A Florida-based Caribbean national has been honored with the title of International Entrepreneur of the Year.
Dr. Kingsley Chin, Jamaican-born spinal surgeon, inventor, entrepreneur, author and humanitarian, received the award recently from the Young Caribbean Professional Network, (YCPN), at the organization’s national fundraising event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Links Jamaican roots
Dr. Chin called it “an honor and a blessing,” adding that he has linked his Jamaican roots in all aspects of his success and is focusing currently on the importance of access to health care in Jamaica.
He also revealed that he wants to leverage opportunities to enhance the tourism sector, the national economy, and the country as a whole.
Dr. Chin serves as Managing Partner and CEO of KICVentures, a company he founded in 2005 which invests in high growth opportunities and follow-ons with a potential near-term exit.
Personality suited to health-tech
His success with KICVentures can be attributed partly to his relentless drive, and partly to his personality that’s uniquely suited to the field of health-tech. That personality hinges on the paradox of a deep grounding in scientific and technical knowledge coupled with a predisposition for unfettered, visionary thinking. In fact, in their first impressions of Dr. Chin, people are often struck by his insatiable predilection for big ideas.
Chin was a 3.2 student, graduating from Columbia College with a minor in mathematics in 1988 and from SEAS in 1989 with a major in electrical engineering.
Following graduation, he took a non-traditional engineering path to gain two years of business experience as a management consultant for Andersen Consulting (Accenture) in New York City before heading to Massachusetts and matriculating at Harvard Medical School.
Harvard Med graduate
He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1996 with honors and from his Harvard Orthopaedic Residency in 2002 and went on to further specialize for a year as a Spine Fellow at Case Western Reserve University under the mentorship of the renowned Dr. Henry H. Bohlman.
Dr. Chin has leveraged his degrees in engineering and medicine with his business experience to form several enterprises. In 2001, he founded MeduWeb.com, an Internet-based company focused on medical online distant learning using technology developed at MIT.
Focus on spine surgery
He subsequently changed his focus to become an inventor of medical devices for spine surgery and has over 24 issued and pending patents.
In 2005, he founded MANTIS, LLS, a company focused on developing minimally invasive spine surgery devices. He sold the MANTIS device to STRYKER Spine as a multi-million-dollar deal. The device was FDA-cleared in 2007 and, in 2008, generated over $20 million in sales.
Dr. Chin subsequently founded SpineFrontier, Inc., to continue his interest in developing medical devices but with a deeper and broader portfolio to address the minimally invasive spine surgery market and to expand spine surgery to treat elderly patients. In 2008, SpineFrontier released its first FDA-cleared device and subsequently has generated almost $7 million in revenues and was profitable the first year.
Dr. Chin has shared his expertise with the next generation of orthopedic surgeons. He spent four years, between 2003-2007, as an assistant professor of orthopedic spine surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania where he was recruited to be the Chief Spine Surgeon in 2003.
Published author
In addition, he has 45 published articles, written 14 book chapters and 11 review chapters, edited the textbook, Orthopedic Key Review Concepts, and was an associate editor of Interventional Spine: An Algorithmic Approach and also established an Orthopedic Board review course taught by world-renowned surgeons in New York City to prepare residents to pass their Board examination.
Young Caribbean Professional Network
Young Caribbean Professional Network (YCPN) is dedicated to creating access to education and economic opportunities for students and young professionals in the global market place and engaging Caribbean and Latino students and professionals – ages 18-45- for personal, professional and business growth in the Greater Northeast Region of the United States.
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