Lawrence M Boyd, PhD
 

Dr. Boyd is a biomedical engineering educator, innovator and entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in the full product development lifecycle for orthopaedic and neurosurgical medical devices.  He has founded two medical device ventures - Orthoclip LLC and View Medical.  He brings a collaborative, entrepreneurial approach coupled with deep technical expertise to medical device companies.  From writing business plans to raising capital to delivering investor presentations to creating commercialization pathways, he has provided strategic and operational leadership that positioned the businesses to succeed. Beyond in-house development work, he has identified and captured acquisition and licensing opportunities that expanded and strengthened existing product portfolios of ventures, resulting in profitable and sustainable business growth.

 

Dr. Boyd has built a strong innovation track record of nearly 70 issued U.S. patents and has led the development of products with hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. From conception to commercialization to sustainment, he has worked with surgeons, engineers, attorneys, sales executives, and marketing leaders to design, develop, and launch products that impact the lives of both patients and providers. In addition, he has worked with multi-site teams to ensure development complied with regulations, risk and control procedures, and IP law.

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Background:

After receiving his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and MS degree in Bioengineering from Clemson University in 1989, he became product development group leader and engineer at Dow Corning Wright in Arlington, TN.  During his three years there, he developed implants for use in hands, feet, and knees. He then moved on to work for a small start-up company in Memphis that at the time was called Danek Medical (later Sofamor Danek). The company's focus was in an emerging arena for medical implants, spinal fusion. Dr. Boyd worked in the area of intervertebralbody fusion and artificial disc replacement.

 

He held positions of manager, director and group director, where he focused his efforts on research, development and commercialization of novel medical technologies. To further his leadership skills, he also enrolled in a Master of Engineering Management program that offered evening classes at Christian Brothers University. Medtronic later acquired Sofamor Danek and promoted him to vice president of product development.

 

Recognizing the growing importance of recombinant proteins, human tissues and other biologically inspired materials and potential for applications to spine, he started on his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University in 2000, working in the laboratory of biomedical engineering professor Lori Setton, PhD. He collaborated with Duke orthopaedic and neurosurgical spinal surgeons in research to elucidate the pathogenesis of spinal degeneration using a mouse model of disc degeneration. 

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Dr. Boyd received his PhD in the summer of 2007, and accepted a position as Associate Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke. In addition, Dr. Boyd was an adjunct professor for the Biomedical Engineering Department and the Masters of Engineering Management Program at Duke. While at Duke, he developed and taught classes in technology commercialization, risk management, engineering design, and leadership.  He established and led the DUHatch student business incubator, which served graduate, professional and undergraduate students.  After his time at Duke, Dr. Boyd moved back into a focus on medical device design & development and worked for a number of business ventures before his recent return to higher education.