Welcome to Picocyl

Bob is the CEO and CO-founder of Picocyl.  Mr. Barron is a proven business leader with a strong Operating background, along with experience in transactions and investments.  He has led businesses from start-ups to Fortune 1000 firms, and was a Venture Partner at a leading venture capital firm.  He has served on various Boards, numerous Advisory Boards, and guided entrepreneurs to the successful launching of their companies.

As CEO of Chromatis Networks, Bob was responsible for a $4.5B M&A transaction that led to him being featured on CNBC for leading the largest Small Cap transaction in U.S. history. Bob also lead a highly successful commercial spin-out of a government contract manufacturing business, MQA, facilitating a 500% market capitalization increase. 

Throughout his career, Bob’s focus and success was based on building and motivating teams to develop strategies for growth, and to execute successfully through proven business processes.  Mr. Barron began P&L responsibility in 1986 as Group Vice President of Stanford Telecom, a public technology company.  Today, Bob enjoys flying his Bonanza, backcountry skiing, getting off-the-grid in Alaska, and being married to his wife.

Jack is a Co-Founder of Picocyl and well-established in the medical device industry. Jack’s passion is leading smart people to creatively solve real-world problems with innovative solutions that yield effective, high-demand products and processes. Prior to founding Picocyl, Jack worked extensively with retina surgeons to deeply understand their objectives, identify their needs and translate those needs into current market-leading, state-of-the art, handheld surgical instruments. His fifteen successful years in motorsports and specialty vehicle design/development with the Toyota off road racing team and MillenWorks taught Jack to flourish at solving challenging problems in fast-paced, team-centric environments. He currently holds 51 US and 100 International patents.

Jack graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. He is happily married with two great twenty-something children, active in the outdoors with a passion for hiking, lightweight backpacking and riding motorcycles.

Mr. Welikala has a lifelong love of plastics that has only grown with his decades of experience focusing on injection molding for medical devices. Starting with the founding of Apec in 1997, he built the company from the ground up to focus exclusively on injection molding of medical parts and successfully grew the business until it was acquired by Helix Medical in 2007, where he continued to serve for another 6 years as the Executive Vice President Global Business Development. In 2014 he cofounded Medacys, an injection molding company based in Shenzhen, China that flourished and eventually merged with EG Gilero.

Foundational to his life is his family. In his free time he enjoys cultivating new types of plants in his garden and his relentless curiosity has inspired him to pursue education in bee biology and Beekeeping to better understand the fascinatingly complex insects that help his garden thrive.

Tom has 30 years of product / business development, marketing and sales experience in medical devices and pharma with experience in start-up and large corporations. Prior to joining PICOCYL, Tom led the global strategic business development activities for Scott Medical Products, a CDMO with expertise in gas-based drugs, APIs and medical devices, where he established the company’s first DMF in China. In sales and marketing roles with a start-up company, now part Philips Medical Systems, he was instrumental in the promotion and proliferation of the first automatic external defibrillator (AED) designed for use by lay people to improve the 2-3% survival rate of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) victims via early defibrillation.

Tom earned his B.A. in Biology from Lafayette College and M.B.A. from Villanova University. Tom enjoys activities with his loving wife and 4 kids as well as riding motorcycles, working out, exploring the outdoors and boating.

James has been developing leading edge medical device technology with a focus in the ophthalmic industry since 2003. Working closely with gas synthesis manufacturers and analytical laboratories, James has cultivated robust partnerships to source the highest quality gas available. He also led the design and development efforts for the initial valve-release Pico-cylinders, putting in place the processes for ensuring implantable medical grade gas purity and product reliability.

James graduated from the University of Southern California with a BS and MS in Biomedical Engineering.

Yule has over 8-years of engineering experience in medical device industry, and has developed knowledge and skillsets in both R&D and manufacturing world.  This allows Yule to make contributions to Picocyl in many different ways including development of new applications, and improving and maintaining manufacturing efficiency and quality. All of Yule’s professional career has been with start-up companies, so he enjoys and fits well to a fast-paced medical-device manufacturing environment. 

In his free time, Yule enjoys being outdoor for traveling, hiking and snowboarding.

Peter has 10 years of medical manufacturing experience. He has worked in a wide variety of environments and acquired valuable trade skills. Peter has implemented these skills at Picocyl and contributed to current production processes and on-going engineering builds.

In his free time, he enjoys running, being outdoors, cooking, watching sports and spending time with his family and friends.

Matt has sixteen years of experience as a Mechanical Engineer, six of which have been spent designing Pico-cylinders for medical devices. He currently holds nine patents, two related to the development of Pico-cylinders. He is a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. Matt and his wife Jenna have four daughters- Kara, Allison, Sadie and Nomathemba.

In his free time Matt enjoys mountain biking, reading, and spending time with his wife.

Cesar Leyva has been working in the medical device industry for over 12 years and specializes in process development, new product introduction and technology transfers for class 3 implantable devices. Cesar has led cross-geographical teams in the technology transfer projects and has supported successful regulatory approvals across the globe. Cesar supports Picocyl in the manufacturing front and ensures that the processes are developed and implemented following all necessary quality and regulatory requirements. Cesar graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering and holds an MBA, he is also certified as a lean/six sigma black belt.

He dedicates his free time to his family of 3 boys and a beautiful wife!

John is a Mechanical Engineer with over 30 years of experience creating and innovating for many markets including medical, automotive including EVs, aviation, entertainment, theme parks, recreation, racing, and defense. He has spent the last three years helping to develop devices and solutions for the medical industry. He studied Mechanical Engineering at Cal Poly Pomona. His favorite activities are mountain and road riding, hiking, and swimming.

Kassandra has over 6 years of manufacturing operational experience in various industries ranging from precision optics, commercial and home building products, to propulsion solutions and automotive safety. She brings to Picocyl diverse manufacturing knowledge in areas of process engineering, product design, continuous improvement with lean ideology, automation systems, and quality systems.

Kassandra is an Indiana State University Mechanical Engineering graduate. In her free time, she enjoys creating, renovating, building, and spending time outdoors.

Kellan is starting his career with Picocyl after graduating from Colorado State University with his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering in 2022. During his master’s degree, Kellan developed design and R&D skills in the biomedical field while working on his thesis in the cardiovascular biomechanics lab.

In his free time, Kellan enjoys traveling, hiking, and is an avid Denver sports fan. 

Emma has several years of manufacturing experience, having worked and interned with several different medical device companies. She brings a unique set of skills to Picocyl, having participated in an accelerated one-year Biomedical Engineering Master’s program with an entrepreneurial focus at the University of Wisconsin. She also obtained her undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering at Wisconsin.

Having skied since the age of 3, Emma knew she wanted to move to Colorado following the completion of her Master’s degree. She is also passionate about 3D printing, hiking 14ers, and training for half marathons.