Dan and Andy Wheeler were there with Transtate Equipment. Dan always impresses me as a serious, careful and methodical businessman and you get the same impression about his son. The two of them represent another dynasty in our industry and working together they are expanding on both the East Coast and the West Coast of the United States. They have a great niche in cath labs.

Don McCormack was there representing Southwest Medical Resources. Don's wife, Jennifer, was also at the meeting. She also works for the company as well as four or five of their children. It always amazes me because Jennifer does not look old enough to have had four or five children. It must be that easygoing California lifestyle.


Don is another warm and friendly fellow but like so many other people, you know that his brain is always at work. He really is an out of the box thinker and he seems to be able to find a solution when others see a stone wall.

No discussion of a business meeting in Portugal would be complete without recognizing John Pereira. In some ways, he was our host because he was born not very far from where the meeting took place. John's company, United Medical Technologies, is very successful and John is not afraid to take a risk and buy equipment. Sometimes, he is the only guy around who has something.

Asad Kahn was there representing Vomark. Asad is one of the most interesting and charming young men I have ever met. He is conversant on a wide range of topics and he seems to have good relations with almost everyone in the field. He is a pleasure to spend time with and very intelligent and I am sure we will be seeing more of him in the years to come.

Tom Spees and Marcel Verhagan were there representing Richardson Healthcare. I have known Tom for many, many years and I think he has real vision about the industry. Marcel took the picture of Barbara and myself you see above.

Richardson has put together a great time with a great suite of products. I am expecting to see that company grow in the months and years to come.

Wayne Webster was at the event representing ProActics, his consulting company and Wayne was also a speaker. Wayne's wife, Claudia, was also in attendance and she is another very nice, warm and friendly person.

Wayne had the difficult task of lecturing the group on 2016 additions to the ISO-13485 regulations. What a tough job but fortunately, Wayne had injected some humor into the presentation.

Immediately after Wayne, Christian Frandsen from Agito talked about value added tax requirements in Europe. That was another tough job because it is so complicated. You can have a buyer in one country, a seller in another country and the dealer in yet a third country. The variations are staggering. What I learned is that if I have a question, I am going to write to Christian. I am glad I am not in college and I am glad he did not give a test because chances are, I would have failed.

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