Textile innovation company Textronics Inc has named John H Abeles, a physician and medical industry consultant, to its Board of Directors.
Abeles is founder and general partner of Northlea Partners Ltd, a private venture capital partnership headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla. A physician and pharmacologist, he also serves as president of MedVest Inc, a business and financial consulting firm.
“Textronics will benefit from the extensive medical and business expertise that Dr. Abeles brings to our Board as we move into health care markets with our portfolio of unique, patent-pending technologies,” said CEO Stacey Burr.
Abeles was born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and received his medical and pharmacology degrees from the University of Birmingham, England, in 1969. He practiced medicine in London before joining the pharmaceutical industry as a senior medical executive with Sterling Drug, Pfizer Inc., and Revlon Health Care. In 1975, he became a Wall Street health-care analyst with Kidder Peabody. He formed MedVest in 1980 and Northlea Partners in 1992.
“The health care industry represents enormous potential for Textronics, which has developed physiological sensing technology that offers significant improvements over the type of medical devices that dominate the marketplace today,” said Abeles. “I'm excited to join the Textronics' Board at a time when electronic textiles are quickly becoming a commercial reality.”
Abeles becomes the sixthmember of the Textronics' Board of Directors, which includes Stacey Burr; Emily Liggett, CEO of Apexon Inc, a supplier management software developer; Peter Grubstein of NGEN Partners, a Santa Barbara-based venture capital firm; Jim DiAndreth of INVISTA, the world's largest integrated fiber, resin and intermediates companies; and George Abraham, a partner in New York-based SAS Investors.
Textile electronics developer Textronics Inc is a pioneer in the field of textile electronics. In 2005, Textronics introduced the NuMetrex Heart Sensing Sports Bra, the first consumer garment to incorporate heart rate monitoring technology into the knit of the garment itself.
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