About Us

Adopting Minimally Invasive Surgery Practices

Dr. Shane Whitaker talks about why he adopted minimally invasive surgery and the impact that it has had on his practice and patients. He discusses the process of adopting this technique, training, and equipment involved in the development process. Minimally invasive surgery is now the standard of care for his patients due to the outcomes he has been able to provide with the technology.

VetOvation Surgical Veterinary Equipment

Providing surgical veterinary equipment for minimally invasive veterinary solutions.

The VetOvation team provides laparoscopic and endoscopic veterinary equipment along with training to veterinarians interested in adopting the surgical technology. Our goal is to assist your practice in adopting leading-edge techniques to improve patient outcomes and attract new referrals. While some of our veterinary equipment is not always about smaller incisions, VetOvation’s complete range of veterinary surgical tools offers safer surgery with enhanced visualization and better outcomes.

Meet the Leadership Team

VetOvation invites you to get to know our experienced and dedicated veterinary equipment surgical supplier team, committed to providing exceptional products and services to support your veterinary practice.

Les Meadowcroft – Founder and CEO

VetOvation’s Founder & CEO, Les Meadowcroft, had to make a difficult decision about the health of his family dog several years ago. Shadow was in her senior years and needed to have her spleen removed. The life-threatening surgery, with its associated blood loss and recovery time, would make it difficult to care for Shadow and keep her from “acting like a dog” during her recovery. Les had spent the last 20+ years introducing minimally invasive equipment and techniques in human medicine that had become the standard of care. He wondered why those same life-saving techniques were unavailable for our other family members, our pets.

Throughout his career, Les worked with leading human medical device companies, including Johnson & Johnson, introducing laparoscopy, vessel sealing, and surgical robotics to the veterinary field. However, he soon discovered that the veterinary surgical market was different equipment pricing and training support. Les felt that his 22 years of experience in minimally invasive surgical training might fill a needed role in the veterinary market. After so many years of helping surgeons at medical centers such as Duke and UNC Health adopt enabling surgical technologies, this felt like a natural transition. Les lives his life through his faith and believes this is his calling. He is excited to see this technology benefit animals of all sizes nationwide. Just as it has become the standard of care in human medicine, Les anticipates this will also become the standard in veterinary medicine.

Cary Zeipekkis, MBA, Strategic Business Development/National Accounts

Cary leads Strategic Business Development and the Marketing team for VetOvation. She brings 25 years of clinical human medical device sales and management expertise working for companies like Intuitive Surgical, Johnson & Johnson, and Boston Scientific. Les and Cary have worked together at some of these medical device companies and enjoy the satisfaction of helping veterinarians experience the same success they saw with human surgeons throughout their careers. She received her undergraduate and Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of Tennessee; however, her extensive clinical knowledge is invaluable as VetOvation is expanding into additional product lines that will drive new clinical specialties and procedures. She also works closely with veterinarians and their staff as they try to determine what technology will be most appropriate for growing and building their practices. Cary and her husband, George, have a high school daughter and two spoiled toy poodles.

Lennie Friedman MBA, COO

Lennie Friedman has been a business leader in NC since graduating from Duke University’s the Fuqua School of Business in 2011. Lennie brings over a decade of operations, finance, and general management leadership experience working within Fortune 100 companies to Startups. As Chief Operating Officer of VetOvation, Lennie’s core responsibilities include optimizing the company’s operations and managing the finance department. Before attending business school, Lennie played football at Duke University, followed by a 10-year career in the National Football League (NFL) with the Denver Broncos, Washington Redskins, Chicago Bears, and Cleveland Browns. Lennie and his wife Katie have three children and are an animal-loving family with four rescue dogs, a snake, and a school of fish.

Garrett Peebles, Area Sales Manager

Garrett brings years of medical device sales and clinical support experience from the human market, and is focused on VetOvation’s vessel sealing, sterilization, and electrocautery product lines. Prior to joining the VetOvation team, Garrett worked with Globus Medical supporting neurosurgeons throughout the Duke, UNC, and Cone Health systems. He looks forward to assisting with the continued growth of VetOvation and providing our clients with the best possible support and service.  His clinical knowledge and consultative approach offer great value to our customers as he works closely with them to find the most effective clinical solution. Garrett received his undergraduate degree from Appalachian State University and loves doing just about anything outdoors including golf, fishing, hiking, and mountain biking. He grew up with family dogs and truly believes humans don’t deserve them!

Dr. John Schaaf

Dr. Schaaf doubles as a medical and clinical consultant and is active in the clinical installation team. He spends time with new customers, helping to install their equipment, train their staff, and teach valuable clinical techniques. Dr. Schaaf is a member of the Inaugural Class of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, 1984. He started North Mecklenburg Animal Hospital (NMAH) in Charlotte, NC, and remains active with NMAH even though it is now a National Veterinary Associates (NVA) facility. His first formal job was working for a group of veterinarians in Virginia starting at age fourteen, and he has worked in Veterinary Medicine continually for over 42 years. Professionally, Dr. Schaaf considers himself a generalist with a special interest in minimally invasive surgery, internal medicine, cardiology, and oncology. Dr. Schaaf was born into a large military family and has enjoyed animals his whole life. His parents always maintained a menagerie of horses, ponies, chickens, dogs, cats, and pet birds. He has fond memories of his family being guarded by a series of German Shepherd Dogs while his father served three extensive tours of duty in the Viet Nam War. Dr. Schaaf’s exposure to Veterinary Medicine dates back to his earliest childhood memories. To this day, he fosters a passion for sharing his expertise and love of animals with children of all ages.

Dr. Shane Whitaker

Dr. Whitaker works as a medical and clinical consultant and is an active part of the clinical installation team. He also consults on new product evaluations and introductions. This is vital as VetOvation continues to expand to new cutting-edge veterinary technology to improve veterinary surgical equipment performance and patient outcomes. Dr. Shane Whitaker graduated from the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, and earned his Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine. He completed an externship at Montgomery Zoo in Montgomery, Alabama. Dr. Whitaker is proficient in a variety of surgical services. His special interest in veterinary medicine is the advancement of innovative technology; Dr. Whitaker is particularly interested in minimally invasive surgery using advanced imaging capabilities. Dr. Whitaker and his wife, Jennifer, have two children: his stepdaughter, Zoe, and Holly.

VetOvation Partnerships

Fortunately, many human medical device companies share similar passions for advancing this technology into veterinary medicine. The following human-focused medical companies have teamed with VetOvation to offer affordable veterinary equipments and training to help the veterinary community easily and cost-effectively adopt this technology.