1) Please share a bit about your background
After starting my career in the automotive industry, I spent more than 20 years in OEMs. During my ten years with General Motors, I worked on almost every aspect of automotive electromechanical systems and learned about successful product development as it contributes to high-quality, large-scale manufacturing.
I transitioned to the medical device industry after moving to Minnesota. I joined Corventis, a tiny startup that ultimately was acquired by Medtronic. From there, I joined Smiths Medical, another OEM, as Chief Technology Officer, where I was able to advance a very broad medical device portfolio.
My first entry into CDMO came after Smiths. I’d spent many years engaging with CDMO partners on various projects, but only from the OEM side. When I joined Phillips Medisize, I had my first exposure to being on the CDMO side of those relationships.
2) What led you to move from working in a large med device organization to a CDMO?
I’d had very broad exposure to product development, regulatory pathways, sales, marketing—the whole commercial side of the medical device business. To grow in my career, I needed to understand more of the manufacturing side. I wanted to experience what it means to be a world-class manufacturer and bring something to scale. I also felt that broadening my exposure to different sides of the industry would help me be a better leader.
3) What surprised you most about the change?
I’ve been surprised at how much I learned across a wide variety of products and the commercial landscape in a very short time, largely as a result of the CDMO-customer partnership. We’re truly on a journey with our customers from start to finish, rather than just manufacturing a product to specifications.
Working with such a broad range of customers in this way greatly accelerated and expanded my knowledge of commercial strategy and the overall industry. I think it would be very difficult to gain those perspectives and depth of industry knowledge sitting on the commercial side at an OEM; it’s been more accelerated than I ever imagined.
4) What challenges, expected or unexpected, did you experience when you made the move?
In my view, developing a mutually beneficial, strategic partnership with the customer generates the most value and benefit for patients. Not all customers are looking for that level of strategic relationship and it can be challenging to develop customer intimacy and pursue the right relationships with the right partners.
Sometimes, even when an opportunity may be financially attractive, we must show courage to say we’re not interested because we’re looking for something different out of our relationships than just something that is very transactional.
5) How would you describe the benefits and positive aspects of making this career change?
I don’t think there is another place in the industry where I would be able to interact with such a wide variety and volume of customers, markets and challenges.
When I was on the OEM side, I didn’t realize that CDMOs likely have more touchpoints with the FDA and across commercial geographic markets, simply out of the volume of opportunities in our portfolio at any given time.
Taking advantage of CDMO expertise, whether it’s cost time to market, regulatory pathways or really any aspect of commercialization and pairing that with what OEMs do best, that is the real benefit.
6) How has working for a large, global, privately held organization differed from a large publicly traded company?
As a private entity, we have a gigantic advantage. We can look at opportunities through a longer-term strategic lens, which separates us from other CDMOs.
Publicly traded companies continually balance achieving short-term quarterly impacts with planning for the long term. With our ownership structure, we can always ask the question, is this the right thing to do for the business long term? If so, even if the short-term financial returns are less than ideal, we can still do it without hesitation.
While this is a distinct advantage we have over our competition, it’s amazing how this long-term view contributes to the culture. It frees up constrained thinking, allows more ideas to surface and fuels innovation and partnerships.
Mutual benefit is the DNA of our decision-making. Obviously, we are trying to do things that are economically advantageous to our own organization. Having financial stability in a different way and the ability to deploy our capital very strategically, we can look at things through a truly long-term stable growth lens, which is to great advantage for us and our customers. We can invest with them and in ourselves, to the benefit of our employees and for patients around the world.
7) What advice would you give to someone thinking about making a change from medical device OEM to a CDMO?
I wholeheartedly endorse CDMO organizations as a place to apply your talents, skills and passions. Take advantage of the opportunity to get involved with a rich variety of products, challenges, relationships and geographies in comparison to working in a singular OEM role. My experience has been that the benefits greatly outweigh the tradeoffs from having full ownership of one product. If you are passionate and love the medical device and pharma industry, if you love making products that improve people’s lives, there’s no better place to be than a CDMO like Phillips Medisize, developing those partnerships in a meaningful way.
8) What do you appreciate most about being part of the Medical Alley community?
Medical Alley is one of the few places where you see real cross-industry learning in action. You have medtech pioneers, biopharma innovators, payers, providers, and tech companies all at the same table. That mix of perspectives sparks creativity and helps us think differently about how we deliver better outcomes together.
