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J. “RUSTY” HITCH

Director, Innovation Practice

Rusty serves as a Director Innovation Practice, where his experience in lean leadership, innovation, and engineering execution is leveraged to help organizations accelerate product development, improve operational performance, and build lasting capability. He specializes in leveraging end-to-end innovation strategies to drive organizational growth and align teams with key strategic objectives. Recognized for building high-performing teams and embedding lean principles into all stages of the product development lifecycle, Rusty combines strategic vision with practical execution to deliver measurable results.

With a 30+ year career at Beckman Coulter Life Sciences (a Danaher company), Rusty advanced from engineering roles to senior leadership, most recently serving as Director, Innovation DBS. In this role, he led enterprise-wide improvement efforts, integrated lean practices into Research and Development, mentored leaders, and guided the continuous improvement of Beckman Coulter’s global product development process to drive innovation. His work reduced development cycle times, improved cross-functional alignment, improved external product quality, strengthened global collaboration, and delivered improvements across IT, Quality, and Manufacturing functions.


A skilled educator and coach, Rusty has trained engineers, managers, and executives in lean methods, delivering lasting capability through Kaizen, hands-on mentoring, and leadership development. His expertise spans the entire product development lifecycle, always with a focus on delivering value to customers and accelerating speed-to-market.


Rusty holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Purdue University and is an inventor on multiple U.S. patents.

J. “Rusty” Hitch’s Industry Experience

LIFE SCIENCES

MEDICAL DEVICES

LABORATORY AUTOMATION

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLE

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

ANALYTICAL INSTRUMENTS

& MORE