Vortech general manager helps build production

Vortech Data is gearing up production to support expanded salesof digital image management products generated through its partnershipwith Kodak.

The leading medical film vendor invested in Vortech and initiateda joint development and marketing effort a year ago (SCAN 9/12/90).

The smaller firm is beginning to feel a business boost fromKodak's massive sales and marketing support, said Douglas Sprague,vice president and general manager.

While Vortech has maintained its own marketing efforts, theKodak relationship has transformed it from a low-volume, high-marginproducer to a high-volume equipment supplier, he said.

Sprague, formerly vice president of engineering, was promotedto the newly created general manager position in July. He is basedat Vortech's R&D and production facility in Richardson, TX.Vortech headquarters are in Reston, VA.

As production volume rises, Vortech must pay closer attentionto traditional manufacturing management issues, Sprague said.

"The purpose of creating the general manager positionwas to have someone in Richardson with an overall focus on operations,"he said. "We have to pay attention to production qualityand all the mundane things like inventory control."

Vortech has doubled its staff in Richardson over the past yearto more than 70 people. Kodak has stationed both R&D and fieldservice personnel at the site as well, Sprague said.

"Kodak is bringing its marketing ability and large salesforce to bear on selling our products. That has a very nice impacton our sales volume," Sprague said.

Vortech is also expanding its product development effortsin cooperation with Kodak. The firm is developing a broader lineof products that address hard-copy as well as digital image managementissues.

Vortech has initiated beta testing of a film digitizer thatuses an engine supplied by Lumisys. It is also working with Kodakin developing printer products, he said.

"By the end of the year, we will be well integrated interms of electronic display and hard-copy output," he said.

BRIEFLY NOTED:

• GE Medical Systems shifted several top executives lastmonth and created a new high-level customer marketing position.The changes involve an effort by the leading medical imaging vendorto improve its customer response systems and facilitate multiproducttransactions, GE said.

Jim Del Mauro, formerly vice president and general managerof GE's service division, was named vice president of customermarketing. Tom Dunham, who was vice president and general managerfor manufacturing and information systems, replaced Del Mauroin the service position. Richard F. Segalini was shifted to medicalsystems from GE Aircraft Engines to serve as vice president andgeneral manager, manufacturing and information systems operations.

• Ultrasound vendor ATL promoted two top-level executiveslast month. Victor Reddick was named vice president for U.S. sales.He served previously as U.S. radiology sales director. The shiftis part of a restructuring at ATL that will create a unified saleseffort across clinical specialties by year-end. The exceptionto this restructuring is sales of Ultramark 4 scanners to ob/gynphysicians, which will continue to be handled separately.

The unification of ultrasound sales across specialties bringsATL's U.S. sales organization into conformity with the vendor'sEuropean structure. It will also allow ATL to focus more resourceson sales of its high-end Ultramark 9 scanner, said Allen W. Guisinger,executive vice president.

ATL also named Lourens Steger as vice president of customerservice. She had been director of service since May with the sameoverall responsibilities. Prior to this appointment, Steger waswestern regional customer service manager.

• Cytogen, a Princeton, NJ, monoclonal antibody imagingagent developer, promoted Cheryl Shipley Coyle to director ofmarketing in July. She had been director of corporate communications.Her position is a new one, created in anticipation of Cytogen'sproduct launch in Europe.

Coyle was replaced as director of corporate communicationsby Laura M. Hahn, who spent the past 12 years in communicationsat Johnson & Johnson.