Title:

NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

Speaker:

Mr. David Phelps

Affiliation:

CreoSalus, Inc.

When:

Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 11:00:00 AM   Add to Calendar

Where:

Ferst Center Building, Room Theater

Host:

The Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
information@me.gatech.edu

Abstract

This lecture will discuss the story behind the development of our Multiple Peptide Synthesizer – Tetras –

The story starts with a small pharmaceutical company presented with the opportunity to purchase a supplier out of bankruptcy. What could go wrong with this? Post purchase, running the supplier becomes more work than expected, due to equipment issues. This causes a series of events that leads to the development of a new machine that not only solves the internal issues but creates a new division of the company.

What does a mechanical engineer leading a group of mechanical engineers know about chemistry and chemical engineering? Frustration rises while a skilled team cannot run, fix, or maintain equipment. A new perspective on the synthesis of peptides leads to better purity, throughput, speed, and flexibility at reduced costs.

Biography

Mr. Phelps has served as President and CEO of CreoSalus since 2002. CreoSalus is the world’s most comprehensive peptide science company. For over 25 years, Mr. Phelps’ career has included significant management roles with large life science (medical device, drug and bio tech) companies as well as starting life science firms and serving on the scientific advisory board of a number of medical device firms. He is the founder and managing partner of Pollen Venture, a venture firm focusing on early stage life science technologies with over fifty million dollars under management. He was also the founder of MedVenture Technology Corporation, a firm specializing in the development of medical devices. He has developed more than fifty medical devices and has more than twenty-five patents issued or pending.

Mr. Phelps earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1981. He is also a graduate of the Harvard Business School, and of the Leadership Louisville Program. Upon graduation from Georgia Tech, he worked at Baxter Healthcare in various positions including product development and manufacturing engineering. Mr. Phelps left Baxter to manage product development and engineering for Medi-Tech, which grew to become Boston Scientific Corporation (BSC). His responsibilities grew to include external product development, engineering and manufacturing.

Mr. Phelps has been recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. In 1999 he served on the search committee to establish the biomedical engineering program at the University of Louisville. He served on the committee that formed the Greater Louisville Health Enterprises Network, whose purpose is to champion and foster the growth of the region’s health-related economy. He serves on the board of industrial advisors for Speed Scientific School of the University of Louisville Engineering School, for the Louisville Research Technology Development Forum, the Downtown Development Corporation of Louisville, the Louisville Science Center & Museum, and of Kids Tech.

Notes

Reception will follow in the Love Building 2nd floor atrium