I work with industry and institution to advance their efforts in innovation in healthcare. At times I may be leading a session with a clinical advisory board, other times I am managing a project, evaluating a market or working to help an entrepreneur with their pitch deck. I am able to leverage my broad industry experience to help bring structure and create executable business strategies for a variety of clients, both large and small.

Exited in 2024 to a Series A company in the autism space. I lead a team of contractors in the development of the Autism Eyes product offering, work with the board to set the strategic direction of the company, manage the relationships with our clinical advisor and tap resources within Cleveland Clinic Innovations.

I led a cross-functional team to a successful market launch of a patient-specific airway stent with a subsequent successful exit. VisionAir Solutions was a Cleveland Clinic portfolio company that provided patients with end-stage Central Airway Disease with a solution they otherwise would not have had. In the end, patients returned to activities of daily living, to work from disability, and even were able to be removed from the transplant list. We used 3D printing to create stents designed specifically for each patient. I led a team of software, mechanical, and manufacturing engineers, clinical, regulatory and quality specialists to bring these products to market. I hired a sales team and grew our customer base and sales to demonstrate scalability.

After I left NasoNeb, I formed WJ Flickinger Consulting to work in the Northeastern Ohio ecosystem to further develop my network. I served as an Entrepreneur/Executive-in-Residence at BioEnterprise and Bounce Innovation Hub where I provided mentorship to entrepreneurs of start ups and "intrapreneurs" at larger companies as they developed innovative new products. I provided strategic guidance, technical assistance and business planning.

After I sold MedInvent to Trudell Medical, I stayed on as President of NasoNeb, Inc. I expanded our staff to include marketing and quality and regulatory. I led the effort to take NasoNeb from Rx-only to over the counter, gaining distribution in Walgreens, CVS, Discount Drug Mart and other Mass Drug chains as well as Cardinal, the largest distributor of medical devices in the US.

As the founder of MedInvent and the inventor of the NasoNeb Sinus System, I led all aspects of the company, bootstrapping with founders' funding to profitability. Moving from the garage to several offices as we outgrew each space, from Minnesota to Ohio. I worked with leading institutions to study the NasoNeb, resulting in 5 peer-reviewed papers. It was a rewarding experience in that we served people who were at the end of the therapeutic line and NasoNeb provided relief from their diseases. People avoided surgery, often after having recurrent surgeries, with the NasoNeb therapy. People came off of disability and returned to work and often were able to control their disease after years of suffering. We developed fantastic relationships with passionate pharmacists who specialized in treating rare and underserved conditions. I hired the sales team, worked to obtain ISO certification and CE Mark and distribution in Europe. I developed and released three generations of the NasoNeb technology. When the pharmacists lost reimbursement for the medications, I successfully gained over-the-counter designation from the FDA and pivoted the company to an OTC model with on-line DTC sales on our own website and Amazon, as well as front of the store in retail pharmacies. This led to the acquisition by Trudell Medical.

As the Director of Marketing at Transoma Medical, I led a team of marketers as we launched the Sleuth implantable recorder for people with infrequent but dangerous syncope or fainting. I worked to establish a premium price, raising the overall market segment. I along with one of my team members obtained a new reimburesment code fot the Sleuth device within a year of its launch.

I spent a significant amount of time at Stereotaxis with our European customers, working with software engineers to develop the products for atrial fibrillation ablation and ensure that the physicians' inputs were communicated to the team. I led a team to develop of a catheter to improve the placement of biventricular pacing leads and interfaced with our strategic partners.

I held various roles at Medtronic. The most rewarding and challenging were the participation on a Core Team as the Marketing Lead and the development of a novel non-fluoroscopic navigation system across two divisions, located in Minnesota and Colorado. In the Core Team role, I was part of cross-functional team that developed a pacemaker and internal cardiac defibrillator. As part of this work, I was exposed to all parts the cardiac rhythm management (CRM) division, including chip, battery and capacitor manufacturing, human factors, firmware and software development. In the navigation role, I led the team to develop the system working across CRM and Surgical Navigation. This was only possible with the support of the Vice Chair. The team was awarded technical contributor of the year for their work.I also worked as a product manager for ablation catheters for SVT, atrial flutter, and atrial fibrillation. When Medtronic acquired Synectics, I worked first at Ventures in the sleep division where I launched the first commercially-viable system for the detection of upper airway distress syndrome, a precursor to apnea.

At Synectics Medical, I started in customer service, providing support to nurses and physicians. I stepped up to manage the sleep apnea division in the US, partnering with my colleagues in Sweden to develop and market our first non-GI product. Serving the neonatal market probably set my passion for medical devices and helping people.