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Vasant Padmanabhan

Distinguished Engineer

Vasant received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers in 1992. He trained under the guidance of Drs. John Semmlow, Walter Welkowitz (the founding chair of BME), and John Kostis.

Dr. Padmanabhan has over 27 years of deep global experience in research, technology, new product development, clinical affairs, and business development in the medical device industry. He is currently the President of Global R&D and a member of the Executive Committee for Smith & Nephew (www.smith-nephew.com), a 160-year old company and a leader in medical technology that operates in over 100 countries with an annual revenue of ~$5 billion. He provides business leadership role in enterprise R&D, Program Management, Operations, and Quality functions. He holds eighteen patents and is a proven innovator with an outstanding track record in concept-to-commercialization of medical devices. Here are some highlights of his accomplishments:

  • He was named President of Global R&D and member of the Executive Committee for Smith & Nephew in August 2016.
  • He leads a 700-member team across US, UK, Switzerland, Singapore, India, and China
  • He is responsible for innovation strategy and delivery of products across multiple segments
  • Key product lines include system solutions for kneeand hip reconstruction, trauma surgery, advanced wound care, negative pressure therapy for advanced wound management, robotics based digital surgery, and sports medicine joint repair.
  • He provides leadership to global teams specializing in Research, Technology, Front-end innovation, New Product Development, Product Support, Clinical Affairs, and Medical Affairs.

Thoratec Corporation:

  • He served as Senior Vice President for Thoratec Corporation from June 2014 until the successful acquisition of Thoratec by St Jude Medical in 2015.
  • In this role, he provided leadership to a 600-member team, with responsibilityfor global R&D, Program Management, Operations and Quality. He led the development of the HEARTMATE III, the most advanced left ventricular assist device (currently FDA approved for short and term use indications) Played a key role in the successful acquisition by St Jude Medical for $3.4B cash deal.

Medtronic:

  • He served in several roles of increasing responsibility for eighteen years with Medtronic in their Cardiac Rhythm Management business.
  • From 2012 to 2014, he served as Vice President of Product Development for the $1.4B Implantable Defibrillator Business with accountability for the global product portfolio.
  • From 2007 to 2012, he served as Vice President of Connected Care R&D and Operations, and was
  • responsible for global product portfolios including Medtronic CareLink remote monitoring system and instruments for data acquisition and communication.
  • From 2005 to 2007, Vasant worked in The Netherlands as R&D Director for Vitatron Inc., a European based Medtronic subsidiary and integrated Vitatron Operations with Medtronic.

Educational Activities at Medtronic:

  • Talent development via co-op programs
  • Served on the CEO Council for Diversity and Inclusion 2010-2011
  • Selected to participate in the Medtronic Global Leader program, the highest leadership program, 2010 The Medtronic Asian Network with the goal to foster development of Asian talent, 2010

Links to more information about Dr. Vasant Padmanabhan

In addition, Dr. Padmanabhan is active in professional societies and has been a board member for several companies, including 3D Systems Corp, 2020- present, Trice Orthopedics, 2018- present, Apica Cardiovascular Technologies, Inc., 2014-2015 and Global Logic, 2012-2014.

Dr. Padmanabhan has been active with the BME program on several fronts. He was a keynote speaker at our annual graduate student symposium He delivered a great speech about his journey and important lessons he has learned. It was abundantly clear how much the students appreciated his perspective from the Q&A session. He is a member of our external advisory board. He is also coordinating with our co-op directors with talent acquisition managers at Smith & Nephew to secure co-op positions for our students. He has also assisted with evaluating projects during our senior design conference.