The Med-Tech Talent Lab – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode, host Mitch Robbins interviews Mickey Brown, Vice President of Access and Reimbursement at Cerapedics, discussing his 30+ year career journey and insights on healthcare market access.

Key Highlights:

• Mickey shares his transition from 15 years on the payer side (Blue Cross, United Healthcare) to manufacturer roles at Medtronic, Cochlear, and now Cerapedics
• Learn how stepping outside his comfort zone at critical moments propelled his career forward
• Discover the biggest challenges facing market access professionals in 2025
• Understand common reimbursement strategy mistakes companies make and how to avoid them

Practical Takeaways:

• Why waiting too long to develop reimbursement strategy hurts product launches
• The key differences between director and VP-level thinking
• What makes an outstanding market access professional
• How to effectively engage with increasingly inaccessible payers

Whether you're in medical device sales, reimbursement, or aspiring to leadership roles in healthcare, this conversation offers valuable insights from both sides of the healthcare ecosystem.

In this episode of The Med-Tech Talent Lab, host Mitch Robbins sits down with Erica Logan, Director of Talent Acquisition at Sequel Med Tech, to discuss the biggest hiring pitfalls companies face—and how to fix them.

With nearly two decades in staffing and corporate recruiting, Erica has seen it all. From hiring at fast-scaling startups to navigating high-volume recruitment in MedTech, she shares hard-hitting insights on what separates a great hiring process from a broken one.

In this episode, we cover:

✔️ The most common hiring mistakes companies make (and why they keep happening)

✔️ How bad candidate experiences damage employer branding & long-term success

✔️ Why hiring managers need coaching—and how TA leaders should step up

✔️ The truth about AI in hiring and how it’s actually being used behind the scenes

Whether you’re in talent acquisition, HR, or leading a team, this conversation is packed with actionable takeaways that will help you attract, hire, and retain top talent in today’s market.

🎧 Tune in now to level up your hiring strategy!

#Hiring #TalentAcquisition #Recruitment #MedTech #Leadership

In this episode of The MedTech Talent Lab, host Mitch Robbins sits down with Mike Winterling, Chief Operating Officer at Junkosha USA. Mike shares his journey from spending nearly three decades at WL Gore & Associates to making the leap into a leadership role at a much smaller company, Junkosha.

He discusses the challenges of transitioning from a well-established corporate environment to a more agile, fast-growing organization, and offers valuable insights for leaders navigating similar changes. Whether you’re scaling a team or managing cultural differences in a global company, Mike’s experience offers a blueprint for building a high-performing team in a lean environment.

Tune in to hear about the importance of company culture, the impact of hiring right, and the adjustments needed when leading a small, dynamic team in today’s competitive marketplace.

So you just passed over a valued employee and chose to promote someone else.

How do you do immediate damage control to not lose this person?

How do you "comfort" them and give them hope for their future internally?

Adam Saupe and I take this head on and provide you with real-world, actionable strategies you can implement straight away.

Some highlights we covered:

-The power of empathy and validation

-Clearly explain why they didn't get the promotion, but what they need to do next to keep moving forward

-Double-down on engagement with them

-Reinforce your willingness to continue to provide them with mentorship

...and so much more

Many have labeled our guest today as a Talent Acquisition Visionary. Most recently he was recognized by CIO Views Magazine as one of the most influential leaders in the Talent Acquisition industry in 2022.

I'm referring to Mr. Doug Fauth, the Sr Director of Global Talent Acquisition & Development at Microvention.

MicroVention, founded in 1997, has pioneered the development of catheter-based, minimally invasive, neuroendovascular technologies. Doug joined the company in 2016 after working for companies like Ernst & Young, Broadcom Corporation, Activision-Blizzard, Life Technologies, and Southern California Edison (SCE).

At the start of his career, which now spans over 25+ years, Doug worked in a College & University setting where he was involved in career counseling and bringing companies on-campus to interview and hire current students, later transitioning to internal talent acquisition for organizations.

Some highlights of what we covered:

-Rising above the noise to get a company's message in front of talent and have it make them take action

-Doug's philosophy on Talent Branding and why it's so different from most

-Leveraging job postings as valued real-estate and breaking away from worn-out ways of writing them that don't work anymore

-An innovative way of communicating with your employees

-Doug's take on Employee Value Propositions and how to create one so that candidates will take note and want to speak with you!

...and so much more

Joining me on this episode was the VP of Quality Systems & Compliance at Roche Molecular Solutions, Ms. Michaela Hart. Michaela is a leader I personally have a lot of respect for. With her no BS style, she's led teams for the better part of 30 years for a variety of organizations, but primarily at Roche. She likes to go fast in business and in life being an avid race car driver!

She really works her butt off to empower teams while holding them accountable.

To help inspire other leaders, she wrote a book in 2015, "Let them Lead"..How to Command Less & Accomplish More (available on Amazon).

She's also in the process of writing a brand new book which we discuss during the episode as well.

-Hiring givers & firing takers

-Performance management, what exactly does this truly mean?

-Managing across multi-generational workforces and the key differences

-The importance of having a personal 'board of advisors'

-Michaela's upcoming book, "Let them leave"

...and much more!

Joining me for this episode was Mr. Tim Marjenin, VP of Neurology Regulatory Affairs at MCRA, the leading Medical Device, Diagnostics, and Biologics CRO with Integrated Clinical, Regulatory, Reimbursement, Compliance, & Quality services.

Prior joining MCRA, Tim worked for the FDA for 16 years as a Scientific Reviewer and then as a Assistant Director (Branch Chief) over the Neurostimulation Devices branch.

During this epsiode, Tim and I discussed:

-What he would want to ask prospective Consulting partners if he were the one choosing the Consultant

-What Tim thinks start-ups often get wrong when it comes to the timing of engaging a Regulatory Consultant

-How important is fee consideration when companies choose a Consultant

-The #1 factor that should be considered when choosing a Consultant or Consultancy Firm?

...and so much more!

I was so excited to host Duane Mancini, the Founder & CEO of Project Med-Tech, primarily because Duane and his team are adding so much value to the industry at large by way of the fantastic content they put out on a regular basis.

Duane hosts the Project MedTech podcast where he interviews leading experts in the Medical Device industry on a variety of topics related to major successes, pitfalls, and trends.

Recently, Project MedTech has morphed into a full-blown business of resources for Med-Tech startups at any phase the company is working through.

For over 10+ years, Duane has held a variety of roles in the Med-Tech industry (Chemist, Sr Technical Advisor, and multiple Business Development roles with companies like NAMSA and LabCor.

Duane holds his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Medicinal and Biological Chemistry from the University of Toldeo.

Some of the highlights we discussing during this episode:

-How Project Medtech support Startups and the resources they can provide

-How crucial it is to understand Regulatory, Reimbursement, & Commercialization and how each affects business decisions

-The most surprising feedback Duane has received from an Investor's point of view

...and so much more!

My special guest for this episode was Mr. Peman Montazemi, the Director of Engineering at the Medical Device company called Diality.

Peman is no stranger to formal education! He earned his Mechanical and Aeorspace Engineering degrees from the University of Virginia, his Masters in Biomedical Engineering from USC, and he is currently pursuing his Executive MBA from UC Irvine.

Over the last 15+ years, Peman has been earning his stripes working for various medical device companies like Advanced Bionics, Smith & Nephew, and others.

As I mentioned, today he is the Director of Engineering for Diality where he is responsible for building, traning, and leading a brand new team from the ground up.

Diality is a privately held, series B-stage medical device company with a mission to develop solutions that help improve the care and lives of patients with kidney disease. The company's vision is a future where its technology enables all patients and partners to control kidney disease.

Key highlights of what we discussed:

Rapid growth = the necessity for rapid new skill development, or in other words, rapid professional development

Layer 1 (A culture that is driven by leadership)

-Expectations, vision, goals, miletones, targets, etc.

Layer 2 (What do the individual teams need to accomplish?)

-Tools necessary, internal vs external resources, project criticality, etc.

Layer 3 (Personal skill gap)

-Why parts of Peman's formal education has helped him the most on the business front?

-What is he most excited about in the Internet of Medical Things space?

...and so much more!

I was honored to host Ms. Topaz Kirlew, a Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Integra LifeSciences, and formerly at Apyx Medical.

Topaz has over 25+ years experience in Quality and Regulatory Affairs across Biologics, Drugs, Medical Devices and Tissue/Cell Based Products. She's had the opportunity to work for a diverse range of businesses from very larger corporations like Danaher, specifically with Beckman Coulter, to small, yet rapidly growing organizations like Apyx Medical.

During this episode, we discussed various situations of Adversity that Topaz remarkably overcame to be the successful female Executive leader she is today.

Today, Topaz serves as a Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Integra LifeSciences where she is responsible for developing and implementing Integra's regulatory strategy while providing leadership over submissions, compliance, advertising and promotional review as well as product registrations across the product portfolio for all of Integra's products.

We discussed:

-Her early, formative years. Where she grew up, her family life, etc.

-How she got into the LifeSciences, and specifically Regulatory Affairs

-The challenges she faced rising up through the ranks as a woman of color

-Her perspective on the role and responsibilities of both a mentor and a mentee

...and so much more!