My contribution to a board
I would bring a product leader's view of regulated devices across their whole life: what a company commits to when it launches something, what it costs to keep that thing certified and supported, and when it should stop. Medtech boards often see product plans as launch calendars attached to sales forecasts. I can help directors ask what each product adds to the post-market obligation, which clinical users it relies on and what a withdrawal would demand. I also understand patient-facing software as a medical device, including the point at which a feature quietly creates a clinical responsibility for someone outside the company. I am not a clinician, a regulatory specialist or a finance expert, and I would expect the board to hear from those people directly. I have presented to a board and reported to its quality committee for six years, but I have never been a director. A first appointment should draw on the product judgement I have while giving me time to learn the collective responsibility I have not yet carried.
Judgement in practice
01Asking what a withdrawal still obliges the company to do
When we stopped selling the older knee, the lost sales were the easiest part to model. The harder questions concerned patients already implanted, surgeons who would have to change systems and the post-market work we would continue to own. On another board, I would ask management to present any product withdrawal with those obligations beside the saving: how long components will be supplied, who will answer surgeons' questions, what the surveillance plan is and how many customers may leave. I would also ask whether the users most affected were consulted before the decision, which we did too late. A withdrawal paper that shows only the avoided certification cost is a financial note, not a product decision, and directors should send it back.
02Testing whether a feature depends on someone the company does not employ
The messaging audit taught me to look for features whose safety depends on a person outside our payroll. A board reviewing digital products should ask that directly. If an app invites a patient to report a symptom, who reads the report, within what time and under whose clinical responsibility? Management should answer with contracts, rotas and data, not with a picture of the screen. I would also want to know how the company would discover that the answer had stopped being true at one customer. In our case the problem surfaced through a physiotherapist's passing remark, not our own monitoring. I would encourage directors to ask for that evidence before a feature is released rather than after it has become popular with patients.
My first year on a board
I would spend the first months learning the company's products in use. That means visiting at least two customer sites, joining a field visit with a clinical specialist and reading a sample of complaints and vigilance reports before commenting on any strategy paper. I would ask the chair which questions the board has struggled to settle and where my experience is expected to help. With the quality and regulatory leaders, I would map which products carry the heaviest post-market obligations and which certificates fall due in the next three years. I would also read two years of board papers on product launches to see whether their forecasts held. In meetings I would ask before offering opinions, and keep my comments to matters directors should decide rather than redesigning products from the boardroom table. At the end of the year I would ask the chair for a candid view of whether my contribution had been useful and what I should change.
Conflicts and their management
Merlicourt sells implants and recovery software to hospitals across Europe and buys from instrument makers, metal and polymer suppliers and software vendors. I could not join the board of another orthopaedic manufacturer, and I would decline any company that supplies us, competes with our recovery app or buys from us in significant volume unless both chairs agreed in writing that the relationship was immaterial. A hospital group could well be one of our customers; there I would expect to leave any discussion of orthopaedic purchasing or digital recovery services. I would never carry tender information, prices or product plans between organisations. Our chair and chief executive must approve any appointment, and our own register of interests would record it. Time is a conflict too. Twenty-four days a year is my estimate for one board and one committee, and I would say so early if a certification audit or a field action at Merlicourt meant I could not prepare properly.
My independence statement
I work full time for a device manufacturer whose customers, suppliers and competitors are spread across Europe. Another board would have to judge my independence against its own code and relationships, and I would give it everything needed to reach that view.
Capacity and preferences
- Time available
- 24 days per year
- Current directorships
- 0
- Sectors
- Medical technology · Digital health and connected devices · Elective-surgery and outpatient care providers
- Company type
- Privately held or mid-sized listed European company selling regulated medical devices or patient-facing software
- Company stage
- Deciding what to certify, retire or scale in a regulated product portfolio
The seat I am pursuing
I am looking for one non-executive seat with a European medtech, digital-health or elective-care company whose board needs to understand regulated products over their whole life. I would be most useful where the company is deciding what to certify, what to retire or how to make patient-facing software safe at scale, and where the board already has finance and clinical expertise but less product experience. A quality, clinical governance or technology committee would suit me as a member; I do not expect to chair a committee in a first appointment. I would prefer a company with clear lines of clinical and regulatory authority, so that my questions add to the work of qualified colleagues rather than replace it. I am not seeking a role in drug development, medicines manufacturing or hospital operations, where my experience would be thin and another candidate would serve the board better.
Committee contribution
Chair and member readiness| Capacity | Committees |
|---|
| Ready to join | Quality, clinical governance and product safety · Technology and digital products |
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Governance learning and readiness
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Not yet registered
The Indian Independent Directors' Databank does not apply to the European boards I am considering, and I have not registered with it.
- In 2025 I completed a twelve-session programme for executives preparing for a first non-executive role, run by a Belgian directors' association.
- I attend our board's quality and product-safety committee for product items and ask the chair for feedback afterwards on how directors test management's product-risk reporting.
Board and committee exposure
Presented to the Board or a committee
Merlicourt Orthopaedics SA
Board portfolio reviews
March 2020–present
Presents the product portfolio plan, MDR certification priorities and withdrawal recommendations to the board each quarter; no director appointment.
Reported to a committee
Merlicourt Orthopaedics SA
Quality and product-safety committee of the board
January 2021–present
Reports on recovery-app safety reviews, field actions and product changes affecting patients; attends for product items only.