After graduating from West Point, Mike Minogue served in the military during the Gulf War. He then made a successful transition into the civilian world, now serving as the chairman and chief executive of Abiomed, a Danvers, Massachusetts-based company that manufactures what it calls “the world’s smallest heart pump” — but his fellow veterans are never far from his mind.
According to Shirley Leung of the Boston Globe, he’s on a mission to recruit 5,000 veterans into the field of life sciences by 2018.
Minogue isn’t just hoping veterans will join his industry on their own; he’s helped organize the MedTech and BioTech Veterans Program (MVP), which leads life science boot camps for veterans across the country, lines up corporate sponsors and connects former service members to mentors in the field. Minogue thinks veterans are especially qualified to work in the field because, “This industry is very mission focused,” he tells Leung. “It’s a mission to help patients. It’s global, it’s intense. There is a service element to it.”
The people at Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, an organization that oversees a 10-year, $1 billon-state funded investment in life sciences, think Minogue has a bright idea. Which is why they gave MVP a $50,000 grant to get started and another $50,000 to help them reach 1,000 veterans with the program.
Susan Windham-Bannister, president of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, tells Leung that MVP, “really creates pathways into the life sciences. We really saw this an opportunity to promote access and address a supply and demand issue.”
MORE: The Innovative Combat Medic Who Has Developed a Life-Saving Device for the Battlefield