Lane Major was recently named the president and CEO of Richmond laboratory product company Grenova — taking the helm from founder Ali Safavi.
The move comes at an important time for Grenova, about a year after Connecticut private equity firm Peloton Equity purchased a majority share. That investment changed the company’s trajectory and set it on a course for growth.
“The types of innovation and instruments that Grenova has executed on was hard to say no to,” Major said. “I come from a very competitive space with countless competitors cutting the legs out of each other. And the opportunity to create a market is not something that you get to do every day.”
Major started his career in medical sales and eventually co-founded Leesburg, Virginia’s K2M, a maker of spinal implant products. Major was the COO and helped shepherd the company from its founding as a startup in 2004 to a major corporation. It sold to medical manufacturing company Stryker Corp. in 2018 for $1.4 billion, and Major left a few years later.
Grenova manufactures technology that washes and sterilizes devices used in diagnostic testing, allowing them to be reused rather than thrown away. Major said Grenova and K2M are both “mission-driven” organizations. K2M had a mission to improve people’s lives through spinal implant technology, and Grenova wants to reduce laboratory waste.
Major said he began talking with Peloton about taking the helm shortly after the company’s investment in Grenova.
“I have experience with them that dates back to the early 2000s,” Major said. “They were an early investor of my previous company. They were a fantastic partner and know the health care space very well. They knew I was trying to figure out what the next thing was going to be, and they started talking about the opportunity that Grenova provides.”
Major believes the company can revolutionize the lab equipment market and experience the type of growth that happened at K2M. The company is known for reusable pipette tips, but Major said other products are in the works.
Major said his first goal is to tell the Grenova story to a wider audience. The company has already partnered with National Institutes of Health, Harvard University and AstraZeneca, but he said not enough people are aware of the products. He sees Grenova becoming an international company like K2M, which operates in more than 40 countries. That means building up the organization’s sales and operations infrastructure and expanding the product line.
“I think we are just scratching the surface on our product innovation potential and our ability to share our story with the rest of the world,” Major said. “It hard to imagine a world where we don’t add fuel to the fire and introduce new products into the marketplace.”
He stressed that him being named CEO was not a case where the investors pushed the founder out. Safavi founded the company and had served as CEO. He is still a member of the board (along with Major) and has transitioned to the title of chief experience officer. Major said Safavi recently played a big part in a recent company townhall meeting.
Major still lives in Northern Virginia and said he is excited to build another company in the commonwealth. He believes Grenova could become an economic engine for the region and build on the area’s growing life science industry.
“If we are going to make an impact on a global scale as it relates to our environment, it’s important for me and the organization to form partnerships with the surrounding communities,” Major said.
