President and CEO of BEI Medical Systems
Psychology Major | Class of 1969
Combining his Old Dominion bachelor's degree in psychology with a Masters in Business Administration and a doctorate in
health administration, alumnus Richard Turner has found a multitude of opportunities to make an impact on the field of medical technology, particularly in the area of women's health care.
Most recently, Turner was President and CEO of BEI Medical Systems, a medical technology company he founded in 1991 and sold to Boston Scientific Corporation in 2002. BEI's most renowned development is a medical device known as the Hydro ThermAblator (HTA), which promises to greatly improve the treatment of a common health problem among women: excessive uterine bleeding. A reported 2.5 million women seek treatment annually for this condition.
BEI is not the first company Turner has developed and sold, however. In 1982, as president and director of Kay Laboratories in San Diego, he negotiated the company's sale to American Hospital Supply Corp. Just a few years later, he founded Pancretec, which sold in 1986 to Abbott Hospital Products.
Since the sale of BEI, Turner has been assisting Boston Scientific with the integration of the company and the rollout of HTA. Primarily, however, he has decided to step back, if only momentarily, from the business aspects of his life and focus his time and energy on his family.
Turner, a former Monarch baseball player, lives in Richmond with his wife, Deidre. They have two sons.