Hector Aguilar Joins ViVitro Labs as Business Development Manager

Hector Aguilar
Business Development Manager

Hector Aguilar joined ViVitro Labs as Business Development Manager for North, Latin, and South America, Australia and New Zealand in January 2024. Prior to joining ViVitro Labs, Hector was Business Development Manager for Element Materials Technology, one of the world’s leading global providers of testing, inspection, and certification services for a diverse range of products, materials, and technologies in advanced industrial supply chains. Hector joined Element as an On-Site Sales Application Engineer, rising to Senior Sales Application Engineer before becoming the Business Development Manager.

Based in Portland, Oregon, Hector’s experience also includes Test Engineer at Cascade TEK, Laboratory Technician at Curtiss-Wright Corporation and 5 years in the US Army.

Karim Mouneimne, President of ViVitro Labs, welcomes and interviews Hector in a short discussion on Hector’s background and the experience he brings to medical device testing.

Karim: Hector, my goal is to introduce you to our customers that need engineering support, to test cardiovascular devices or, conduct research in this field.

Hector: Being part of this organization has been very much fulfilling.

Karim: You have a degree in electrical engineering. From laboratory technician to business development manager at Element that also acquired Cascade Tech. You bring a solid 15 years of experience and testing to the ViVitro Labs. Tell us a little bit about your background and what drives you. What’s your passion?

Hector: I always make a joke that was one of the first places where I started doing testing. I was more of a guinea pig, but I realized it was something that I wanted to be involved in. I was a mechanic in the military. Shortly after getting out of the military, I joined, Curtiss-Wright, who the manufacturers pedals and on sensors. And that’s actually where I started my testing experience.

I transferred as a test engineer into Element, who bought out Cascade Tech. I grew the corporate ladder there started doing testing for customers in aerospace and defense. Then I moved into a sales applications room and just transpired into business management as I was communicating with our customers on a daily basis.

Karim: I like this mixed of, hands on experience where you started in the lab. You really understand what it takes to set up an experiment, what it is to have a robust scientific plan, what it is to have a method that is validated. And then you slowly moved on to far more interactions, one on one with customers. I think that’s something that serves you well in the field.

Hector. I think with medical devices, one of the bigger things is going into the process of in-depth protocols to help and understand exactly what we’re getting into and where we need to go and help our customers. For the most part, what I’ve seen so far testing can be something as simple as one year, all the way up to five years, just depending on where clients are in the grand scheme of feasibility, verification and validation. One of the biggest, differences I see is that most of the time, feasibility is definitely needed. And then obviously we’ve got to go through verification and validation.

Karim: So very, very true. We are trying to de-risk the device development process, but also de-risk the testing aspect as well. Just jumping into the validation test study directly, when you’ve forgotten or overlooked some important aspect is not going to serve our customers very well. You don’t want to fail a validation study. That’s the worst time to do it. It’s very costly and taxing from a time point of view.

You have a special perspective on testing that I don’t even have myself. You understand aerospace, defense and the digital and the medical device industry. How will this background help your customers in the field in the medical device industry?

Hector:  Usually, we’ll meet a customer, and they go straight to the point of what is needed. But finding out what is behind that need is a process. Even with aerospace, and for medical devices specifically, there’s a quality management system that needs to be brought into attention.

Bringing that to the forefront from aerospace to medical and my background specifically, I can really understand what you’re going through, what the process is from design all the way to  the production line. That’s one of the things that I bring from my testing side all the way to the commercial side.

Karim: I agree, it’s sort of a bit of a discovery process in the end, right? What recommendations would you give to a customer on how to conduct studies or do research?

Hector: Come with questions. Being open minded is the most important recommendation. Whether in a meeting or in email, just be fairly open and let us know what you need. By having open transparency and communication we can work with you and then we can both be successful. I think that’s the end goal.

The vision statement that I have is customer satisfaction. I want to make sure our customer is satisfied. I want to make sure our customers reach their goals.

Karim: This is great. You know, I think it’s not a matter of just picking up an off the shelf solution or test and applying it blindly.

I think for us, it’s really about creating and delivering to our customer, whatever is required to be to meet their needs, whether it’s something off the shelf or complex and never been done before.

About ViVitro Labs

Trusted partner for scalable and modular test equipment and testing solutions through continuous innovation and regulatory expertise that de-risks the cardiovascular device development process through repeatable and reproducible validated test methods. Hundreds of organizations in over 40 countries for 40+ years have trusted ViVitro expertise, reliability, and quality in testing heart valves, LVAD, interventional devices, stent, and stent-graft.

ViVitro Laboratory Services have two ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratories (see our ISO 17925 scope of accreditation for Marseille, France and Victoria, Canada). ViVitro Labs products are manufactured by StarFish Medical in Victoria, Canada. https://vivitrolabs.com/