PETE KLAES
PRESIDENT
BRAUN MEDICAL
WHY: Top local official at OC’s third-largest medical device maker, where he oversees 2K employees. Touts itself as the only IV solutions provider with a full line of products free of harmful plastics.
IN THE NEWS: Nearing completion of $500M modernization project of a sprawling 29-acre campus in Irvine next to the Diamond Jamboree Shopping Center. Part of $1B company-wide investment to help end America’s IV fluid shortage.
NOTABLE: Subsidiary of Germany’s B. Braun Melsungen AG and has its U.S. headquarters in Betlehem, Pennsylvania. Parent company has $7.8B in yearly sales and 64K employees worldwide; claims to be the largest privately held medical device company in the world.
QUOTABLE: “We’ve been a sleeping giant in Orange County.”
