Howard Tam

My 25+ years of experience at 3M Company and Hill-Rom in different product development and commercialization roles can be leveraged to successfully achieve the goals of an organizations's product development and commercialization plans, particularly in global markets. I can help drive ideation, innovation and commercialization efforts at medical device and healthcare companies. I have experience working in a competitive global environment. I have worked in Singapore for 8 years, Germany for 2 years, and was responsible for the development of products for products targeted for the USA, Latin America, European, and Asian markets. I successfully started up Hill-Rom’s business and technical organization in Singapore, increasing the headcount from one to thirty over a period of 2 years.

While at Hill-Rom, I also headed up the Global Industrial Design group. The group was focused on projects in the hospital environment, which included products for the ICU, general medical surgical space, maternity, respiratory care, and ambulatory care. This involved working closely with health care providers to better understand their processes and ascertain their needs. We ran focus groups and ideation workshops with key opinion leaders and end-users. Keys output in this intimate customer engagement were customer process maps.

While at 3M, I supported the medical/hospital markets for over 10 years. This included support of hospital gown, medical dressings, sterilization and assurance products, hardware/software, and other disposables. The projects always included working closely with end-users and distributors to ensure that products commercialized met and/or exceeded their needs. I was also trained as a Six-Sigma black belt for DMAIC and design-for-six-sigma projects.

Also at 3M, I had responsibilities in the full breadth of R&D responsibilities, from primary research to product support to scale-up and product management of products.

Currently, I am an Instructor at Arizona State University (ASU), teaching courses in the Technological Entrepreneurship and Management (TEM) program using ASU’s online format.