Sarah Ptach, President and CEO of Canyon Labs, discusses her journey from professional sports and advertising to leading Canyon Labs, a company specializing in medical device and pharmaceutical testing. Inspired by her father's Parkinson's diagnosis, Sarah transitioned to healthcare to make a meaningful impact. She delves into her leadership philosophy, emphasizing the importance of trust, transparency, and collaboration in building a strong company culture. Sarah also highlights Canyon Labs' dedication to...
Sarah Ptach, President and CEO of Canyon Labs, discusses her journey from professional sports and advertising to leading Canyon Labs, a company specializing in medical device and pharmaceutical testing. Inspired by her father's Parkinson's diagnosis, Sarah transitioned to healthcare to make a meaningful impact. She delves into her leadership philosophy, emphasizing the importance of trust, transparency, and collaboration in building a strong company culture. Sarah also highlights Canyon Labs' dedication to elevating industry standards and ensuring patient safety.
Guest links: https://canyonlabs.com/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahptach/
Charity supported: The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research
Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen
Producer: Velentium Medical
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Episode 067: Sarah Ptach
[00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world.
[00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them.
[00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives.
[00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives.
[00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives.
[00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and today I am super excited to introduce you to my guest, Sarah Ptach. Sarah is the President and CEO of Canyon Labs, a leading provider of medical device and pharmaceutical testing, consulting, and sterilization services. She joined the company during a critical ownership transition with a clear goal in mind: to raise the standard of service in the industry and build a true end-to-end solutions partner. Drawing on her background in packaging engineering and testing, Sarah focused on expanding beyond packaging alone to create a more integrated, accessible, and expert driven experience for clients.
Sarah began her career in professional sports and advertising, but a desire to create more meaningful impact led her to the healthcare space after her father was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. She went on to help grow and successfully exit a packaging firm before bringing her vision and leadership to Canyon Labs. In addition to her role at Canyon, she co-leads Kilmer Innovations and serves on the board of the Medical Device Packaging Technical Committee of the Institute of Packaging Professionals. She remains deeply committed to advancing healthcare through innovation, expertise, and strong partnerships.
All right. Well, thank you so much for being here, Sarah. I'm so excited to welcome you to the show.
[00:02:05] Sarah Ptach: Likewise. Thank you, Lindsey. I appreciate you having me.
[00:02:08] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. Well, I'd love if you would start off by telling us just a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to MedTech.
[00:02:16] Sarah Ptach: Yeah. Thank you. So I'm Sarah Ptach. I'm the president of Canyon Labs. I have kind of an interesting story of getting into to medtech. I originally started my career actually in professional baseball. I was a contract negotiation person mainly for closing pitchers. And I ran track in college. I thought like, "oh, I wanna be in sports." And I like to say that's the most fun I never wanna have again. It was, it was a great start of a career. It teaches you a lot about negotiation, teaches you a lot about high stakes opportunities. But, you know, in the end it, it felt very kind of un unfulfilling in that perspective.
And so I had kind of then taken that into to marketing for a pretty big ad agency in Chicago and hit the same thing. I felt like I was-- you know, now I was just selling people stuff that they didn't need instead of promoting people that, you know, that make a ton of money in the sports industry. And at the time my dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and I wanted to feel like I was making a difference.
So I, I went back and got my MBA and my whole goal of that was really to, to use my skills to, to do something that makes a difference in people's lives. So, I had reached out to a really small medical device company and it's " I'm willing to make no money as long as we, we have a difference in a change we can make in the world." And at the time that company couldn't hire me but I ended up getting introduced to another company through that that was in medical device packaging validation. And that was the first dip of medical device that I had.
And that company's Packaging Compliance Labs. I was one of the first employees there and we grew that company until it sold a couple years ago. And through that, learned a ton about the medical device space. I kind of made it my personal mission beyond just my job to, to go try to participate in the industry as much as possible, push the status quo of things as much as possible, and really kind of learn where the testing realm or validation realm can make a difference in, in medical devices.
And so after that, I was given the opportunity to step in and run and grow Canyon Labs. And Canyon is a whole platform. So for me, it was taking the packaging knowledge that, that I love so much and making that a full service offering. You know, I had always dabbled in sterilization or heard about Biocom, but never really gotten my hands on it. And to be able to be that full service solution with Canyon has not only been a awesome offering to, to give to our clients to really be able to go A to Z, everything from your regulatory to your microbiology, chemistry, packaging, bio comp, and toxicology. But also a good learning challenge for me.
I thought that I was, you know, a pretty good packaging engineer and now learning chemistry and microbiology and toxicology, I'm like, "oh, wow. I'm definitely not as smart as I maybe thought I was originally," and I luckily have some amazingly intelligent individuals that, that work on our team, but it's, it's an awesome opportunity to, to not only get to help bring some life-changing medical solutions to market but also have a really good technical brain challenge every single day.
[00:05:26] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. Oh my goodness. I love that. And yes, I mean, sometimes I feel like actually, you know, not being the smartest person in the room is such a gift because then you get to talk to all these really cool people with really amazing experiences and learn. And I'm just one of those people who's constantly-- well, I'm curious all the time, so if I don't understand something, I'm like, "can you tell me more?"
[00:05:48] Sarah Ptach: Yeah. No I love that. I completely agree. I think that the better that you can be at facilitating conversations, the, you know, the more successful your organization will be. And it, I really think as the leader of a company it's less about being the, you know, smartest person in the room and more about being the facilitator of that collaboration.
[00:06:10] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I love that. So, okay, so going back in time a little bit-- so, so I know you started off with professional sports, which is really cool. Like what a, what an interesting, unique opportunity and experience and you know, you'll maybe never want that particular brand of fun again, but. I still love that you got to do it. And so I'm curious though, was that always the sort of planning goal for you? Or when you were trying to think about career paths and all of that, younger, what were you envisioning?
[00:06:39] Sarah Ptach: Yeah. I think I, I always envisioned myself as a leader. The packaging side of things became my kind of technical passion. But I mean, from a young age, I've always been the captain of the track team or the, you know, the head of any school organization I was a part of. So I always knew I, I wanted to be a leader. I think now, you know, being in that role, you, you learn so much about what different styles and brands of leadership is. I think, you know, to go back to your question about being the smartest in the room, I actually think that, you know, the CEO's job isn't to have all the answers. It's to create the culture where the answers emerge. And, you know, I've always wanted to be a leader. I've been passionate on that side, but I really think that the more, you know, more so than just having leadership pieces to you. It's about having that power to bring people together in that way.
[00:07:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. That's a beautiful way to put it. And I actually would love to dive into this more because I know creating a really positive, good company culture is really important to you, and it's frankly, easy to get wrong, unintentionally-- sometimes maybe it just is what it is, but like sometimes it's not a desire to create it, but it happens. So I'm curious, how have you really intentionally cultivated your current company culture, and where did those lessons come from?
[00:08:00] Sarah Ptach: Yeah. Deep question. You could answer that in a bunch of different ways and I could talk your ear off about lessons learned on that side. But I, I think the, you know, the most overlooked competitive advantage, both internally and externally is trust. Like the trust in your team to make decisions, the trust in your clients and even the FDA and your labs work. There's trust across it all. I think internally, from culture standpoint, it's have that trust in people and build, you know, people in a way that, that helps them feel most confident to, to make the decisions that they need to succeed.
You know, when we first started talking you, you asked if I have any kind of lesson learned stories and some, I dunno, harsh realities per se. I think one of the more difficult kind of lessons that, that I learned in the course of just being a leader, is knowing when you have a passion for someone and what passions they might have. And I stayed that in the standpoint that I'm a huge believer in people. I want them to be like the greatest version of themselves, and I want them to dream big and go big and, you know, sometimes that's not always what people want for themselves too. And it's, it's a tough reality somewhat to to come to at times.
But, you know, really finding what is the growth that people truly want. What is the environment that they want to live in, and how do you help foster something that, that meets the plethora of those ideals that you'll have across an organization is really important. But I think the, the culture I've worked really hard to foster at Canyon and frankly, my, my team fosters alongside me every day. This is by no means just a Sarah show on that piece. But it's a culture of trust, like I said, and it's a culture of transparency.
I always like to tell my team, "you know, when I ask questions or probe I'm not trying to get an answer or I'm not trying to, you know, question your way of thinking. I'm trying to understand so that I can be at the same table that you're at and we're not, you know, talking oranges and apples and not realizing it." And so I really try to make sure we foster an environment where there's collaboration, there's trust to have that collaboration. There's trust to have challenges made of each other without it being an inflection of, you know, disliking someone. And then creating that opportunity to ask questions and always stay inquisitive in a way that's meant to greater raise everyone up together.
[00:10:28] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that's a wonderful culture that you're cultivating and I love that. But I think you hit on something really key amongst all of the really great points you made, but one of them that really stood out to me was, you talked about how it's not just the Sarah show in this way. It's a whole group effort. And I think that is a critical component that sometimes is forgotten. Like we sometimes think, you know, it's the leader's sort of job or role or just is. It is their leadership. That sort of filters down into the rest of the company and we think it's like a top down way of doing culture, but culture is about absolutely everybody involved in the company. So I'm curious, how do you empower your team members or, and, or when a new team member comes in, how do you communicate, "Hey, this is who we are, these are our values," and make sure that it is a good cultural fit too.
[00:11:23] Sarah Ptach: Yeah. You know, we really at Canyon do a lot of things that are just small to, to reinforce and drive culture. We have these bracelets that you can earn, and what they mean is they're all of our company values and you can honor a fellow coworker for, for going above and beyond, or embodying teamwork or really showing integrity. And they get that read out in front of their whole department, and then they get a bracelet to wear proudly. So we do little things to to enhance our culture.
And then there's the more macro level pieces, and I think having a baseline understanding of why we all show up to work every single day. You know, it really is to empower life changing medical innovation, and it's to ensure that all the products on the market are not gonna hurt somebody and they are going to, you know, do what they're meant to do in a positive way. You know, if we can all show up with the basis of "everything I do every day is for patient safety," then I think the getting on board with the culture is a lot easier if we all have that base, like regardless of how your day goes, regardless of your email inbox going crazy, we all agree that, you know, patient safety is what we're here to do. And you know, how we can have fun along the way, support each other, do teamwork is just gravy on top of that. So I'd say it's starting with culture that gets that base level item. And once you get that, everything else is just working better together.
[00:12:48] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yes. And honestly, that's a great segue to my next question, but I was really-- I think you, again, honed in on something really critical and having everybody around a shared mission is so cool because that passion and that excitement and that " we're all in this together" and when disagreements or issues come up, which --we're human, they do-- then you can always go back to that shared mission and values of the work we're doing matters. We are all on the same side to provide value to our clients to ensure safety for our patients. So, I think that's a really key thing that you touched on there. Yeah.
[00:13:33] Sarah Ptach: Don't get me wrong. I mean, it's a difficult thing to, you know, to keep going on teams. We, Canyon, we did two acquisitions this year. And with that comes a lot of combining cultures, changing culture together, all getting on the same page. And it's not easy, bumps along the road, you know, I think showing that we're all on the same page and working and rowing in the same direction is a conversation I have every single week. And so it's something you can keep reinforcing. And I think it's stacking bricks. You don't just have a house, you gotta continually stack bricks on it. And everyone needs to be involved in saying, "yeah, I wanna be a part of this team and I wanna be a part of this shared mission." And it doesn't build itself overnight.
[00:14:19] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. So speaking and then mentioning back to that segue, 'cause I just didn't ask the question, but can you share more about Canyon Labs and the incredible work that your company is doing for this industry?
[00:14:34] Sarah Ptach: Yeah. Yeah. So like I said we're a full service contract testing and consulting firm within the medical device and pharmaceutical space. You know, a lot of the work we're doing is to help a lot of medical devices and drugs in their validation stage. So, you know, we're working through anything from, you know, designing your package to helping your sterilization strategy. You know, sterilization has been something I talked to, I've spoken on a lot this year. You know, it's a hot topic item in the industry. It's something that a lot of people are dealing with 'cause it has EPA implications as well as now tariffs affecting it as well as supply chain issues within it. So I'd say that's a division I talk to a lot and we help a lot of people navigate those.
But the underlying whole piece of Canyon is being that trusted lab partner and we're really trying to raise the standard of service in this industry. You know, I came into Canyon being on the other side of the table and sending samples off to get biocom tested or to go through their sterilization validation. And, you know, for me it was this baby I was sending off to be tested and I don't think I was always met with the best customer service or the best accessible expertise when I needed it. And so we, when we built Canyon, we really built it to, to change that. You know, I want our clients to feel like we're one phone call away for any question that they have. You know, we're not just gonna send them their samples back, say, "sorry, it failed. Let us know when you're ready to give us another PO." That, that transactional relationship is, it's a currency that I don't wanna participate in. And so we really saw it after changing that in the industry.
[00:16:16] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Excellent. Well, yeah and I love the fact that you were on that flip side and it could bring such a valuable perspective to the company and go, "okay, here's some lessons learned." You know, and you're always gonna get a mix of it, right? You're gonna get like, "Ooh, I don't know if this is how it should be or needs to be," and you're gonna go, "oh, but here's something that they did excellently." So to bring that very valuable perspective is really cool.
[00:16:40] Sarah Ptach: Yeah it's been fun. It's you know, in Canyon's infancy a couple years ago, we had the opportunity to come together with a lot of people from different experiences on our leadership team, and so it's-- as long as we all have the baseline humility to say "the way I did it in the past is not necessarily correct," you know, we could all come together and say, "here's what I did, here's what I did, here's what I did. Okay, let's pick the best of all worlds." So it it was a cool opportunity to have a lot of people with a lot of past experience come to a table that was completely, even in that standpoint.
[00:17:18] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Excellent. So I know that you are-- well, okay, so I took a look at your LinkedIn profile and had a wonderful time learning a little bit more about you, but I know you are involved so much. Like you are just, I don't know if you sleep because...
[00:17:35] Sarah Ptach: Sometimes.
[00:17:36] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. But the, I especially noticed, you know, you're a founding board member for thePACKout and you've done you're involved in a lot of different boards and groups and you're, it seems like you're just, you know, volunteering as kind of your heart and soul and serving in that way. And so I was wondering if you could speak a little bit about those opportunities that you're with too.
[00:17:55] Sarah Ptach: Yeah. I think, first and foremost, before any job or role or position I've ever held, I am baseline, a huge proponent of this industry. And, you know, going back to my original reason to be here, it was my dad having Parkinson's and Parkinson's doesn't have a lot of treatment at this point. And it was like, I hate that. So how do I participate in solving that? And I think being involved in the industry, the super cool part, especially about packaging, is there's so much room for improvement at this point. You know, a lot of the standards that we function off of, they are being improved on a yearly basis, but they weren't made that long ago.
So the, you know, the baseline ground zero is not that long ago. And I mean, there's people in the industry that are still in the industry that were there when they made ISO 11607. So it's, you know, it's, it's got a lot of room for improvement. I love how much the industry is trying to go back to patients now, and, you know, we're not just trying to design packages or devices that work well for, you know, me, the manufacturer, or me, the physician, but instead it, you know, really does consider patient comfort, patient safety.
So the, a lot of what you'll see of my involvement in the industry is related to patient facing parts of of standards. I'm part of the Kilmer Renovations and Packaging Group and specifically I lead the aseptic presentation group, which is meant to evaluate the way that healthcare technicians interact with packaging in a way to help reduce hospital acquired infections. You know, we used to only design packages as an engineer because it's the perfectly engineered package. And, you know, we didn't think about the nurse that's trying to open it and your perfectly engineered package is just way too hard for a nurse to open and the device goes flying across the room.
So it you know, we, we weren't considering those things. So our group is trying to correlate opening methods with types of packages and designs of packages. And we're trying to prove that with the different opening techniques that they teach in school for your surgical techs, your nurses, what is the best way for these different packages so that we can make that training and that design fit in the best way possible for positive patient outcomes.
So, it's, a lot of my industry involvement is passion based, but I'd also say that a lot of the industry problems they, they can't be solved by just one company and they can't be solved in a silo. So, you know, the only opportunity you get to get all these stakeholders at the same table are these industry groups. And it's unique, I think, to the medical device industry in general that a lot of us care beyond our day jobs. You know, it's like, "cool, this is my day job, but I genuinely, passionately care about the development of my industry. And so I'm willing to, you know, volunteer my personal time."
And I see that across the board every day. And it's really cool. I mean, you have people who have huge jobs at, you know, Johnson and Bausch & Lomb and Medtronic, and they're, you know, they're still willing to put their personal time on the table to advance the industry. So, yeah, all my industry involvement's pretty passion based, but it's the medical device industry and medtech industry is one that's super unique. A lot of people feel that personal passion.
[00:21:20] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And thank you for sharing a little bit more about your involvement and your passion for the industry. And I feel so similarly, I, you know, when I joined the industry now a few years ago, I remember having this just moment of getting to meet all these super cool, intelligent innovators that are just literally changing the world and thinking "how lucky am I to be here and play a small part in this big changing thing," and then getting to see exactly to your point, how passionate the people are in the industry and how it's not just a job, it's like a calling.
[00:21:59] Sarah Ptach: Well, I think the difference is, you know, in, in medtech, the origin or margin for error is not just financial, it's human. So where you have, you know, maybe your traditional job, you know, the margin of error is a financial impact. You know, the margin of error for people in our industry is human impacts, and that can be positive and negative. So it's hopefully the passion to make those more positively. So.
[00:22:24] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes, indeed. Yeah, so, you know, I love the impact your company is making and the industry itself, like you said, is just such a cool place to be, and I think it really does invite those kinds of passionate people who are willing to just kind of be evangelists in a way for the rest of the industry in some fashion and really moving things forward. But because of the impact that's made, I'm wondering are there any moments that really stand out to you as affirming that, "hey, I am in the right place at the right time, in the right industry."
[00:22:57] Sarah Ptach: Yeah. I mean, I definitely have some stories where you've-- without disclosing the details of a client-- but you know, you've been part of a launch that you watched that device go change the industry. I was a part of a company that was launching a, it's basically a, an organ transplant way of improving on how organs make it from, you know, the donor to the recipient. And it has improved patient outcomes tenfold to what they used to be. It's made it so that you could take, say, subpar lungs that used to not be able to be donated. And because of this technology, now it can, 'cause it, it has a way of it staying more intact while being transported.
And you know, you get involved in those projects and, you know, you might just be helping at a small portion of it, like the sterilization or the packaging or just the biocom testing. But, you know, you watch the outcomes of that and it's like, "wow. Like I, I did that." You know, I've talked to people that work in consumer product goods and, you know, their Super Bowl is seeing their package on the grocery store aisle. And, you know, my, my Super Bowl is seeing the product that you played a part in, reach the market and change the world. Like that's, it's so cool.
And to your point before you, you get to be in the room with such cool, innovative, smart people that came up with that product. I am, I'm honored to be the lab testing that is that silent backbone of medical innovation. But to be, you know, that trusted partner to, to get them to the finish line is a, it's a unique feeling, but it's really cool when you get to see a product that you played part of either touch a family member.
I've been in an operating room before where I was the one being operated on 'cause I tore my ACL or did something and all I'm doing is looking at all the packaging, like, "Ooh, I did that. I tested that." Such a cool experience. It's sometimes it can be concerning 'cause you're sitting there while your doctor's trying to tell you to just get ready for surgery and you're staring at all the packaging. But it's, it's an awesome round to be in.
[00:25:02] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh my goodness. I love that story so much. Yes. I mean, I could see that I, and I've talked to other folks who have similar experiences where they're, you know, they're kind of going along, something happens, they end up needing medical attention, or a family member does, and they go into the, to the hospital and they're like, "oh. I worked on that device" or "Oh, I did the cybersecurity for this one" or whatever, and just like how cool of a just full circle moment is that, and getting to watch in real time and in real life the impact that your work does. That is a huge honor and gift.
[00:25:34] Sarah Ptach: Yeah, I I really did tear my ACL and my, and I also broke my back at one point in time, but my back surgeon and I have a really cool relationship and I think it's half because I was probably the biggest pain in the butt patient, 'cause leading up to that surgery it was like, "what device is it? What's the sterilization modality? Tell me what testing they did on it." And I got very lucky. My, my surgeon, his name's Dr. Michael Glisi, he has played actually a big role in getting some better improved medical devices to market both with Globus and with Arthrex. And now he plays a role in training other surgeons on how to best use those medical devices and technology.
But it was such a unique relationship to get with him 'cause he's uniquely involved in the industry. So I think he, he maybe tolerates my 9 billion questions better than the average surgeon that just wants to operate on you and see you off. But it was a cool experience to get to, to have that relationship with him now after surgery and watch the impact that, that he's making on the industry as a surgeon too. So I think all stakeholders in this industry hold different areas of importance too.
[00:26:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Oh my goodness. Yes. And, yeah, I could talk about all of this for days and I'm loving this conversation, but I am gonna pivot it, just for fun. Imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want, could be within your industry, but it doesn't have to be at all. What would you choose to teach?
[00:27:13] Sarah Ptach: Ooh, that's a good question. I do think I would teach it on people leadership. You know, I, i've been in a lot of different roles and scenarios of people, leadership, especially through acquisitions, seeing, you know, the good, bad and ugly of what other folks do. And I've been really fortunate to have a lot of different mentors in my career that took very different leadership strategies. And I'm by no means saying that I'm the perfect people leader, but I think-- I can tell you a lot of different options and why they do and don't work.
So if I was to teach a masterclass it'd probably be in that and I'd be heavy on the transparent leadership side. I'd be heavy on fostering a culture of people that are comfortable talking about issues. And it's not a easy thing to balance, I think with also driving, you know, the work product of the business and the financial success of the business. But being able to marry that, to marry, you know, having a great people culture and having, you know, people that, that love being a part of your company.
It, to me, it is the most important part of actually driving your financial success of your company too. And I don't think a lot of people correlate that. You know, they think "I'm the ultimate financial driven CEO. I am the gross margin king." And, you know, " I'm driving my shareholder value." But I really think that, while all that is important, it starts with the people and the more you can get people to care about what they're doing beyond just their job, the more that the natural effect is improved gross margin and better financials. So the masterclass I'd probably teach is how to combine positive people, environment, and culture with good company financial success.
[00:29:07] Lindsey Dinneen: Ooh, okay. That's a very powerful masterclass I wanna go take so, so sign me up for that, for sure. That's incredible. Yeah. And you have so much advice and insight and I could just tell, like, again, we could probably talk about this for hours and be very happy, so, yeah, I love that. Okay, and then how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world?
[00:29:30] Sarah Ptach: Yeah. Someone that, that cared deeply about the industry and was willing to to give it my all. You know, you, you jokingly said, "when do you sleep?" I'd argue not a lot, but it's because I love it. Like it's 'cause I love what I'm doing and if that means I'm gonna sacrifice some sleep to make sure the thePACKout is an awesome conference or the, you know, KIPP aseptic presentation team has what we need to change a standard or Canyon, you know, do something better and greater, I'll do it all day long. So yeah, I'd like to be remembered as, at the end of the day, she just really cared. And she was in it 110% at all times.
[00:30:12] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. That's a beautiful legacy. Yes, absolutely. Okay, and then final question, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?
[00:30:23] Sarah Ptach: Oh, I love that one. I think someone realizing that the solution to the problem that they came up with was truly right and the solution. And it's like you worked through it yourself. You made it through maybe the hard parts of that decision making, but then you executed and hot dang, it worked. Like that is such a cool experience, especially when it's someone's first time ever having like the leadership role of solving a problem or, you know, the project manager role of solving that problem. It's super cool 'cause you get to watch someone's thought process play out. You get to watch where they see the pros and cons of their decision or the faults that could occur. And then you get to watch 'em navigate that, and then it succeeds and it's like, "hot dang, you did it." It's great. I love that. So that's probably something that makes me smile the most is when someone sees, their true potential being achieved, and they get to see it in the form of something as tangible as solving a problem.
[00:31:22] Lindsey Dinneen: That is awesome. I love that so much. Oh my goodness. Well, this has been such an amazing conversation. I'm so thankful for you and for you being willing to share some of your time with me and with our listeners. So thank you so much for all the work you do, and thank you for being in the industry, being passionate about this industry and for being a change maker too, in the way that, you know, companies can operate and be successful. And we don't have to think about it just in terms of financial success, but we talk about it in terms of cultural success too. And so, I just really appreciate your perspective, so thank you for all the hard work you're doing to change lives for a better world.
[00:32:02] Sarah Ptach: Thank you. Yeah, thank you, Lindsey. And likewise what you do. It's awesome to see you highlighting some of the stories in the industry and bringing together really good conversations like this. So thank you.
[00:32:11] Lindsey Dinneen: Awesome. And we are so honored to be making a donation as a thank you for your time today to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson's today. So thank you for choosing that organization to support. Again, thank you so much and thank you also to our listeners for tuning in and if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I would love it if you would share this episode with a colleague or two and we'll catch you next time.
[00:32:49] Dan Purvis: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium Medical. Velentium Medical is a full service CDMO, serving medtech clients worldwide to securely design, manufacture, and test class two and class three medical devices. Velentium Medical's four units include research and development-- pairing electronic and mechanical design, embedded firmware, mobile app development, and cloud systems with the human factor studies and systems engineering necessary to streamline medical device regulatory approval; contract manufacturing-- building medical products at the prototype, clinical, and commercial levels in the US, as well as in low cost regions in 1345 certified and FDA registered Class VII clean rooms; cybersecurity-- generating the 12 cybersecurity design artifacts required for FDA submission; and automated test systems, assuring that every device produced is exactly the same as the device that was approved. Visit VelentiumMedical.com to explore how we can work together to change lives for a better world.
