Fred Lampropoulos, CEO of Merit Medical

Two bits of sound advice stick out in Fred Lampropoulos’ mind as he reflects back on the success he has had as CEO of Merit Medical:
“Find something you can make and sell it.”
“As long as you can sell, you can always provide a living for your family.”

Those gems of wisdom didn’t come from a graduate business class at Wharton or Harvard or Stanford. Rather, they came from a more humble source, Fred’s father Pete, a Greek-American who brought his family west from Boston, first to Cheyenne and Rock Springs, Wyoming, and then to Salt Lake City in the summer of 1964. The Lampropoulos’ family arrival in Utah resembled that of the original white settlers in 1847; their “base of operations” was the exact same location, Pioneer Park.

“All we had was packed into the family sedan, and we literally camped out at Pioneer Park for about two weeks until the Greek community took us in, helped us find a place to live. At first, we stayed in a dingy westside motel for about $12 a night until Ted Spiros, the owner and operator of Lamb’s Café got the family a home on 39th South rent-free until the family was on its feet. Within a few months, my father was selling insurance and making his way in the world and setting an example for me and my brother,” Lampropoulos explains.

“Ted told my dad, ‘when you get the money, you can pay me the rent.’ We settled into the place and soon Dad was selling insurance and paying his way. Within a couple of years, I found myself on the football field at Granite High School grinding out yards under the tutelage of Coach Roger Smith.”

The kindness of people like Ted Spiros, the example of his father and the discipline he learned on the football field all helped form the character; he was learning important lessons…lessons he would later put into practice in his own business. But that was still a long way off.

First, he had some things to learn, some in school and some in service to Uncle Sam. After a quarter at the U. and another at Westminster, money got scarce. And with the Vietnam War looming, Fred decided to take matters into his own hands; not only did he volunteer, he signed up for the Green Berets and became a Special Forces soldier. Before he was finished, he would become an officer and a jumpmaster and would encourage others to go ahead and leap from perfectly good airplanes.

Discipline, responsibility, accountability. All three became ingrained in Fred Lampropoulos’ character even before he moved into business. At the age of 20 when his military tour of duty was over, he joined the family insurance business. More responsibility, more accountability.

“I knew I wanted to run my own business, but when I approached my father about taking over the family insurance agency, he reminded me that I had a brother. So, I threatened to quit, and he called my bluff and wished me the best. I took my sales skills to Dean Witter where I added an essential part to my education, one that I would need eventually when I operated my own company: stocks and bonds and how the financial markets worked,” Fred explains.

In 1978, Fred met Tom Lloyd and the two formed a development business; the Union Park Center was the result. Despite high interest rates and “stagflation,” they turned the venture into a resounding success. Fred Lampropoulos was on his way. A few years later, he renewed a relationship with Don Holbrook with whom Fred worked when he was with Dean Witter. Don introduced him to the principals at Deseret Pharmaceutical. One of them, Dale Ballard, was instrumental in encouraging Fred to see what he could do to turn around a small, ailing medical device company in Lehi called Utah Medical.

“I went down there one day to see what they were doing and somehow, someway, the next day I owned the company,” he reflects now with a twinkle in his eye. “Before long, I discovered something else about myself I never knew before. I had the gift of invention. It’s not a mechanical sort of talent, like Thomas Edison’s. Rather, I found I had the knack of looking at a process or problem and finding a way to solve it…to connect the dots, if you will. I would take my ideas to the engineers, and they would make it work.”

Apparently, it does work for him. Today, his name is on 181 patents on devices used in the diagnostic and therapeutic treatment of cardiovascular disease that have led to the success of Merit Medical.
Like so many other successful men, his business is his love and his obsession: it’s not unusual for Fred to get up at 4am and put in a 14-hour day. Now as the chief executive officer of a public company, Fred reminds people that despite the fact that he is an entrepreneur, he doesn’t work for himself: he reports to his board of directors.

“People find it odd, I think, when I introduce a board member I tell them he’s my boss,” he says. “But, it’s true. Some 1,000 people here in Utah and 1,600 worldwide depend on Merit Medical for their livelihood. I take that responsibility very seriously. Yes, in my position, I can influence the outcome of what we do here, but it’s not my company; it belongs to the shareholders. The cold hard facts are this: if I cannot continue to move the company in the right direction, I’m the one that must move along. But, I have a great love for our people, and I’ve learned that if we put in the effort, there are great rewards if you do well.

“Nevertheless, nobody’s infallible; we all make mistakes. We occasionally make them here at Merit Medical. But you have to learn from them.”

In the last 21 years, Fred Lampropoulos and his staff must have learned a lot-one way or another-because Merit Medical continues to gather accolades from business magazines and other groups for the company’s accomplishments. Fortune Small Business Magazine ranked Merit on its list of America’s 100 Fastest-Growing Small Public Companies for the third consecutive year; BusinessWeek Magazine ranked Merit 23rd on its list of 100 “Hot Growth Companies,” up from last year’s ranking of 75th; and for the fourth year in a row, Forbes Magazine ranked Merit among the “Forbes 200 Best Small Companies in America,” with a 2004 ranking of 57th.

It’s quite a track record. Since 1987, Merit Medical has grown from a start-up company to a publicly traded company forecasting revenues of about $224 million in 2008. It traces its roots to a small manufacturing facility in Salt Lake City and now boasts manufacturing and distribution capabilities in Angleton, Texas; Richmond, Virginia; Galway, Ireland; Maastricht, The Netherlands; and Venlo, The Netherlands. Merit Medical recently added two new facilities to its Utah campus, and additional space in Ireland, for a total of more than 300,000 new square feet and some 1,600 employees.

Despite the success, Fred doesn’t allow himself to have a false sense of security. In an age of executives at the top skimming all the cream for themselves and letting others fend for themselves, he considers it a calling to be a good steward and protect the jobs of those who call Merit Medical home. What is good for Merit Medical should be good for everybody. Fred Lampropoulos preaches what he practices: he has definite ideas on how government should be accountable and responsible. In 2004, he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for Utah governor, but he still will tell anybody who will listen what government, federally and locally, must do to help people live freer, more productive lives. One of those things is to do less.

“There are too many burdens placed on business to innovate…too many regulations. A start-up like Merit Medical would face so many more obstacles today than when we embarked on our journey. We have more than two dozen people working here now just to deal with regulation in the various places we do business,” Fred explains.
“The credit for the American dream goes to the entrepreneurs and innovators, not to government or a government program. There needs to be some critical thinking on how we can reduce the intrusion of government into the economy. The smaller the government, the better the government!”

At the state level, much can be done, Lampropoulos notes. For one thing, he says, the educational establishment is still not connected to the business community. They don’t seem to understand it.
“We are also losing critical skills, particularly in machining and tooling. More emphasis needs to be placed on training in these key areas,” he notes. “We need more discussion about these issues on the state level; we can’t just coast on our past successes.”

While there are no plans or discussion about any future plans for public office, Fred is in great demand and volunteers his time and skills for many local groups and organizations. He serves on the Executive Committee for the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, on the National Advisory Board of the University of Utah, as chairman of the Tuacahn Center for the Performing Arts, as a board member of the American Heart Association of Utah, on the MBA Advisory Board of Westminster College, as a board member of the Utah Taxpayers Association, on the KUED Friends Board, as Honorary Colonel in the Utah National Guard, and on the Executive Committee of the Great Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Whatever his role, Fred Lampropoulos still follows the advice his dad game him years earlier: he still is the consummate salesman, convincing his listeners to see things his way, whether it’s a new medical device, an innovative way to make government work better or a cause near and dear to him. Chances are, after you’ve spent a few minutes with him, you’ll agree on one thing: Fred Lampropoulos is the real deal.