POSTION: Co-founder and chief technical officer
FAVORITE MOVIE: Aguirre, Wrath of God
FAVORITE HOBBY: Racing bicycles
FAVORITE VACATION SPOT: New Mexico
PROFESSION WOULD LIKE TO TRY: Astronaut and neurosurgeon
NEVER LEAVE HOME WITHOUT: Keys /
Kipp L. Bradford, as co-founder of three consumer or medical startups, including Bionica, is well-established as an engineer, product designer and entrepreneur.
After receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Brown University, he worked at Design Lab for a decade as a researcher, engineer and product designer. During his career at the Providence-based industrial design firm, he helped invent and develop “hundreds of consumer electronics,” Bradford wrote in his 40 Under Forty application.
Meanwhile, in 2002, he helped establish two other companies: Q-Labs LLC, a dental diagnostic startup where he evaluated tooth-implant designs, helped develop clinical studies and evaluated implant failures; and Dewhurst Solutions LLC, a golf-club design company he co-founded with Peter Dewhurst, John Minor and Henry D. Sharpe III, where until 2004, Bradford focused on materials-optimization techniques.
Two years ago, he left Design Lab to lead the engineering and development team at Bionica, a Design Lab spin-off he and Ralph Beckman co-founded in 2005. The company is developing high-tech personal communication systems for the hard-of-hearing; its first product, the Clio, is slated for release this year.
Bradford is a member of the boards of directors of AS220 and The Steel Yard; the membership committee at the Providence Athenaeum; and Brown’s African, Latino, Asian and Native American (ALANA) Mentoring Program, where he volunteers to help minority students adjust to college life. He also has advised several high school teams in the annual FIRST Robotics Competition. •
