Ronald Gunn: A Healthcare Leader Powered by Innovation

Ronald Gunn ’82 was recently named to the Top 25 Healthcare and Technology Leaders of Virginia list for 2023 by the Healthcare Technology Report. This distinguished list recognizes those who have demonstrated commitment to innovating in the healthcare technology space and prioritizing patient well-being.

Gunn serves as the chief operating officer for Kaléo, a U.S. pharmaceutical company dedicated to creating innovative healthcare solutions that protect and empower patients. In this role, Gunn provides oversight for development of new products, upholding product quality standards and efficient manufacturing operations, ensuring strict regulatory adherence and spearheading strategic expansion initiatives.

“Kaléo was founded by twin brothers,” Gunn said. “They had a real desire to come up with something better to help them with their severe food allergies. As young boys, they had to carry an epinephrine auto-injector with them, which wasn’t easy – it didn’t easily fit in their pockets – so they wanted to come up with something better. The first product we developed was a product we call Auvi-Q; it’s the length and width of a credit card and the thickness of a small cellphone.”

Only the Auvi-Q provides automated voice guidance that tells the patient, or those caring for the patient, how to use it. Gunn has received emails from parents, some allergists themselves, thanking the Kaléo team for developing this product. Many were shocked by how stressful an allergic emergency can be.

“They have said, ‘We don’t think we could have injected our child if it hadn’t been for those voice instructions.’ In some of our human factor studies, we have studied kids as young as 7 years old. Even a 7-year-old is able to use this without any help. It’s been very rewarding,” said Gunn.

In addition to pharmaceutical products, Kaléo also develops medical countermeasures (MCMs) with the same patient-first approach, which Gunn says is particularly fulfilling. MCMs are FDA-regulated products – like vaccines, drugs and devices – that can be used in the event of a potential public health emergency.

Gunn did not foresee this path when he began his pursuit of higher education. He did not know what he would study, but he did know where he would begin. Gunn applied to only one university – Radford. Growing up, Gunn spent a week every summer with his grandparents in Radford. His fondest memories are of walking downtown with his cousins to go to the movies and exploring campus and New River. Radford felt like home.

It was one of his favorite professors at Radford who guided him toward his area of study. He knew Gunn liked math and computer science, so he suggested statistics. It was a match. It was his statistics professors who steered him toward his next stop, which was graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University, and that led him to the pharmaceutical industry. His first job after graduation was in research and development, doing statistics and data management for data collected from clinical studies. “It really kicked off my career, and I knew I was at the right place, doing the thing I truly enjoyed,” said Gunn.

He then went back to business school, which he believes was an important part of preparing for his current role. “The degrees I’ve gotten along the way have opened up a lot of doors. But as I’ve been thinking back on my career, a lot of what was just as valuable is what I learned outside the classroom.”

During his senior year at Radford, Gunn served as a resident assistant. “It put me way outside my comfort zone. I think I learned more about myself, and about people, in that one year as a resident assistant than I did in the other three years combined,” recalled Gunn. “It was a scary time – I was going to be separated from my friends – but I learned a lot from that experience. A lot of it was overcoming the fear of the unknown.”