Previously employed as applications engineering manager at Waterford-based Schivo Medical, an innovative contract manufacturing organisation specialising in the medical device and life sciences sectors, and with considerable sales experience from working in and across Ireland’s (and Europe’s) medical device and mass spectrometry manufacturing supply chains, Purcell, a seasoned sales professional, joined GF Machining Solutions in February 2024.
GF Machining Solutions said employing a sales manager with such extensive, first-hand experience of Ireland’s MedTech sector as well as an in-depth knowledge of medical devices per se and the manufacturing processes involved in making them, is "clearly good news".
Although already established as a key partner with a number of Irish medical component manufacturing OEMs, Tier One companies and precision subcontractors, the sheer scope and scale of Ireland’s MedTech sector provides GF Machining Solutions, through its latest appointment, with significant new business and organic growth opportunities.
The statistics below helps illustrate Ireland’s MedTech growth potential for GF Machining Solutions, and where the company could increase its market share.
Ireland is Europe’s largest per capita employer of medical device professionals and the second largest exporter of medical device products. The country exports MedTech products worth €12.6bn to over 100 countries, with 80% of the world’s stents and 50% of the world’s hospital ventilators being manufactured there.
Ireland is also a global leader in the design, manufacture and supply of cardiovascular devices, orthopaedic implants, diagnostic equipment and surgical instruments – and is home to numerous multinational MedTech companies supported by a large, buoyant and strong supply chain.
Purcell said: “I am really looking forward to the challenge. As GF Machining Solutions’ new Country Sales Manager for Northern and Southern Ireland, and armed with my knowledge and experience of working in the MedTech sector through my previous employment at Schivo Medical and, before that, at Takumi Precision in Limerick, I am confident that I can make a telling contribution.
“I am no stranger to GF Machining Solutions’ advanced machine tool technologies (milling, EDM, laser, Additive Manufacturing) and automation systems, and how they can help, and are helping, Irish component and mould tool manufacturers improve their productivity and process efficiencies.
“I aim to use my knowledge and experience to help improve GF Machining Solutions’ sales performance not just in the Irish MedTech supply chain but across the board, with OEMs, Tier One companies and precision subcontractors operating in Ireland’s aerospace, pharmaceutical, electronics, materials handling and transport sectors too.”
Purcell lives in Limerick and has numerous qualifications (L7 & L8) in sales and marketing, international selling and pharmaceutical and medical device operations under his belt.
