Case Studies
Interim CEO, Maruho Medical
An orthopedics company in Greater Atlanta was losing substantial amounts of money. The board chose to replace the existing management team, close the company and shut down operations. The goal was to cease operations by the end of Q1, 2024. I met with the board in early December to put together a plan and moved onsite. I quickly reduced staffing and ran operations with a skeleton crew. I reached out to customers and potential acquirers, and with the help of the Board, set up a data room, managed a sales process and sold the product lines and assets. I was able to market the Atlanta manufacturing facility and found a suitable subletter. Shutdown costs came in below budget and the staff was laid off in a respectful, litigation-free manner. The assets were sold and the operations shut down by the target date.
Consultant and CEO, CardioGard
Two technical experts in Israel had developed a neuroprotection device for cardiac surgery. It was a basic first-generation device and the team had collected clinical data in a small, positive study done in Europe and Israel. Based on all this, surgeons were interested in doing a US-based study. I did an assessment of what it would take to move the company forward – specifically, that it would need to do additional clinical work and improve the usability of the device. I reached out to the NIH and obtained a commitment for non-dilutive trial funding, then successfully advocated for the study with over 20 US surgeons. I engaged with potential acquirers and put together a milestone plan for the company.
After three months of consulting, I was offered and took a permanent CEO position, a full-time position I held from 2015 until February 2023.
Consultant, Medtronic Stent Product Planning
Medtronic Vascular Marketing was short-staffed but recognized that it badly needed to start developing its next iteration of stent products. I was hired as a consultant by the VP of Marketing to lead this effort. My initial scope of work was to assess the need for a bifurcation stent. I assembled a combination marketing/R&D advisory team and did an initial assessment of the clinical data, customer needs and the competitive environment. From this assessment, it became clear that the bifurcation market was segmented based on patient anatomy. I gained access to a proprietary anatomy database, did a deep dive on market size by segment and anatomy, interviewed 30+ physicians about their clinical practice and was able to determine that the expected market share for a bifurcation stent was in the 2-3% market share range – rather than the assumed range of 10-12%.
Subsequent to this, I was asked to develop a full stent product map for Medtronic over the following three months. Again, I assembled a cross functional R&D/Marketing team. After extensive market research and much internal discussion, the team was able to determine that Medtronic’s stent delivery systems were most in need of improvement and that an improved drug eluting stent platform was required. Based on this, a stent delivery system project and the RESOLUTE Drug Eluting Stent program were initiated. Subsequently, I was hired to lead the RESOLUTE program.