Bruce RippeFounder

United States - Batesville, Indiana

During my professional career I have thrived on problem solving whether it was changing 100+ year old corporate culture, developing new products for new markets, revamping outdated processes, it is all about building and motivating a dedicated team. I have found networking and collaboration are key to developing ways to solve challenging problems. Whether it’s battling industry leaders for market share or staffing /labor shortages the solutions often just takes tenacity to bring them to resolution. I spent most of my career leading a mid-sized furniture manufacturer making residential and hospital furnishings through a complete overhaul of manufacturing process, product line and distribution to gain market share with all the ups and downs of cyclical economies that eventually led to consolidation in the industry and later outsourced to the China. We reduced manufacturing lead times from months to days while offering the customer more options. During my career I also have done many financings from many different markets some very simple while others very complex, starting my career in a bank credit department came in handy.

Millions of people get hospital acquired infections each year causing co- morbidities and mortalities. Many of the infections originate from the hospital patient environment. Beds are one of the highest patient /caregiver touchpoints and a vector of hospital acquired infections. My team and I are solving the issues of re-processing hospital beds between patients. Hospital beds and mattresses were listed in the top ten technology concern by ECRI in 2018 and 2019, the FDA issued a safety advisory in 2017 about failed healthcare mattresses. Over the last ten years we developed the Soteria bed barrier, proved that it works through clinical trials and that it is better than the current processes hospitals use to re-process beds between patients. Trinity Guardion is the first mover in this important category. This year we started manufacturing the product, building a sales force and will soon have some exciting news to share on the regulatory front.

I have served on many boards and been active in community planning and development ( thirteen years on a hospital board). I have always learned from those situations both personally and professionally and each experience taught me to look at problems through a different lens allowing me to apply those learnings. I have had the opportunity to learn a lot from others through these activities.