STUDIO

Ally Thill is a Project Leader at Boomerang Ventures, where she utilizes her mechanical engineering background to conduct technology and market assessments for potential projects as well as manage and collaborate on projects that are brought into the studio.

In design thinking sessions, Ally collaborates with clients and other Boomerang staff members to better understand opportunities being addressed and improve product designs.

Ally previously worked as an engineering intern at Retinal Care Inc., where she helped design a device to test an electronic sensor that gathered force and angle measurements on eyedrop bottles to improve medication compliance in glaucoma patients. Soon after, she joined Boomerang Ventures as an engineering intern during her last semester at the University of Notre Dame before becoming a full-time employee after graduation.

Ally earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Bioengineering from the University of Notre Dame, having completed the Summer Engineering Program in London, England, where she studies engineering ethics and technical writing. She is a member of the Society of Women Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Audrey Beckman, Partner and Chief Innovation Officer at Boomerang Ventures since 2020, brings healthcare ideas to life by identifying new value drivers, de-risking key uncertainties, and providing necessary resources to first-time founders, universities, corporate clients, and healthcare systems.

Audrey is a seasoned executive, serving over 15 years in several executive roles with Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc., one of the world’s top medical device companies.

After beginning her career at Zimmer Inc. in 1986 as a summer intern in Knee Development, she returned full-time to the company as a product development engineer. During her early career, Audrey developed and commercialized numerous knee implant and instrumentation systems, leading multi-functional technical and international surgeon teams in parallel with hands-on design activities. After helping develop and commercialize one of the world’s best-selling knee implant systems, Audrey began her management career in 1996, assuming the leadership of Zimmer’s Knee Development Engineering team.

Audrey held global leadership roles in product development, upstream marketing, medical training and education, and strategic quality initiatives. Excelling in the leadership of technical and nontechnical teams throughout her tenure, Audrey led international teams of engineers, marketing staff, and orthopedic surgeons. She was recognized for her skill at developing and executing complex strategies and initiatives.

Her leadership path continued through numerous restructurings and integrations to Vice President of Global Product Development at Zimmer Biomet Holdings, with an international team of more than 350 technical staff, including project office, prototype shop and packaging design. Recognized for leadership, portfolio management and product development process, she gained P&L experience as a leader of Zimmer’s largest global business unit in its initial years as a publicly-traded company. She also participated in corporate strategic and financial planning sessions for 15+ years, during which Zimmer developed and executed the industry’s leading minimally invasive surgery strategy for total hip and total knee replacement.

The orthopedic industry went through a significant change relative to relationships with surgeons who are both customers and consultants. Audrey was an essential leader of the Zimmer R&D leadership team as it developed new methods of valuing intellectual property, compensating consultants, and documenting the needs for consulting activities for internal approval and external oversight.

She rebuilt and led the Global Medical Education and Training team, improving educational effectiveness and aligning practices with AdvaMed guidelines. With an annual budget exceeding $70 million, the team grew from 30 to 100 people across more than 20 countries, training 28,000 healthcare professionals annually. Audrey also negotiated and collaborated with industry associations to develop and implement new third-party administered grant and donation practices for orthopedic professional education and to support needy patients worldwide.

Her last role with Zimmer Biomet Holdings was to lead a 1,300-person technical team formed to update and remediate quality system documentation for historical products developed or manufactured at four sites. In this role, she reported to the CEO, made quarterly presentations to the board of directors, and submitted quarterly updates to the FDA. Audrey led the senior leadership steering committee for the initiative and was the only executive to stay with the initiative for over two years, seeing the effort to completion in 2016.

Audrey began angel investing with VisionTech Partners in 2012, focusing her investments on start-up life science companies. After leaving Zimmer Biomet in 2016, she began advising start-ups on pitch decks, business opportunities and scaling activities. Audrey became the first independent board member for Board Management Software Inc., which primarily serves nonprofit organizations. She serves as a board member for Enlighten Mobility, a health tech start-up developing innovative, data-driven mobility care solutions.

Audrey has volunteered with Junior Achievement, teaching middle school through high school students about business. She also served on the board of directors for a nonprofit, Court Appointed Special Advocates of Kosciusko County in Warsaw, Indiana, chairing the governance committee after serving as president for a two-year term. Audrey currently resides in southwest Florida, sings in the Marco Island Community Chorus, and volunteers with community organizations.

Audrey earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Ball State University. She is an active participant on Notre Dame’s Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Industry Advisory Board, the College of Engineering Advisory Council to the President, and the Women in Engineering Advisory Council. She was instrumental in helping the College of Engineering receive multiyear research grants for pioneering research related to a new medical device technology.