Executive Bios
Michael Blackham
Executive VP Global OEM & Coatings
Michael Blackham joined Merit Medical in 2010 as the Vice President of Global Trade, tasked with creating an infrastructure aimed at corporate cost savings by negotiating long-term agreements with suppliers and vendors. As VP of Global trade, Blackham helped Merit realize a savings of more than $5 million in just two years. In 2013, Blackham was asked to head Merit Medical’s OEM business, a quickly growing and important division of Merit Medical that sells Merit components and devices to other medical manufacturers. One of his first initiatives as VP of Global OEM was to combine the OEM business with one of Merit’s smaller component businesses, Merit Coatings – a manufacturer and supplier of coated wires and tubes based in the Netherlands. From the time Blackham assumed responsibilities for the OEM and Coatings divisions, the combined business has grown 28% and accounts for 15% of Merit’s overall business. Prior to joining Merit, Blackham ran his own financial firm for over 15 years. Blackham speaks French and graduated from the University of Utah.
Ben Skousen
Director, OEM engineering
Ben joined Merit Medical in 2011 as the head manufacturing engineer over the Medallion syringe line in South Jordan, Utah. His years of experience working with Merit’s manufacturing group provided him with a great background for his move to OEM’s project engineering group in 2015. During his time in the OEM division, Ben has shown a strong work ethic to meet the needs of our OEM partners. After showing great leadership in his role as manager of OEM’s Global Project team, Ben was promoted to Director of OEM Engineering and currently oversees OEM’s Global Project team and OEM’s Global Operations team. Ben graduated Magna Cum Laude from Arizona State University in Industrial Design with a focus on medical device design.
Richard Best
Director, Customer Service
Richard Best has been in the Customer Service department of Merit for nearly 15 years. He joined Merit in 2001 as a Customer Service Representative for Hospital Sales. After 7 years of working for Hospital Sales, Richard was asked to work on projects for the OEM division of Merit. He has worked in several capacities for the OEM department and is currently the Director of the Customer Service Group for the OEM division within Merit Medical. Richard Best enjoys assisting customers and is proud of the way the Customer Service team manages to deliver the right service to the customers of Merit in the right way.
