Egg Factory hires 1st COO
His presence will give other employees more time to
focus on new ideas and patents.
By DUNCAN ADAMS
They drafted him to help the team punch across the goal line.
Jim Currie, The Egg Factory's first chief operating
officer, already has adopted Ron Blum's penchant for
sports analogies. Blum is the company's president and
chief executive.
Currie joined The Egg Factory on June 4. He will
manage the company's day-to-day operations and help
shepherd its innovations - which the company refers
to as "eggs" - to market via Fortune 500
companies. Inventor Blum will have more time to focus
on new ideas and the protection through patents of
existing eggs.
"Sometimes you bring in specialists or players
to help you get into the end zone," Currie said. "I
believe my background in helping companies 'money-tize'
things they have will be very helpful to Ron and the
team."
In this reference, explained Currie, "money-tize" means
building alliances with Fortune 500 companies to take
The Egg Factory's eggs to market, thereby "extracting
value for the good work they've done here."
Currie's work history includes executive posts with
several Fortune 500 companies and the launch of one
of his own innovative ideas - Rapid Refund. The Chicago-area
native will soon move his family to the Roanoke Valley
from Illinois and Currie will leave with a partner
the reins of a consulting business Currie founded in
another Chicago suburb.
Blum and Currie met through a mutual friend earlier
this year, said Currie.
"Neither one of us was looking and sometimes
that's the best match," Currie said.
The timing was right, Blum said.
"This is something I've wanted to do for several
years and I've always felt it was important to the
company," he said. "I've been involved with
several companies and they reach a certain maturity
level. And if you don't have the proper management
team in place, you can't take the ball across the goal
line."
Last fall, Blum relied on football images to explain
that three of the company's eggs had moved downfield
and could score within 180 days. For The Egg Factory,
a score occurs when a Fortune 500 company buys or licenses
one of its innovations.
In December, The Egg Factory acknowledged it had
negotiated a licensing agreement with Johnson & Johnson
Vision Care that granted Johnson & Johnson exclusive
worldwide rights for the use of The Egg Factory's "eVision" electroactive
lens technology. The eVision technology would feature
a microprocessor-driven "intelligent" eyeglass
lens that can focus wherever its wearer looks.
It was The Egg Factory's first big score, but one
whose full financial yield will not occur until eVision's
technology becomes a proven commercial success.
Currie said at least two other eggs are within scoring
distance - EntryMate, which is a fancy and sticky floor
mat for household use that adapts clean-room technology
from industry; and, IntelliMat, which would offer "dynamic
floor advertising." Currie said EntryMate "is
being tested as we speak through direct marketing on
TV."
Blum said The Egg Factory has filed more than 200
patent applications and the company's "intellectual
property portfolio is just exploding." Currie
will help take a large load off the shoulders of Blum
and others at The Egg Factory, Blum said.
"No human being can manage the intellectual
property, develop the technology, manage the innovations,
raise capital and do everything that's going on here," he
said. "Jim is, without question, going to be a
tremendous asset to the company."
"I believe I can help these folks get on the
board," he said. "I'm trying to take the
organization to a level of consistent profitability."
The Egg Factory was founded in April 1999, about
two years after Blum sold Innotech, a former company,
to Johnson & Johnson. Blum said Currie's willingness
to join The Egg Factory and move his family to Roanoke
is a vote of confidence for both the Roanoke Valley
and the company.
"Momentum is the name of the game in growing
a young company like ours," Blum said.
THE ROANOKE TIMES
June 17, 2003
