WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rithem Life Sciences, a Wilmington, Delaware-based medical device company and developer of safe and efficacious life-saving portable products, has announced that former Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell has joined its Strategic Advisory Board. McDonnell will aid in efforts to provide Rithem’s CPR aid and automated external defibrillator – JoltzAED – to police units across the country.
The Strategic Advisory Board collaborates with Rithem’s leadership team as the company advances the development, sale, and distribution of its portable, comprehensive “high-quality” CPR aid – ResQR and the JoltzAED portable defibrillator. The JoltzAED, a cellphone sized device, will be the lightest, smallest, most technologically advanced and least expensive defibrillator to enter the market. The ResQR is ergonomically designed with advanced features such as a placement indicator as well as metronome and LED light guidance to ensure proper positioning of the hands during chest compressions. It ensures equal spreading of force across the wider surface area of the sternum to reduce the risk of rib fractures. It is also equipped with a compression pacing system and built-in modesty and personal protection drape to avoid unnecessarily exposing the recipient’s chest and direct rescuer-victim skin contact.
McDonnell joins the Strategic Advisory Board that includes Major General (US Army Ret.) Larry Harrington, Dov Maisel, COO of United Hatzalah (Israel), Paul and Marion Lepore, founders of EMS1 and a former Chief of the Long Beach Fire Department, and A.J. Heightman, editor of the Journal of EMS.
McDonnell has served for almost 40 years in the public safety profession. He is the first person to serve in senior executive leadership positions in the three largest policing agencies in Los Angeles County: the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD). During his tenure, all three agencies saw a reduction in crime and improved police-community relations. Beginning his career with the LAPD, McDonnell served there for twenty-nine years and held every rank up to First Assistant Chief of Police. While serving as a street cop in the Los Angeles Police Department, McDonnell earned its highest honor for bravery, the Medal of Valor.
Early in his tenure at the LAPD, McDonnell played an integral role in developing the framework for community policing that would transform the LAPD into a thought leader in community policing strategies. McDonnell continued to build upon this framework throughout his career. He retired from the LAPD in 2010 to become the Chief of the Long Beach Police Department, where he served for almost five years. In 2014, McDonnell was elected as the 32nd Sheriff of Los Angeles County to lead the largest sheriff's department in the United States with over 18,000 employees and manage an annual budget of over $3.3 billion. McDonnell took over an agency that had been shaken by scandal and, in his four-year term, was able to restore public trust, institutionalize systems of accountability, and work collaboratively and effectively with federal, state, and local agencies to combat human trafficking and counterterrorism, among other regional challenges.
McDonnell has served as Vice President of the Major County Sheriffs of America; President of the California Peace Officers’ Association; President of the Los Angeles County Police Chiefs’ Association; a board member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police; a board member of the Peace Officers’ Association of Los Angeles County; a member of the Major Cities Chiefs Association; and as a member of the California Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards & Training (POST).
After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice from St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, McDonnell obtained a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California. He is also a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Executive Institute and has completed executive education programs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. McDonnell formed McDonnell Strategies Group in early 2019 to advise clients across the nation on a diverse range of issues involving public safety and leadership development.
“At Rithem Life Sciences, we are committed to providing Jim the necessary resources to help him realize his long-time vision of providing defibrillators in police units across the country,” said Dr. Philip Werthman, Executive Chairman of Rithem Life Sciences’ Board of Directors. “His distinguished career and remarkable accomplishments will enable us to foster important relationships with key decisionmakers at all levels of law enforcement so that we can expedite their access to our ResQR CPR aid and our unique portable life-saving defibrillator – the JoltzAED. With the spread of new and potentially more transmissible variants of the COVID-19 virus, including the Delta variant, should stay-at-home orders be reinstated throughout our country and abroad, it is critical for us as a company to increase awareness and the availability of our lifesaving products to ensure everyone can be a first responder should a loved one need to be resuscitated.”
“There has been a lot of conversation recently about police officers being asked to continually expand their responsibilities. This is a legitimate concern; however, police officers will often be in a position to save a life before other first responders arrive on scene,” said McDonnell. “Having the appropriate equipment for an effective and immediate medical intervention will often mean the difference between life and death.”
“We are extremely excited for Jim to join our Strategic Advisory Board. His extensive experience at the highest levels of public safety will be instrumental in our continued efforts to provide Rithem’s emerging life-saving products to consumers, and our heroic first responders both here in the U.S. and abroad,” explains Dr. Jonathan Rosenblum, CEO of Rithem Life Sciences.
For more information about Rithem Life Sciences, please visit rithemls.com.
About Rithem Life Sciences
Rithem Life Sciences, headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, was founded on the desire to develop safe and efficacious lifesaving portable products. The company has developed two at-home and portable devices – the hands-only CPR aid ResQR and the automated external defibrillator JoltzAED. Rithem’s goal is to turn anyone into a first responder by giving them confidence to perform proper and high–quality resuscitation.
