Invitation to: Business‐Engineering‐Technology Students/members of Auburn Student Inventors Club Lecture Time: 10:30 AM, Sept 30 Location: Room 402; Lowder Business Building Invitation to: Business‐Engineering‐Technology Students/members of Auburn Student Inventors Club Speaker Mr. Mark Forchette, President and CEO Executive‐in‐Residence, College of Business Auburn University, AL Mark J. Forchette, President and Chief Executive Officer of OptiMedica, has twenty six years of experience in ophthalmic sales, marketing and business unit management and he joined the company in 2007. OptiMedica Corp. is a Silicon Valley‐based global ophthalmic device company dedicated to developing performance‐driven technologies that improve patient outcomes. Founded in 2004, OptiMedica is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., with international offices in Singapore. In his role as CEO, he led the company to transform the retina photocoagulation market with its PASCAL (Pattern Scanning Laser) technology, ultimately resulting in the treatment of 750,000 patients and the delivery of more than 30 million patterns to patients in 40 markets around the world. Mr. Forchette also led the company’s series C and D financing efforts, as well as the recent sale of the retina and glaucoma business to Topcon Corporation of Japan in August 2010. Now exclusively focused in the cataract therapeutic area, the company is funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Alloy Ventures, DAG Ventures, BlackRock Private Equity Partners and Bio*One Capital.
Immediately prior to OptiMedica, he served as Vice President of Global Marketing and Sales for the Alcon vitreoretinal business unit. In this position, he led the vitreoretinal unit through a period of substantial portfolio enhancement, commercialization success and significant market share increase. Prior to Alcon, Mr. Forchette was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Grieshaber & Co., Inc., where he led the privately held Swiss company's domestic operations from a small US market presence through major infrastructure and revenue expansion. Grieshaber, which was acquired by Alcon in 1998, remains a significant contributor to Alcon's successful vitreoretinal products portfolio. Mr. Forchette received a B.S. in Marketing from Auburn University and completed the Harvard Program for Management Development in 2003. Mark is married to the former Addie‐Marie Ossi, and Mrs. Forchette holds a Bachelors degree in Aviation Management from Auburn University. She was previously Area Vice President of Post Properties in Atlanta, GA. The Forchettes have two children, Alexis 17 and AJ 15, and currently reside in Los Gatos, CA. When he is not focused on building OptiMedica, he is an active father, avid automobile enthusiast and guitar player.frequently backing up his daughter in her performances as a singer. Topic We are in the midst of launching an incredible breakthrough technology for cataract surgery……..this is
truly crunch time as we prepare to launch it on October 14th in Chicago. It might be interesting for
them to hear about the best practices we have utilized in designing, developing and executing this
project. Since it is a medical device, there is a complicated series of interrelated activities that are very
interesting to consider. I could walk them through that thought process.
I would like to spend a few minutes to tell them some “things that I wish I knew when I was 20.” That
would not necessarily be financial advice, but more career oriented advice about what to expect and plan
for in their future.