Ms. Long has spent the last 15 years bringing new technologies to market in the healthcare industry-namely medical device and diagnostics. Karen has been with Acclarent since early 2007 when she joined the early stage company as VP Marketing. Acclarent is now the flagship ENT division of J&J and Karen currently holds the role of Worldwide Vice President of Marketing.
Prior to Acclarent Karen served in various management roles at Lifescan (J&J) from 2001-2007 including Director of Global Strategic Marketing and Director of New Product Development. Karen was focused on developing and launching new technologies to help patients better manage their diabetes. Before joining Lifescan Karen worked in the diabetes division of Inverness Medical, based in Massachusetts (acquired by J&J in 2001) and Silicon Valley diagnostics start up, ChemTrak, dedicated to consumer products for the at the home test market. Karen has a BS and a MS from San Diego State University.
Acclarent is a medical device company focused on delivering innovative technologies to the Ear, Nose and Throat physician community. Today, they are the market leader in Balloon Sinuplasty™ technologies, a procedure used to open up blocked sinuses. Acclarent successfully grew from an incubator spin out (Exploramed) to a highly successful commercial organization acquired by Ethicon (J&J) in January 2010 for $785 million. The company went from idea concept to commercialization of the first product in 18 months and was sold less than six years after its founding in a difficult medtech venture environment. Find out more about the critical success factors for successful start-up Acclarent.
