Request Expert

Expert has extensive experience supporting clients in pharmaceutical, medical and industrial markets. An electrical engineer by training, and the principal of his own consultancy for more than 12 years, he brings strong market, business development and technical skills to his consulting practice and is well-connected to industry resources.

Expert has a wide range of direct experience with bioinstrumentation. For a laboratory equipment company seeking to form a clinical products business, Expert surveyed opportunities in point-of-care breath testing. For a leading corporate R&D laboratory contemplating a spin-off startup venture, he supported strategic planning by assessing opportunities for clinical genotyping applications of DNA microarrays. For a startup firm wishing to exploit a unique lab-on-a-chip technology comprised of miniaturized fluid transfer structures, automated analytical assays and integrated informatics, Expert guided the strategy development and provided executive counsel prior to the firm’s first round of venture capital financing.

Expert assessed the competitive positions of a target firm and other suppliers of laboratory automation products applicable to drug discovery and combinatorial chemistry for an investment banker. For a large industrial materials firm, he evaluated the disappointing performance of its division relative to competition in the field of preparatory scale and process scale high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). And for an early stage venture with a proprietary new technology for pulsed-field gel electrophoresis used in biotechnology research, Expert assessed the technology’s business potential and evaluated a product concept before the client embarked upon detailed product development.

Expert worked with a producer of point-of-care coagulation diagnostics by exploring partnering mechanisms for increasing shareholder value. He assessed two established clinical diagnostics firms as potential investments for a Canadian business development agency. For a supplier of in vitro diagnostic systems for decentralized laboratory testing, he provided expert assistance in defining market requirements for a new product, interpreting government regulations of clinical laboratories and pointing out how the regulations would constrain the use and marketing of those diagnostic systems. Expert also worked with the client to develop product concepts and design specifications and design a user interface for the product. Expert’s additional experience in the area of clinical diagnostics includes developing specifications and product concepts for a clinical laboratory blood coagulation analyzer, combining clotting and chromogenic methods, for a leading multinational healthcare firm. He also devised and fully characterized three alternative concepts for a high-throughput, random access clinical chemistry system for hospital laboratories to assist a client -- a manufacturer of diagnostic products -- in meeting customer requirements.

Expert has substantial knowledge of the medical device field. He supported the CEO and management of a leading producer of disposable wound closure and wound drainage products in developing a new-product strategy for growth with continued profitability, utilizing their existing channels of distribution. He has identified growth opportunities in the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal disorders for a supplier of ostomy and wound care products. An inventor sought to form a company to develop and commercialize a noninvasive technology that can predict and monitor the risk of sudden cardiac death -- for this client, Expert assessed the opportunity presented by the technology and developed a business plan that would support fundraising and product commercialization. He profiled and identified the vulnerabilities of a threatening, rapidly growing producer of instruments and supplies for minimally invasive surgery for a worldwide leader in wound closure products. He assessed the market positions and likely moves of competitors providing neurostimulators and drug pumps for a producer of implantable pain management devices. For a leading surgical products company, he assessed the clinical applicability of a new implantable device for treatment of congestive heart failure, a technology being offered by a prospective partner. For a supplier of niche products used in orthopedic surgery, Expert determined the technological and commercial positioning of resorbable products and technologies potentially useful in orthopedic fixation. He assessed a range of technologies applicable to the treatment of renal failure, including an implantable artificial kidney, for a trade association seeking to develop a U.S. market presence for an offshore producer. For a leading firm in imaging and image recording products, Expert assessed the U.S. market and corresponding opportunities for imaging products useful in clinical endoscopy and laparoscopic surgery.

For an investment bank seeking to evaluate a refinance proposal from the management team of a bioscience instrumentation firm active in the development, manufacture and sale of robotic systems, Expert helped to establish the firm’s market position and assessed the value of the drug discovery segment of the firm’s business. He conducted a due diligence investigation for a laboratory equipment supplier, prior to the client’s acquisition of a private process-scale bioprocessing company, which was successfully concluded. He conducted a due diligence investigation of an acquisition candidate -- a private firm offering plating instruments for automated microbiology -- for a producer of testing instruments for the food and dairy industries. Additionally, Expert conducted a due diligence investigation of the products, technologies and business model planned by a small, private company developing bipolar electrosurgery devices and trocars that was seeking equity financing from a venture capital firm.

Providing accurate market assessment and market research is critical to growing companies. Expert’s broad experience in this area speaks for itself. In addition to the examples stated above, he identified high-return investment opportunities in tissue engineering, including cell therapy, gene therapy, stem cells, scaffolds, encapsulation, tissue regeneration, immunotolerance, cryopreservation and transplantation techniques for a leading producer of surgical products. For the laboratory equipment company seeking to form a clinical products business, Expert assessed commercial opportunities, competitive threats, partnering prospects and market entry requirements in clinical diagnostics and monitoring of digestive conditions. He discovered, analyzed and ranked diversification opportunities in power semiconductors for a leading producer of discrete semiconductor devices. He explored clinical applications and the ultimate commercial potential for new, cost-efficient technology for cerebral oximetry for a firm considering licensing the technology. As part of a multiclient study, Expert assessed the U.S. market and corresponding opportunities for medical image management systems (PACS).

Expert established the level of customer need of an enzymatic cook-temperature monitoring device for laboratory equipment supplier to the food industry. For a leading supplier of laboratory equipment, he established the latent demand for a new ultracentrifuge product concept. And for a major HMO, Expert conducted a survey of market trends, competitive dynamics and customer satisfaction in serving regional healthcare providers.

Expert possesses direct experience in the functions of development, marketing, strategic planning, research, and manufacturing. Throughout his career, he has dealt with many industries, including clinical diagnostics, surgical devices, laboratory and process instruments, patient monitoring, electronics, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, information systems, utilities and aerospace. He has solid experience in building teams of people and leading them to achieve business objectives based upon careers in industry with progressively increasing leadership responsibility. Expert has directed multi-disciplinary and inter-divisional teams and programs, managed departments ranging in size from one to 50 people, recruited technical professionals extensively, and built five groups from scratch.

Expert notes that in today's business environment, achieving profitable growth by going it alone is all but impossible; collaborations and alliances among firms are typically required to bring together all the competencies necessary for success. He is experienced in understanding the requirements and knowing how to identify qualified partners and bring individuals and companies together for mutual advantage.

For a producer of diagnostic equipment used in physicians’ offices, Expert tested the commercial feasibility of a radically new approach to diagnosing certain respiratory infections by means of noninvasive gas sensing in the mouth, nose and external ear canal. For a global manufacturer of health and beauty aids, he evaluated competitive manufacturing processes and costs. A unique, comprehensive database tool for competitive cost estimation was ultimately developed. He devised a U.S. market entry strategy for a European supplier of biological safety cabinets. He supported the formulation of a growth strategy for a leading producer of laboratory centrifuges by identifying and assessing a wide variety of new product opportunities. And for a major manufacturer of industrial instrumentation, Expert discovered applications for an electronically tunable, optical filter.

Expert helped Corning relocate and staff an R&D laboratory. For Battelle, he built a group of enterprising engineers to market and execute analytical services for the defense industry. Expert’s principal technical skills are in electronics, software, mechanics, man/machine interfaces, and systems engineering. He has prepared numerous detailed product specifications and contributed directly to the conceptual and detailed designs of more than 25 products. Expert has seen that the most important contribution to product design derives from a systems view and sensitivity to user needs and market acceptance. Over a period of 11 years, he has been affiliated with Corning's medical and laboratory businesses in positions of increasing responsibilities for research, development, program management, line management, and eventually venture management for an emerging business in medical informatics for Ciba Corning Diagnostics (now Bayer Diagnostics). Expert joined Ohmeda as Director of R&D for its noninvasive monitoring business in pulse oximetry. He was later recruited to join the management team of Betagen, a young biotechnology venture in DNA blot imaging, analysis, and preparation, where he served as Vice President of Development with responsibility for existing products and the formulation of new business opportunities in the creation of tools for biotechnology research.

Expert has observed that planning is a critical activity, as it is difficult to identify and seize growth opportunities without a strategic plan in effect. An unusual blend of market- and technology-related skills often allows one to discover opportunities and threats where others fail. Expert’s skills in this area have allowed him to create and influence numerous business plans. For a maker of specialty papers and laboratory filtration products, Expert reconciled differences in business performance between European and U.S. organizations, then recommended strategies to exploit the differences. For a producer of dust management products and services serving the electric utility industry, he supported the development of growth strategies consistent with investor requirements.

Expert is very experienced in the new-product process, having commercialized more than 20 products. At Corning, he developed their first commercially successful information management system for the hospital stat laboratory and their first microcomputer controlled pH/ion instrument for the research laboratory. While with Ohmeda, Expert was a major contributor in the introduction of a line of OEM pulse oximetry products that would fully exploit the mainframe patient monitoring market. For a development-stage firm, he assessed the economics of a variety of medical applications in order to realize the maximum commercial value from a broadly applicable invention for infection control. For the inventor of a new anticoagulant drug, Expert developed clinical and economic data to support his client in licensing negotiations with its partner, a major biopharmaceutical firm.

Expert designed and developed a family of user documentation for a modular high-throughput screening system for use in drug discovery. He created a series of graphics-intensive marketing brochures describing process control software for the food and pharmaceutical industries. He developed a user guide for water quality monitoring instrumentation. He also has published an operator's manual for client/server software accessing process control data from Windows NT workstations and developed a detailed product description and walk-through of Windows NT systems management software for use as a sales aid.

Expert has surveyed opportunities in point-of-care breath testing by assessing commercial opportunities, competitive threats, partnering prospects, and market entry requirements. He supported strategic planning by assessing opportunities for clinical genotyping applications of DNA microarrays. He conducted a due diligence investigation of a process-scale bioprocessing company.He has experience identifying high-return investment opportunities in tissue engineering.And he developed a business plan to support fundraising and commercialization of a technology to predict and monitor the risk of sudden cardiac death.