Chief Executive Officer — Surgical-Systems Portfolio

The mandate

A surgical-systems company serves hospitals with devices used in essential procedures. The organisation manages product variants introduced across markets, hardware tolerances, firmware logic, supplier relationships and complaint signals. Clinical teams rely on established conversion protocols. The company maintains risk and configuration records for its portfolio.

The company has notified regulators, stopped selected shipments and deployed field and clinical specialists to priority hospitals. Replacement components and a software update are being validated, but remediation is more than a technical release. Hospitals need reliable information on affected serial numbers, interim use and case scheduling. Distributors hold inconsistent inventory records in some markets. Employees need permission to surface inconvenient evidence without believing that every question will stop the business indefinitely.

The Chief Executive Officer will lead the response and determine the operating model that follows. The mandate spans patient and user safety, regulatory commitments, quality-system recovery, supply and field execution, customer trust, portfolio choices and capital allocation. The board expects the CEO to protect independent quality and medical judgement while ending fragmented accountability between engineering, operations and commercial teams.

The company employs approximately 700 people and works with material suppliers and distributors across the United States and international markets. The role is based in Minneapolis with a hybrid pattern, although intensive on-site and customer presence will be required during remediation. It reports to the group board and Group Chief Executive and carries full enterprise and P&L accountability.

Why this seat is open

This is a planned replacement. The current CEO has agreed to retire after leading the initial containment and will remain through an orderly handover. The succession discussion began before the field action, but the board has revised the specification to require a leader who has personally carried device remediation, design-control recovery and commercial continuity rather than relying solely on functional experts.

What you will own

• Hold final executive accountability for the field action, including affected-device identification, regulator communication, hospital guidance, correction, replacement and effectiveness checks.
• Reconstruct the product risk and configuration baseline across hardware, firmware, suppliers, markets and serial numbers, with independent quality approval of closure evidence.
• Lead approximately 700 employees and material partners across engineering, clinical, quality, operations, field service, commercial and enabling functions.
• Protect procedural continuity through clinically appropriate interim pathways, transparent account communication and prioritised field capacity without minimising residual risk.
• Decide the investment and sequencing of remediation, quality-system work, next-generation development and lower-value portfolio activity within an annual perimeter above USD 500 million.
• Reset supplier and design-transfer governance, including notification, validation, traceability and escalation for changes capable of affecting safety or performance.
• Establish one complaint and post-market signal forum with clear thresholds, medical interpretation, trend evidence and direct board visibility.
• Rebuild leadership accountability and succession, removing incentives or behaviours that reward schedule protection over complete problem definition.

The first 12 months

• Days 1–90: Verify containment, serial and market scope, interim clinical guidance and regulator commitments. Visit affected hospitals and field teams, reconcile the technical hypotheses and ensure all evidence is preserved. Agree remediation decision rights, leadership coverage and a cash and capacity plan that protects patient-facing obligations.
• Months 4–9: Complete validation and controlled deployment of the correction, execute distributor and hospital actions and test effectiveness across representative use conditions. Close the highest-risk design-control and supplier gaps, rebaseline portfolio investment and restore shipments only where approved evidence supports the market and configuration.
• Months 10–12: Demonstrate sustained field performance, timely complaint handling and closure or accepted progress on regulatory commitments. Present the board with a redesigned operating model, a rationalised product roadmap and succession coverage for quality, engineering, clinical and operations leadership.

What the board will measure

• Complete identification and treatment of affected devices, markets and customers, with effectiveness checks showing the correction reached and resolved the defined population.
• No missed regulator commitment or material discrepancy between technical evidence, hospital communication and board reporting.
• Reduction in complaint recurrence and safe-stop events after correction, with continued monitoring capable of detecting a different failure mode.
• Hospital confidence evidenced by controlled return to use, service response, case continuity and transparent resolution of account concerns.
• Design-control, supplier-change and configuration findings closed with objective evidence rather than administrative completion.
• Capital and leadership attention concentrated on safety, continuity and viable portfolio priorities, with deferred work explicitly stopped or resequenced.

The person

You are currently a medical-device CEO, division president, chief operating executive or general manager with at least 28 years in surgical systems, capital equipment, implantables or another high-risk device category. You have personally led a recall, field safety correction or material remediation and remained accountable through effectiveness checks. You have owned a P&L of at least USD 400 million and led at least 500 employees.

You understand connected device failure across hardware, software, use environment and supplier variation. You can ask precise questions of engineering, clinical and quality leaders without substituting your judgement for theirs. You have communicated with regulators, hospital executives and clinicians when facts were incomplete and can show how communication changed as evidence developed.

The board will consider candidates from surgical robotics, energy, monitoring, drug delivery or other complex medical technology where procedural continuity and configuration control matter. Experience leading through a consent decree or warning-letter remediation is relevant but not mandatory. A commercial turnaround background alone will not qualify without direct patient-safety accountability.

The executive will be based in Minneapolis and travel to hospitals, regulators, suppliers and operating sites. The best candidate combines urgency and restraint: fast enough to protect patients and customers, disciplined enough not to announce root cause or closure before the evidence supports it.

Compensation and terms

The board has set an indicative USD 500,000–750,000 base range, supplemented by annual incentive and long-term participation. Measures will prioritise patient safety, remediation quality, hospital continuity, regulator commitments and sustainable portfolio value. This is a permanent planned replacement with board appointment. Relocation and verified forfeited awards may be considered; an orderly notice must fit the transition timetable.

Confidentiality

The company, product, incidents, hospitals and regulator correspondence are confidential. Identifying information will be shared only after relevance is established and the required agreement signed. Candidates must not search adverse-event databases or contact clinicians and distributors to infer the client.

Each response must contain no more than 49 words.