VELENTIUM - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director of Human Factors Engineering
Albert Rodriguez is Velentium's Director of Human Factors Engineering (HFE). Albert's career began when he switched his major from mechanical engineering to software engineering at the University of Houston Clearlake. One of his early projects out of school was in robotics, designing a system that trained astronauts to operate a robot arm in space. The training took place in gravity, but the software and mechanics of the training system had to mimic zero-G behavior. Albert became fascinated with interface design and interface engineering, especially when the opportunity came to work alongside an MIT PhD candidate studying HFE. Together, they were able to redesign a two-astronaut robotic arm control system with a much simpler one-man system. From then on, Albert was hooked.
"I surrounded myself with books and learned everything I could about HFE," he recalls. "I love everything in this space, from how early word processing programs dropped the ball by requiring manual saves, to how Pampered Chef's garlic press has a cleaning tool that attaches to the press so they don't become separated during storage." Even his hobbies are related. Albert loves anything outdoors - the wilder the better. Kayaking, fishing, hunting, competitive sailing, cycling, nature photography… anything that takes you "out". Success in these activities, Albert says, requires careful observation of non-human cues - again, the study of interfaces.
Asked what drew him to Velentium, Albert mentioned that he has known co-founder Tim Carroll for a long time, having met through a mutual colleague and finding they both enjoy hunting and fishing. From a technical and human-impact perspective, however, Albert says that Velentium "just made sense." Software is everywhere, helping run everything, but he never wanted to use his skill set in the service of anything that could potentially cause harm. Velentium's passion to change lives for a better world, especially through medical devices, is a natural fit.
Ben Trombold is Velentium's VP of Sales & Marketing and is the reigning record-holder of the "most organized inbox in the company." Ben's 10+ years of sales and marketing experience began simultaneously with his undergraduate studies at the University of Kansas, where he earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. While there, he worked as a student lecturer of college algebra for seven semesters, and then picked up an internship with PepsiCo between his junior and senior years. The internship turned into a full-time offer upon graduation, and after a year as a sales rep, Ben then spent the next two and a half years managing up to 50 people who sold product to grocery stores in his 65-store territory. Ben then moved away from PepsiCo to become a national account manager for a financial transaction company for two years, and then was a senior sales director for a healthcare payments company, developing new business for brokerage clients. When that company was bought out a few years later, Ben knew it was time to switch gears. He obtained his MBA with concentrations in Finance and International Business from the University of Nebraska, and in 2018, Ben joined Velentium.
Ben has been married to his wife, Kristen, for almost five years. They have a Wheaton terrier, Ollie, who still occasionally likes to "put in a good word" during their Zoom meetings. In his spare time, Ben enjoys golfing, snowboarding, skiing, camping in the mountains, and most everything related to physical fitness (at one time, he ranked in the top 10% in the world in CrossFit)… yet he balances those pursuits by binge-watching Netflix to relax.
Ben was attracted to Velentium for both professional and personal reasons. Professionally, he was excited about the opportunity to build the sales and marketing department from scratch with full autonomy. Personally, he was attracted to the values, the culture, and the leadership, and since signing on, has been grateful to learn that the people who work here are also great. His dream is to see "Velentium as one of the prominent industry market forces when it comes to medical device development. I want us to help guide and direct the industry because we have a different way of approaching it than the way things have historically been done."
Chris Jensen is the VP of Technology at Velentium. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston and an MBA from Rice University, and has four decades of experience in engineering and small business entrepreneurship. After cutting his teeth in engineering with companies like Sperry-Sun and Halliburton, Chris earned his MBA in finance and spent a few years working in the financial sector before returning to engineering to found his own consultancy. His solo projects reflected his wide-ranging interests, from quantum-based random number generation, to near-earth orbital monitoring systems capable of surviving rocket disasters, to residential construction energy efficiency and regulatory compliance, to custom commercial IT infrastructure installation solutions.
Chris joined Velentium in 2016, and credits the three values (Honorable, Results++, and Humble Charisma) for drawing him in. "When I was interviewed," he recalls, "Dan and Tim led with the values. They clearly try to live them out personally as well as make a better society through medical device innovation. I turned down a higher-salaried competing offer because Velentium held the promise of a better work environment and better work goals. I've been pleased to see that promise being pursued and fulfilled in the years since."
As for the work itself, Chris says "I love it. Engineering is engineering, but the fundamental reason for our work is to make peoples' lives better. My first project here was an implant that senses the onset of epileptic fits, delivers a therapeutic signal to counter them, and alerts caregivers. That project let me see our clients' passion for their devices, and their mission to improve patients' lives, which matches our own." Since then, Chris recalls, "There have been so many more projects that do similar, magical, sci-fi level tech treating people's medical conditions. We're fortunate to be directly involved in projects that were unimaginable a few years ago. We're reading brainwaves to improve memory, restoring paralytic nerve function to let people walk again, and providing treatments for chronic pain, to name just a few."
Another big attractor Chris points to is Velentium's hiring practices. "Top minds work here," he observed, adding that Velentium has capabilities matched by few other companies in the world. "We've grown not merely by doing more of the same - design and development - but by continuing to go deeper and explore other types of services, including testing and production of medical implantables, as well as adjacent services like regulatory advising, clinical trials, and venture capital networking to enable more medical devices manufacturers to succeed."
Job Titles:
- Director of Product Security
- Software Development Controls - Inputs
Christopher Gates is the Director of Product Security at Velentium. He has over 30 years of experience developing and securing medical devices for numerous industry-leading device manufacturers, and frequently collaborates with regulatory and standard bodies including the NTIA, MITRE, Bluetooth SIG, IEEE, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the FDA to present, define, and codify tools, techniques, and processes that enable the creation of secure medical devices.
Christopher has a wife, two sons, one daughter, four grandchildren, and a Siberian Husky. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, biking, and craft beer, preferably in the company of his wife and their loyal companion.
Everywhere he goes, Christopher promotes the secure development lifecycle, an approach that eases the burden on developers and ensures high-quality products that work as intended to save and improve lives without putting users at risk. In 2020, he co-authored the definitive book on the subject, Medical Device Cybersecurity for Engineers and Manufacturers (Artech House, Aug. 31, 2020. ISBN: 9781630818159).
Christopher graduated from California State University Northridge with a B.S. in Computer Science and worked in various roles as a software engineer, project manager, and cybersecurity architect. His projects ranged from control systems for an early all-electric motorcycle, to consulting for Disneyland, to engineering and securing medical devices targeting respiratory, cardiovascular, and endocrine indications.
Christopher joined Velentium in 2017 because he had previously collaborated with the company as a contractor and seen firsthand that its values are exemplified by its founders. "In a world where most companies are only motivated by financial interest, Velentium routinely has moral discussions about the best approach for its clients, its staff, and the world. Every employee engages each project with the mindset that the equipment we're designing might one day be used to save our own loved ones."
For Christopher, this motivation is not a mere thought exercise. When his first grandchild was born prematurely, before his lungs could fully close, Christopher visited him in the NICU. There, he noticed that a handful of the machines allowing his grandson to breathe were among the devices he himself had helped design.
A serial entrepreneur and the founder of six companies, Dan Purvis has deep experience with small business. The theme throughout his professional and nonprofit endeavors has been an intense love for people, which led Dan to become a student of culture. He has 25 years of practical know-how in creating corporate environments that people want to work in and clients want to engage.
Dan and his wife Julie have three sons and one daughter. In his spare time, Dan enjoys skiing, soccer, reading, and any contest where there is a winner and a loser. Dan graduated with University Honors in Electrical Engineering and an Undergraduate Fellowship from Texas A&M, which he followed up by becoming a Jones Scholar at Rice University's Jones School of Business. His career began at National Instruments in the upper Midwest, but after returning to his hometown of Houston, he began building a division for his new employer. As that became successful over the next 15 years, Dan realized a knack for starting up new companies, which he would run in his spare time. After his 3rd successful sale, he promised himself that the next one would take over his career, full-time. That 4th company was Velentium.
Dan joined forces with Tim Carroll to cofound Velentium in 2012, bringing to bear insight gleaned throughout his career. Those insights crafted a culture designed to change lives for a better world by doing Right for Right's sake (Honorable), doing the job and then some (Results++), and being the kind of person that others want to be around (Humble Charisma). "Velentium is more than a B2B services company providing engineering solutions," Dan explains. "We aren't workers for hire: we're workers for cause." Dan's ultimate goal is not to hit financial targets, but to build an organization that directly improves the lives of 1,000 families and, by helping clients bring transformative medical devices and technologies to market, helps to build a better world.
Dan has always been passionate about people, realizing over the years that if you seek profit first, hard-code company culture into bloodless HR policies and poster-style slogans, and then try to shoehorn in customer care, you'll reap dysfunction. "But if you care enough to take on risk in order to be Honorable, which means be where you'll say you'll be, do what you say you'll do - if you're stubborn enough to ensure that the client succeeds, stubborn about protecting your people, and strategic about profit - then loyalty, spontaneous referrals, growth, and business success will follow."
What began as a two-person operation grew to a multimillion-dollar-firm within three years. From 2014 on, Velentium has averaged 50% annual growth year over year. "Leading an intensely culture-forward organization in the corporate world affords these moments of human connection that are my favorite aspect of the job," Dan says. "We get to build these longstanding relationships that meld the professional with the personal. It allows all of us - staff, partners, clients, and executives - to be fully human in our work, to let loose and productively channel our whole passion to change lives for a better world. It's not trite or calculated, it's just who we are!"
Demetri White is a Senior Program Manager of testing, test engineering, and test systems at Velentium. Demetri earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering on a baseball scholarship, and after playing professionally for a few years, turned his attention to test engineering. He worked his way from design engineer, to product development engineer, to R&D test lab manager, before founding state-of-the-art test solutions provider Oasis Testing (now a part of Velentium) in 2012.
"Being part of a team is a force multiplier," Demetri explained. "We [Oasis and Velentium] have been working together since 2014. After these years of collaboration - especially during Project V in 2020 - we know there's very little we're not prepared to take on in engineering solutions, testing, and design and development. Both companies have always embodied a can-do culture where we know how to solve problems and we're willing to roll up our sleeves and work it until it's done excellently. Joining forces just made sense."
Demetri also pointed to time with family as a factor. "Running a small business can be all-consuming, and trying to wear all the hats limits your reach and effectiveness." Demetri's wife Jennifer, who worked alongside him at Oasis, has also joined the Velentium team. The Whites have three children - Dane, Brielle, and Diesel - and enjoy mentoring them in their passions. Baseball and dance are shared loves; Demetri also enjoys bow hunting and specializes in orchestrating close encounters with elk, as well as leadership studies, continuous learning and self-improvement, and growing in his faith.
Mentoring is one of Demetri's motivating passions. "Teaching people technical skills is just the first step," he explains. "Next comes leadership, then ownership. My goal is to mentor staff to take ownership of sectors, processes, expertise, their professional reputation, and the company."
On a technical level, Demetri foresees a future dominated by technical advances in testing - an area where Velentium is already blazing the trail. "Increasingly, clients will want more than just pass/fail data. They will want more and more information and insight on every aspect of testing and the test process. For that to happen, test systems need to be intelligent and test facilities need to be smart. We can pioneer that tech and deliver on its promise."
Job Titles:
- Software Development Controls - Inputs
Jason Swoboda is a Senior Program Manager at Velentium with deep experience in test, measurement, and control systems. After earning his degree in Chemical Engineering, Jason began his career in ‘98 running a UL-certified test lab. There he met Dan Purvis, whose company helped optimize the lab's test systems. Jason soon transitioned to test engineering and systems development and went to work with Dan and Tim Carroll, spending 10 years with them at their pre-Velentium company. After a brief stint working directly for a major energy client, Jason returned to work for Dan and Tim at Velentium in 2015. His primary focus is on test systems and flow measurement and control systems.
Beyond his extensive prior experience working with the company's founders, Jason was drawn to Velentium because of its broad, multi-industry client base and its diversity of work projects and interesting technical challenges. Currently, he's excited to be co-leading Velentium's development of world-class intelligent test facilities that deliver measurements, data, and engineering insight far exceeding what's required for standards-based testing and enables customer innovation.
"I enjoy working on something bigger than myself," Jason says. "Every day at Velentium, I get to be part of teams and initiatives that accomplish more than I could do on my own. And I get to learn and apply new technology in the service of those big goals." When asked about the factors responsible for attracting and retaining Velentium's clients, Jason replied, "Velentium's values are its biggest asset, most particularly Results++. We're not satisfied to repeat what's been done before. We're always trying to advance what we do and advance what our clients are capable of. We hire really talented, self-motivated people. Mediocre people choose not to stay."
Jason describes himself as an Aggie, Catholic, husband, and father. He has been married for 22 years and has two children - one at Texas A&M, one in high school. He and his wife have been playing World of Warcraft together almost since its release, and have 3 Miniature Schnauzers ("way too many!"), all named after Texas A&M traditions: June, Ellie (short for "Elephant"), and Dixie.
Mark Harris is Velentium's VP of Operations, responsible for program management, manufacturing, IT, and strategic initiatives. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston. Mark has over 30 years of experience in the medical device industry, having held prior leadership positions in R&D, program management, product development, and operations. He gained experience collaborating with and managing international teams during his tenure at both Medtronic and Stryker.
He and his wife have a daughter and son-in-law currently living in the Czech Republic. He enjoys hiking, biking, camping, barbecuing, and international travel. He has also created a couple of unique barbecue sauce recipes that will knock your socks off!
His career started as a test systems engineer at Intermedics, where he developed solutions for implantable pacemakers, defibrillators, device leads, and programmers. He transitioned into product development at Intermedics and carried that experience forward to Medtronic, focusing primarily on implantable pacemakers. Following this, he took on various leadership roles in IPG operations, neuromodulation program management, test systems engineering, and software development at Medtronic before moving on to Stryker. Mark joined Stryker as Senior Manager of R&D before joining the Senior Leadership Team as the head of a divisional R&D organization. A few years into his tenure at Stryker, the division was recognized for Best New Product Offering at the Annual Global R&D Summit Awards.
Mark is an analytical learner with a passion for developing organizational capability. He has a proven track record of attracting, developing, and integrating high-performing talent; identifying and improving key business metrics; developing and integrating innovative technology; and executing business development strategies. He also has a passion for service and has held board member roles on the Medtronic Foundation and Community Health Charities of Arizona.
Velentium's values spoke to Mark, as they resembled those he set for himself throughout his professional life. The company's passion of wanting to change lives for a better world, with an emphasis on helping families, resonated strongly. Mark believes the senior leadership team's unwavering vision for growth, their drive for building out capabilities, and the wealth of talent found within the company will carry it successfully forward.
In the next 5-10 years, Mark sees the medical device industry focusing more on remotely managing patient care. An integration of treating pain or cardiac disease through connected care where patient safety and cybersecurity will be a key focus. Increased connectivity will in turn generate metadata which can assist doctors and medical administrators in remote management, especially in developing and third-world countries. "Critical decisions will need to be made about how we can assist other countries to build the infrastructure needed to expand their health care systems."
Job Titles:
- Director of Culture
- Director, HR & Culture
"[I] was extremely motivated by the idea that [my] efforts could change people's lives around the world."
Mark Kraft is Velentium's Director of Culture, overseeing recruiting and human resources, as well as the senior manager of Velentium's Denver, Colorado office. Mark and his wife have three children. He likes playing the guitar, enjoying the craft brewery scene with his wife, and working on home projects, such as auto repair and restoration and home remodeling.
Mark received his degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Utah. During his 25-year career he has worked in a myriad of related fields, including software for test and automation, application development, systems engineering, management, and consulting in the aerospace, consumer electronics, and medical device industries. He started his career at National Instruments as an application engineer, where he met Velentium's soon-to-be CEO and Co-Founder, Dan Purvis. Mark later moved into a District Sales Manager role, and then made the leap to be a test engineering specialist and lab manager before joining Velentium in 2014. At multiple companies, Mark developed test architectures and platforms which standardized test processes and enabled test system versatility and reuse to reduce overall costs.
Throughout his life, Mark has always enjoyed serving others. He is most satisfied when he is building relationships with people and is providing them with a service or product they need. He also enjoys the technical challenges and satisfaction that comes from solving hard problems for clients. Mark was attracted to Velentium not only because of his prior experience working with Dan, but also because he believed in Dan and Tim's vision and values for the company. He was extremely motivated by the idea that his efforts could change people's lives across the world, which would allow him to have an ever-increasing platform to continue his passion of serving others. Mark has always believed that work satisfaction and output quality depends on enjoying the people engaged in the task. This includes co-workers, direct reports, and customers, as well as the people who end up using the product personally or professionally.
Paul Oliphant is Velentium's CFO, overseeing its finance, accounting, and HR departments. He graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.B.A. in Accounting and is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Paul and his wife have been married for 22 years and have four sons who range from college to middle school age. Paul enjoys running, cycling, triathlons, attending his kids' sports activities, mountain climbing, reading, and traveling with his wife in his spare time.
Paul began his career in public accounting, but later moved to industry, where he worked for various public and private companies. He has focused the last twenty years of his career on five private equity-backed companies, helping them achieve growth and drive shareholder value, including by supporting two initial public offerings (IPOs), one in the United States and the other in Canada. He was also a founding partner in a start-up that designed, financed, built, and operated a $200MM FERC jurisdictional underground natural gas facility.
Paul has always been motivated by his family and co-workers, striving to be an example to his children of what it means to use your talents and skills to their highest potential. Having worked at various levels of leadership in his previous positions, Paul understands that each individual's contributions are part of what it takes for the entire team and company to achieve their co-workers' goals and ensure that the whole team is successful.
Paul was attracted to Velentium due to the values driving the company. "Until now, I have not been part of a company whose values, mission, and vision were so well-defined and well-aligned with my personal perspective and beliefs. My prior experience allows me to recognize and appreciate the time and energy required to instill Honorable, Results++, and Humble Charisma throughout a growing organization."
Paul's goals are to build on the success that Dan and Tim have created from scratch over the first eight years and organize the finance and other back-office support functions to align with their vision for continued growth over the next decade. "The degree of expertise at every level of Velentium's organization is equivalent to or even exceeds companies ten times its size," Paul observes. "This extraordinary amount of talent, combined with the buy-in from employees into the companies values, will continue to drive Velentium's success."
"I was impressed not simply by the three values themselves, but by how Velentium applied them to everyone: customers, employees, partners, etc."
Randy Armstrong is Velentium's Chief Technology Officer and the author of our QMS, which we believe is one of the leanest and most effective in the industry. Randy has worked for over three decades in medical device development, and been issued 54 patents during his career. He is passionate about the elegant solution - simpler, consumes less energy, has fewer components, is smaller, requires less maintenance, and costs less - producing designs throughout his career which become flagship and platform technologies that return value far beyond original goals.
Randy graduated from Duke University with a B.S. in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering, and started out designing wearable diagnostics for NASA astronauts. Within five years, he transitioned to developing active implantables, focusing specifically on pacemakers. Over time, he began developing cardiac rhythm management devices, and was immediately struck by the impact and responsibility that the job contained. He's written embedded firmware that is currently residing in over half a million people today. Randy has also worked on the ISO Standards committees, where he helped create standards for neurostimulators, and has co-chaired the AAMI Neurosurgery and TENS committees.
Randy and his wife have four children and seven grandchildren. In his spare time, Randy is a U.S. stamp collector, specializing in grilled stamps created during a four-year period in the 1860s. His collection is over 100,000 strong.
Randy Armstrong is Velentium's Chief Technology Officer and the author of our QMS, which we believe is one of the leanest and most effective in the industry. Randy has worked for over three decades in medical device development, and been issued 54 patents during his career. He is passionate about the elegant solution - simpler, consumes less energy, has fewer components, is smaller, requires less maintenance, and costs less - producing designs throughout his career which become flagship and platform technologies that return value far beyond original goals.
Randy graduated from Duke University with a B.S. in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering, and started out designing wearable diagnostics for NASA astronauts. Within five years, he transitioned to developing active implantables, focusing specifically on pacemakers. Over time, he began developing cardiac rhythm management devices, and was immediately struck by the impact and responsibility that the job contained. He's written embedded firmware that is currently residing in over half a million people today. Randy has also worked on the ISO Standards committees, where he helped create standards for neurostimulators, and has co-chaired the AAMI Neurosurgery and TENS committees.
Randy and his wife have four children and seven grandchildren. In his spare time, Randy is a U.S. stamp collector, specializing in grilled stamps created during a four-year period in the 1860s. His collection is over 100,000 strong.
Having known Dan and Tim throughout their careers, Randy was highly attracted to the core values they selected to guide Velentium. "Working the medical device industry, you're always aware of the ever-present push and pull of financial incentives vs. the good of the patients. At Velentium, it's not the three values in themselves that are impressive, but the way Velentium applies them to everyone: customers, employees, partners - everyone. An employee cannot, for example, mistreat a customer and claim it's for the patient's good: they are required to treat everyone with respect and integrity. I believe that's empowering."
Over his career, Randy has seen that the most common culprit for flaws in design and development is arrogance. "Being Honorable requires honesty about the strengths and weaknesses of a design and its designer, as well as being able to put aside your ego when analyzing the best fits for a job."
A day that Randy says changed the course of his career occurred during a tense code review where employees were taking criticisms personally and no progress was being made. The company employing him at the time would regularly bring in patients to see what their facilities were like. Randy's director was giving a tour to a young boy, about 8 or 9 years old, who had recently received a pacemaker that contained a new model of firmware which Randy had helped write. The director interrupted the code review and brought the boy in to meet the people who designed it, including Randy. The boy said in so many words, "I want to thank you for what you have done for me." Ever since that moment, Randy says, "I have never been the same."
Randy's vision for Velentium is all about its customers. He's always looking for lean processes and technologies that address their needs faster, shorten the development runway, and provide cost savings. "Velentium sets itself apart from its competitors by wanting to solve the problem, not prolong it. For us, the end result is not about the bottom line, as we don't measure success by financial incentives. Rather, we desire to solve the client's problems, thus addressing the patients' problems sooner and more affordably. The financials will take care of themselves."
Job Titles:
- Director of Systems Engineering
Satyajit "Sat" Ketkar is the Director of Systems Engineering at Velentium. His 20-year career includes electrical, firmware, software, and systems engineering experience, including seven in medical device design and two with a European Union notified body conducting medical device reviews and audits for safety, quality, performance, and security.
While still a student at the University of Houston, Sat helped start the IEEE robotics club and worked with a team developing a real-time robotics operating system for fully autonomous robots that could learn in order to complete challenging tasks. He was part of the original development team behind Wordpress (before it was called Wordpress), and owned and managed two commercial podcasts - one focused on sports, another on culture and current events - which he later sold before plunging into medical development full-time.
Job Titles:
- VP of Advanced Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering
"Velentium's culture makes us readily accessible to customers. We talk to our customers all the time and work collaboratively on projects."
Terry Daglow serves as Velentium's VP of Advanced Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering. He is well-recognized amongst industry peers as an experienced corporate director and brilliant engineer with thirty plus years invested in the implantable medical device industry. A visionary entrepreneur with diverse inventive and business interests, his passion for R&D fuels him in perpetually seeking broader exposure to multiple disciplines. He is an accomplished inventor with notable expertise in mechanical engineering; his personal design portfolio includes multiple products for current industry leaders as well as several independent inventions. He presently holds fifty-five US patents, with a further fifty-one patents pending.
When Tim Carroll first came to Terry and said, "I need your help," Terry instead offered to interview someone else on behalf of Tim. But Tim was insistent, and Terry eventually joined full-time because of Tim's tenacity and his vision for the company. It's something Terry wants to support and can get behind because "once you see a device you created helping someone in real life, it's addictive. I have to create." He joined Velentium to pursue his life-long interests in improving the quality of life for patients by increasing awareness and accessibility to superior technologies at cost-effective price points. He brings his relentless talent for initiating and sustaining a truly collaborative environment that respects individuality while also inspiring creativity and participation. Terry aspires to push past established limitations and collaboratively create the best possible solution to any given challenge.
Terry began his corporate career at Medtronic, followed by Intermedics Inc., Sulzermedica, ANS, and St. Jude Medical before pursuing independent interests and professional consulting. Terry's expertise and ingenuity have been applied to a broad range of disciplines and product lines including cardiac rhythm management (pacemakers/defibrillators and peripherals), pain and spasticity (drug pumps), neuromodulation (spinal cord stimulation, deep brain stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation), hearing loss (implantable hearing device), CMF and orthopedics (single-use surgical tools). Terry graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Tim Carroll - COO, Founder, President
Tim Carroll is Velentium's President and COO. His immediate family includes his wife, two sons and daughters-in-law, and two granddaughters. He enjoys all outdoor activities, especially hiking and camping, as well as traveling internationally for both work and pleasure.
Tim started his career at Intermedics working in test engineering, but was very active in other areas including tachycardia R&D, bradycardia R&D, integrated circuit design, and manufacturing engineering. After Intermedics was purchased by Guidant (now Boston Scientific), Tim joined Dan Purvis at Optimation's integration division for oil & gas solutions but quickly switched the focus to medical device development. Initially many of their contracts were for medical device testing, but as the division continued to grow, it expanded beyond testing and into development. Then, in 2012, Tim left to launch Velentium with Dan, focused on building out a world-class medical device design and development firm.
An influential moment in Tim's career happened early on while he was at Intermedics. He learned that a close friend of his was not only 100% dependent on a pacemaker, but had recently been outfitted with a model that Tim and his team had helped bring to market. This reinforced the deep satisfaction Tim finds in the medical device industry and renewed his passion for wanting to positively impact as many people as he could throughout his lifetime.
In co-founding Velentium, Tim set out to create a company that could be a world-class leader in the design and development of medical devices. Although Velentium would not be organized as a non-profit, its primary mission would be to improve people's lives all over the world. Tim worked diligently to build a team that excelled at the core disciplines necessary to provide flagship design services. He and Dan were resolved that Velentium would not generate additional risk for its customers or their patients by hiring inexperienced or underqualified workers in order to maximize profit. Instead, the company would bring together industry thought leaders and expertise because the ultimate goal is to bring to market products that will change people's lives for a better world.
Tim's primary goal for Velentium is to preserve our quality of work and culture while the organization continues to grow. This will enable the company to bring its current services and positive impact to international customers and partners while expanding its influence in North America. Just as he's led the company to expanded its business beyond local Texas companies to assist clients in key medical device development hubs across North America as well as western Europe, Australia, and East Asia, Tim wants to see the company become a fully global leader in secure medical device design, development, and manufacturing.
Looking ahead, Tim foresees growing influence from large tech companies into the medical device space. There is every indication that several large consumer-based technology leaders intend to expand beyond health & wellness and focus resources on true medical devices. Demand for smaller, less invasive implantable devices will be sustained, while demand for wearable devices will rise as they become more and more effective. In addition, there will likely be increased focus on the "connected patient" as part of a holistic program to improve quality of care and response time while driving care delivery costs down. As individuals continue to become more intentional about their own healthcare, the trend towards home-based healthcare devices with better diagnostic capabilities and patient-controlled therapeutic options will continue to climb. Thanks to Tim's leadership, Velentium is positioned to help established and emerging medical device innovators anticipate technical advances and patient needs.