Pioneers of the Medical Device Industry in Minnesota Oral History Project: Interview with Norman Dann

Titles: Pioneers of the Medical Device Industry in Minnesota Oral History Project: Interview with Norman Dann (Supplied title)

Description: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Norman Dann was born in Ohio. He graduated from college in Pennsylvania. He has headed his own medical device design and servicing companies, one of which was acquired by Medtronic. He worked for Medtronic after the acquisition. He has done consulting and administered venture capital funds. At the time of the interview he was working with several non-profit organizations. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Biography; schooling; family; education; his father's medical device and apparatus business; Norman Dann's experiences building, repairing and servicing medical equipment; the Dann Company; philosophy of customer service; sales representatives versus direct sales; ideas on improving sales; Medtronic; changes under FDA regulation; Xytron pacemaker; batteries; ramifications of technology leaps; benefits of technology control; impressions of Bill Chardack and others; consulting experiences; operations management; evaluating medical device firms for venture capital firms; experiences starting and successes and failures of three venture capital funds; local, regional and national competition in the medical device industry; experiences as a board member for various companies; involvement with non-profits; the regulation process; ideas on revising University and industry relations; thoughts on present state and future of the medical device industry and on Medical Alley.

Dates

• 06/26/1998 - 07/23/1998 (Interviews conducted 6/26/1998 and 7/23/1998.) (Creation)

Creation

• interviewer: Rhees, David
• interviewee: Dann, Norman

Identifiers

• Library Call Number: OH 87
• Accession Number: AV2001.104.5

Holding Type: Oral History - Interview

Project

• Oral History - Project, MHS Collection, project: 'Pioneers of the Medical Device Industry in Minnesota Oral History Project' <OH 87>

Quantity: 4 hours sound cassette 68 pages transcript

Format

• Content Category: sound recordings
• Content Category: text

Measurements

• 03:33:07 running time

Subjects

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