MEDIA RESOURCES

 

CONTACT: communications@mail.cox.smu.edu

DALLAS, Texas (SMU) – As medical-product businesses emerge in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, few have seen success. To address the growing need in the medical product industry for education in profitable business practices, the Dallas Forum for BioMedical Technology (DFBT) and the MBA Healthcare Club at SMU’s Cox School of Business will present Profitable Medical Product Manufacturers: Secrets for Company Building, November 20, 2002, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the Cox School of Business.

The panel discussion will feature representatives from two of the nation’s award-winning medical-product businesses. Darlene M. Ryan, founder, president & CEO of PharmaFab, and Christopher G. Chavez, president, CEO & director of Advanced Neuromodulation Systems, Inc. will share their strategies for business success. Connie L. Luthy, Ph.D., MBA, product architect of Medical Product Innovation and founder of the DFBT will be the moderator.

“We are proud to be helping the Dallas Forum for BioMedical Technology bring these leading companies before the DFW business community,” said Jerry F. White, director of Cox School's Caruth Institute, founder of Southwest Venture Forum and advisor to DFBT. “Our Moderator and Cox School alumnus, Connie Luthy, works at the national and international levels and has done much to develop a sense of community in the local biomedical industries. I believe she will have an interesting story to tell the students, entrepreneurs and investors who attend this forum.”

HOW: For more information, contact Benita Stiggers at 214-981-3417. For registration and prepayment information, visit the DFBT website at www.dfbt.org. Admission is $30 for DFBT members, $40 for the general public. An optional tour of the Business Information Center and executive classroom facilities at SMU’s Cox School of Business will be available at 8:00 p.m.
In October, Forbes magazine recognized Advanced Neuromodulation Systems, Inc. as 79th of the top 200 best small public companies in the United States, reflecting solid revenue growth and increasing profitability over the past five years. In 2002, PharmaFab moved to number 88 from number 110 in Inc. magazine's 500 fastest-growing privately held companies in America and is a repeat winner of “The DALLAS 100” fastest growing businesses in the Dallas area. Darlene Ryan won the 2002 Women of Excellence Award presented by Women's Enterprise and the YWCA of Metropolitan Dallas and was, again, a regional finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
The MBA Healthcare Club at Cox provides networking opportunities within the local and national healthcare community. The Club aims to educate MBA candidates about career opportunities in the healthcare industries and to develop recruiting relationships between healthcare companies and the Cox School of Business.

ABOUT SMU’S COX SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
SMU's Cox School of Business offers a full range of business education programs, from BBA and full-time MBA to Professional MBA (PMBA), Executive MBA (EMBA), and Executive Education. The Cox School is the only school in Texas and one of only 27 in the United States to appear in rankings released by the six major publications that rank graduate business programs, including Business Week, The Economist, Financial Times, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, and The Wall Street Journal. In addition, the school's Business Leadership Center (BLC), Caruth Institute, American Airlines Global Leadership Program (GLP), and Associate Board executive mentoring program are recognized nationally and internationally.

ABOUT DALLAS FORUM FOR BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
The Dallas Forum for BioMedical Technology is an industry association for entrepreneurs and medical product development professionals located in North Texas. DFBT was founded in October 1998 with a mission to conduct regional forums to provide education and to facilitate communication, networking and support in the professional and technical aspects of medical product development. DFBT is a nonprofit organization managed by a volunteer steering committee, including DFBT founder Connie L. Luthy, PhD, MBA, Medical Product Innovation; Rodney Cooper, Esq, Sidley Austin Brown & Wood; Robert C. Eberhart, PhD, UT Southwestern Medical School; and Marcus Miller, Hybrigen Inc. Advisory Committee members are Stephen Fluckiger, Esq, Jones Day Reavis & Pogue; Barbara M. Fossum, PhD, IC2 Institute, UT Austin; Robert Kramer, MD, Decision Health; Thomas Kowalski, Texas Healthcare & Bioscience Institute; Sharon Venable, Greater Dallas Chamber; and Jerry F. White, Cox School of Business, SMU.