Ben O'Donnell

After receiving his Master's Degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Notre Dame, Ben started his career at Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics in the lab purifying antibodies and antigens for use in in-vitro diagnostics.  He earned a promotion to product developer and started his Six Sigma journey training to become a Design for Six Sigma Black Belt.  Next, Ben transitioned to Beckman Coulter working in production and R&D. Shortly after starting, Beckman was acquired by Danaher Corporation enabling him to learn the deep concepts of LEAN and the Danaher Business System.  This experience led him to take a full time Continuous Improvement role as a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Black Belt.  He became a certified LSS Black Belt at Ecolab and then received his LSS Master Black Belt certification from MoreSteam and The Ohio State University.  

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His experience goes beyond Research and Development and Supply Chain.  He has managed and coached projects in Human Resources, Legal, Regulatory Affairs, Quality, Environmental Health and Safety, Marketing, and IT.  He has deployed Continuous Improvement Programs to organizations and also lead Quality organizations through ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 deployments as a Director of Quality.  He has deep experience with Fortune 500 companies like Bayer, Siemens, Danaher, Ecolab, and Medtronic.  

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Personally, Ben has overcome significant obstacles to be where he is today.  In Feb 2020, Ben contracted COVID-19 on a business trip and ended up in the hospital.  He was the first critical COVID patient in the state of MN and the first in the United States to survive ECMO treatment while fighting COVID.  Not only did he survive COVID-19, but he completed an Ironman Triathlon in Nov 2020 while raising funds for COVID-19 research.  His motto of "Don't Stop, Don't Quit, Keep Moving forward" translates perfectly to our motto of being Better Tomorrow.