Cody Verrett is the vice president and general manager for Permobil Americas, where he oversees business development, and most recently, the development and launch of the TiLite X and TiLite Z. Born in San Francsico and raised between Colorado and Pennsylvania, Verrett discovered a passion for complex rehab technology (CRT) after studying adult health and wellness. He’s now been in the industry for 27 years with experience across companies such as Quantum, Numotion, Shoprider, and Motion Composites.
Growing up coast to coast
I was born in San Francisco and moved to Denver with my parents for a few years. Most of my growing up years were spent in rural Pennsylvania with my extended family because my mom suffered a cancer diagnosis that left her with a significant disability.
I don’t have any siblings in the traditional sense, but I was fortunate to have my aunt and uncle open their home to me when I was a child, and I grew up with two younger cousins that I think of as my siblings, Eric and Ashley.
As a kid I always wanted to be a pilot because I enjoy traveling to new places. For fun, I liked to ride my bike and play sports like soccer, tennis, basketball and baseball.
After high school I went to Bloomsburg University where I studied adult health and wellness. I’ve always found enjoyment in geriatrics and the aging population. College was a formative time in my life. There I met my wife, Nicole. She told me a joke about a sweet roll, and we’ve been together ever since.
From rehab equipment provider to Permobil
I got my start in the CRT industry as a provider in Baltimore, Maryland in the ‘90s. Along the way, I worked for Quantum for a decade, and then ATG Rehab for the three years leading up to the merger with United Seating & Mobility to form Numotion.
Then in 2013, I developed the ROVI for Shoprider which helped move the industry towards full-sized power bases that are narrow in overall width. Most recently, I was the VP of Sales at Motion Composites, which is an ultralight manual wheelchair manufacturer based outside of Montreal, in Quebec, Canada.
In the summer of 2021, my friend, Todd Walling, called me about a new opportunity at Permobil and that got the ball rolling. As a student of industry, I’ve always admired Permobil and I have lots of friends here, plus, I found our founder Dr. Per Udden’s mission one with which I felt a strong personal connection.
Making a difference at Permobil
It’s exciting to have a chance each day to make a difference that can benefit so many people. The opportunity to advance Permobil’s market position through better standard product features, faster lead-times, and a more efficient process for customers is exciting to me.
At Permobil, every day is a new opportunity to work with my teammates to solve difficult problems and create solutions that make a difference in the lives of our customers, starting with the user first. So, an average day for me can consist of everything from meeting with R&D for a design review on a new product feature to working with the Americas leadership team to lay out our 3-year strategic plan.
My advice to other leaders in the industry is to never lose sight of the users of our products and do everything you can to seek out experiences and opportunities to connect with the disability community through volunteerism and advocacy.
Adding to the TiLite family
I oversee the initiative which lead to the creation of our newest TiLite chairs, the TiLite X and Z. This has been part of our effort to grow our market share in ultralight manual wheelchairs. We just launched these two new products last week!
This was all about the legacy of TiLite and making two new models that carry the brand with pride. Our hope with this project was to live up to the quality expectations of our existing customers, while broadening TiLite to a whole new market of users. Making TiLite more accessible to more people with disabilities was the goal.
We spent hundreds of hours with customers, listening to their feedback and implementing design elements to address that input. In addition, we were focusing on our core targets around innovative enhancements, reducing transport weight, increasing customer efficiency, and designing for manufacturability.
I’m proud of what we have accomplished, especially that we added in standard features that are often an uncovered upcharge, increased weight capacity, and reduced transport weight. I have a long list of people I would like to recognize and that is all the TiLite team members who worked so hard to make the TiLite X and Z a reality. I want to thank our CEO Bengt Thorsson for his vision of what was possible and our President of the Americas, Chuck Witkowski, for his support and guidance for the team all along the way.
Life at home
I’ve been married 26 years to my wife Nicole, who’s an occupational therapist. We have son named Reece. I’m a proud dad. He was a 28-week preemie that only weighed 1 pound 4 ounces (about 113.4 grams) at birth, and today he’s a private pilot working to complete his bachelor's at Metropolitan State University in Denver.
I love to travel to new places, specifically anywhere along the coast. I also spend a lot of time outdoors, whether it is camping, hiking, mountain biking, or golfing. Cooking is also one of my passions. Sunday Ragu with meatballs and short rib is my favorite thing to prepare on occasion in the winter months.
Rapid fire questions:
Favorite restaurant or place to order takeout food from?
I love this little Mexican restaurant here in Denver called, Venalozo’s......muy bien!
What is your favorite season and why?
Fall, for the cooling weather, football season, and all the changing colors.
If you could have dinner with one person, dead or alive, who would it be?
My Great-Grandfather, Connell Bonner who immigrated around the turn of the century from Ireland. I’d love to hear his story of coming to America and his time in WW1 as a blacksmith.
What is your favorite movie of all time?
One of my favorites is the movie Full Metal Jacket
Content Marketing Specialist - Permobil Americas
Before joining Permobil as content marketing specialist, Hawken was a content strategist for the nonprofit CureDuchenne, creating blogs, emails, and social media content for the Duchenne muscular dystrophy community. For most of his life before that, he worked as a journalist, writing feature stories for BioNews, and reporting on the video game beat for The Washington Post. Following his passion for writing, Hawken graduated from journalism school at the University of Southern California.