Tom’s Zimmer Family

A collection of messages from Tom’s colleagues and friends at Zimmer

Tom, you brought experience, leadership, dedication, realism, and importantly, a sense of humor to our business. Thank you. You’ll be missed.
Mark Schindel, Sr. Brand Manager

To Tom’s Family: I joined Zimmer Biologics this year along with Tom, and had the pleasure to work with him for the past 7 months – a short amount of time but long enough to appreciate what Tom was about and how he approached things in his life: with sincerity, with passion, and an enthusiastic optimism and determination to succeed. I am honored to have known Tom, even for a short time. I know that the other members of the Biologics family feel the same. I am certain his legacy will live on with his family, his friends and those with whom he was close. I am very sorry for your loss and hope that you find peace and comfort at this time. My prayers are with you. God Bless.
Byron Hamilton, Regional Sales Specialist

Dear family of Tom Cain, I just want to express my sincerest sympathy to you during this time of loss. Although I had only known Tom for a short period of time, he had made such a positive impression. He was an extremely bright, committed and energetic man with a wonderful sense of humor. I feel privileged to have known him. He will be missed. With warm regards.
Rhonda Clarke, Research Principle Scientist

When I met Tom, I thought to myself… “Biologics is saved!” Tom exuded confidence, intelligence, competence, and wisdom, and was so articulate and persuasive in personality that I knew he was going to lead our commercial business in the right direction. I was also excited to have the opportunity to work with and learn from someone so well respected. He was fun to talk to, as he always had an interesting opinion and seemed to love a good healthy debate. He had a winning attitude and was a strong leader. At the same time, he was very fair and kind, and looked at things from multiple points of view, always with the goal of doing what was right in the end. Tom worked extremely hard and with a lot of enthusiasm and passion. He set an example that was inspiring to us all. Tom will surely be missed here at Zimmer. He was an amazing person. He made a real difference at Biologics even in the short time that he was here with us, and the inspiring example that he was able to set for me personally will live on in my life forever. Sincerely.
Lindsay Johnson, Biologics Development Associate Director

My sincere heartfelt sympathies go out to Tom’s family and friends. Since my mother passed away, I found that you never get over the loss, thankfully over time you to learn to live with the loss but sadly. Tom was a great man with a great love for his family and friends. Life is short, may we continue to appreciate God’s continued blessings.
Al Larsen, Zimmer Rocky Mountain, Denver, CO

I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to you and your family during this time. I worked with Tom in the training and education areas of the Biologics group and had the opportunity to get to interact with him at several of our events throughout the country. Tom was passionate about his work with Biologics and will be greatly missed.
Janine Walters, Zimmer Institute Specialist

My sincere condolences to the Cain family….. I didn’t know Tom very well but I know that he was well liked and was very good at doing a great job for Zimmer. Prayers to all the family.
Melissa Hill, Biologics Coordinator

I will miss Tom’s enthusiasm the most; he had such a great passion for the work he did and was quite a visionary. Biologics is a wonderful group of people and we were very fortunate to have Tom as the leader of this team. He will not be forgotten.
Rita Boocher, Biologics Administrative Assistant

I really enjoyed working with Tom. He brought a clear vision to the Biologics Sales and Marketing group. I also enjoyed spending time talking with Tom about business in general and how we might improve. His sense of humor and outlook were uplifting.
Mike Hawkins, VP Corporate Research

Dear family of Tom Cain; Alan and I just want to express our sympathy to you during this time of loss. Alan and I had the opportunity to be one of the first people to meet Tom on his first day with Zimmer back in January 2012 down in Orlando at our National Sales Training meeting. The moment we met Tom we knew his genuine desire to connect with others was a key quality he would bring to Zimmer Biologics. We talked many times after that first meeting and then he accepted an offer to come visit our distributorship in the Mid-Atlantic area. We had a great visit and he enjoyed meeting our team as well as our customers. He was a committed and energetic man with a wonderful sense of humor, a winning attitude and was a strong leader. Tom will surely be missed here at Zimmer. He was an amazing person. We feel privileged to have known him.
Michael Hudak and Alan Reed, Zimmer Mid-Atlantic Distributor’s and our entire team at ZMA

I would like to send my sympathies to the Cain family during this difficult time. Tom was a nice person with a sincere excitement about the Biologics Division and making a difference. He shared his experiences, expertise, and logic with others to encourage “thinking outside of the box” within the Zimmer family. He will be missed.
Alesia Hackworth, Manager, Oversight Committee

My deepest sympathy on your loss; in the short time I knew Tom the passion and enthusiasm that he brought to Zimmer were remarkable. His ability to quickly develop meaningful relationships with those he worked with was much appreciated. Tom had a very positive impact on Zimmer and all those who were fortunate to work alongside him. He will be greatly missed. Warmest Regards,
Seth Middleton, Biologics Sales Education Manager

We were very lucky to have had the time we had with Tom. He was always positive and always had an opinion! I had become his Warsaw “go to” person. Since I was local, he always came to me for tips. It got to be quite amusing when I would walk into my hairdressers or see my cleaner and they would say: “thanks for sending Tom in…he’s great!” This would often be followed by seeing Tom, with a new haircut…finally, and him thanking me for the introduction. In the short few months I knew him, he made an impact. I am thankful for that time. My thoughts are with you now.
Shamiram Feinglass, MD, MPH, Vice President, Global Medical and Regulatory Affairs

Since Tom started at Zimmer at the beginning of 2012, I know Tom will easily be remembered for his enthusiasm, drive, and passion for his job. He is gone much too soon and we will all feel his loss terribly in our different ways. I extend my deepest sympathy to Tom’s family and friends. May you all find strength and healing during this difficult time of loss. My thoughts and prayers are with you. Sincerely,
Hollie Huggins, Zimmer Biologics Regional Sales Specialist

To the family of Tom Cain; my sympathy and thoughts go out to you on the sudden and tragic passing of Tom. He came to Zimmer not long after I joined, and we were able to connect and share stories with that in common. In addition, Tom and I were working together on several projects, and his enthusiasm and desire to get things done made him easy to work with, and presented opportunities in which we knew would make a difference to patients and customers. He will definitely be missed. With sincere condolences.
Yvonne Bokelman, Director, Global Market Access

To the Family of Tom Cain; we are all saddened by the loss of Tom. He was such a pleasure to work with; always optimistic, always willing to help a colleague, and a leader we all trusted and respected. When I first interviewed Tom I was so impressed by his energy, knowledge, and confidence… in fact, I did something I had never done before, I stopped the interview after only 20 minutes and called Cheryl and told her we needed to hire Tom immediately. Tom then proceeded to exceed even our outsized expectations. He was a talented and resourceful leader who was committed to the well-being of his teammates, and found a way each and every day to enrich our lives. We will all miss Tom, and he will always be remembered by his Zimmer family.
Larry Siebs, Sr. Vice President, Americas Sales

I had the pleasure of working directly for Tom during his short time here at Zimmer in my role out in the field, and I was excited to have an enthusiastic leader to be the daily driving force inside Warsaw to move our business forward. His loss is shocking and deeply felt even though his tenure was short. Our team is all saddened, and our hearts go out to your entire family. Your family’s charity also hits close to home, as my wife is from Delaware County (and I spent 10 years living in the Philadelphia area with her before we moved back to my native Indianapolis area a few years ago) and we were unfortunately touched a number of times by cancer as it affected several friends and family while we still lived in the suburban Philly area. In fact, when we lived in Wilmington, DE we had a nine year old niece who battled leukemia for several years at Dupont Childrens’ Hospital, before finally losing her fight shortly after she caught the bouquet at our wedding in Valley Forge. Now 10 years later we continue to see so much of our young niece in our own seven year old daughter every day – her caring spirit, her competitive nature and so many other similarities. Losses are never easy, of course, but discovering those blessings and reminders a little at a time is what seems to continue to ease the loss of loved ones over time. I will be honored to make a donation to Bringing Hope Home in Tom’s name, with both him and our niece in mind.
Cory Carter, National Sales Director, Zimmer Biologics and Sports Medicine

I will never forget the 6 months or so that I had the pleasure of knowing and working with Tom. My lasting memory will always be when he and I were having a drink in Warsaw over the summer, and I mentioned that I was going to see Bruce Springsteen with a friend. His eyes lit up, and he told me his story of the first time he had seen Bruce Springsteen play in a small bar near his home, and when he finally stopped talking, I remember thinking that it was a great example of how he could bring enthusiasm to his daily life. That enthusiasm was contagious, and will be one of the many reasons that we will all miss him so much. Tom was a true friend as well as a colleague, and he will leave a big gap in our lives.
Ed Margerrison, Vice President R & D Biologics

To the family of Tom: I have read through all of these heartfelt messages that people sent in about Tom and I am not sure I have much to add. What I can tell you is that in my short working relationship with Tom, I learned so much from him. I learned things that will affect my leadership style, approach to people and business methods for the rest of my career and frankly my life. He had such a great approach to everything he did. His enthusiasm was infectious; he brought great knowledge and discipline to our small and growing business. He was a charismatic leader who developed relationships and just knew how to get stuff done. He listened, he was unbiased and just wanted to make progress, correctly and in a manner in which he could feel proud. He had an amazing attention to detail when it mattered. We would have very active debates and both walk away thinking about the other’s position with great respect. More importantly, everyone with whom he interacted liked him immediately. He was smart, funny, kind, insightful and so full of life. I guess that is why this has been such a shock for me personally. He was so full of life and I so looked forward to working with him, enjoying his company – as we work so many hours in these jobs – and building something together. In the days since his passing, I have really missed him. Winning the court case was such a big piece of news for us and I have been telling him in my own way these past few days, just to make sure he knows. I will miss him every day for a long time and remember him always. All the best to your family from mine; Tom will not be forgotten by me or those he touched at Zimmer. Mary Ellen, you said in your lovely words at his service that he had found his dream job at Zimmer. Well let me tell you, we had found our dream commercial head, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Zimmer Biologics, in Tom.

Cheryl R. Blanchard, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer, Head of Biologics Business, Zimmer, Inc.