Dane Miller who is a Springfield, Ohio native graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Materials Science Engineering from the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) in Dayton.
He also has a Masters and Ph. D. in Materials Science Biomedical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. He began his career in orthopedics as director of biomedical engineering at Zimmer U.
S. A. , which was a division of Bristol-Myers Squibb where he was in charge for engineering, prototype design and fabrication, and basic research support for all new product development programs.It is a subsidiary that has the largest sales of any company in the orthopedic implants business. He then served as director of biomedical engineering for Cutter Biomedical, a division of Cutter Laboratories in San Diego, California his responsibilities included organizing and staffing a complete product development group. (Hanlon, J.
, 2000) While at Zimmer, Miller met Ferguson. He also met Noblitt and Haroff, who worked at the Orthopedic Equipment Co. , another Warsaw area firm."Ray (Haroff) was in manufacturing, Niles (Noblitt) was in product development and Jerry (Ferguson) was in marketing.
Eventually, the four men realized they could build upon the strengths of one another. Initial discussions about forming Biomet began in the fall of 1975, shortly before Miller moved to San Diego to become the head of research and development at Cutter Laboratories (now a unit of Bayer AG, a West German chemical and pharmaceutical products company).In 1978, he and other three local individuals with manufacturing experience, formed Biomet, Inc. and their goal were to become the most responsive company in orthopedics while concurrently providing patients with most clinically proven products in the marketplace and with the highest quality. Artificial hip implant operations have been performed since the early 1960s.
But in the late 1970s, new federal product safety regulations made the implant business too risky for any investors in the orthopedic products field.After the medical device amendments to the Food and Cosmetics Act were promulgated, it made many large pharmaceutical companies became doubtful about entering the implant business. But this doesn’t stopped Miller and his colleagues to penetrate the orthopedics market. Though they had faced difficulties and had a traumatic experience because of too many risks and challenges involved in the business, they all believed that they had made the right decision, and they had the perfect timing as well They wanted to be known as an orthopedic products company in the metals area but not on becoming a manufacturing company.But their determination had paid off as the company grew from $63,500 in sales and a $17,300 loss during its 1978 fiscal year, to $10. 6 million in sales and earnings of $1.
6 million in fiscal 1984. Biomet grew 300 percent in fiscal 1985 when it acquired Orthopedic Equipment, the former employer of Noblitt and Haroff, which had more than $20 million in sales. (Kurowski,J. ,1989).
At the same time they were able to penetrate the European market. Dane Miller was successful with his chosen field because of his hardwork and determination.He is very keen and wanted to learn more beyond his capabilities. He believed in himself that he could succeed in a business where anyone had been afraid to take a risk. He seeks and researches new technologies that would enable him to explore more opportunities in orthopedic industry.
Miller's extraordinary vision, talent and leadership nearly three decades has been essential to its progress and development, and he had a remarkable success in his field.
