Small Seattle Firm Helps Save Lives With Ex-Im Bank

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In Seattle sits a small company that helps save lives in 65 countries.

Simulab Corp. helps doctors in training get familiar with all the delicate intricacies of performing life-saving procedures before they operate on an actual person. The company hand makes anatomical models for training physicians that can be sold throughout the world because the U.S. Export-Import Bank has been able to offer credit guarantees to its customers.

Dave Garland, Vice President of Sales at Simulab, said he has personally sent letters to lawmakers in Washington State to urge them to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank, which will expire if Congress doesn’t act by September 30th. Without the Ex-Im Bank, Mr. Garland said his company’s sales abroad in places like the Middle East, Europe and Latin America will suffer.

And yet Simulab is just one of the hundreds of small and mid-sized firms that rely on the Ex-Im Bank to expand abroad and keep jobs in the United States. The Ex-Im Bank has supported 1.2 million jobs in the United States in the last 5 years.

Simulab has about 75 employees and Mr. Garland said the company started using the Ex-Im Bank in 2011. Since then, Simulab has more than tripled their sales abroad.

Mr. Garland said the models his company makes are time and labor intensive to manufacture. Because the demands for anatomical accuracy are important to the success in teaching physicians, their models are handmade and require skilled employees with an attention to detail.

He said the company wants the bank reauthorized so Simulab can continue to support its employees and grow.
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