Episode #12 – Albert Di Rienzo

From the Shipyard to the CEO
With an eye on the future health of the planet, as well as the health of pets and humans, Albert DiRienzo is continually innovating the future of Animal Health.

Speaker 1:
Welcome to The People of Animal Health podcast. The host of our podcast is Stacy Pursell. Stacy is the leading executive recruiter for the animal health industry and a veterinary profession. She’s the founder of Therio Partners and The Vet Recruiter. Stacy has placed more professionals in key positions within the animal health industry and the veterinary profession than any executive search professional. Along the way, Stacy has built relationships with some outstanding people who are doing incredible things to make a difference. The People of Animal Health podcast features industry leaders and trailblazers who have made a significant impact or are making an impact in the animal industry or the veterinary profession. Stacy chats with them to learn more about their lives, their careers, and the unique and interesting things that they have done to contribute to the animal health industry or veterinary profession. She’s here to share their stories with you. Now here’s the host of our podcast, Stacy Pursell.

Stacy Pursell:
Hello everyone. Welcome onto The People of Animal Health podcast. On today’s show, we are talking with Albert Di Rienzo, an entrepreneur who was an animal health and human health and wellness innovator. In a career spanning nearly 30 years in academia, government, and industry, Albert held positions with the Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute at Syracuse University, One Health Group, RedSky, Blue Highway, National Biodefense Science Board, Welch Allyn, Phillips Medical Systems, Siemens Medical Systems, Honeywell, Sperry Aerospace, and General Dynamics.

Stacy Pursell:
In recent years, he was recognized twice as the medical device industry’s most valuable thought leader by Frost and Sullivan, and as technologist of the year by the Technology Alliance of Central New York. He also received the future of health technology award for pioneering work-promoting entrepreneurship in the medical and scientific fields, as well as the Frost and Sullivan catalyst award, which is the first ever given for being a game-changer and visionary in multiple disciplines and industries. Welcome onto The People of Animal Health podcast. And how are you, Albert.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Oh, I’m very good, Stacy. And it’s a privilege and a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, I am so glad that you’ve joined us today, Albert. Thank you for being on our show. Albert, I know that you have experienced tremendous success at this point in your career, but I’d love to start off at the bottom, in the very beginning of your career. What was your life like growing up, and where did you grow up?

Albert Di Rienzo:
That’s a great question. So I grew up mostly in Virginia Beach, Virginia. My father was career Navy, so moved around. Been in a number of different states, but majority of my childhood in Virginia Beach. I was even a geek as a kid. I took everything apart in my family’s house that you can imagine because I was curious at a very young age how did things work, and I eventually learned to actually put things back together and fix them, and always had that inquisitive sort of spirit. I think I got a lot of that from my parents. My mom was a biochemist. My dad, again, career Navy and was sort of a math whiz.

Albert Di Rienzo:
And I had a really great upbringing, very supportive upbringing, had a lot of opportunities to explore. I did start school a little bit later than most as far as college. I was one of those people who was sort of pig-headed. I had to do everything on my own. I didn’t want my parents putting me through school. I wanted to do it on my own. So I actually became a welder in a shipyard for several years, and paid my way through college, my undergraduate program, which was focused on computer science. And it was a very good experience. I had mostly an application-oriented versus theoretical-oriented education, and got to participate in a number of different activities, which again, great professors and a very supportive environment.

Albert Di Rienzo:
And from there, I moved into a variety of different opportunities. You sort of read a laundry list up there of the things that I’ve had the experience and privilege to do. And I actually started initially in things to do with the Department of Defense and things for that sort of environment. Later, I was approached by Siemens Medical Systems, and asked if I could apply what I had learned in things like radar, and sonar, and systems engineering discipline to medical. And it was in ultrasound. And that’s what I did. I was one of the first systems engineers they brought on board. And I had a lot of experience and success working with some very new ultrasound systems and capabilities, implemented some of the first neural networks and Fuzzy Set Theory types of applications.

Albert Di Rienzo:
I learned a lot there, and continue to move my career forward with Siemens, and CAT scanners, and oncology systems. I was in the first team at Siemens that set up the new design controls, working hand-in-hand with the FDA in design controls. And then I continued my medical career, mostly in imaging. And eventually, it culminated where I was very fortunate to be one of 13 appointed under the Bush administration, and continued under the Obama administration, to be on the National Biodefense Science Board. It was the first ever. And we were there to protect the American public, and support our allies in areas of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats, whether manmade or naturally occurring.

Albert Di Rienzo:
And that has a public health component as well. What we recently experienced with COVID, and previously swine flu, things of that nature, we would participate in. And from there, I was also set up as a professor of forensic science at Syracuse University, and that you had mentioned in that Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute. But I just had the privilege of working with just brilliant and highly collaborative people in the Biodefense. From there, I’ve continued not only in the human health, but also in animal health.

Albert Di Rienzo:
And they’re intrinsically linked. If you think of One Health, which is the company that I lead today, One Health is that intersection of human and animal health and accounting for environmental variables and impact on that. And I think it’s so important for the future health of our planet, as well as human kind and animals. And I’ve had that touchpoint on animals and humans throughout most of my career. So again, very sort of colorful career, very fortunate. I’d love to tell you I orchestrated it to flow in a particular direction, but I was just very privileged in what I was able to do.

Stacy Pursell:
Wow. Wow. What a fascinating story. You started out as a welder in a shipyard, and was appointed, worked with Bush and Obama on Biodefense, and so many interesting things that you’ve done. Was there a point in time, because you’ve been in all these different areas, was there a point in time when you said … You figured out what you wanted to do professionally, and how did you finally decide what you did want to do professionally?

Albert Di Rienzo:
Yeah, I would say most of my adult life, even from the time at welding, I’ve loved innovation. And I’ve loved being able to try to push things that were maybe they haven’t been successful before or it’s a totally new area. So even welding, I was one of a few that was teamed with the metallurgical engineers and the welding engineers to come up with new processes to introduce those into the shipyard.

Albert Di Rienzo:
And so I’ve always had that innovation bug, and loving to push what exists. Where can we improve? And I would say … So I’ve always had that perspective. I would say figuring out what I really wanted to do is I moved into more executive level positions where I could have even a greater impact, and really help orchestrate across different departments, with new collaborations, new academic institutions and so forth. I just love what collaboration and sort of like-minded perseverance and interest can accomplish.

Albert Di Rienzo:
So for instance, I was the principle investigator on a US Army program called The Personal Status Monitor. And that was to remotely monitor the health of military personnel in the field. And that project had over 12 different external entities, academic, industry, and government, all working to realize that outcome. So I just thoroughly enjoyed that, when people would bring different expertise, come from very different backgrounds, and realize something that had not been realized before, again, to the benefit of many. And I’ve just continued down that path, even what I’m doing today with One Health Group. Though we’re very much so animal health focused, we’re trying to do it in a way that is very cost effective, and in a way that brings information that was not easily accessible or attainable before, by the professional or others that might be from a scientific background and the like. And I’m happy to share more if we have time.

Stacy Pursell:
Yeah, I do want to hear more about that. How did you first become an entrepreneur?

Albert Di Rienzo:
I think, again, that has always been ingrained in me. My mother, for instance, when she was working on her biochemistry, she went for her master’s in biochemistry, and this was back about 1950, and then she’s starting to work on her PhD, that was almost unheard of. I mean, she was really a pioneer in that. She ended up running central laboratory for major hospital system, and just sort of being sought after in that biochemistry space.

Albert Di Rienzo:
And then I saw a similar sort of work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit with my father. And so I think I just was very fortunate in my upbringing. Even all four of my grandparents immigrated from Italy to the United States. And one of my grandfathers started a business. And he had like a general store. And oh by the way, he took care of a farm, and he also was a coal miner. So you just look at the work ethic that I was fortunate enough to witness and experience, and also that diversity. And so I think that’s always been in me.

Albert Di Rienzo:
And as I move more and more in my career, I find that’s what I gravitated towards. I was never very good at just sort of rote activity. I really enjoyed the opportunity to experiment and see what might be possible. And I find that as a leader, I try to do the same thing, give people time to play and experiment and see what might be possible.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, you had good role models growing up.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Oh, thank you.

Stacy Pursell:
How did you go from the human medical industry into the animal health industry?

Albert Di Rienzo:
Yeah, from human health, you actually get exposure to animal health, and I don’t mean this to be offensive. But the reality is is you’re working on a new drug, or there might be a new process, or a new medical device, almost always there’s animal touchpoints. And it usually progresses from animal to human, and then gets released to market. So you learn very early in your career to appreciate that, to care for those animals, to make sure that your experimentation is well-designed, and that the outcomes, again, are beneficial all the way around.

Albert Di Rienzo:
And I find, this is why I love One Health. I find that there is so much in common. So for instance, about 70% of our infectious disease as humans get, they start in animals and make a leap to humans. If you think of … Those would be zoonotic diseases. If you think of vector-based or vector-born diseases, things like mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, so forth. Those have gone up like 10 fold over the last couple decades. And of course, some of our methods of testing and so forth have improved that allows us to understand what’s going on.

Albert Di Rienzo:
And then if you think of our chronic diseases, animals get about 70% of our chronic disease. They deal with heart failure and lung issues, osteoarthritis, and so forth. So I love marrying those two together, sort of those two worlds in that environment, and then working on the predictive analytics. How can we preempt a particular disease or a situation before it ever occurs? And if we can’t mitigate it in a simple lifestyle change, maybe it’s nutrition, maybe it’s exercise or something of that approach, take the minimally invasive approach possible.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Maybe it’s a pharmaceutical. You try to hold off on the more invasive things like surgery to the end. But I find that if we can, again, predict, there are a number of things that can be prevented. And so that’s my passion. Better quality of life, better clinical outcomes, less money spent trying to maintain that quality of life, something that improves clinician workflow, creates some stickiness and high collaboration and touchpoints with their patients and others in the patient’s network. All those things are sort of important.

Albert Di Rienzo:
I’m also passionate because my father passed away of Parkinson’s, and he didn’t have … It wasn’t genetic. A lot of it was due to the things that he was exposed to in the military, and things that we didn’t know at that time had a negative impact, whether it’s you’re close to toxic substances, or whether it’s you’re impacted by extreme blast going off in your vicinity, things of that nature is really what resulted in his Parkinson’s. So all my grandparents really lived into their 90s. He passed away at 84. He should have lived much longer. But again, it’s a passion. I just don’t want to see people go through those types of experiences.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Animals, of course, die much earlier than we would like them to. I’m working with some researchers and been discussing how our solution can fit into the National Institute of Health’s canine longevity study, which is on, I believe, 30,000 canines. And it’s really how can we extend the life of our companion animals? Why is it that they might pass when they do? And animals have become like family members. And so my passion is to, as much as possible, minimize that suffering and just improve that overall quality of life. So I know it’s sort of extreme, and we always have suffering, and we always have diseases and so forth with us. But I want to do what I can to positively impact that.

Stacy Pursell:
Yes. Improve the quality of life. We can learn a lot from animals. Albert, when do you feel like you were first gaining traction with your career?

Albert Di Rienzo:
I would say probably that interaction with Siemens, when I moved over into 100% medical and moved into Siemens ultrasound because a position of significance, and one that helped set the future direction of ultrasound practices. I also got to spend time in clinic and really work with the doctors, the nurses, the patients and their families to really understand what problems need to be solved and how can we deliver those in a manner that was very friendly to use for the clinician, and very friendly also for the patient and provide those types of insights that were necessary.

Albert Di Rienzo:
So I would say that was probably mid-career. And I just really enjoyed that. I also appreciate, and this isn’t a commercial for Siemens, but Siemens was technically very astute. They were very into the science and technology, and really trying to bring about systems that were actually researcher friendly, providing researchers all sorts of functionality. In later years I worked for Phillips, and again, Phillips was a fine company, so not to take anything away from either, but I would say that was the big career shift. And from there, I think my career just really took off.

Stacy Pursell:
I know that some successful people have massive success, but also some low points. Walk us through the highest high and the lowest low of your career.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Oh, wow. So the highest high was probably my time on National Biodefense Science Board. And that’s because the people that I worked with on the board were incredible. They were highly accomplished, but there was no infighting. There was just this great spirit of collaboration and just tremendous productivity. We were all, even though we were special government employees, everybody had a full-time job, but we put in hundreds of hours to ensure that we could meet the objectives that we had set out for us, as well as the government had set out for us.

Albert Di Rienzo:
And so that was the best group of people I have ever worked with just because of their passion and collaboration. So that would be the highest high. Plus, there was so much value that wasn’t obvious to the American public that we brought, because a lot of what we did is underneath the radar screen you might say, could be confidential or secret information or so forth. And a lot, if you remember that time in history, it wasn’t all that long after 9/11, and so we were there really to prevent something like that from occurring again. And also, it was neat because I work on diagnostics. I got to work on medical counter measures. I got to work on very early things that had to do with PTSD. Just a number of things. So it was just wonderful.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Low point, I would say a low point in my career was I was in Silicon Valley. I was working for a startup that was in the medical space, but more consumer facing. And the dot com bubble had burst. And not that we were a dot com company, but it impacted available funding. And also, there was a huge downturn in military developments and consolidation of military bases. And so there was almost this influx of people coming into Silicon Valley that were coming from other areas, and it couldn’t support the jobs for them.

Albert Di Rienzo:
And so the startup that I was part of, we were unsuccessful at raising another round that we needed to keep the company going. And the company just collapsed. We continued to work for months with no pay, and just still trying to make things happen, but we just could not realize it. And I had just had my second … Not me personally, my wife had our second child. And she was maybe … Our daughter was maybe three months old. We just moved into a new house not too long ago. So I was like, “Oh my God, all these pressures and all these things just seem to be crushing in.” And it took awhile to find another position that I thought was interesting and where I could have impact, just because the economy was not thriving. So I’d say that was a low point. It was really challenging.

Stacy Pursell:
At that low point, Albert, what did you learn the most from that experience?

Albert Di Rienzo:
Well, I think in most things, just continue to persevere. But believe in your gifts, your experiences, and just continue to persevere. Hold true to your values. And certainly I’ll give tremendous credit to my wife because during those times, she was, as she is today, just incredibly supportive. And so I had that support system. And so I think those are the things that were important, the relationships, and of course just trying to be true to yourself and what’s important.

Stacy Pursell:
Perseverance and having that support network to help you through those challenges.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Absolutely.

Stacy Pursell:
I’m curious, Albert. What has been the most surprising thing to you during your career, as well as, two-part question, what is the most surprising thing to you during your career in the animal health industry?

Albert Di Rienzo:
So the most surprising thing to me in my careers is I’ll say being able to have an impact on the medical community. And what I mean by that, I’ve been very fortunate to be part of teams, and in many cases, lead teams that have released over 100 different medical solutions in a wide variety of areas. So I was never pigeonholed in, “Oh, you just do CAT scanners and that’s all you do for you’re whole career.” I mean, I got so many touchpoints in different disciplines, and in different go-to-market types of solutions. So I would say that is certainly something that was key, very surprising to me. And I apologize, Stacy, what was the second part of the question?

Stacy Pursell:
The second part was what’s been the most surprising thing to you about your time in the animal healthy industry?

Albert Di Rienzo:
Oh, I’m sorry. Okay, yes, so in the animal health industry, what I think is surprising, or what surprised me is, from my perspective, a lag in some the new innovations coming to market. There’s a lot of things you see happening in human health. Well, hey, why isn’t that happening in animal health? I think that is starting to really turn around. But I was disappointed. I always thought human medicine, very conservative, which I understand. Very slow to adopt new innovations, again, I can certainly understand that. But I saw in the animal health world it was even more conservative.

Stacy Pursell:
What do you think the reason is for that? I don’t mean to interrupt, but I’m curious as you keep going what the reason is for that.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Yeah. I think part of it is the training is they certainly have very intensive training that has to cover a breadth and depth of animals and different approaches. If you look in the United States, the insurance system for animals lags far behind when you think about insurance in the human side, though it’s certainly gaining traction. I think that also there is a very conservative approach, and a lack of instrumentation, or even new pharmaceuticals and so forth, for the professionals to work with.

Albert Di Rienzo:
And also, if you think of the number of companies in the human health world, it dwarfs the number of companies in the animal health world. And then finally, I’ll pick on funding. Funding is much more prevalent or readily available, not to make it sound easy, but for those in the human health world with new innovations than in the animal health world. Now, I see that changing. And I get a little bit frustrated because it’s like, “Wait a minute, you’ll invest in human but not animal, or vice versa?” Again, they’re intrinsically linked. For solving this problem, for one, it’s helping to solve it for another most likely, not in every case. So I think those are some of the primary things to answer your last question.

Stacy Pursell:
Yeah. And how have you seen the animal health industry change during the time that you’ve been involved in the animal health industry?

Albert Di Rienzo:
Yeah, so I think one of the things I’ll re-mention is certainly there has been more funding that’s coming into that community. There are some major strategics that have innovation funds now, and are much more collaborative. They’re separated out in a lot of cases, especially in the pharmaceutical world, from their … They’ve separated out from what used to be a parent that played in both the animal and human world, where they normally took a backside to the human applications. And so now they can focus on those animal applications.

Albert Di Rienzo:
I think that you’re seeing a lot of things in tele-health, tele-medicine come online for animals. And you see a lot of upstart companies that have everything from new pharmaceuticals, to new topicals and biologics, as well as different types of medical devices. And so I see a lot of momentum that’s taking the whole animal health world forward.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Plus, when you think about it, and again, not to sound cold, but take 20, 30 years ago, animals weren’t necessarily considered part of the family. And certainly when you look into the West, animals are more and more a part of the family. They’re seen as family members. Spending has certainly continued to rise for animal health, as well as just animal nutrition and toys and things of that nature. And you’re seeing that reflected in many other geographies around the world. So I think that has also helped. During COVID, just look at how in just the States alone how many animals have been added to families in the companion animal space. So I think that’s certainly a very positive impact.

Stacy Pursell:
What does your crystal ball say about the future of the animal health industry?

Albert Di Rienzo:
So I think it is bright. And for a lot of the reasons that I talked about, there’s a lot of momentum, and I just see that continuing to snowball, which is great. I do think there will be greater regulation. So if you think of design controls in the human side, from an FDA perspective, you don’t really see that so much on the animal side unless you’re putting radiation into the animal’s body, like you might with a radio therapy system. So I think you’ll see more of a design controls from a regulatory perspective as more medical devices come online.

Albert Di Rienzo:
I believe that there is much more of a focus on One Health. So I’m very fortunate. I get to serve on the Cornell College … It’s an engineering, but biomedical engineering. And we’re talking about how we’re integrating with Cornell University Medical School, as well as the veterinary school. And I think there’s just a lot more momentum and understanding of how important it is to integrate those. And so I think the future, you’re going to see more in the way of medical devices, more focused pharmaceuticals, more foods that are definitely sciencey types of foods that address certain issues, whether obesity, osteoarthritis, and so forth.

Albert Di Rienzo:
And then better guidelines for animal nutrition. Animal nutrition’s an area that still lacks today when you think of the number of nutritionists that exist in that sector. But I see that growing. And so I think the future is very bright. And I think you’re going to start to see even more momentum. I think even a lot more medical devices. That’s what I’m pursuing, a new medical device with my teammates and I. And I think it’s almost game-changing and I’m excited about it.

Stacy Pursell:
Share more about that, Albert, if you will. I know that our listeners would love to know about the kinds of projects that you’re up to right now.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Yeah. Thank you for that, Stacy. So what we’re working on, and what we’re hoping to release before the end of 2022, is a new contact-less device. It’s a sensor that collects anatomical, functional, and physiologic information, but in a non-contact manner. So it could be in a collar, it could be in a harness, it could be in a bed or a feeder, any number of locations. And the beauty is it collects clinical grade information. We use part of the 5G spectrum to collect that information in a very safe, again, noninvasive manner. And we collect contextual information.

Albert Di Rienzo:
So what I mean by that is when we collect a reading that might be heart rate, or blood pressure, we know what the animal is doing at that time. Were they running? Were they sitting, laying down? Which side were they laying on? Were they eating? So we try to put context to those readings, which is very important for the clinician, as well as the pet parent. And then we report that out to a mobile app, giving general health status, as well as alerts, and then also go to a cloud-based dashboard that has some predictive analytics that can detect things early, whether it’s a trends change, or whether we notice something that’s not quite right in a reflected signal that we’re looking at. We can bring that to the attention of a clinician, as well as the pet parent, or farmer, or clinical research organization, whatever it may be.

Albert Di Rienzo:
So it’s small, it’s light, take any form factor, can work on any animal. And we even have rodent pads where you can monitor rodents, canines, felines, equines. It doesn’t make any difference. So we’re pretty excited about the flexibility and the potential. We just literally, Monday before last, we just got our 76th patent issued on this technology. We have about another 30 pending. And we’ve had about 12 clinical studies. So it’s developed in unison with veterinarians. It’s not a bunch of geeks out there, scientists, technologists, saying, “Oh, wouldn’t this be neat,” and developing it. We’re doing it in unison with the professionals.

Stacy Pursell:
Congratulations on getting your 76th patent. That’s so exciting. And I’m curious. It sounds like you wear a lot of hats. What does a typical day look like for you these days?

Albert Di Rienzo:
That’s a interesting question. So we just recently, or we’re almost there, completing a fundraise. So you can imagine about 80% of my time was spent on presenting the company and going through due diligence activities and working with the investors and the like. A number’s just running the business and taking care of operations. Some of it is certainly putting my science or technology hat on and working with others in the team, as well as outside the team. And just having a lot of conversations with some preeminent veterinarians, academic institutions, and the like.

Albert Di Rienzo:
But I will say, for the last five months, I have really been heads down, working with a external due diligence team, that we’re just closing a funding round on right now, and that’s when it’s going to get really interesting to get our alpha units out there, beta units, and then production units into the hands of the professionals.

Stacy Pursell:
Yeah. Wow. Best wishes with all of that. Exciting times for you and your business. Albert, I’m curious. What are some of the daily habits that you believe have allowed you to achieve this level of success that you’ve had throughout your career?

Albert Di Rienzo:
I would go back to certainly perseverance. People probably tell you I’m pigheaded or stubborn. I sort of get my self focused on something and I just pursue it. It doesn’t mean blindly, but there’s been a number of times in my career where I’ve been told it’s impossible and it’s like, “Oh, I’m going to prove that wrong.” So I’m sort of stubborn I would say. I try to persevere. I mean, it’s been a long road to get this company to where it’s at today. And we started it back in mid-2017. And we self-funded until this point. So again, perseverance.

Albert Di Rienzo:
I think it’s important to just operate with integrity. So I always tell people, “Hey, what you see is what you get.” I don’t put on pretense. I think you need to operate with transparency. You need to be open. You need to be collaborative, not be so protectionist. Matter of fact, on our solution, we have open APIs because we want people to integrate with us, and us to integrate with them, which we think is important to move the animal, medical, and healthcare market forward.

Albert Di Rienzo:
I think operating ethically, I think having sort of that global mindset is important. And I try to be approachable. So I think for younger people on the team, or those I interact with, I try to be a mentor, and try to share with them some of the experiences. But I will tell you, from those fresh out of school, to those I’ve worked with for 20 years, I’m always in learning mode. You’d be a fool to think that you have the market knowledge on something, or you’re the preeminent person in a particular thing. So I always remain open and in learning mode.

Albert Di Rienzo:
And then I try to keep the passion. I still love innovation. I love having an impact. I’m very passionate about what I’m doing. I will tell you I’m probably a workaholic. I mean, both my kids are gone and I have a very understanding wife, and I sort of live this stuff. So I’m sort of on seven days a week and always trying to be pretty responsive to those that are reaching out and vice versa.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, I think some of the most successful CEOs have that always be learning mindset, that intellectual curiosity.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Oh, yeah. I can see that. And I sort of love it too. One of the things I really try to do is it’s not about Al Di Rienzo. It’s about the team. It’s about the success of what we’re trying to do. It’s about all those that we’re trying to have a positive impact on with our offerings and with our solutions. So I always used to say it seriously on biodefense. I say everybody on the team is so much smarter than I am. And I think it’s important to have that humility, honest humility or humbleness, not a false. And I think have that even sort of putting others first, because it’s not about you. You’ve got to try to advance things by helping others, and again, having that sort of team comradery and being highly collaborative.

Stacy Pursell:
Yes. And you talked a moment ago about mentoring others. I’m curious, what mentor has made the biggest impact on your and your career?

Albert Di Rienzo:
Boy, I’ll cite my father as certainly a big impact because I would even reach out to him when it came to career decisions, or just things that I was doing, and ask for his guidance. He was a really smart guy, had a lot of experience, different experiences, very trustworthy. I just appreciate who he was, what he had endured. And so I’d say my father overall.

Albert Di Rienzo:
But I will tell you, I’ve had mentors at different stages of my career, and some have taught me finance, others have taught me fundraising, others have taught me in science or technology. And so I’ve had a lot. I’ve just been very fortunate that the people that have impacted my career and helped shaped me into what I’m doing today, and the person I am. My wife always, she says, “I molded you into the person you are today.” She always says that I need to bring that up.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Matter of fact, on the mentorship, I was very fortunate. I was asked by Syracuse University to do the commencement speech for the College of Engineering graduate students, so the master’s and PhDs. And I remember I was telling them how important it is to have mentors throughout your career. And I talked a little bit about that. And I still believe it is very important to have those that come alongside you and can help provide guidance.

Stacy Pursell:
Yes. Yes, that is so true. So what advice would you give the younger version of yourself?

Albert Di Rienzo:
Maybe to be more patient. So even though I say I really persevere, I usually have a, “I need to get this done now,” sort of mentality. And sometimes, it is just timing’s not right. Maybe the technology hasn’t progressed there. Maybe you can’t get the cost of goods low enough. Maybe the science isn’t there. But I think it’s just younger version I’d say learn to be a little bit more patient. And it’s still all works out in the end. I find most of the things that I worried about were nonsensical. They just never came to pass.

Stacy Pursell:
Yeah, patience, perseverance. Perseverance is a theme we hear a lot on this podcast from successful people. It’s very common. We also find that successful people tend to have idiosyncrasies that are actually their superpowers. What idiosyncrasy do you have?

Albert Di Rienzo:
So I think of Batman. So that’s probably the idiosyncrasy I have. Matter of fact, my office is decorated with all Batman stuff. But I probably … Maybe constantly on. It’s probably a little bit difficult to shut me down. And I would say that’s probably it. I also used to … One of our general counsels said, “Albert, you’re wonderful. You just listen to everybody, and you get all their inputs, and then you go do exactly what you want to do.” He said, “It’s like you’re really open, but you already sort of have that vision set in your head, and you want to execute on that vision.” So I guess these are some of the little quirks that I have.

Albert Di Rienzo:
I would say definitely I’m OCD, and then there’s a t-shirt that says I’m CDO, that’s OCD put in the right order. And so that’s me. I’m very organized. So people come into my office, and it’s like, “What do you do? Your office is too clean. Are you even doing anything?” It’s just because I am so fanatical with being organized, knowing where things are at, being able to retrieve it early. That’s probably the military upbringing in me. But I’ll say those are the things, my idiosyncrasies.

Stacy Pursell:
That makes sense. And I thought I saw Batman on your LinkedIn profile.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Yeah. Yeah, I’m a big … The animated series, I’m a big Batman fan.

Stacy Pursell:
Well that’s awesome. Albert, I’m curious, what do you struggle with the most? What is your weakness or your kryptonite?

Albert Di Rienzo:
Wow. So I probably struggle, back to what I’ll say I told the younger version of me, to be patient. I like things to happen. It’s like I always want to have that forward momentum. If I feel like I’m stagnant or stalled, boy, that just sort of drives me crazy. So my kryptonite is probably not enough patience. I’ll say that that’s certainly a weakness that I constantly try to work on.

Albert Di Rienzo:
And then I think I struggle in general, though I think we found a very friendly investor, I do struggle a lot with the funding community. And it’s unfair to generalize, but I see so many good innovations, and so I think another weakness is it’s like all these innovations I’m exposed to. Because I’m, again, very fortunate. I have the opportunity to serve on over 20 different academic technology boards. And so I get first look at a lot of very interesting approaches in the technology and science. And part of my frustration is, and again weakness, I want all these things to get out there. And I wish they could all get funded, and really to the benefit of human kind. And I don’t see … It probably has to go back to patience again, because I just want them to happen now. So I’m a little bit frustrated how we decide what gets funded, what doesn’t get funded, where do we get grants, where do we not get grants. So I struggle with that, so that’s weakness.

Albert Di Rienzo:
By the way, in the Batman comic books, Batman beats Superman I want you to know, when the two of them fought. So I don’t have … Kryptonite’s a Superman thing, not a Batman thing. I’m just messing with you, Stacy.

Stacy Pursell:
I didn’t know that Batman and Superman fought. So they weren’t on the same team?

Albert Di Rienzo:
They typically were and the same team. But they did fight in the old graphic novels, and Batman beat Superman.

Stacy Pursell:
Oh, wow. Well, that’s good to know. My dad used to be a comic book collector when he was a kid. So I’ll have to tell him about that. He may already know. So Albert, I’m curious, what message or principle do you which you could teach everyone?

Albert Di Rienzo:
Oh my goodness. I think the message, because this is one of the things I do try to live by, is to be a servant to others. And I don’t mean servant in like the butler type of servant or whatever, but place others first. And I do … You got to be trustworthy. You got to be vulnerable. You can only take people at face value. I mean, it doesn’t mean … Definitely leverage wisdom, but I think you need to be open. You need to trust others. You need to be a servant to others. And most importantly, and this may sound a little corny, but I believe that you just got to love your fellow human and try to make things better.

Stacy Pursell:
Yes. Yes. That, I agree with that. The servant leadership and do unto others. Albert, I’m curious about books. Some of our guests say that they’ve had a key book that they’ve read that really helped them in their approach to success or changed their mindset about success. Is there a key book in your life that has impacted you the most? I’d love to hear about that.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Yeah, so I will tell you, a lot of the things I read are more like technical journals and so forth. So I don’t … And I don’t mean this offensively, but I don’t put a lot of stock in the latest book on this is how you should operate a business and so forth. The one book that I read every day is the Bible. And I’ll leave it at that. So that’s my model.

Stacy Pursell:
Hey, I love that. I love that. Lots of good proverbs in the Bible, right?

Albert Di Rienzo:
Yeah. Absolutely.

Stacy Pursell:
Lots of good tips on how to live.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Yeah, absolutely. How you interact with others, how to live, and so I’m so far from that perfect standard. But it’s something that I try to ingrain every day through reading that. And don’t get me wrong, I mean there’s other books that I’ve read on new ways to run a business, or new models of how you should do a particular tool, or a particular approach. And I’ve certainly done things that talk about new development methodologies and so forth. But I find that hybrids typically are better. I haven’t found the one cookie cutter that’s perfect for all the situations. I have a tendency to blend multiple things to bring the outcome that is best for the culture and for the company and for our customers and shareholders and so forth. So I think it’s a hybrid model. So no game-changing books other than the Bible is the only one.

Stacy Pursell:
I love that. I love that. Well, Albert, you’ve got the mic. What is one last thing that you want to share with our listeners of The People of Animal Health podcast before you drop the mic today?

Albert Di Rienzo:
Yeah, thank you. Again, thank you so much for the opportunity. I think we’ve covered most things. I would certainly say before dropping the mic, again, back to perseverance, if you have a dream, if you have that vision, pursue it. A perfect example is people thought I was nuts when in my late 50s I’m looking to start another business, and now I’m in my early 60s and it’s like, “Why are you spending your retirement money to do this?” And it’s just something I believed in, something I felt passionate about. And so I would say if you have those … Again, you got to wisely pursue it. I’m not saying take silly, un-calculated risks. But pursue that passion and come alongside others that can help you to realize it, or to pivot if you need to pivot. And so I’ll leave it at that.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, Albert, I want to thank you so much for joining us today on The People of Animal Health podcast.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Thank you very much. I appreciate being a guest.

Stacy Pursell:
It was great having you here. Thanks again, Albert.

Albert Di Rienzo:
Okay, take care.