A Look Back at 2024 with HPNE
As we approach 2025, we would like to take the time to reflect on all of our changes, challenges, and successes in the previous year.
From trade shows and events to organizational change and more, 2024 presented us with incredible opportunities, challenges and growth. In this week’s article, we reflect on all of the amazing things #TeamHPNE was able to accomplish throughout the past year.
Before we dive into the highlights for the year, we would like to take the opportunity to thank all of our customers, stakeholders and employees. Nothing we do would be possible without you!
Organizational Changes
We are constantly expanding #TeamHPNE, but this year also saw some significant shifts in leadership. Most notably, in June of this year, our Founder and former CEO Mark Sitcoske announced that he would be stepping down from the CEO role, and moving into a consultant position. Mark, who founded the company over 20 years ago, released a letter in May of this year announcing he was stepping down, as well as discussing his journey with the company over those decades.
We also announced that Sean Herdlein, who most recently held the position of Managing Director of Applikon B.V. at Getinge, would be stepping into the Managing Director Role at HPNE. In addition to his prior experience with the Getinge team, Sean’s connections to Applikon have allowed us to begin seamlessly integrating with the Getinge Life Sciences division.
An additional internal organizational change came with the announcement of tenured HPNE employee Jeremy Tripodi to Director of Operations. Jeremy has previously held positions as Customer Service Representative, General Manager, and Chief of Staff at HPNE.
Trade Shows and Events
Starting in November of 2023, our team began working with The CGT Circle - a group promoting networking opportunities for women in the cell & gene therapy industry - to put on events. Our first event alongside them, which took place in November of last year, was held in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We have since partnered to hold events down the east coast, including Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.
Additionally, we were able to support Triangle Biotech Tuesday (TBT) as a sponsor, and were able to table at multiple of their events. These events were held in the Research Triangle Park Region, and were attended by the North Carolina-based members of our sales team.
As for trade shows, our team was grateful to be able to attend a variety of shows in multiple regions, such as BPSA, Interphex, and ISPE Boston. Our International Sales Manager was able to attend multiple shows across the pond in the UK with our incredible distributors at BPES.
Company Updates
One major advancement at the company in 2024 was the development of our Women of HPNE employee resource group (ERG). This group is the first of hopefully many resource groups at the company. The group put on a panelist event in March that featured women leaders from various companies in the biotech and biopharma spaces in honor of Women’s History Month. Additionally, they were joined by one of our Technical Product Managers, and the panel was moderated by our Director of MSAT.
An exciting milestone we passed this year was surpassing 7,000 followers on our company LinkedIn page! Our social page provides details about our ever-evolving product portfolio, company news, and a look into the daily life and achievements of our employees. Connect with our page to follow along with our company journey!
Towards the end of the year, we launched a brand new video (see below) that discusses what sets HPNE apart from our competitors. In the video, you can learn more about our innovative HPConnexx™ Single-Use Assemblies, as well as the capabilities of our experienced team. Interested? Watch the video below.
Lastly, we were excited to switch out our signage at all facilities this year. This was done in our continued effort to align with our parent company, Getinge. Our new signs feature the updated High Purity New England, a Getinge Company logo, and the trademark Getinge navy blue.
Supporting Our Employees
Our day-to-day operations are not possible without the hard work of our employees. To show our appreciation, we try to provide opportunities throughout the year for our employees to connect on a personal level with people in departments they may not typically get to connect with.
One such event was our summer outing, held in August. During the outing, employees were able to participate in raffles, play lawn games, and enjoy a summer barbeque. Then in October, we held a Halloween costume contest. This provided a space for employees to show off their creativity, and the best contest won a prize.
Finally, to provide an outlet to spotlight our employees, we have continued our “Take Ten” interview series. The purpose of this series is to highlight a different member of the team on a monthly basis, learning a little more about what they do in their role, as well as a little more about their personal lives.
Community Involvement
At HPNE, we know that the work that we do would not be possible without the support of our customers and their communities. With that in mind, we prioritize giving back to the communities around us in any way we can.
One of the ways we got involved with our local, Rhode Island community was participating in Save the Bay events. In honor of Earth Day, our marketing team participated in a dune planting event in Tiverton, RI. The purpose of this event is to strengthen the sand dunes near our coast with grass in order to prevent flooding in the local communities, while simultaneously increasing greenery on our shores. Other teams participated in some of Save the Bay’s coastal trash clean-ups.
Another way we like to get involved is honoring month dedications that are important to our team and community. An easy way to bring awareness to a cause at our organization has been hosting color days for a variety of causes. One color day we participated in was National Wear Red Day, which is held to raise awareness for cardiovascular disease. Other color days we participated in included pink day for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, purple day for Women’s History Month, blue & orange day for Austism Awareness Month as well as Limb Loss awareness, and purple and teal day for national suicide prevention month.
We also like to create opportunities for people in the community to speak to our employees in order to educate them on a relevant and impactful topic. In June, in connection with Pride Month, we welcomed representatives from Youth Pride RI to hold a workshop on bystander intervention.
Other Notable Happenings
At the start of 2024, we created resolution walls at both of our buildings. The purpose of these was to allow employees to write down a goal or resolution for the year anonymously and hang it amongst the goals of other employees. We also hoped this would help to inspire anyone walking by to think about their own goals, or encourage each other as we attempt our goals throughout the year. To learn more about this initiative, you can read our article on the resolution wall event.
Discussing Industry Trends
The blogs page on our website has been discussing industry related topics for years. However, in 2024, we started taking deep dives into both complicated and simple industry topics through a variety of article series. This included our application areas series, understanding industry terms series, and exploring industry trends series.
These articles can be found in the industry insights section of our blogs page. Each article has been reviewed by our expert technical product specialist team. It is our hope that these articles can help answer any potential customer questions about the industry, while providing an outlet to make sure our team is continuously learning and on top of trends.
Striving for Greatness in 2025
Since our founding, the mission of High Purity New England has remained the same - matching our customers with the perfect bioprocess solutions for their unique needs. Going into 2025, we have no plans of changing that mission. With the help of our experienced team, we hope to instead continue building our product and service capabilities.
The biopharma and biotech industries are constantly evolving ones. It is our hope that by staying curious, never settling for less than the best, and tackling every challenge with a people-centric approach, we can continue to improve as a company in the coming year.
We hope to continue to exceed your expectations in the coming years. Thank you!
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About HPNE
As the industry needs grow, High Purity New England, Inc. continues to supply the biopharmaceutical industry with a range of innovative products, from drug discovery and development to fill-finish, including their flagship product, custom single-use assemblies, as well as pumps, sensors, bioreactor systems, storage and handling solutions and other single-use solutions. Along with their own manufactured products for the global market, they are also a distributor for more than 18 brands in North America.
