Patrick Balthrop

Patrick J. Balthrop, Sr. is an American businessman, specializing in life science, medical device and diagnostic products. He was educated at Princeton University and Spring Hill College, where he earned a B.S. in Biology. Balthrop also earned an MBA at the Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University. He spent over two decades with Abbott Laboratories beginning in 1981, working his way up to a Corporate Vice President position. In 2002, after leaving Abbott, he was named President of Fisher Healthcare.

After two years with Fischer, Balthrop became the CEO and President of Luminex Corporation in May 2004. During his ten year tenure as CEO of Luminex, revenue grew eight fold, and the company transformed into a $200 million revenue operation. A number of organizations recognized Luminex's achievements during this period, including Forbes, Fortune, Frost & Sullivan and Deloitte. The company was also awarded the prestigious Prix Galien Award for scientific excellence. Balthrop retired from Luminex in October 2014.

He now serves on a number of board positions, while also serving as Founding Principal of Apalachee Ventures, a venture investing and consulting firm.

Early life

Balthrop was raised in the Pensacola, Florida area and graduated from Pensacola Catholic High School, and then Princeton University, where he played football. After transferring to Spring Hill College, he earned a BS in Biology in 1979. Later he earned an MBA at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management of Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

Career

Early Career

Balthrop began his career in 1981 by joining Abbott Laboratories as a sales representative. He spent over 20 years at Abbott, in positions such as GM of the Far East based in Hong Kong, heading R&D programs and head of worldwide commercial operations. His final position in Abbott was head of Abbott Vascular, until leaving the company in 2002.

Balthrop spent two years as president of Fisher Healthcare from 2002-2004, until being recruited to become CEO of Luminex Corporation in 2004.

Luminex Corporation

Balthrop joined Luminex Corporation in May 2004. Upon joining the company, he redirected the company’s priorities toward sound and ethical business practices, strong execution and innovation and R&D. During his tenure, Luminex averaged R&D investment of 20% of annual revenue. Leveraging the company’s foundational proprietary technology, xMAP, the company and its partners innovated many new products in DNA and proteins. These products were used across healthcare by scientific and biopharmaceutical researchers and medical professionals on many disease states, from organ transplantation to infectious disease to cancer.

xMAP technology allows clinical and research labs to accelerate the testing of samples, with the capability of running 1,000 samples per day and up to 500 results on each sample. The technology was delivered by a string of new testing platforms introduced by Luminex while Balthrop was its CEO. This began with LX200 in 2006, FlexMAP 3D in 2008 and MagPix in 2010.

Luminex became a market leader in multiplexing in categories such as the emerging personalized medicine field using DNA markers, inherited diseases like cystic fibrosis and in infectious diseases like respiratory viral infections and GI infections. Through their strategic partners, Luminex became a leader in categories such as organ transplant compatibility testing in clinical settings, to cytokine inflammatory panels in basic scientific research labs.

Luminex was awarded the prestigious Prix Galien Award for Best Medical Technology in 2010 their innovative xTAG technology. A couple of years later, xTAG was nominated for "Discovery of the Decade" award. In 2011, Luminex was awarded the Medical Design Excellence award for the innovative MagPix bioassay testing technology.

Balthrop led Luminex to focus on innovation through R&D investment. Luminex also added significant capabilities via acquisitions.

In 2007, Luminex Corporation acquired Tm Bioscience of Toronto, the market leader in multiplexing DNA-based testing products, for $44 million. In 2010, the company acquired the automation firm BSD Robotics of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In 2011, EraGen Biosciences of Madison, WI was acquired by Luminex for their proprietary probe-free DNA and RNA detection technology. And in 2012, Luminex acquired GenturaDx, a company with an innovative testing platform for molecular diagnostics and DNA-based targets. And in 2012, Luminex acquired GenturaDx, a company with an innovative testing platform for molecular diagnostics and DNA-based targets for $50 million. And in 2012, Luminex acquired GenturaDx, a company with an innovative testing platform for molecular diagnostics and DNA-based targets for $50 million.

Transition and current roles

In October 2014, Balthrop announced his retirement from Luminex. Upon his departure, the Chairman of the Board of Luminex Corporation commented "during Patrick's tenure as CEO, the company has grown from $30 million in revenue to well over $200 million, expanded internationally, built a strong portfolio and pipeline through organic investment and several acquisitions, and significantly increased profits while investing heavily in innovation, new product development and commercial expansion."

Since retiring from Luminex, Balthrop has served as Founding Principal of Apalachee Ventures, LLC, a consulting and venture investment firm. He has served as Executive Advisor at Water Street Healthcare Partners, a Chicago-based healthcare-dedicated private equity firm.

Balthrop also serves as a member of the board of directors of several healthcare companies, including Concert Genetics of Nashville, TN; Personalis, Inc. of Menlo Park, CA; Oxford Immunotec Global, PLC, of Oxford, U.K.; and as Chairman of the Board of Agendia, N.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Philanthropy

Balthrop has made a number of contributions to the community. In 2005, Balthrop and his family were honored with the "Friend for Life" aiward by the non-profit, Howard Brown Health Center of Chicago, the largest healthcare provider for the LGBTQ community in the Midwest. The center is known as a leading healthcare provider to the LGBT community. In 2011, Balthrop was the commencement speaker at his alma mater, Spring Hill College. In 2015, Balthrop and his wife Mariterese served as chairs for the annual fundraising gala for Equality Illinois, a non-profit advocacy organization promoting equality for LGBTQ citizens. In 2016, Balthrop was elected to the Board of Trustees of The Nature Conservancy’s Florida chapter.