The Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business marked its fifth annual Entrepreneurship Week with events on Wednesday, Nov. 18, and Thursday, Nov. 19. The celebration is held annually in conjunction with Kauffmann’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, the largest celebration of entrepreneurship in the world.
Eric Major, co-founder of K2M: Simplified Solutions for the Complex Spine, presented “Entrepreneurship in the Healthcare Industry: The Case of K2M” on Thursday, Nov. 19 and received the school’s Entrepreneur of the Year award. “The award recognizes the achievements of a business owner who best exemplifies the ideals of entrepreneurship by starting and successfully managing one or more businesses in a way that demonstrates notable entrepreneurial characteristics and achievements while exemplifying the mission of the Byrd School of Business to produce successful, principled, leaders with a global perspective,” said Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business Dean Miles Davis, Ph.D.
Major is the president, CEO and co-founder of K2M, Inc., a fast-growing, global medical device company focused on developing innovative surgical solutions for the most complex spinal pathologies. Major previously co-founded and served as the president and CEO of American OsteoMedix Corp. (AOM), a minimally invasive spinal device company that was acquired by Interpore Cross International in 2001.
“Eric Major is well deserving of this award not just because he took a small ‘garage’ idea and built it to a company that is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange–this makes him successful–but also because he gives back around the world, working on the African continent and other parts of the world to make a difference in the lives of those who may not otherwise be able to afford spinal surgery,” Dr. Davis said. “Clearly Eric Major is a man of principles and has a global perspective.”
Following the sale of AOM, Major served as president of the Minimally Invasive Division for Interpore Cross International (now a Biomet company) until 2002. Prior to co-founding AOM, Major served in several sales/marketing, strategic, and product development capacities with various spinal companies including Acromed Spine Inc. (now a Johnson & Johnson company) and Synthes Spine, Inc.
Major has more than 20 years of experience in the spine industry and was the 2010 recipient of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Emerging Technologies in the Greater Washington, D.C. region. He is a member of the AdvaMed CEO Advisory Council and is active in the local community, serving on the Loudoun Small Business Development Center Board of Directors, as well as the board of trustees for the Westmoreland Davis Memorial Foundation, Inc., a local historic preservation organization.
Major holds a bachelor of science degree from James Madison University and is a member of the JMU College of Business Executive Advisory Council.
In addition to hosting Major and presenting him with the entrepreneurship award, the business school also marked Entrepreneurship Week 2015 with a showing of a documentary film titled “Income Inequality For All.” The film, directed by Jacob Kornbluth and presented by American economist, author and professor Robert Reich, examines widening income inequality in the United States.