Since retiring from Becton Dickinson (BD) in Jan 2016, Charles has been acting as a strategic advisor to large and medium companies seeking to expand further into or enter the Health Care market. Charles also serves as Board member for innovative start up companies. On the investment side, Charles is a seed stage angel investor. Overall Charles expertise covers technology, business and go to market strategy and also deep knowledge of product development for medical devices, diagnostics and life science research tools.
From October 2013 to Jan 2016 Charles was Sr. Vice President / Chief Scientific Officer Greater Asia, responsible for the strategy and global performance of BD’s regional R&D operations in Asia. The strategic goal was to enhance the companies’ growth in emerging countries via market appropriate solutions. A lucrative Regional pipeline was created, a fully functional R&D operation was created in China and the existing Singapore capability was expanded to enable product development and responsibility as the Regional R&D hub. An extensive external network was established that enabled sourcing and deal making for new opportunities from start ups, Universities and other companies. In 1997 Charles was appointed BD's Vice President, Research responsible for BD Technologies. BD Technologies engages in technology development in support of downstream product development carried out by the businesses. Some of BD Technologies accomplishments include commercialized micro needle based drug delivery, nano- technology based point of care diagnostics and novel products for stem cell growth. Extensive external networking and partnering was done to tap outside innovation.
In addition, Charles has championed and introduced new Innovation practices on a global basis. Charles established in-house incubators in NC and Singapore for collaboration with and investment in start-ups. Charles led the effort to revamp and revitalize BD's Technology Leadership Development program as part of a broader initiative to provide a pipeline of talent for the company and has served as a leaderteacher of BD leadership training courses.
Charles has been with BD since 1988. From 1988 to 1997 Charles was Vice President of R&D for BD's Hypodermic and Injection Systems business. During this period, Charles initiated and led the major product development work that was done for BD’s highly successful healthcare worker needle stick prevention safety products, IV flush platform and a market appropriate catheter for China. These projects and others Charles was instrumental in championing and leading throughout his career at BD have created billions of dollars in annual revenue for BD for many years, The China catheter has been and remains BD’s largest selling product in China.
Prior to joining BD Charles led the product development efforts for Millipore Corp in Bedford, Massachusetts.
Charles served on the Board of NC BIO the local affiliate of BIO, the national Biotechnology industry organization. NC BIO advocates on behalf of its member companies mostly locally in North Carolina. Charles served and was Chairman of the Board of Ibiliti a non-profit focused on supporting and growing the Med Tech industry in N C. Charles served as Chairman of the Board of the Singapore Bio Venture Center an incubator that was a joint venture between BD and Johns Hopkins Medical. He also served as a member of the Board of Synecor. Charles has a Ph.D and MA from Princeton University an MSE degree from Johns Hopkins University and a B Ch E degree from the City College of New York. Charles has numerous publications and has given many talks.
Charles is member of numerous professional organizations and engages in outside charitable and philanthropic efforts on behalf of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Princeton University. He served 6 years as a board member of the Eastern North Carolina chapter of the JDRF.
Charles serves on advisory committees for the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at Princeton, the Whiting School of Engineering at Hopkins, the Chemical and BioMolecular Engineering Department also at Hopkins. He is an Annual Giving fund raiser for Princeton.
Charles received an award from the Johns Hopkins University for distinguished alumni service. Charles received several awards from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation for service to that organization as well. At BD Charles has received highest level company awards for Technology Leadership, Innovation and Lifetime Achievement.
