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James Baumgardt at Ventures: Desire Success; Take Risks
June 14, 2011
Rose-Hulman Ventures' Summer Speakers Series started with the
person for whom the series has been named, life sciences
entrepreneur James Baumgardt. The honor recognizes the
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology alumnus for his career
contributions and support of his alma mater.
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Life Sciences Leader: Rose-Hulman Ventures' Summer Speakers
series is named for James R. Baumgardt, a Rose-Hulman
Institute of Technology alumnus who has had several success stories
in life sciences enterprises.
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Baumgardt is the chairman of the board for the NICO Corporation,
director of Neochord Inc. and a partner of Twilight Ventures, an
Indiana-based life science venture capital enterprise. He is
the former executive director of business development at Eli Lilly
and Company, served as president of the Guidant Foundation, was
president of Guidant Sales Corporation, is the former director of
Laserscope and helped co-found Suros Surgical Systems.
A 1970 chemical engineering alumnus, Baumgardt is also an
emeritus member of the Rose-Hulman Board of Trustees and former
chairman of the trustees' Rose-Hulman Ventures Affairs
Committee. He received an honorary doctorate in engineering
from Rose-Hulman in 2010, and serves on the advisory boards of
Butler University's School of Business and Purdue University's
School of Biomedical Engineering.
At Rose-Hulman Ventures (RHV), undergraduate students gain
invaluable experience in developing products for the
marketplace.
"The Ventures organization should be very proud of how they have
taken the tremendous education environment at Rose Hulman
and created an organization that can target that learning into
creating value in seed stage technology development," Baumgardt
said. "Rose-Hulman is a true leader in giving that training to
students at the undergraduate level."
Located at Rose-Hulman's South Campus, RHV takes educational
hands-on projects to a whole new dimension. It produces
solutions to industrial technology challenges, keeps intellectual
property with the client and maintains confidentiality.
"You are the D in R & D," Baumgardt told RHV student interns
attending the presentation. He went on to point
out that institutions operating under research grants tend to
hold on to products and projects way too long. From a
company's perspective this can actually be a disadvantage of
graduate research.
This is the advantage of RHV, with its ability to bring
lucrative products to market quickly, Baumgardt said. Making
his case, Baumgardt emphasized, "We're all going to be replaced in
36 months."
RHV, Baumgardt continued, allows a company investing in
development to "find out if it's not going to get paid, and move
on."
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Learning Lunch: Rose-Hulman
Institute of Technology students serving as summer interns at
Rose-Hulman Ventures had the opportunity to exchange ideas and get
career advice from James R. Baumgardt, who has had many
entrepreneurial success stories in the life science
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Baumgardt pointed out two of RHV's success stories.
Students and project managers helped put NICO on the threshold of
creating a major advancement in the field of neuro and spinal tumor
removal. The company is developing a device called Myriad,
which provides surgeons a minimally invasive method for removing
tumor tissue in the central nervous system, including the brain and
spinal cord. The device offers surgeons significantly more
control for delicate tissue shaving and drastically reduces
surgical procedure times.
Earlier, RHV and Rose-Hulman Ventures and Suros Surgical Systems
teamed up to develop the Automated Tissue Excision and Collection
(ATEC) breast system, a fully automated, minimally invasive,
tissue-removal system. ATEC has provided physicians with the
ability to biopsy and completely excise tissue in one simple step,
and making it possible for the procedure to be completed in an
office or outpatient setting.
"Rose-Hulman Ventures is doing remarkable things to improve
patient care," Baumgardt said. "I'm very proud of my
association with this program and admire the work being done by
students and project managers. Students are getting great
experiences at Rose-Hulman Ventures."
In this year's kickoff to the James R. Baumgardt Summer Speakers
Series, Baumgardt told the RHV summer interns to be boldly
confident in themselves and the education they're receiving at
Rose-Hulman as they step into their futures.
"Don't hesitate to think you're good. If you get out of
this place, you are (good)," he said.
Richard Stamper, interim associate dean of professional
experiences and professor of mechanical engineering, acknowledged
that Baumgardt provides the students, faculty and staff with great
insight into business, engineering, management and marketing.
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Rose-Hulman Ventures: Rose-Hulman student gets the
opportunity to be in on the ground level of new
advancement
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"We're honored to have Jim Baumgardt share his insights and
experiences with our student interns at Rose-Hulman Ventures,"
Stamper stated. "Jim has demonstrated the ability to create
technology driven businesses in the medical devices industry that
improve the care that patients receive. He has much to teach
anyone that wants to be innovative and create value in technology
based companies. We're lucky that he is willing to share that
with our students.
Other speakers in this summer's series will feature Claudia
Fritsche, ambassador of Liechtenstein to the United States, on June
22, and Wes Bolsen, chief marketing officer and vice president of
government affairs for Coskata Inc., a biology-based energy
company, on July 13.
Fritsche has been Liechtenstein's ambassador since 2000 and also
serves as the countries ambassador to the United Nations, a post
she has had since 1990. She began her public career as the
personal secretary of Liechtenstein's prime minister, from 1970-78,
and entered the diplomatic service in the Office of Foreign
Affairs.
Bolsen, a 2000 electrical engineering alumnus, was voted 57th on
Biofuels Digest's "Top 100 People in Bioenergy" and was recently
named top Chief Marketing Officer of companies with less than $250
million in revenue in the U.S. Coskata uses proprietary
microorganisms and patented bioreactor designs to produce
FlexEthanol, on feedstock flexible ethanol, to fuel energy
security, economic growth and environmental sustainability.
Learn more about RHV at www.rhventures.org.