A Deep Dive into my History

History-Deep Dive

I co-founded a biotech diagnostics company in Little Rock that we took to an IPO on the TSXV. We developed a new pathogen diagnostics platform, which I initially marketed for bacterial detection in the food industry. I later pursued applications in drug development, medical device sterilization, and the energy and biofuel sectors.

My work has focused on FSQA, HACCP processing-specialist activities, biotechnology, bacterial detection in food processing, live-production pathogens, and vaccine efficacy. My HACCP audit and process-validation experience strengthened my work with FSQA pathogen diagnostics, FSQR SaaS analytical software, and connectivity to blockchain.

My food processing and live production experience uniquely positioned me to provide advice for development of multi-hurdle HACCP systems that utilize different technologies because of my interventions experience in Thermal inactivation, Antimicrobials, Probiotics, Bacteriophage, UV, and Ozone. Focused upon pathogen diagnostics and interventions in various food processing segments, protein live production, and animal health. Additional experience in nano technologies, industrial micro, and avian influenza. My experience in nanotechnology emphasized nano-encapsulation of active components in medical, pharma, topical ointments for skin rehabilitation, nutraceutical, and petrochemical applications.

My lithium and brine well comfort stems from my lithium battery experience via contract manufacturing for laptops, Motorola cell phones and Motorola RNSG (military radio) combined with energy sector business development. I initially pursued bacteria detection in Biofuels, O&G microbial induced corrosion (MIC), and found O&G microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) was another application.

Later, I was exposed to the new fracking technologies, because our family has a farm in the Barnett Shale of North Texas. The drilling operation required microbiological testing for sulfur/sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) as corrosive agents in the shale infrastructure. SRB use sulfur as an energy source as they corrode equipment and wreak havoc in the retention ponds. The presence of sulfur species requires “souring” control to protect the production reservoirs from being “soured” and not re-injecting soured well fluids. Later my work in the Nano sector exposed me to nano-encapsulation of active components and fracking proppants opportunities.

I served as Sales Manager at LA Darling, a division of Marmon Retail Services, which was then the world's largest retail merchandising company. I later represented Cliff Price wholesale lines. My sales experience included services and lines sold to Macy's, BCBG, Hallmark, Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, Ann Taylor, Kohl's, JCP, Wal-Mart, Tesco, Meijer, Dillards, Neiman Marcus, Kroger, and Fresh & Easy, among others.

I help retail-sector companies develop new products and build retail marketing and merchandising systems. My support draws on offshore manufacturing, rapid prototyping, and supply-chain experience, alongside marketing, online marketing, and social media experience.

Let’s discuss your needs

My Articles

Business and Industry Articles and Mentions

Food Safety-Animal Health

Validating Heat-Treated Flour - Food Quality & Safety (foodqualityandsafety.com)
Co-author of a Validating Heat-Treated Flour article

Would an NAE-style model work with HPAI vaccination? | WATTPoultry.com (wattagnet.com)
Quote of my presentation at IAIS.  Not all countries will be quick to accept vaccinated poultry, so separating vaccinated flocks from unvaccinated flocks might be an option.

Food Safety Comes Naturally to Arkansas - Food Quality & Safety (foodqualityandsafety.com)

If chicken and rice is one of your favorite go-to comfort dishes, you might want to send a thank you note to Arkansas. The alluring land of the scenic, rugged Ozarks, some 2,000 dazzling underworld limestone caves, and soothing hot springs ranks number two in the nation in broiler production and number one in rice.

Arkansas Association for Food Protection (arkafp.org)
Board Member. We are the Arkansas Chapter of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP).

International Avian Influenza Summit | (uada.edu)
Organizing Committee member.  The International Avian Influenza Summit is a global gathering of experts, scientists, policymakers, and stakeholders dedicated to addressing the challenges posed by Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) epizootic. 

NSF I-Corps Technology Site

Biomolecular Simulation Lab - Team (uark.edu)
National Science Foundation I-Corp program mentor for a Physics-Based Binding Affinity Estimator technology entered into the NSF I-Corps program competition.

Green Energy - Lithium 

Lithium Boom Headed Our Way (armoneyandpolitics.com)
I’ve spent time in south Arkansas selling new technologies, lab testing and products to the oil field and aerospace companies, so I’m grinning with Arkansas pride that a new energy storage material — lithium — could improve the state and even the world.

The Arkansas Advantage (armoneyandpolitics.com)
Arkansas has become a unique player in the two largest-weight components (steel and batteries). Arkansas can be a unique leader in lithium, which is needed to make car batteries, residential power walls and manufacture EV cars. Arkansas can do more than provide the commodity of lithium because steel mills in Blytheville and Osceola comprise the largest steel-producing county in the nation. Materials are the core cost driver of any automotive assembly.  Steel represents the heaviest component and greatest freight cost of a car, so this is where Arkansas is a major player again.

Arkansas Lithium Innovation Summit: Strategic Discussions - AMP (armoneyandpolitics.com)

The first of a 2-part series that provides a view of what is at stake and the strategic issues for leaders to discuss in productive conversations at this important Summit.  Prominent companies, like Albemarle, Standard Lithium, Tetra, and ExxonMobil, have already established operations in Arkansas and are continuing to build out with production dates set at the end of the decade. Arkansas is on the verge of being a major player in this industry, which will have global implications and impact.  Strategic discussion and even difficult subjects have to be on the table when this many of our State’s leaders are in the same room.  

Arkansas Lithium: Strategic Discussions, Part 2 - AMP (armoneyandpolitics.com)

Part 2 is a refresher that Arkansas provides environmentally responsible lithium that supports the production of batteries for use in homes and cars. Our lithium boom goes beyond batteries in homes and EV cars, because it ties into our national security, military industry, energy security, electric distribution, etc.  We are very fortunate Lanxess and Standard Lithium partnered to prove a new technology could provide environmentally responsible access to the lithium in South Arkansas.

Exxon, Tetra and SLI are now at a point of critical mass within the Arkansas Lithium opportunity as we establish a royalty structure.  The Nation is watching us pioneer a new market segment, new technology, new production model, and new royalty structure. There is no precedent for us to copy, so we must be objective and fair so Arkansas can benefit from a new economic engine.  The whole Nation can benefit from our impact upon national security, defense weaponry, battery supply chain, power grid, geothermal, etc.   

Overview of Capabilities & Consulting

Umberson Technology Solutions LLC is a culmination of my experience within Business Development, Sales, Marketing, Product Management, and Beta-site Launches for biotech and high-tech applications.   URS LLC has been replaced by Umberson Technology Solutions LLC. 

Umberson Technology Solutions LLC

Umberson Technology Solutions LLC brings together my experience in business development, sales, marketing, product management, and product development. I support product development and launch of innovative technologies across animal health, agri-tech, biotech, food safety, energy, and medical applications. I am firm proponent of utilizing beta-partners for product development of biotech and high-tech applications.

I serve as a National  Science Foundation Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corp) Industry Mentor for biotech and high-tech start-up launches. I served on ARise as a Subject Matter Expert (SME), supporting start-ups in biotech, agri-tech, SaaS, and other high-tech fields. Funded by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, ARise is a statewide program that helps tech and tech-enabled start-ups and entrepreneurs grow their businesses. Umberson Technology Solutions LLC replaces URS LLC.

History

I sold into numerous industries while in Contract Manufacturing prior to 2009 and Biotech after 2009. Contract manufacturing exposed me to numerous industries, so I had to learn the industries to better serve their requirements. Off Shoring to China negatively impacted my contract manufacturing career so I moved to Biotech after 2009.

Since 2009, I have focused upon pathogen diagnostics and pathogen intervention technologies within the Biotech sector, which initially led to me being focused upon pathogen applications in Animal Health, Food Safety, and Food Processing. Later, I pursued pathogen applications in other industry segments that required testing or interventions for pathogens. I utilized my contract manufacturing experience in product development to support Biotech VC start-ups in food safety, industrial microbiology, FSQR software automation, and animal health.

Before 2009, I worked in high-tech contract manufacturing and rapid prototyping for medical devices, consumer electronics, automotive electronics, retail merchandising, steel processing, agri-equipment, and construction. My lithium battery experience began with contract manufacturing for laptops, Motorola cell phones, and Motorola RNSG military radios. My contract-manufacturing experience includes rapid prototyping, stereolithography (SLA/SLS)/3D printing, design support, thermoset rubber molding, plastic injection molding, stamping, steel fabrication, and painting/shielding of custom components for OEM manufacturers. I detailed about 20 lives in the History Deep Dive below.

Training

My sales training includes Sales Force, Sales for Large Account Management Process (Miller Heiman Group), and Customer Centric Selling (CCS Inc.); I also have broad experience in solution and consultative sales processes. Food safety training topics include FSMA/Food Defense (TAG), FSMA and GFSI Comparisons, SQF Institute — SQF Level 2 Final, Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule Comparison, and HACCP. Quality and productivity topics include ISO/QS 9000, Failure Mode Effects and Analysis (FMEA), and GE's Productivity Solutions. Experienced National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corp) Industry Mentor for launches of biotech start-ups.

The consulting areas below connect my experience to four types of work: innovative technology development and launch, marketing and advertising, sales, and food safety and animal health. Use these areas to identify the experience most relevant to your product, market, or processing needs.

Consulting Areas and Applications

Food Safety & Animal Health

My experience spans both live production and slaughter processing, including diagnostics and multiple antimicrobial technologies. Through system validation, I gained experience with thermal inactivation, antimicrobials, probiotics, bacteriophage, UV, and ozone. Working across these interventions helps me evaluate technology choices objectively when proposing efficient, multi-technology, multi-hurdle HACCP systems.

My food-processing experience helps me connect pre-audit data with conditions on the processing floor, making site assessments more efficient. I review a customer's Food Safety Plan to identify ways to help reduce risk. I performed free audits for prospects to open sales conversations; later, my work included auditing HACCP kill steps and hurdles to support formal process validations for low-moisture foods such as ingredients, flours, and nuts. After reviewing the customer's HACCP process, I prepared a validation proposal for approval by our scientists. I then supported the processor on-site and gathered validation samples.

I began my biotech career as a hands-on technical salesperson in start-up biotechnology and pathogen diagnostics. My product-development work included sampling fecal matter from dairy farms, feedlots, and chicken houses, as well as sampling processing lines in each protein segment. I used our diagnostics to determine salmonella load on live chickens as they entered the slaughter plant.

My experience covers dairy, produce, prepared foods, low-moisture foods—including spices, ingredients, grain, and milling/flour—cannabis, pet food, and nutraceuticals. Fieldwork has included collecting samples in spinach fields, swabbing lettuce trailers and flume processing lines, and sampling for chemical analysis. In produce, probiotics, ozone, UV, and bacteriophage are utilized with tree fruit and berries whose skin textures and petial stems can harbor contamination. Work with value-added products such as candied apples exposed me to different epidemiological influences. My retail food safety experience also includes work focused on listeria in freezers, refrigeration, and especially deli environments.

My food safety service includes three elections as President of the local IAFP chapter, a board position with the chapter, and service on IAFP’s National Affiliate Council. I have written food safety articles for IAFP and Food Safety Magazines. I was also elected to the organizing committee of the International Avian Influenza Summit.

o   14 years of experience in validations of interventions, pathogen diagnostics, intervention technologies, and FSQR software.

o   My strengths are process control, environmental monitoring, sanitation confirmation, and interventions.

o  I optimize pathogen and process control through screening assays and environmental monitoring, informed by my understanding of operations on the processing floor.

o   Performance Based Sanitation -passionate about efficient use of high-speed screening as a risk-based targeting of environmental monitoring that would allow processors to adjust interventions in real time to support PBS.

o  My experience with antimicrobial and sanitation approaches in food processing comes from conducting proof-of-concept studies and validations of new intervention systems.

New Technology Development and Launch

I am a National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corp) Industry Mentor for launches of biotech & high-tech start-ups. Product Development, launch and sales of new Industrial technologies in Agri-tech, Biotech, Food Safety, Animal Health, Energy, and Medical.

I co-founded Vivione Biosciences, which developed a diagnostic platform based on flow cytometry for drug development and food-processing product and environmental assays. My core work in food and live-production agriculture included diagnostic assay development, antimicrobial development, FSQR SaaS software development, intervention strategies, and vaccine efficacy in live production.

Experience with protein engineering for affinity/docking, assay development support, developing beta partners, beta testing, etc. Consulting for a nano and bio-conjugated nano particle company for drug development, skin care therapeutics, and oil field applications.

My understanding of lithium production draws on two areas of experience: lithium batteries and oil-field applications. My battery experience came from contract manufacturing for laptops, Motorola cell phones, and Motorola RNSG military radios. My oil-field work began with bacterial detection in biofuels and microbial induced corrosion (MIC) and later included microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). Fracking operations require microbiological testing for sulfur/sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) as corrosive agents in U.S. shale infrastructure.

SRB use sulfur as an energy source, corroding equipment, and causing problems in retention ponds. Sulfur species require souring control to protect production reservoirs and prevent the reinjection of soured well fluids. My nanotechnology work also introduced me to nano-encapsulation of active components and opportunities involving fracking proppants.    

Marketing & Advertising

o   4 years of advertising and marketing experience within a AAAA accredited ad agency.

o   BSBA in Marketing Management from the University of Arkansas

o   Trained in Sales, Marketing, and Internet Marketing

o   Website and social media management

o   Product Marketing/Product Management

Sales

o   Started my career in Business Development and Sales for contract manufacturing of medical, aerospace, and industrial components.

o   Later, moved into Merchandising Systems for retail and then wholesale representation of retail products to big box retailers.

§  I sold multiple wholesale lines and secured placements for those lines. Placement channels included Walmart.com and retailers such as Bass Pro Shops, Dillards, Belk, and Neiman Marcus, among others.

§  I sold products to Walmart and Walmart.com across five categories: entertaining, gift, décor, home, and apparel.

 

Practical, cost-effective marketing

I take pride in finding efficient, cost-effective ways to promote, market, and launch new products. Across energy, food safety, animal health, and technology marketing, I favor simple, efficient methods.

My advertising experience taught me guerrilla marketing: using economical approaches in the early stages of a crawl–walk–run strategy. A free, easy-to-use blog is one example.