Besides becoming friends, how did your time at Union impact your career path?
“Union’s liberal arts education with an engineering focus provided a broader perspective than a purely technical school. This has impacted my path and interest in taking on new roles. Professor Jennifer Currey was hugely influential in my interest in orthopedics. I took her orthopedic biomechanics class, which fueled my interest in this industry. I am also still close with former professor Glenn Sanders.”
Phil Kemp ’13, president & COO at X-Bolt Orthopedics, biomedical engineering major
Union is like an industrial-strength sticker, you just can’t shake it. And that’s a good thing. All those bonds you form as a student, they stay strong even across thousands of miles and many years.
Take Phil Kemp ’13, president and COO at X-Bolt Orthopedics, a med-tech startup based in Dublin, Ireland. The company is developing products to help people with bone injuries.
When X-Bolt was looking for someone to lead the U.S. commercialization of the company’s first (and flagship) product for hip fractures, Kemp knew just who to call.
Connor Owen ’13.
“Since Connor has a background across multiple industries and disciplines, including roles at GE and Stryker, I felt confident that he could wear the required range of hats to navigate the world of a startup,” Kemp said. “And of course, knowing Connor personally inherently established trust between us that is absolutely necessary for such key hires. I’ve really enjoyed supporting Connor to achieve his potential and accelerate our company’s momentum.”
“Leaving one of the largest medical device companies (Stryker) for a startup ultimately came down to two key factors: my trust in Phil’s leadership and my belief in X-Bolt technology,” Owen said. “While startups inherently carry risk, much of that was offset by Phil’s proven track record in building talented teams within the medical device industry and the fact that X-Bolt had already secured FDA approval.”
“After just a few conversations with Phil, I knew he was the same steady, consistent and calculated leader I met at Union,” he added. “That made the decision an easy one.”
Kemp and Owen met during a first-year preceptorial course and remained close following graduation, despite, Kemp said, “being separated by the Atlantic Ocean.” (Kemp is in Dublin; Owen is in New Hampshire). Now, they’re working together to bring X-Bolt's innovative technology to orthopedic patients globally, starting in the United States.
“I joined X-Bolt in 2022 in Ireland and recruited Connor to be our second U.S. employee in 2024. He’s working remotely from the U.S. in the role of director of marketing and clinical development,” Kemp said. “As a team, we transitioned X-Bolt from early-stage research and development to a fully launched product in the marketplace.”
In other words, X-Bolt's gone from an initial concept to an international commercial company focused on improving patient outcomes.
Its first medical device – the Pro-X1 Trochanteric Nail – received FDA approval in 2023 and surgeons began utilizing the product in U.S. patients in 2024.
What is Pro-X1 and what’s so special about it?
Besides becoming friends, how did your time at Union impact your career path?
“I was fortunate to participate in Engineers Without Borders while at Union. I went to Ethiopia to work on water well implementation projects, and it was life altering. Another standout opportunity was Union’s internship relationship with General Electric, which ultimately led to my first professional job as an engineer.”
Connor Owen ’13, director of marketing & clinical development at X-Bolt Orthopedics, mechanical engineering major
The Pro-X1 has been designed specifically to better meet a huge medical need – treatment of hip fractures, which is especially common in older women. As many as 1 in 6 women will break a hip, Kemp said, usually when they’re 75 or older.
Instead of using a screw to hold the broken bone together as it heals, the Pro-X1 stabilizes the hip joint using an expandable bolt.
“The biggest difference in our design is the increased fixation from our expandable bolt. This is especially important in osteoporotic or mushy bone,” Owen said. “Traditional designs known as lag screws are similar to construction screws – a design that is more vulnerable to migration in weak bone.”
Through England’s largest randomized control trial of hip fracture patients, X-Bolt has shown its technology has an important advantage over traditional lag screws.
“Over 1,000 patients were in the trial – roughly 500 with traditional screw design and roughly 500 with X-Bolt's design,” Kemp said. “X-Bolt saw a cut out rate of 0.8%, where the industry average is about 3.5%.”
Why cut out matters
Cut out occurs when a traditional screw loosens and pushes through the hip joint into the pelvis. This is just as bad as it sounds.
“The screw has to be removed and then the patient will need a more invasive procedure like a total hip replacement in order to fix the cut-out,” Owen said. “Each of these re-operations add up to $50,000 of additional cost to the healthcare system and patient, not to mention the additional rehab the patient will undergo.”
“With hip fractures, there’s a 25% mortality rate within the first year of operating,” Kemp said. “One significant factor is bed time. Anytime you’re re-operating on an already at-risk, elderly patient, you’re adding more time in bed, more risk of infection and other complications. The emotional toll of this care is immeasurable.”
Kemp and Owen are thrilled to be working together at a company that is reducing this need for re-operation.
Pro-X1
“It’s really exciting because we’re helping people and trying to make a difference every day,” Owen said.
Kemp agreed.
“We all get to align around a mission that improves people’s lives and contributes positively to healthcare,” he explained. “There’s a certain self-led discipline required to be successful in the startup environment. Connor and I have both had career progressions that enabled us to have a strong foundation to be successful here.”
Prior to X-Bolt, Kemp was a research and development engineer with Stryker, developing hip, knee, trauma and shoulder solutions. He then transitioned to various marketing and leadership roles in the U.S. and Ireland. Following Union, Owen worked for General Electric and Mary Kay in supply chain, operations management and quality. He then pivoted to medical devices and spent two years at Stryker in clinical sales before joining X-Bolt.
To learn more about X-Bolt Orthopedics, or to watch videos explaining the Pro-X1 Trochanteric Nail, visit the company’s website. The site also provides information on other products the company is developing for arm and femur fractures. X-Bolt will launch a Series B fundraise in 2025, fueling its next phase of growth and advancing orthopedic trauma innovation for patients worldwide.