Executive Suite: Michael Egholm

You can't make computer chips without filtering away the dust, or biopharmaceutical drugs without separating away the bacteria. At Pall Corp., which makes filtration, separation and purification devices for things ranging from airplanes to wastewater, chief technology officer Michael Egholm transforms scientific theory into products.

Egholm, 48, gained notice early on as a graduate student in Denmark, where he helped invent PNA. Similar to DNA, it is used to diagnose life-threatening infections that might otherwise go unrecognized. He also worked on the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome and the first individual human genome. At Pall, in Port Washington, he's responsible for an uptick in inventions. One day, some might be used to rebuild blood vessels.

How do you choose what products to make?
There are a million things we can do; we're only going to do a handful of them. My job is to pick out what the handful are, combining technology with a need customers have today or tomorrow at a cost-point where it makes sense.

What are some exciting emerging developments?
We just acquired the ForteBio company in California. [With] its very cool technology we can measure the amount of protein that accumulates on the tip of the optical fiber. It's used in biopharmaceutical companies to help develop and characterize the drugs.

How do your specific skills aid you in what you're doing now?
There are lots of people that know how to develop the next generation of a product or new technology, but making that bridge from technology into a product, and all the pain associated with that -- I've done that a number of times. The other thing I bring along [is] a strong scientific background and leadership experience. It's always challenging for advanced technical people to both be strong technically and be able to develop products, and understand the commercial applications, and know how to lead an organization.

What's your favorite time-management technique?
You really have to be very deliberate in what you choose not to do. The other habit I've developed [is] I show up here a couple of hours before most other people, to work on things.

How do you unwind?
When I travel I can run anywhere . . . the streets of Paris, Singapore, the Swiss Alps, or wherever I have to be at a meeting. I ask my colleagues if there are any runners . . . and you get to know people in a unique way. I'm [also] a pilot and have a plane that I fly. Those few hours I completely think of nothing else but flying, turning off the internal CNN. I take my kids, and, one at a time, they go flying with me.

CORPORATE SNAPSHOT
Name. Michael Egholm, chief technology officer at Pall Corp., headquartered in Port Washington.

What it does. Make filtration, separation and purification devices, with applications in biotech drugs, vaccines, wastewater, microelectronics.

Employees. Almost 11,000 globally, with an estimated 750 on Long Island.

What roles they play. Research and development, quality assurance and regulatory affairs, engineering, microbiology, chemistry and hematology, manufacturing operations, information technology, finance, human resources, legal, sales, marketing and communications.

Revenues. $2.7 billion