This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
South Jordan
Fred Lampropoulos greeted dozens of employees as he marched through the halls of the huge Merit Medical complex on a recent Monday morning. The charismatic president and CEO of Merit, which manufactures medical devices, seemed like a beloved character as he traded banter, stories and smiles with workers who seemed to view him as a friend as much as a boss.
Watching Fred was an interesting exercise for me. He and his parents, Pete and Jean, moved into my neighborhood near what is now St. Mark's Hospital in 1964 when I was 14. Our folks became best friends.
Fred was two years older than I and played football for Granite High. I envied his skills on a guitar and knew him well enough to realize that he was a character.
Fred and his family came to our neighborhood from Rock Springs, Wyo., with little but the clothes on their backs. They needed help from the Greek community just to find housing. His dad started a highly successful insurance company.
"I am a product of Pete and Jean," said Lampropoulos, sitting in a huge office adorned with artwork, awards and guitars he uses to occasionally stage an impromptu lunch concert. "Jean was disciplined, precise, clean and orderly. My dad was a promoter, a salesman and an idea guy."
Fred was the first kid in his family to graduate from high school. He tried a semester at Westminster College and then a quarter at the University of Utah, but ran out of money. Broke, he joined the Army as an enlisted man and eventually became an officer.
He quotes Oracle CEO Larry Ellison as saying that "I had just enough disadvantages to be successful."
Fred started working at his dad's insurance company, then tried his hand as a land developer and a stockbroker. While a broker, he started following medical-device stocks.
"It seemed like a recession-proof business," he said. "You had the demographics of a graying America. Our parents were aging and they were having all these kids. There was a lot of work being done in plastics with new materials."
Lampropoulos took over a struggling Lehi company called Utah Medical for seven years. Though he didn't know anything about medical devices, he was smitten. He would talk to surgeon friends and watch them work at the old Holy Cross Hospital, asking questions and examining equipment.
He started inventing his own devices, eventually owning more than 200 patents. He started Merit Medical, which now has 2,600 employees and sells its products worldwide, from scratch. There was no venture capital or private equity available. He began by inventing a new type of syringe. Fred expects the company to reach a half-billion dollars in sales in the next 18 months.
He kept a big part of the company in Utah because it is home, because of a dedicated and educated labor force, a good business environment, cheap energy and the fact that Salt Lake International Airport is a Delta hub that makes traveling to Europe and Asia relatively easy.
Lampropoulos loves people. It's obvious when walking through his plant. Three of Merit's original employees, who came with him from Utah Medical, are still there. And he has no plans to sell his company or retire. He loves what he does and the people he works with way too much for that.
A religious man, Fred said he thinks every person is given a gift to be used for the betterment of mankind.
"Somehow, some way, we have to find them," he said of those gifts. "I think I was given these gifts of innovation, intuition, leadership and vision. Those sound like big words. But I am still the kid that grew up in your neighborhood, went to Granite High and made my way in the world. It was no big deal."
I suspect Fred's employees might beg to differ.
Twitter: @tribtomwharton