Innovator in medical electronics

Minneapolis--California's Silicon Valley and Route 128 outside Boston are famous as hotbeds of invention and incubators of new companies. But during the 1970s and 1980s, new technology-based companies kept popping up in Minneapolis and St. Paul like baby bunnies in springtime. The Twin Cities then were a place where someone with vision and the willingness to run risks could put together a company and make it work.

In 1977, Don Maurer had been Director, Neurological Research and Engineering at Medtronic, the largest medical electronics firm in the country, for three years. His salary was in the range from $55,000 to $60,000--at the time quite a comfortable range. "He was a very inquisitive person," says Earl Bakken, who founded Medtronic in 1949. "He was eager, honest, professional, very anxious to learn. He's determined to succeed, a hard worker, good with people." When the company founder holds these views of you, your position is fairly solid. At 41, Maurer seemed well-established in a satisfying career with a fine company.

So he quit! Maurer wasn't satisfied at Medtronic, he decided to start his own business. "If you're too thoughtful, and you're too introspective, you're liable to decide to stay where you're at. But I always like to challenge myself. In a way, I tend to put myself in a bind where I have to follow through. And that's what I did when I started my own company," says Maurer.

Some people who knew and liked Maurer had their doubts about his decision to break away from Medtronic, though they wished him well. Dwayne Murray, a Medtronic engineer for 20 years, remembers when Maurer made the leap.

source-http://www.designnews.com/article/6123-Innovator_in_medical_electronics.php