Behind the Zeens
Hall-of Fame Inventor Garrett Brown revolutionized the craft of filmmaking and broadcasting. Then his own aging parents revealed how abruptly the joy of movement could be taken from someone you love. Here’s the story of how Garrett and partners invented and developed the first Zeen prototypes - to help people challenged by age, injury and disease, recover the joys of daily living.
Garrett holds over 100 patents for a variety of inventions, most famously the Steadicam, which revolutionized filmmaking with a never-before-seen intimacy in shots. His filmography includes over 100 movies such as Rocky, The Shining and Return of the Jedi. Other inventions have allowed viewers to dive into the water alongside Olympic divers, fly across the field during NFL football games and watch Olympic swimmers compete from underwater, as well as helping factory workers operate heavy tools safely and effortlessly, as if in zeroG.
The Zeen was born when Garrett’s father developed mobility issues and had to choose between a walker or a wheelchair. Determined that this “antiquated technology” built to allow only slow, effortful movement not be the only choice for those who wanted more from life, Garrett assembled a team of world-class inventors to help him define a new mobility solution. One that would restore autonomy and freedom – and help recapture some of the joy of living.
Rick has over 30 years experience in the medical diagnostic industry as a commercial and product development executive. He became CEO of Exokinetics in March 2024 to lead the company into its next expansion phase of market awareness and revenue growth.
Throughout his career, Rick has been a passionate and proven commercial leader building, training, and unifying teams to deliver on aggressive revenue goals for Fortune 500 and early-stage medical diagnostics companies. After serving as an Air Force officer, he began his medical diagnostic career with Abbott Laboratories based outside of Chicago. Recruited by Ventana Medical Systems in Tucson, Rick spent over 15 years as a commercial leader growing the company until it was purchased by Roche Diagnostics. Leveraging his broad leadership, product development, and medical domain experience, Rick has worked with start-up clinical oncology companies, where he built several world-class sales, marketing, and customer service divisions to launch new products and drive revenue growth. He has also helped early-stage companies bring their novel diagnostic technology ideas to market assisted by third-party design and development engineering firms.
Rick has a passion for bringing innovative technologies to market for underserved communities and for building and growing best in class organizations.
Our COO and first hire, Ryan Meers, is responsible for the overall performance of the company and the systems that support it, including engineering, manufacturing, and new product development. He has been instrumental in growing the team and leading efforts to bring the Zeen to market.
Trained in both Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design, Ryan brings a wealth of engineering experiences to the team. He has helped to develop a diverse range of products from beer keg hoists and milk crates, to an infant incubator and other Class III medical devices. Ryan has engineered and overseen fabrication for every Zeen prototype, and has helped it evolve into a device that can truly have an impact on others’ lives - one that makes mobility easy – and even fun – for those who have lost the joy of movement.
Dillon Jenkins is the Production & Quality Control Manager at Exokinetics. In this role, he is responsible for all aspects of manufacturing. His goal is to build and lead the Production Team to get high quality ZEENs in the hands of our customers, to improve their lives.
Daniel Lefebvre has been part of the Exokinetics team as Staff Mechanical Engineer since March 2019. He has seen and has worked on every iteration of the Zeen since we began our focus on the current lightweight folding Zeen. Daniel is also a valued part the marketing rollout for the Zeen, fitting and training potential “Zeeners” and acclimating them to this novel and exciting device.
Petra Rose, Exokinetics own Doctor of Physical Therapy, created the Zeen User Testing Labs early in the Zeen’s development to ensure early prototypes incorporated insights from real-world physical therapy usage of the product. Petra has designed, recruited and run nearly 100 Zeen user tests ranging from fall-risk tests to multi-month in-home ethnographic studies of how mobility-challenged people use the Zeen in real life. She has designed the safety and training curriculum for the Zeen and has been pivotal in directing the engineering team to create a safe, stable, useful product that can truly change the day-to-day lives of its users.
Petra’s expertise comes from over 18 years experience as a physical therapist in hospital settings treating orthopedic, trauma, neurology, burn and wound care patients as well as clinical staff training for Medtronic and extended one-on-one in-home physical therapy for patients with a range of mobility issues.
Jordan is key part of the Sales and Customer Service team at Exokinetics with a specialty in conducting detailed Zeen demonstrations and user training. He leads virtual and in-person sessions to help qualify potential Zeen users and train existing customers on all the amazing features the Zeen offers. In addition, Jordan is highly involved with our internal sales efforts and nationwide distribution team. Jordan has a formal education in both exercise science and physical therapy, which supports his efforts to ensure customers are comfortable, well informed, and have the best possible experience with their Zeen.
As a critical role for Exokinetics, Michelle is responsible for many aspects of our customer’s experience. Her friendly and caring personality combined with more than 20 years of professional experience managing business operations, customer service, sales and human resources is the perfect harmony for this important position. Michelle is a certified medical technician and has an extensive background in patient care. Her organizational skills and attention to detail ensures that every Zeen customer, whether a current user or considering a purchase, is treated professionally with care, patience, understanding and authentic personal attention.
Bill has extensive manufacturing experience with tight tolerance assemblies. He is the primary builder of the Zeen and the lead trainer on subassemblies. Bill assists with all functions in Production.
Sebastian has experience in shipping and receiving, with a focus on quality control and inventory management. He helps maintain inventory accuracy in Production and he builds high quality Zeen subassemblies.
Jane handles administration and operations for Exokinetics, a role she has played for a range of startups and small businesses.
An early producer of the TED conference, Jane is now executive producer of EG, an event that gathers makers and doers of extraordinary things.
Exokinetics was founded by Garrett Brown and Chris Fawcett to help restore the joy of self-propelled mobility to those whose physical challenges restrict their lives. The company is built upon the belief that age, injury or illness should not mean an end to autonomy, independence and dignity. The right technology can supplement a person’s natural movements and fill the gaps caused by declining capabilities—rather than force the user to conform to a product’s limitations.