Technology

Item Description

(Robert N. Schmidt is donating one hour of his time to the winning bidder.)

Mr. Robert N. Schmidt is the founder and chairman of Orbital Research Inc. and president of Cleveland Medical Devices Inc., both of which were started in 1990. He received his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering (70) and his MS (71) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY; his MBA (75) from the Univ. of Utah, and his Juris Doctor (80) from Cleveland State University. He is a licensed professional engineer (Ohio, 76) and an attorney (Ohio, 81 and US Patent and Trademark Office, 82).

Both Orbital Research and Cleveland Medical Devices have experienced extraordinary growth over the last decade; both being named to the Inc. 500 list, and both being on NE Ohio's Weatherhead 100 list at least four times. Mr. Schmidt is the only person in America to have two companies named on the Inc. Inner City 100 list, and both companies have made the list three years in a row. Both companies have been bootstrapped with sales generated funding, and the companies have no debt. He is on the Inc. 500 Advisory Board.

Both Mr. Schmidt and his companies have also been recognized for their innovative technologies: Cleveland Medical Devices has received the NORTECH/EDI Innovation Award four times, and Orbital Research has received this award twice. As a principal investigator, Mr. Schmidt has supervised programs for the US Army, Navy, and Air Force, DARPA, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, Dept. of Education, Dept. of Transportation, and the National Science Foundation. The companies have performed over $30 million of research for the US Government.

Prior to starting his companies, Mr. Schmidt was a consultant to the Center for Materials for Space Structures, a NASA Center at Case Western Reserve University. He coordinated materials space flight experiments to fly on the Space Shuttle and on the Wakeshield, evaluating the effects of atomic oxygen and the low earth environment on lighter weight polymers and "self-healing" materials. From 1984 to 1990, Mr. Schmidt served as Director of Technology and Program Development at Life Systems, Inc. He managed Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) programs, helping paraplegics to walk, and other medical programs; an "Advanced Collective Protection Chemical Defense System," and several other Army chemical defense programs; and the "Zero-Gravity Shower" program and several other hygiene and regenerable life support programs for the Space Station Freedom; as well as water recycling and electrolysis programs.

From 1976 to 1983, Mr. Schmidt was Manager of Licensing and Technology Development, a Project Control Manager, and a Project Engineer for Davy McKee Corporation. He was responsible for technology transfer for the 4,000-person engineering firm. As the project engineer for three petrochemical plants, he directed engineering efforts and controlled programs worth up to $200 million for ARCO, Exxon, and Shell Oil. He was the chief engineer for the design of the world's largest single train methanol plant, and built a coal liquifaction plant for Exxon. From 1972 to 1976, he was Chief of Engineering Plans for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Stuttgart, West Germany, managing engineering efforts at 48 U.S. Military installations in southern Germany supervising over 800 projects.

Mr. Schmidt has received the Edison Biotechnology Center Award for Outstanding Contribution to Biotechnology in Ohio in 1993, is a Founding member of the FES Society, and a member of the AIAA, SAE, AAMI, and IEEE. He has published over 30 papers, and has 17 US patents in the areas of flight control, radio design, electrophysiology, pressure sore prevention, chemical defense, and Braille displays. In his newest ventures, Mr. Schmidt serves as the Chairman of several other companies including iACTIV Corporation and ComSense Technology Inc., both MEMS companies; and of RadioStorm Inc. and CleveMed NeuroWave Inc. He is also the founder of the Americas' Arts and Sciences Foundation and of NEOBio; and an angel investor in several non-related Cleveland area companies. He is on the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Business Advisory Council, and has been the Keynote speaker for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and an invited Speaker to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.