Close Up: Contract Manufacturers

Originally Published MDDI June 2004

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George Blank
The MedTech Group Inc.

How did you get involved with the 
industry?

My first real job was with Johnson & Johnson. There I learned about the healthcare industry and the key role that plastic technology plays in its growth and development.

What area of the medical device industry do you find most exciting?

I have lived and worked on the rapid development of surgical devices from metal to plastic disposables. The ongoing change to less invasive products and then to miniature and absorbable technology has given me the great satisfaction of playing a very small role in a very 
important evolution in healthcare.

What is the biggest challenge in your job?

Helping customers attain their objectives in a constantly changing landscape of conflicting forces in an ethical and constructive way.


Ronald B. Earle
B. Braun OEM/Industrial Div.

How did you get involved with the industry?
It was the result of quite a bit of luck and the help of a good mentor. The real opportunity came when I joined a small company. It was this company that set my focus on the OEM and outsourcing business practice.

What area of the medical device industry do you find most exciting?
The target market that I find most fascinating is the minimally invasive device market, which allows difficult procedures to be performed through a small incision.

What is the biggest challenge in your job?
The biggest challenge I face is evaluating the risk and challenges of new technology and procedures. Most companies who outsource are looking for more than an OEM supplier; they are looking for someone to share in the risk of a product's success. 


Ron Sparks
UTI Corp.

How did you get involved with the industry?

I was first introduced to medical devices in 1977 as a member of the financial team for Union Carbide Imaging Systems, which was one of the first radio-nuclear medical companies. UCIS produced whole-body imaging and CAT scans. I worked closely with engineering and manufacturing to develop the company's first costing system and control for engineering revisions.

What area of the medical device industry do you find most exciting?

Unfortunately for my family I like all of it. I say unfortunately because they followed me to six states and one European country as I worked in many different medical device businesses. I was in orthopaedic implants, general surgery, ophthalmology, audiology, ENT, advanced wound management, endoscopy, and cardiology, among others. 

What is the biggest challenge in your job?

Staying up on and ahead of the vast and ever changing technology is certainly one, but as challenging is finding and motivating the bright people necessary to keep the organization on a fast pace.


J. Randall Keene
Avail Medical Products Inc.

How did you get involved with the industry? 
I saw a need for the medical manufacturing industry to change and emulate other rapidly developing industries. We believed that the speed of product development and the costs associated with manufacturing had to change. It was our vision that with a tight focus on making other people's products and bringing their ideas to market, we could have a significant overall impact on the medical device industry.

What area of the medical device industry do you find most exciting?
The change we see in this industry creates tremendous excitement—first because of the dramatic number of new technologies being introduced to better help the sick and injured, as well as the near-industrial revolution-type 
approach to how products are manufactured.

What is the biggest challenge in your job? 
Our largest challenge continues to be finding the right talent to meet the demand for our services. The pursuit of talent that meets our objectives of entrepreneurial drive and professional management, when coupled with the dramatic growth we are experiencing, is not easy.

Copyright ©2004 Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry