A Private Company – Coulter Corporation

In 1958, Wallace and his brother, Joseph Coulter, Jr., founded Coulter Electronics (later to be known as Coulter Corporation) to manufacture, market and distribute their Coulter Counters. Wallace and Joe, Jr. built the early models, and before air travel, loaded them in their cars or onto trains and personally sold each unit. In 1959, to protect the patent rights in Europe, subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and France were established. The Coulter brothers relocated their growing company to the Miami area in 1961, where they remained for the rest of their lives. From the beginning, this was a family company, with Joseph, Sr. serving as secretary-treasurer.

#1 for 40 Years

Under Wallace’s tenure as chairman of the Corporation, the company developed into the industry leader in blood cell analysis equipment, employing almost 6,000 people, with over 50,000 instrument installations. This leadership position was sustained as a result of:

  • Beginning in the early 1960s, establishing a worldwide network of subsidiaries in over twenty (20) countries on five (5) continents;
  • Integrating research and development, manufacturing, marketing, sales, service and financing which provided the customer with one-stop shopping;
  • As a private company with limited access to public capital, partnerships and collaborations were essential to achieve business objectives.

The company spawned entire families of instruments, reagents and controls not just in hematology, but also in flow cytometry, industrial fine particle analysis, and other laboratory diagnostics.

Wallace focused the resources of the company on advancing cellular analysis. Coulter Corporation was a pioneer in the development of flow cytometry and monoclonal antibodies. These technologies are used in the characterization and treatment of cancer, leukemia/lymphoma, infectious disease, organ transplant, and stem cell analysis. True to his company’s mission of “Science Serving Humanity”, Bexxar – the anti-CD20 immunotherapy, was developed under his guidance. As a result of this continued expansion into “cutting edge” technologies, by the 1990’s, Coulter Corporation was one of the largest privately owned diagnostic companies in the world.

The Coulter Principle touches everyone’s life and is widely used from medical to industrial applications.

Medical Applications

The Coulter Principle is responsible for the current practice of hematology laboratory medicine. The complete blood count or “CBC” is one of the most ordered diagnostic tests worldwide. Decades after his death, the Coulter Principle is still being used to perform this test. The principle is also a component in such sophisticated instruments as laser flow cytometers.

Industrial Applications

The use of the Coulter Principle modernized industry by establishing a method for quality control and standardization used in over 500 consumer products from beer or wine, a bar of chocolate, and cosmetics. It is also critical to space exploration; NASA utilizes it in testing the purity of its rocket fuel.

Beckman Coulter

In October 1997, Coulter Corporation was acquired by Beckman Instruments, Inc., adding hematology, flow cytometry and hemostasis to Beckman’s product lines, giving the company the broadest portfolio of laboratory testing instruments available from one source and creating Beckman Coulter.

The Coulter Corporation will always be remembered for its family atmosphere, placing the welfare of its employees and customers ahead of all operational and financial considerations. During negotiations for the sale of the company, Wallace’s final instruction as CEO was, “Take care of my people.” Therefore, upon the sale of the company every employee around the world, regardless of position, received $1,000 for every year of service, totaling $100,000,000.

Acquired by Danaher in 2011, Beckman Coulter continues to be a world leader in clinical diagnostics and life science research.