R.F Derick Bonewitz, Ph.D.

R. F. Derick Bonewitz, Ph.D., President, has extensive training and experience in science and technology with emphasis in healthcare. Dr. Bonewitz graduated from Texas A&M University in 1970 with a degree in chemical engineering and, after service as an officer in the U.S. Army, a master’s degree in biochemistry. He then completed his doctoral studies at the University of Texas, Health Science Center, Houston, in biochemical genetics. Dr. Bonewitz held a postdoctoral research fellowship sponsored by the National Institutes of Health at the Kettering Laboratory of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center from 1980 to 1982, and then joined Abbott Laboratories where he began a seventeen-year career. Dr. Bonewitz has held numerous research and management positions in Abbott’s diagnostics division and its chemical and agricultural products division. He has received several recognition awards from Abbott for his contributions to the development and manufacture of diagnostic products for medical laboratories and blood banks, including the first commercial HIV test, and in the development of healthcare products for animals. He also has ten years’ experience in regulatory affairs, having held positions in Abbott’s Washington, D.C. office and in its animal health business.

Dr. Bonewitz has conducted business in Mexico, Europe, Japan and Africa and has studied Mexico and its language and culture for over thirty-five years.