40 Influential Leaders - Dean Kamen

Dean Kamen
Executive Director and Board Chairman of Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI)

Dean Kamen, a prolific inventor, is leading a vision to transform Manchester’s Millyard into a biotech hub for growing human tissue and organs through BioFabUSA, a program of the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI).

Kamen, whose earliest memory of the Seacoast region is coming from New York to visit his cousin and taking a submarine dive at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1962, is now taking a deep dive into the world of bio fabrication. Kamen, who employs 1,000 engineers, hopes to make Manchester the Silicon Valley of bio fabrication.

But Kamen doesn’t consider himself a businessman. “I’ve never done a business plan. I don’t look for money from banks,” he says. “I do technology.”

His inventions included the Segway Personal Transporter, and a portable infusion pump, for which he was awarded the first of more than 150 patents. In 1999 he introduced the iBOT, a device similar to a wheelchair that could climb stairs and stand upright on two wheels.

Kamen is focused on growing Manchester’s biotech prowess, which resulted in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration designating the ReGen Valley Tech Hub in Manchester as one of the 31 inaugural Tech Hubs across the country in October 2023. The ReGen Valley Tech Hub is a consortium led by ARMI with a goal of developing NH into a global leader in biofabrication. Designated tech hubs are eligible to apply for millions in federal funding.