Meet Kevin Barrett, Senior Vice President of Strategic Business Development, Gilson Inc.
In an age of job uncertainty, budget cuts and rapid development trends, we had the pleasure to talk to Kevin Barrett from Gilson Inc., who managed to reveal the other side of business, where long-term employment and actually liking your job are the main goals the business is striving to achieve.
KEVIN: I certainly am, I think I actually have the longest title in the company, my official title is Senior Vice President of Strategic Business Development, so very long business cards!
“... one of his key directives to the executive team is that he wants employees to enjoy coming to work every day.”
KLEMEN: Very good, so, to quickly introduce you: what is your motivation? Why are you a part of the Gilson family?
KEVIN: Ah... this is an interesting one. I actually left university many, many years ago. My first job was for the largest Gilson distributor at the time. I didn’t know Gilson myself at that point, but it seems that throughout the past 25, 30 years of my career I’ve always been associated with Gilson. I am now at last actually working directly for Gilson and the reason that I’m here is that they’re fairly unique in the market. It is a family owned company with family values. It’s a... one interesting aspect is that Bob Gilson, our chairman and obviously the family owner of the company, one of his key directives to the executive team is that he wants Gilson employees to enjoy coming to work every day. A part from our mission statement, it’s very key to Bob that everybody enjoys working for Gilson. And I guess that’s one of the things that keeps me here.
“... we do have some very, very long standing people and also people that do leave Gilson actually end up coming back.”
KLEMEN: So we are here in Madison, well Middleton actually, which is close to Madison Wisconsin, where Gilson is located and just walking through the Company seems to reflect what you just said, that it’s a very family-like atmosphere which is probably why people really like to work for Gilson. Would you say that people that work for Gilson work there for a long time?
KEVIN: Yeah, we do. We actually have one guy on the factory floor who has actually worked for Gilson for over 50 years. I can't even imagine... he doesn't even look that old. But yes, we do have some very, very long standing people and also some people that do leave Gilson actually end up coming back. We've just employed a new manager of our OEM Department and he used to work for Gilson 10 years ago in a different role. He went away, this opportunity presented itself and he willingly came back to join Gilson again.
KLEMEN: Excellent! Most of our listeners will probably be using qPCR on a daily basis. How would you say that... how important is qPCR to Gilson?
KEVIN: qPCR is key to Gilson, particularly in what I’ll describe as a new direction. I think everybody knows now that qPCR is a ubiquitous technique, it’s used so extensively and so routinely in labs right now that Gilson, as a provider of tools and solutions to the researcher, has to address the opportunity presented by these techniques that are routine and essential to every molecular biology lab.
KLEMEN: What about the new technologies that are coming up? Is Gilson following these? And what is your personal opinion? What methods are here to stay?
“I think everybody will pick on next generation sequencing. The only other technique that I would say is also becoming routine is mass spectrometry. Both of these techniques reveal so much information to the researcher that they are certainly going to be around for a long time.”
KEVIN: Ok, that’s a tricky one to predict. I think everybody will pick on next gen sequencing. Next gen sequencing, I have no doubt, will take many forms. The Nanopore technology that’s coming out is one potential enhancement but I’m convinced that, for the foreseeable future at least, next gen sequencing has a huge contribution to make, to diagnostics and research in general, that whatever form it takes it will certainly be there for some time to come. The only other technique that I would say is also becoming routine is mass spectrometry. Again, both of these techniques reveal so much information to the researcher that adds value. The techniques will advance, but I think they are certainly going to be around for a long time.
“... to really, really make the most out of a technique, we either have to make the sample preparation so simple and so easy that anybody can do it, or we need to eliminate it totally.”
KLEMEN: Are there any techniques you think that are on the horizon now or are being just recently developed that show even greater potential?
KEVIN: It’s not really on the horizon, because it’s here already, but digital PCR is definitely one to watch. Again because of the amount of information it can generate for researchers. Any techniques that simplify the sample preparation side are becoming very attractive. Partly because they play into the personal medicine area, certainly anything that can be automated should be... You remove the sample preparation element out of it and it becomes usable in clinics and even at point of care. So the reason I say this is strange is because Gilson’s key focus is in liquid handling and sample preparation, but we know that to really, really make the most out of a technique, we either have to make the sample preparation so simple and so easy that anybody can do it, or we need to eliminate it totally. So, it’s not a technique, but it is certainly a trend I see in the market.
KLEMEN: One last question: Gilson is a very established brand and it’s been around for... hundreds of years?
KEVIN: (Laughs)... Well not quite, it’s certainly 60 years plus...
“... we can contribute over the next 5 to 10, 15 years in terms of making life easier for the researchers...”
KLEMEN: You have delivered liquid handling solutions to millions all around the world. What do you have to say, perhaps, to Gilson enthusiasts on one side and people that don’t know Gilson that well, particularly from molecular biology?
KEVIN: Certainly Gilson has been around a long time, most people know us for the Gilson Pipetman. We also evolved as a company supplying instrumentation that is used heavily in drug discovery. Now because of the direction that drug discovery took through the 80s and 90s, a lot of our portfolio and our focus was based on small molecules because that’s where the pharma companies were directing their drug discovery efforts. As of late, we all know that that has moved into more of the larger molecules, the biological side of the research and this is almost like coming home for Gilson. Because the pipettes are used extensively in biological research labs and we are now starting to focus the company on the new techniques for liquid handling and sample preparation, especially, but more on the the large molecule side, for genomics and proteomics. We’ll do things in terms of magnetic bead clean-up. We will make our tools easier to use and also make it easier for the researcher to achieve verifiable science. We plan to be in tune with the needs of the market and feel that we can contribute over the coming years in terms of making life easier for the researchers based on the brand that millions of them use.
KLEMEN: Thank you very much Kevin. That was Kevin Barrett from Gilson. Thanks a lot for taking the time and perhaps we will talk to you some other time and see what has been updated.
KEVIN: You are very welcome, thank you.
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