Joel Tune was presented the Professional Award in Engineering (PAE) for Chemical Engineering during the 2017 Speed School Homecoming celebration held October 13 at the Brown Hotel.
The award is based on outstanding career performance in engineering, exceptional efforts by an individual to foster the professional development of young engineering college students. exceptional ability in the planning and direction of significant and important projects in technical engineering; and individual contributions to technical engineering knowledge.
A graduate of the J.B. Speed School of Engineering, Joel Tune earned his BS in Biomedical Engineering in 1978 and holds an MBA from Marquette University earned in 1986. Joel is currently Executive Chairman and CEO of Enteris BioPharma, a biotechnology company offering innovative formulation solutions built around its proprietary drug delivery technologies. The company currently has five products (their own or partnered compounds) in various stages of clinical development.
After graduating from UofL, Joel started his career at Baxter Healthcare. Over the next 28 years he worked in product development and grew through roles in marketing, strategy, business development and general management. During his time in product development, Joel earned U.S. patents for sterile medical closure systems and led a team that earned Baxter’s highest technical achievement award for developing a disposable ambulatory infusion pump for home drug therapy.
During his four years leading business development, he and his team completed over 20 transactions across the globe. During his last professional role, he served as VP/General Manager of Baxter’s BioPharma Solutions, a business that provides technology and services to the pharma and biotech industry. During his five years at the helm, the company flourished, doubling in size to over $800M in annual sales while increasing profitability.
Since his retirement from Baxter, Joel has been the principle in JTune Consulting LLC. The focus of his consulting practice is working with technology driven, small/medium companies in healthcare as well as private equity and venture capital firms in the pharmaceutical and biotech space. He has also served on several board of directors for both public and private healthcare companies.