Join Us As We Celebrate Our 7th Anniversary! Over the past seven years, our radio show has brought you insightful conversations that nourish the mind and inspire reflection on life and career challenges. We are now ranked in the top 5% of podcasts in the world.My co-host Dan Hesse (former CEO of SPRINT) and I have been honored to host guests such as Ram Charan, David Rubenstein, Alan Mulally, Andy Reid, Joe Montana, Justice Alan Page, Jim Loehr, Peggy Stanton, David Foster, Admiral Michael Mullin, the late Harold Burson. Justin Stebbing MD, Marshall Goldsmith, Bill George, Jim Loehr, Horst Schulze, JD Budsiszewski, Mother Dolores Hart, Al Pisano PhD, Tajci, Ursula Burns, Blair Shepherd, Dan Heath, Noel Irwin, Hentschel, Harry Kraemer, and Vic Malhotra. RADIO BROADCAST & STREAMING AUDIOListen live or live-streaming 2 pm (Pacific) Saturdays on the SALEM Radio Network in the San Francisco Bay Area on KTRB AM860 or throughout the rest of the world on iHeart Radio or TuneIn Radio. Then listen anytime, anywhere on your favorite podcast platform or at www.THEMENTORSRADIO.com

Based near San Francisco and the Silicon Valley, Healthcare Angels curates healthcare investment opportunities and connects strategic investors and partners with the most innovative and sustainable companies. HA culls these opportunities using investor portals, syndicates, incubators, accelerators, and other angel groups. HA focuses on companies that provide technology-enabled products and services most likely to significantly impact the cost, access, and quality of healthcare globally. For the entrepreneur, HA provides a unique environment for collaboration through unparalleled access to knowledge and experience that spans the entire spectrum of healthcare.Mary Jo Potter who has extensive experience with providers and payors created HA to fill a vacuum of needed expertise for young healthcare companies. She has recruited experienced healthcare industry experts and financial partners who span the product-delivery-payor continuum to provide the assessment and strategic development breadth needed to shape quality care globally at an affordable price. Mary Jo's invitation to participate expands my ability to make my networks and diverse experience - start-ups, global markets, medical technology, and connected health - available to young companies. I am honored to be a part of a team that can accelerate needed innovation in a changing healthcare environment.

Enterprise Ireland has put together a team of US med-tech start-up professionals (lawyers, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs) to advise and direct young med-tech companies in Ireland. I was honored to be appointed to this advisory board this year. In my role, I serve to help young companies build sustainable business models and/or gain a foothold in the US healthcare market.

SING is one of the premier support ministries in Northern California for those in-transition. This ministry of St. Isidore Catholic Church (Danville, CA) was formed during the Dot.com crash to help executives, mid-level managers, and professionals navigate what was for many, their first career transition. Our #1 goal is to provide programs and support that foster hope.Our program is available to all, regardless of faith tradition. We are serving over 1000 professionals in-transition today and have served over 6000 people since 2002.SING provides its members with most of the ingredients needed for making a successful transition. These include, but are not limited to:1. Recognize and deal with the negative emotions that arise in unexpected transitions. A positive attitude with no emotional baggage is a key to success. 2. Self-assessments to identify key strengths, skills, and experience.3. Preparation of the "marketing materials" needed to communicate who we really are. - branding, LinkedIn profiles, Resume writing, etc/4. Improve and reinforce networking skills.5. Enhance Interviewing skills; dealing with age issues; dealing with being "over qualified " issues. 6. Job market information. - who is hiring and whose being hired.SING provides the support, encouragement, coaching, and structure required for a successful job search.

"The Fighting Irish: Fighting for Quality Healthcare Worldwide"Nancy Lynch, MD, Associate at Scale Venture Partners, and I formed this network to fill a vacuum in the UND Alumni Association - a professional life science social network for all who are in the Notre Dame family. The global network is open to doctors, providers, entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, health policy professionals, et al.Go to LinkedIN groups to join. Members must be affiliated in some way with the University of Notre Dame.

I was asked in early 2007 to consult with Karen Walker, the creator and now publisher of the Catholic Business Journal (CBJ), a 24/7 on-line publication. Karen was seeking some start-up advice. Responding to her request was easy due to my start-up experience, my family's background in the newspaper business and my interest in learning more about on-line publications. Karen flattered me further when she asked me to sign on as a regular columnist due to my deep interest in fostering integrity and authenticity in the workplace and my role as a "Top 500 Reviewer" on Amazon.com I have averaged about one column per month since the publication's debut. My focus has been on the integration of values both in life and in the workplace. The CBJ is now up to about 250,000 hits per month...fully validating Karen's vision and tenacity.

BryoLogyx Inc., a privately-held, pre-clinical company is developing a new class of proprietary drugs to enhance the response rates and treatment durability of cancer immunotherapies by making elusive cancer cells more visible so they can be killed and cleared. The company’s compound, bryostatin-1, has unique potential in combination with cancer immunotherapies to amplify the immune response and improve patient survival. Bryostatin-1 is expected to enter Phase 1b clinical trials in 2023 to study its potential role in enhancing immuno-oncology drugs in the treatment of hematologic (blood) cancers as an initial focus. BryoLogyx has an exclusive field of use license for all cancers from Stanford University to several patents BryoLogyx has a collaboration with the NCI on a clinical trial combining bryostatin-1 with a CD22-directed CAR-T product. The company will be sponsoring additional trials for other cancers including CLL, AML, and NHL, The most-complete preclinical data to date is with CD22, where bryostatin-1 increases cell surface expression of CD22 in PBMCs from a patient who had relapsed to CD22 CAR-T (due to decreased CD22 expression). The tumor cells inoculated into mice did not respond to the CD22 CAR-T; however, bryostatin-1, given after the CAR-T, was able to enable the CAR-T to clear the tumor in the mice (Ramakrishna et al., 2019). Furthermore, elevation of CD22 in response to bryostatin-1 has been observed in CLL patients (by Varterasian et al., 2000). Besides CD22, bryostatin-1 increases cell surface expression of other tumor antigens of interest.I have used my skill set to build a world-class team of execvutive and advisors, develop our business. development strategy, direct the completion of key milestones, and raise capital.

I was asked to join ReFocus’ "blue ribbon" Board of Directors in late 2014 to leverage my extensive Class III medical device experience to assist the board and executive team in the clinical development and commercialization of its pioneering VisAbility™ insert for presbyopia. Refocus is a clinical-stage medical device company focused on establishing its pioneering scleral insert as the leading global market share leader in the treatment of presbyopia. VisAbility is designed to restore natural visual accommodation (which is lost as we age) without affecting far-vision. The company will provide a highly differentiated solution that delivers superior outcomes, and provides superior patient and surgeon satisfaction with the highest degree of safety. ReFocus has completed enrollment for its pivotal, phase III “blinded” (a regulatory term) controlled, 360 patient clinical study and has begun the FDA filing process. Approval is not expected until 2018. Board members and advisors include Harry Jacobson, MD, Managing Partner of MedCare and former Vice-Chancellor at Vanderbilt University; Glenn Bradley, former President of CibaVision; Don Phillips, Chairman & CEO, WP Global Partners; famed ophthalmologist, David Schanzlin, MD; and CEO Mike Judy. Working with this board and executive team has been a pleasure. They have the highest integrity and are committed to doing all the right things in the right way to bring this important new medical solution to millions suffering from presbyopia.

Al Pisano PhD, former Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley, and now the Dean of the Jacob's School of Engineering at UC San Diego, has honored me by appointing me to the Dean's Council of Advisors. Al specifically asked me to help advance the mission of the Jacob's school in educating a pipeline of leaders and innovators for healthcare and medical technologies. UCSD is the largest engineering school in California and in the top five nationally. Pisano knows how to connect the dots and is establishing collaborations with the UCSD Medical Center, Scripps, and local health related corporations. Members of the Council include a broad range of executives, trustees from non-profits, venture capitalists, and other academics.

eMedonline is a medication compliance and data services company using its proprietary therapy management software platform to close the “medication gap” in population health management, home healthcare, post-surgical ambulatory care, transitional care, and clinical research. The company is now commercializing its server-smartphone-computer platform to improve patient engagement and reduce healthcare costs due to medication noncompliance (hospitalizations, emergency room and primary care physician visits, and assisted-care admissions). The eMedonline platform has been designed using scientific models of behavior change, resulting in medication adherence levels of 95% to 99% in numerous randomized control clinical studies. Medication noncompliance is a critical global health issue with an annual cost of $317 billion in the U.S. alone. Barbara Rapchak, founder of eMedonline (aka LOF Technologies, Inc), Inc. approached me in mid-2009 to consult with her on how to advance her proprietary medication adherence platform to commercialization. What struck me immediately was Barbara’s doggedness in developing a pioneering software-as-a-service (SAS) platform that had two significant value propositions – clinically validated metrics demonstrating behavior change, and extraordinary data collection and mining capabilities to change the course of managing patients. I have served as Executive Chairman since joining with Barbara and have focused my efforts on business development with an emphasis on changing healthcare delivery market and the creation of an expert advisory network. We partnered with Intelligent Medical Objects in 2012 and have integrated their terminology platform into ours. This provides seamless connectivity from the pill vial to the electronic health record (EHR) of a patient. We are now preparing for commercialization.

I was invited by the Clarity's investors to participate as a board member specifically to add value by leveraging my extensive global experience in ophthalmology, strategy and capital raising. The company had two business segments when I joined - neonatal and pediatric retinal imaging (the world's leader) and state-of-the-art clinical ophthalmic technologies for the anterior segment ophthalmologist. Clarity has sold its neonatal and pediatric business to Natus Medical which offers a full range of medical products to the broader neonatal and pediatric healthcare segment. The company is now focused on commercializing its HOLOS IntraOp™ which provides continuous Real-Time™ refractive imaging data by Integrating innovative 21st-century optical, electronic, and information tools with in-depth scientific and engineering excellence.

Xip Inc. (aka Silicon BioDevices) started as a PhD thesis by an outstanding Electrical Engineering student at UC Berkeley. I was introduced to him and his team when I was assigned by the UCB Haas School of Management as their mentor for the 2009 B-plan competition. The team won $50,000 for seed capital by competing in several competitions. Xip is looking to save critical time in the diagnosis of a heart attack as well as billions in health care costs with the first laboratory-quality Point-of-Care (POC) diagnostic device for high-sensitivity measurement of cardiac troponin within 15 minutes. As an industry first, the company's self-contained blood test integrates all of the key steps of a biomarker test — specimen application, blood cell separation, single molecule detection on the surface of a silicon chip, automatic calibration quantification, and digital display — all without the use of a separate instrument or reader. I served as Chairman of the Board for Xip from its inception until mid-2015 and left the board in 2016 after the company completed a major financing led by a major diagnostics company. I contributed to the company's progress by adding value in strategy, organizational issues, business development, in mentoring and by helping to recruit key board and advisory board members. The company remains in good hands and will be a disruptive force in diagnostics with its low cost, reader-less, single-use POC diagnostic platform that can deliver critical diagnostic data in less than 15 minutes at the point of care (emergency room, ambulance, physician office, clinic, and eventually, at home). The product is about the size of a thumb-drive and has an intuitive design for easy use.

I was honored to serve on this Board (and to serve as its Chair from its inception to 2012) which advises the Mechanical Engineering Department on its strategic direction. UC Berkeley's Engineering and IT school is ranked third in the world. As an advisor, I was privy to hearing about new technological breakthroughs and meet some of many leading educators and researchers in Engineering. These technologies included significant advances that will help solve some of the world's most pressing problems - energy, environment, and healthcare. The Board consisted of Executives/Educators from Apple, Google, Samsung, Sumitomo, Chevron, McKinsey, Lockheed, Stanford, Carnegie-Mellon, and more.

Mercator MedSystems, Inc., is a medical technology company focused on the treatment of peripheral artery disease using its catheter-guided, micro-infusion systems for site-specific, non-systemic delivery of therapeutic agents directly across any blood vessel. The company's technology also enables therapies for vascular diseases, hypertension, oncology and regenerative medicine. The company's Bullfrog® and Blowfish® Micro-Infusion Devices are the first systems able to infuse drugs, genes and cells safely through blood vessel or airway walls into deep tissues without major surgery.I was brought in by the board of directors to get this nearly failed start-up on track to value creation which required a new strategy, new investors and a revamped team which included board members and medical advisors. This opportunity leveraged both my experience as a "turn-around" specialist as well as my extensive experience in start-up related business development.The Company was rescued from default; debt was eliminated; a business development plan was implemented, and despite the most challenging environment for medical devices, capital was raised and commercialization begun. Mercator's survival is the result of contributions made by @ChristopherOwens,MD, former Chief, Vascular Surgery at San Francisco VA Center; @TonyRemington, now CEO of Gravity Health; and @Patrick Sabaria, former JNJ executive,This strategy also included an agreement with Proteon Therapeutics (PRTO; NASDAQ) to use the BullFrog (TM) platform to deliver its vonapanitase to treat intractable PAD above and below the knee following angioplasty.

The GTU is the most comprehensive center for the graduate study of religion in North America. With a focus on interreligious and interdisciplinary perspectives, GTU faculty and students engage the world’s great religions and wisdom traditions in contemporary contexts. The GTU educates innovative leaders for the academy, religious organizations, and the nonprofit sector, equipping scholars to embody the critical thinking, ethical frameworks, compassionate values, and spiritual foundations essential to building a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world.More than a school of theology, the GTU is a union of schools and programs that, together, represent the world’s major religions in collaboration. More than a graduate school, the GTU is an enterprise that cultivates the highest scholarly standards and provides opportunities to translate scholarship into solutions with impact. The GTU provides a unique community where scholars and practitioners from across the world's great religions gather for academic study of their own and of other traditions and disciplines.I had a diret hand in the branding of the institution, "Where Religion Meets the World," the creation of collateral communications materials, and, indirectly, in strategy, operational issues, and board development. I have enjoyed learning about issues related to the "academy" and working with the major faith traditions - learning about each, and understanding problems faced in a world hostile to religion.

The SinoMed Group is a holding company focused on growing companies commercializing branded-generic, affordable, high-performance medical technologies for emerging countries, and western healthcare systems seeking better value. SinoMed presently has ownership positions in companies based in Beijing (insulin pumps and accessories), Shanghai (mechanical heart valves), and Orange County (tissue heart valves).

A PhD researcher and "friend of a friend," Henry Benner, Berkeley National Labs (BNL), asked me get involved in a cardiovascular diagnostic project he and Dr. Ron Krauss, a nationally known endocrinologist and scientist at BNL, had been working on for several years. They felt they were ready for "prime time."Ron's lab was the first to fractionate LDL/HDL and link LD and total cholesterol levels to heart disease risk. He built on this pioneering work developing a much improved and more specific method of determining risk by creating the "LDL distribution profile" - concentrations of lipoprotein particles and their distributions in particle subpopulations. The first generation method was commercialized by Berkeley Heart Lab (BHL, now Celera). CardioProfile, Inc.(CP) was founded to license, develop and commercialize the 2nd generation "profile" test Ron and Henry developed. Gen2 applies a gas-phase differential electrophoretic macromolecular mobility-based method (ion mobility, or IM) for direct quantification of lipoprotein particles, from small, dense HDL to large, buoyant, very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL). This test incorporated nano-electro spray technology which provided a direct measurement in less than 3 minutes. The older version using an indirect measurement required 24 hours of processing time. Initial obectives were 1) secure the vendor of the nano-electro spray, 2) line up Quest Diagnostics as possible partner and investor, and 3) win the BNL license in a competitive bid. These were achieved in the first year. BHL then disputed BNL's award of an exclusive license to CP, suing everyone, and crippling our ability to raise capital.With limited resources and after considerable expense, the company withdrew. Quest stepped in, was awarded a semi-exclusive license from BNL, secured the key vendor, and hired Henry and Ron as consultants. Quest has completed the necessary clinical papers and is launching the new, rapid test globally.

AdvaMed (AM) is the Washington, D.C. based association for the U.S. medical device industry. It advocates for a legal, regulatory and economic environment that advances global health care by assuring worldwide patient access to the benefits of medical technology. The Association promotes policies that foster the highest ethical standards, rapid product approvals, appropriate reimbursement, and access to international markets.In 1993, Larry Lehmkuhl, Chairman and CEO, St. Jude Medical. joined the KeraVision, Inc. (KVI) board on the condition that I play an active role in AM (then called HIMA). Alan Magazine, AM's President appointed me to the International Committee. AM educated me in real time on the larger, emerging public policy geopolitical issues medtech companies faced. I remain an ardent support of AM and recommend that all CEOs get involved. Not only would they benefit directly, but also they could pay their knowledge forward in helping shape the future for medtech. No one can tell the story of crippling regulation and deferred payment better than those on the edge of the abyss. Increased regulation and regulatory delays have chilled investment and seriously threaten the US's global leadership role in innovation. I became fully involved in the legislative process and "The FDA Modernization Act of 1997" representing medtech start-ups and Silicon Valley. The benifit to KVI was significant as this work led to shortening the time from FDA submission to panel by 2.5 years, saving millions of dollars. During my tenure, I served also served on the Technology Committee, was elected to the Board (one of only two small company CEOs on a board of 40); to the Executive Committee; then Chairman-Elect (the first small company CEO to be so named) in 2001.

KeraVision, Inc. (KVI) was a raw start-up when I joined as CEO. The company, founded by thee contact lens industry pioneers, had just received its “A” Round of financing. I was hired to create a team, raise capital and translate the concept of an implantable, reversible corneal insert (INTACS) to treat common vision problems into a commercial reality. INTACTS was a “first-in-class” product (without predicate). As such, the path to market required KVI to pioneer in a number of key areas – creating a new vision correction category, implanting polymers safely in the cornea, finite element modeling to reduce clinical research cost, conducting clinical research outside the US (first start-up to do so), creating a new regulatory pathway to market (US and EU), and implementing direct-to-consumer marketing for a surgical implant. We tenaciously overcame numerous unforeseen events which threatened its survival including a “mechanism of action” which proved unreliable, FDA Commissioner David Kessler’s chilling of device approvals, clinical research ‘learnings’ requiring “back to the drawing board,” the “Asian Flu,” and the adoption of laser vision correction. INTACS received unanimous FDA panel approval in January, 1999 when LASIK’s installed base was growing at 30% per month. To counter the LASIK juggernaut, we established therapeutic indications for INTACS to treat keratoconus and post-LASIK ectasia. KVI became a public company in 1995 via an offering underwritten by Goldman Sachs and Cowen (VCs did very well). It was the first non-revenue, cash negative company underwritten by Goldman and opened the IPO window for all medtech companies. KVI hit the wall despite numerous maneuvers during the Dot.com crash when all cash negative stocks were hammered. It’s market value, $800 million at its peak, fell sharply forcing KVI into bankruptcy. Addition Technologies (AT) acquired the assets, building a small cash+ business on therapeutic applications of INTACS.

The California Healthcare Institute (CHI) was founded in 1993 as an independent organization devoted to researching and advocating policy to forward the interests of California’s biomedical community. CHI has built a membership of over 250 leading biomedical companies, academic and research institutions and companies involved in supporting the biomedical community.In an attempt to broaden its membership, David Gollaher, PhD, President, CHI, invited me then nominated me to the Board as its first Medtech member. While I was active, and supportive, my contribution was small for two reasons - CHI's emphasis at the time was really on the biopharma segment and my focus was on KeraVision and national medtech issues influencing KeraVision's future.

Medtech was a small part of the San Francisco Bay Area's venture-backed, start-up community through the 1980s. The success of Advanced Cardiovascular Systems changed the landscape - VCs turned their attention to medtech and ACS provided experienced medtech talent to build on. With biotech (Genentech, et al) dominating the lifescience space in the Bay area, a vacuum existed for "professional" medtech networking opportunities. The Medical Device CEO Roundtable was created to fill this void. The roundtable featured quarterly dinners with guest speakers- Ram Charan, now former Congressman Bill Baker, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, and others. The group succeeded in creating linkage between medtech CEOs in the Bay area, with service providers, and with AdvaMed in Washington. The group's greatest achievement was getting newly elected Congresswoman Anna Eshoo involved in legislation negatively impacting the positive impact of medtech - cost effective health care through innovation. We educated Eshoo on the industry, and its positive contribution to health care. Eshoo has since become health care expert and an industry champion. The Bay Area now receives 50% of all US medtech venture funding.

I met and worked with Thomas DeMeester, MD, a world reknown thoracic surgeon, in 1981 while serving as President of American Heyer-Schulte. Tom was then the Assistant Chief of Surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center. He left UC to become the Chief of Surgery at Creighton Medical Center, Omaha, NB. Once in Omaha, Tom, a visionary, asked me to join him at Creighton as a member of the faculty to teach 3rd year medical students on the linkage of technology and public policy to the future of health care delivery and to the treatment of disease. I was appointed to the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Surgery and taught for ten years. Beyond my teaching responsibilities, my monthly visits to Omaha included learning about issues facing hospitals and teaching institutions, learning about other medical and surgical specialties in grand rounds, and observing hundreds of surgeries. My role at Creighton provided the foundation and served as the catalyst for articles I have authored and speeches I have given on medical technology, and public policy. Tom left Creighton University for the University of Southern California's Medical Center which included the LA County Hospital where he served Chief until retirement.

My work at American Heyer-Schule led to a lifelong working relationship and friendship with Thomas Hunt, MD, who was Professor of Surgery, the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center, a founding member of the American Trauma Society with Don Trunkey, MD, and one of the world's leading researchers in wound healing. Tom asked me (and I accepted) to become a member of the Board for the American Trauma Society - California. Our efforts were targeted to establishing more trauma centers with the state. The ATS is the leading organization for trauma care and trauma prevention in the United States. The ATS has been the foremost advocate for trauma victims and their families for the past 30 years and continues to seek optimal care for all trauma victims.

Kidder analyst (first MD to become one) and successful venture investor, John Abeles, MD, was introduced to me through a mutual friend. John, a seed investor and still board member, I-Flow Corporation, asked me to provide strategic and operational oversight in the early development of I-Flow.I had great concerns with the company's first CEO and advised the Board to find a new CEO. Reluctance to do so led me to resign. The CEO was eventually let go. Today, publicly held I-Flow designs, develops, manufactures and markets technically advanced, low-cost ambulatory drug delivery systems that seek to redefine the standard of care by providing life enhancing, cost effective solutions for pain management and infusion therapy. The Company's products are used in hospitals and other settings, including free-standing surgery centers and physicians' offices.

Howard Asher, visionary, founder and CEO, Advanced BioResearch Associates, a device CRO, asked me to join ABA in newly created role in a newly created division, to provide business consulting services to medical device companies ranging in size from start-ups to large global corporations. While I loved the environment and location (two miles from home) of ABA, I learned two very important lessons - I am not a consultant and I did not want to return to a large corporation. An instructive assignment I had was with Becton Dickinson. I was asked to participate in a strategy session with three group presidents. Prior to my visit to Franklin Lakes, I was considering a return to the corporate world, but during the visit, I was exposed to the corporate infighting and politics which I had forgotten. I compared this with my Novacor experiences and fully realized the real joy of a start-up: employee focus, not on internal politics, but on survival, company objectives, customers, and business growth.I need to be in the frying pan creating new products and markets so I left ABA for KeraVision. ABA, though, was an important learning and added to my formation.

Novacor Medical Corp. was an early stage medtech company developing and commercializing a left ventricular device (LVAD) for failed hearts. It was Kleiner Perkins' (KP) first medtech investment. Tom Perkins, Novacor's Chairman, recruited me from American Hospital Supply Corp (AHSC) to serve as the company's first business executive and report to founder/scientist/CEO Peer Portner, PhD. An National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grant and a number of high profile venture firms financed the company. The VCs were leveraging the grant money to develop a commercial product. I was hired to prepare for, develop and execute a commercial strategy. I found upon arrival that the product had many serious technical issues which the board did not fully comprehend. I immediately did four things: developed an alternative strategy adding a "bridge to transplant" application (we created this indication); streamlined manufacturing; developed a realistic business plan; and pursued additional financing. The latter was made nearly impossible by TEFRA legislation which chilled public and private medical investment. Existing investors were ready to abandon Novacor until I succeeded, with the help of Annette Campbell-White, to bring AMI to the table as an corporate partner/investor. We then abandoned commercialization plans, reduced the workforce by 70%, and refocused the company on the technical issues. I chose to step down as COO and remained on the board until the company was sold to Baxter Healthcare. As my first venture, Novacor was a significant learning experience - cash mgmt, financing, venture-mgmt board dynamics, strategic partnering, and the cardiovascular market. And I was fortunate to work for Tom Perkins and with Gene Kleiner, Moshe Alafi, and Reid Dennis, and Sandy Robertson.

American Heyer-Schulte Division (AH-SD) was my first test in general management. The Division was a technology (polymer) play with a development and commercial focus on FDA Class II & III implantable medical devices for general surgery, interventional neuro-radiology, plastic surgery, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, and urology. AH-SC's had operations in California & Puerto Rico, a 60/40 US/non-US revenue split, and a sales strategy that included direct sales and sales through a corporate distribution unit. The Division, while growing and having some very people, was losing share in several key markets due to lack of focus, a lackluster R&D effort, and dispirited executive team. After several management changes, we rationalized the product offering, focused our development effort, and refocused our marketing and sales effort. We brought many new products to market including a "low-profile" valve for hydrocephelus, the first device to treat reflux esophagitis, the first device for use in interventional neuroradiology, and the first tissue expansion devices. AH-SC had 650 people when I joined. During the period I was with the division, we increased market share in key markets, increased our annual revenue growth rate from 20 to 37% per year, reduced our employee count to 450 and grew our bottom line by 42% per year. The Division won numerous corporate awards and became one of two division earning 23% after tax.

My career with American Hospital Supply Corporation (AHSC) began when I joined V. Mueller in Chicago as its Asst. Plant Manager. V. Mueller, despite its history as an old line surgical instrument manufacturer, was a distribution/sales driven surgical products focused company. The company was a real departure from Honeywell's engineering driven culture. Within six months I was promoted to the Division's Fort Launderdale "high volume" ring instrument plant which was barely profitable, on the verge of unionization, and unable to consistently make high quality product. Within five years, this plant was known as being the most automated instrument plant in the world making the market's leading instruments, was recognized as having a great culture, and was AHSC's most profitable plant. I was then promoted to the Atlantic International Group to oversee manufacturing/R&D operations in Mexico, Spain, France, Belgium, Ireland, Switzerland, and Italy. These units made products from diagnostics and disposable devices to infusion and blood products. My charge was to get these units profitable through rationalizing existing products, adding new products, resizing, and restaffing. After International reached break-even, AHSC wanted to broaden my functional skill set with marketing and sales responsibilities. They sent me to another turn-around situation, recently acquired HC Electronics, a speech and hearing device firm in northern California. I had responsibility for all functions excepting International. Manufacturing was streamlined, sales was left untouched (great group), and product development was rationalized and accelerated. We added distributed products to improve sales/marketing productivity - including a computer-based synthesized voice device for speech impaired, and Phonak's innovative "zone adjustable" hearing aid. And we were the 1st to make the audiologist the primary purchasing influence. Unknown to me while there was AHSC's intent to sell the company.

My first job out of college was pivotal to my grasp of leading-edge technology (which included pioneering work in robotics for manufacturing), the importance of collaboration. and the critical role manufacturing/production can play in a company's business strategy. I was hired off the campus of Notre Dame to be a production engineer at Honeywell's St. Louis Park (MN) "top secret" aerospace manufacturing unit. Upon arrival, I was given full responsibility for scaling up the production of a high tech weapon system from 100 units per week to 33,000 units per week. I had a great boss, Tom Young, who served as an engineering group leader for 12 engineers, each with their own area of responsibility. Tom developed a high performance team intuitively, using the organizational principles Gen. Stanley McChrystal would popularize years later in his book, "Team of Teams." Tom taught me how to apply the engineering education I had and, with time, I came to understand the importance of one's first career supervisor, like Tom. Everyone in the group admired and loved him. We all achieved great success under Tom's leadership and mentoring.I was credited for saving a $150 million defense contract due to an innovation integrated into the on-line testing of a Navy weapons system. I did not do this alone but had great help from a team of people I put together - scientists from Honeywell's fluidics group (MicroSwitch) and from the LEM module group, toolmakers, machinists, the plant manager, Verdie Niskanen, and our assigned QA engineering supervisor, Jim Klemp. This was a pivotal life experience.