Velentium Leaders

Albert Rodriguez is Velentium’s Technical Director of Human Factors Engineering (HFE). One of his early projects out of school was in robotics, designing a system that trained astronauts to operate a robot arm in space. The training took place in gravity, but the software and mechanics of the training system had to mimic zero-gravity behavior. After that project, “I surrounded myself with books and learned everything I could about HFE,” he recalls.

Asked what drew him to Velentium, Albert says that “Software is everywhere, helping run everything. I never wanted to use my skill set in the service of anything that could potentially cause harm. Velentium’s passion to Change Lives for a Better World through medical devices is a natural fit.”

Albert loves anything outdoors - the wilder the better. Kayaking, fishing, hunting, competitive sailing, cycling, nature photography… anything that takes you “out”. 

Experience & Recognition

• BS in Software Engineering from University of Houston
• Has a passion for professional mentoring, especially in Human Factors Engineeering
• Been with Velentium since 2020

Dan Purvis is Velentium’s Co-Founder and CEO. His career began at National Instruments in Austin, TX and then Ann Arbor, MI. Then, he started a branch of the consulting company Optimation Technology in Houston, TX. After growing Optimation for 14 years, Dan joined Tim Carroll to start Velentium.

“Leading an intensely culture-forward organization in the corporate world affords moments of human connection that are my favorite aspect of the job,” Dan says. “We get to build these longstanding relationships that meld the professional with the personal. It allows all of us – staff, partners, clients, and executives – to be fully human in our work, to let loose and productively channel our whole passion to change lives for a better world.”

Dan loves to ski, hike, and read. And he is fiercely competitive: “If there is a winner and a loser, I’m in!”

Experience & Recognition

• B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University
• MBA from Rice University
• Co-founded Velentium

Darrow Gervais is Velentium’s Director of Test Systems Engineering. His interest in medical devices started at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital, Baton Rouge LA where he worked for 7 years as a Biomedical Equipment Repair Technician while an undergraduate at LSU. After finishing college, he accepted a position at Stryker Corp. in Kalamazoo, MI where over the next 9 years he worked in various AME and R&D roles across the Instruments, Leibinger, and MedSurg Divisions. His next career move was to Cyberonics (now LivaNova) in Houston, TX where he developed his passion for test engineering. After 16 years leading the development, deployment, and support of the automated test solutions for every active implantable device in LivaNova’s portfolio, Darrow joined Velentium as the SME for all things test.

Asked what aspect of working at Velentium he most valued Darrow replied, “being part of an organization where ‘Honorable’ and doing ‘Right for Right’s sake’ are more than words in a corporate value statement; where decisions are based not on profits, but on the fundamental principles of right and wrong.”

Darrow enjoys hiking, birding, and as an avocational paleontologist is a published co-author in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

Experience & Recognition

• B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Louisiana State University
• His professional interest in medical devices turned personal when his youngest daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes
• He has been with Velentium since 2023

Egui Cruz is our technical director for manufacturing process engineering. He started in pre-med before switching to Mechanical Engineering. During his 27+ years of experience, he has worked in the medical device, pharmaceutical, and electronics industries – with tenure at Guidant, Hewlett-Packard, Baxter, Fenwal, Maquet Cardiovascular, Boston Scientific, Cyberonics, and Livanova.

Egui is a people-oriented family guy who loves Velentium’s vision of having 1,000 families. His deep and instinctive care for others leads to serve everyone who needs him.

Egui loves to plan and go on humanitarian mission trips. He also enjoys family time on the beach and visiting new places around the world.

Experience & Recognition

• Magna Cum Laude graduate from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus
• Subject matter expert in new product introduction, process development and controls
• Experienced with design for manufacturability, lean manufacturing, project management, validations, and quality

Garrett Schumacher is the technical director for cybersecurity. His entire career has focused on the intersection of medtech/biotech and cybersecurity since his early days as a geneticist, and he has extensive experience training technical and nontechnical graduate students and professionals in cybersecurity, often traveling around the globe to do so. He is passionate about serving customers to improve their security postures, ultimately for the benefit of patients everywhere.

Garrett’s loves Velentium’s engagement in bringing new, high tech medical solutions into reality. He says, “I am learning daily by working on challenging and impactful problems with really great people."

Garrett enjoys solving problems even outside of work – his primary hobbies are rock climbing, wood working, model building, and spending time with family.

Experience & Recognition

• MS in Genetics from CU Boulder and MS in Cybersecurity from University of Denver
• Teaches graduate-level Embedded Cybersecurity course at CU Boulder
• Experience founding and advising tech startups

Mario Garcia serves as Velentium’s VP of Manufacturing. He brings over 22 years of experience in the medical device industry. Prior to Velentium, Mario has worked for CR Bard, Integer, Avanos, and B. Braun.

Mario’s personal values of accountability, integrity, and honesty align with the company’s values of Honorable, Results++, and Humble Charisma. He says, “Everyone at Velentium knows our Core Values, and every single action from top to bottom is driven by adhering to those values.

I love what I’m doing. I love and enjoy working on medical devices. Every single thing I’m doing is going to help a patient, who could be my friend, a family member, or a neighbor—and that is really meaningful to me. A device I help manufacture could save lives so that those people can get back to what matters most—their families.”

Mario enjoys coaching soccer and attending games, playing with his kids, and being outdoors.

Experience & Recognition

• B.S. in Electronic & Industrial Engineering from the Technological Institute of Chihuahua
• Has led multiple international and multi-site manufacturing operations of class I, II, and III medical devices and products
• Been with Velentium since 2023

Satyajit “Sat” Ketkar is the Director of Systems Engineering at Velentium. His 20-year career includes electrical, firmware, software, and systems engineering experience, including two years with a European Union notified body conducting medical device reviews and audits for safety, quality, performance, and security.

Sat explains that corporate culture is both what attracted him to Velentium and what forms the basis of Velentium’s competitive advantage. “Honesty and transparency are part of being Honorable,” he said. “We do right not because it’s a ‘rule’ written on a piece of paper. We do it because that’s who we are. We go above and beyond. Internally, our culture reinforces your desire not to let your team down.”

Sat is an avid reader and strategy board game player who loves the Astros and the UofH Cougars. 

Experience & Recognition

• B.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Houston
• MEng in Computer Engineering from the University of Houston
• Been with Velentium since 2019

Scott Armstrong is the Technical Director of Electrical Engineering at Velentium.  He began his career at Intermedics, developing implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICD) and managing the Advanced Technology Group.  Scott then worked in St. Jude’s Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM group) after Intermedics was acquired, before returning to Texas where he was the Director of Engineering at Cyberonics, responsible for Hardware, Firmware, Software, Mobile, and Labeling at various times.

As the CTO and VP of engineering at MicroTransponder, he helped specify the products, then work with internal design as well as contract design and manufacturing firms to develop a product that was successfully taken through clinical trials, FDA approval and commercialization.  

In addition to his experience in implantables, Scott also has several years’ experience at Smith and Nephew, Dentsply and Seno Medical developing endoscopic surgical, radio frequency ablation, dental, and medical imaging equipment.

Scott says “I enjoy the fast-paced development and wide variety of medical products that we work on at Velentium.  Doing work that helps to improve people’s lives has always been a passion of mine, and motivates me (and others at Velentium) to continuously give it are all.”

Scott enjoys playing tennis, pickleball and just about any sport as well as time with family.

Experience & Recognition

• B.S. and MS in Electrical Engineering, specializing in Biomedical Applications, from Purdue University
• 30+ Years Medical Device development experience
• Problem solver and Inventor, with 20+ patents

Swati Bhakta is a Program Director at Velentium. She has 20 years of experience designing and developing medical devices. Swati began her career at Ascent Healthcare Solution (later acquired by Stryker) where she worked on class II electromechanical devices.

Velentium is uniquely located in Houston, TX, which is centrally located to the large medical device companies on the East Coast, the West Coast, and the Midwest. She loves Velentium’s wide range of expertise in medical device design, development, and manufacturing (including Cybersecurity and medical device mobile development). She says, “It’s the talent at Velentium that brings our clients’ ideas to full commercial reality.”

Swati loves to travel and spend time outdoors with her kids.

Experience & Recognition

• BS in Bioengineering from Arizona State University
• MS in Medical Device and Diagnostic Engineering from USC
• PMP Certified

Terry Daglow serves as Velentium’s VP of Advanced Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering. Terry began his corporate career at Medtronic, followed by Intermedics Inc., Sulzermedica, ANS, and St. Jude Medical before pursuing independent interests and professional consulting. Terry’s expertise and ingenuity have been applied to a broad range of disciplines and product lines including cardiac rhythm management (pacemakers/defibrillators and peripherals), pain and spasticity (drug pumps), neuromodulation (spinal cord stimulation, deep brain stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation), hearing loss (implantable hearing device), CMF and orthopedics (single-use surgical tools). He holds fifty-five US patents, with a additional patents pending.

Medical devices is something Terry must do because “once you see a device you created helping someone in real life, it’s addictive. I have to create.” He joined Velentium to pursue his life-long interests in improving the quality of life for patients by increasing awareness and accessibility to superior technologies. 

Terry enjoys teaching his granddaughter how to swim (“she’s doing great!”), traveling (especially hanging out on beaches with a fruity rum drink), going to the rodeo, hunting with his son, and inventing things. 

Experience & Recognition

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Western Michigan University
• Holds fifty-five US patents, with additional patents pending
• Has been with Velentium since 2020

Tim Carroll is Velentium’s Co-Founder & President. He started his career at Intermedics working in test engineering - but was very active in other areas including tachycardia R&D, bradycardia R&D, integrated circuit design, and manufacturing engineering.

After Intermedics was purchased by Guidant (now Boston Scientific), Tim joined Dan Purvis at a technical services company. Initially, many contracts were for medical device testing, but as the division continued to grow, it expanded beyond testing and into device development. Then, in 2012, Tim left to launch Velentium with Dan, focused on building out a world-class medical device design and development firm.

An influential moment in Tim’s career happened early on while he was at Intermedics. He learned that a close friend of his was not only 100% dependent on a pacemaker, but had recently been outfitted with a model that Tim and his team had helped bring to market. This reinforced Tim’s passion for wanting to positively impact as many people as he can – and he started Velentium with Dan to make more of a difference: one device at a time.

Tim enjoys all outdoor activities, especially hiking and camping, as well as traveling internationally for both work and pleasure. 

Experience & Recognition

• 30 years of experience working in active implantable design, test, and manufacturing engineering
• His passion for medical devices is what led Velentium to the industry 
• Co-founded Velentium with Dan Purvis

Travis Bird is Velentium’s Chief Financial Officer. Travis has enjoyed a robust career in finance and public accounting for over 20 years. He began his career as an entrepreneur (he operated his own painting business in college). He has held various financial and operational roles within various emerging growth organizations. Travis has been the operational CFO for various venture capital/private equity-backed growth companies, has built multiple finance and accounting organizations, and has been responsible for the international expansion of a product sales business.

When weighing a new career opportunity, Travis evaluates three things: the people, the organization’s vision and purpose, and if the job will be both engaging and challenging. Velentium easily checked all three boxes. He believes that “Velentium separates itself from its competitors by its culture and speed.”

Travis enjoys anything that takes him outside to be active. 

Experience & Recognition

• B.S. in Corporate Finance from Brigham Young University
• M.S. in Accounting from University of Notre Dame
• Is a licensed CPA