Career

Education & Professional Development

Lawrence F. “Larry” Davidson began his college education at Centralia College, earning an Associate Degree in Science before continuing at the University of Washington. He graduated from the University of Washington in June 1973 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.

As his career expanded from engineering into manufacturing, business management, information systems, and project leadership, Larry continued his education. He earned a Master of Business Administration in Operations Management from Southern Illinois University and later completed a Master’s Degree Certification in International Business at Seattle University.

His professional development also included certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP), Six Sigma Lean Professional, and Six Sigma Black Belt Professional, along with training and experience in earned value management, government contracting, quality systems, regulatory compliance, and risk management.

Beginning in Engineering

Larry began his professional career in approximately January 1974 with Tally Corporation as a Manufacturing Engineer, designing and building test equipment.

In April 1976, he joined Physio-Control, first as a Sustaining Engineer and later as a Design Engineer. The work marked the beginning of what would become a major part of his career in medical technology.

In April 1982, he joined Advanced Technology Laboratories, where he served first as Engineering Manager and later as Director of Engineering for Midrange Systems. His responsibilities were expanding beyond individual engineering assignments into the leadership of engineering organizations and product development.

Medical Technology & Operations

Over approximately 25 years, Larry worked in several areas of the medical device industry. The technologies included cardiac defibrillators and patient monitoring equipment, diagnostic ultrasound and Doppler imaging systems, and high-speed rotational atherectomy systems used in the treatment of coronary artery disease.

By 1987, his responsibilities had expanded well beyond engineering. As General Manager of SiMED Corporation, he helped establish a medical-device operation, participated in securing investment capital, managed engineering and product development, and established manufacturing, quality, regulatory, and distribution operations.

In 1989, Larry joined Heart Technology Incorporated as Director of Manufacturing Operations and Supply Chain. During a period of rapid company growth, his organization expanded to more than 100 employees and his operating budget responsibility grew to more than $16 million.

Manufacturing capacity was expanded repeatedly as the company grew from no commercial sales in 1990 to nearly $80 million in sales in 1994. Larry also led improvements in production flow, supply chain operations, supplier quality, manufacturing systems, and facility planning, including the relocation of operations into a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility.

Consulting, ERP & Business Systems

In 1995, Larry began an independent business and technology consulting practice. His work combined engineering, manufacturing, quality systems, regulatory affairs, business-process improvement, and the growing use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) information systems.

During this period, he provided process re-engineering, system installation, training, and ERP/IT implementation services for nearly 150 companies across a wide variety of industries. The experience provided an unusually broad view of how manufacturing organizations operate and how information systems connect engineering, materials, manufacturing, quality, finance, and management.

Larry subsequently joined Intuitive Manufacturing Systems as Director of Implementation and Applications Consulting, where he developed standardized ERP implementation methods, incorporated quality-system processes into application software, and developed a certification and training program for consultants.

Later positions continued to combine technology, business systems, operations, and project management. These included executive operations and supply-chain responsibilities and, at Starcom Computer Corporation, leadership of ERP implementation services for customer organizations.

Engineering, Manufacturing & Executive Leadership

The next phase of Larry’s career continued to cross traditional organizational boundaries. His responsibilities included engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, quality and regulatory systems, business planning, product development, facilities, and project management.

At Hoana Medical, as Vice President of Engineering and Manufacturing, he realigned engineering and manufacturing activities and was brought in to recover a major software project that had been experiencing months of delays. The project was completed in six weeks. He also developed the design plan and operational prototype for a portable medical system in three months, including technical documentation supporting a regulatory submission.

At HaloSource, Larry ultimately served as Senior Director of Global Manufacturing Operations and Supply Chain. His responsibilities included plant operations, manufacturing, materials, purchasing, warehousing, distribution, pilot production, commercialization, and long-range operational planning for facilities in the United States, India, and China.

Among the projects undertaken at HaloSource was the design and development of a new commercialization plant providing pilot development, testing, and production capability. The work included facility planning and build-out, equipment acquisition and installation, processing systems, and the transfer of products from laboratory scale toward commercial production.

National Ecological Observatory Network

In 2014, Larry joined NEON Inc., the organization developing the National Ecological Observatory Network, a major scientific infrastructure program funded by the National Science Foundation. He was initially hired as Director of Production and was promoted to Chief Project Engineer within three months.

His responsibilities crossed much of the project organization, including facilities and civil construction, sensor design and supplier engineering, cyber infrastructure, manufacturing engineering, production, logistics, and field systems deployment. The work involved complex sensor systems installed at terrestrial and aquatic monitoring locations across the United States.

The scale was substantially different from most of his earlier work. His professional record includes responsibility associated with government-funded project and departmental budgets of up to $250 million over a four-year period, with work extending across the continental United States, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii.

When Battelle Memorial Institute assumed responsibility for completing the NEON project in 2016, Larry was one of two individuals from the previous senior management organization retained by Battelle to continue the work. As Senior Project/Program Manager, he continued responsibility for construction and deployment of the observatory infrastructure and sensor systems.

The completed work under his area of responsibility included site construction, sensor deployment, and verification at 47 terrestrial sites, 34 aquatic sites, and 20 domain office facilities.

In recognition of his work, Battelle presented Larry with its Achievement Award for Excellence in Program Management for 2017.

Final Professional Chapter

Following completion of his work with Battelle, Larry joined American Structures and Design in 2018 as General Manager. He was responsible for commercial projects involving balcony and railing systems from bidding and contracting through design, engineering, manufacturing, delivery, and project closeout.

He managed a team of commercial project managers working simultaneously on projects in several states and oversaw CAD development and coordination with professional engineering resources. He also continued a theme that had run throughout much of his career: developing better business processes and systems for managing complex work.

After leaving American Structures in 2021, Larry completed one final contract consulting assignment with Zev Technologies, working with ERP systems. That assignment continued through March 2022, when he fully retired from his professional career.

1974–2022

Across nearly five decades, the industries, technologies, and scale of the work changed considerably. Larry’s career began with hands-on electrical and manufacturing engineering and eventually encompassed medical technology, product development, manufacturing operations, quality systems, supply chain management, ERP and information systems, international consulting, executive management, civil construction, and large-scale scientific project leadership.

The common thread was project-oriented problem solving: understand what needs to be accomplished, develop a workable plan, bring together the necessary people and resources, solve problems as they emerge, and carry the work through to completion.

Those same skills now provide much of the foundation for Larry’s historical, educational, environmental, and community projects.