillo's customers and partners. In her role as project manager, she is used to keeping all the threads together, and that is reflected in her personal life too. Most people who know her can probably attest that she is good at keeping things organized and enjoys being at the center of things — otherwise she probably wouldn't have been given the task of being toastmaster at no fewer than three weddings!
Malin was born in 1983 and spent her first years in Åmål. When she was five, the family moved to Sunne and stayed there. Malin describes her upbringing as good, but when the choice came between attending upper secondary school in Sunne or the neighboring town of Torsby, the decision was easy — she wanted to get out beyond the municipal borders. She dreamed of becoming self-employed, so the Social Science programme with an economics focus felt like a good choice. However, commuting the thirty kilometers between Sunne and Torsby every day did not satisfy her desire to get away, so Malin crossed the Atlantic to study for a year at an American high school.
"That year was probably the best year of my life — it was truly amazing! I still have great contact with my host family and we see each other from time to time," says Malin.
Sports store jobs led to studies
Back on Swedish soil, the move continued to Karlstad. During her teenage years, Malin had worked part-time at Intersport in Sunne and now joined the same chain in Karlstad, before moving on to the competitor Stadium. After a few years in sports retail, it was time to pursue further education. The dream of running her own business lived on, so she once again chose to study economics, this time at Karlstad University.
"I lived student life to the fullest and was very involved in various projects at the university. However, I didn't enjoy economics at all and got tired of it fairly quickly. Instead, I started studying work science and project management, and that's when I felt I had found my place. I find group dynamics and organizational issues very interesting, so studying became fun again," Malin explains.
Her education took her further into working life, primarily as a project manager but also in a few other professional roles. She tried working in many different industries over the following years, including recruitment, IT, and construction.
"I have worked at, among others, Roofac, Randstad, Compare, Drivhuset, and Jajja. At Drivhuset and Compare, I got to channel my own dream of starting a business by helping others who were on that journey. It was incredibly rewarding! I still keep in touch with some of the entrepreneurs I guided back then," Malin says.
I thrive when both I and the workplace are developing. Motillo is always heading somewhere — I love that!
"Stalked" Motillo for a few years
It was during her time at Drivhuset that Malin first heard about Motillo. She was on an assignment at the university and Motillo's CEO Jakob Twedmark was giving a lecture to students at the School of Business:
"I remember appreciating listening to Jakob. The values he conveyed were in line with what I think is important, so I actually set a goal to one day work at Motillo. I 'stalked' the company a little after that, and I'm reminded of it regularly when Facebook shows memories from some lecture or After Work at Motillo that I attended in the period after the lecture," Malin says with a laugh.
When Motillo a few years later was looking for a project manager, Malin saw her chance — she applied and got the position. At that time, she was already working as a project manager in IT, so she was already in the industry, and in March 2020 she had her first day. The question is whether the image she had of the company beforehand turned out to be true?
"Yes, absolutely! It's a great workplace that genuinely wants me and everyone else to feel good. Everyone is attentive and listens to what you have to say, and our feedback conversations every three months are worth their weight in gold," Malin answers.
Malin still holds the role of project manager, but she has shifted from managing new development projects to focusing on further development projects:
"There is a great deal of customer contact and relationship building in my role, but also some strategic work. I'm grateful to be working with varied tasks, because it's important to me to be able to develop in the workplace — and I can do that here."
A juggling... spider?
"Keeping many balls in the air" and "being the spider in the web" may be worn-out clichés, but they really do describe Malin well. She is a true rock (cliché again) when it comes to planning, and has among other things been responsible for the office move from Klara to the Inner Harbour that the company made during the autumn. She has also long been part of the company's management team.
"By being part of the management team, I have great insight into what the future plans look like. I get to be involved in developing the company, but also work on how we can develop Värmland as a region within the industry — that suits me perfectly. What I like most is that we are always heading somewhere. The dream of having my own company isn't really there anymore; I'm very happy with my role and how things are for me here at Motillo," Malin says.
Malin is passionate about two celebrations — Christmas and Melodifestivalen. The latter is not really a celebration in the true sense of the word, but in the Rudby household, which Malin shares with her husband Peter and their two children Emrik and Ellie, Mello has almost the status of a holiday.
"I have loved Melodifestivalen and Eurovision since I was little. My parents always recorded the programmes on VHS so I could watch them again and learn all the songs. Luckily, I have passed on my two great interests to the children, so they also think Christmas and Mello are great fun," Malin notes with satisfaction.
Malin is also a whiz at creating music quizzes and is more than happy to do so. Can you guess the favourite theme...?
