2014 Otto Schmitt Lecture (Hawkins) | Institute for Engineering in Medicine Archives

“Medical Technology Innovation - A Case Study for Collaboration”

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Tuesday, March 11, 2014

ABSTRACT

The secret of the medical technology industry is the rarity of large companies or even startup companies inventing or discovering new products. Much of the innovation in the industry has come from collaborations between industry and the clinical community or between industry and academia. Innovation in the medical device industry starts at the patients' bedside, is then transferred to the “bench” and then is returned to the bedside. Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical companies on the other hand start at the bench and then go to the bedside. Moving forward, collaboration needs to be extended to other stakeholders like the FDA as more and more of the success or failure of new startup companies are dependent upon industry and the FDA developing better tools for evaluating risk.

BIOGRAPHY

Bill Hawkins is a Senior Advisor for TPG Capital and President & CEO of Immucor, Inc., a private company, wholly owned by TPG. Immucor is a market leader in helping secure the world's blood supply through automation.

Prior to joining Immucor in 2011, Mr. Hawkins served as Chairman and CEO of Medtronic, one of the worlds' largest and most innovative medical technology companies. Mr. Hawkins assumed the role of CEO in 2007 and became Chairman of the Board in 2008. He joined Medtronic in 2002.

Mr. Hawkins joined Medtronic from Novoste Corp., where he had been President and Chief Executive Officer since 1998. He previously held senior leadership positions at American Home Products, Johnson & Johnson, Guidant Corp., and Eli Lilly & Co. He began his medical technology career with Carolina Medical Electronics in 1977.

Mr. Hawkins received his bachelor's degree in electrical and biomedical engineering from Duke University in 1976, where he also conducted medical research in pathology. He then went on to earn an M.B.A. from the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia in 1982. Mr. Hawkins became a member of the Duke University Board of Trustees in 2011 and serves on the Business and Finance and the Academic Affairs Committees. In 2012, he was appointed as a member of the Duke University Health System, Inc. and serves on the Audit and Compliance Committee.

Mr. Hawkins is the Chairman of the newly founded Medical Device Innovation Consortium ("MDIC"), and was recently elected as the 2013 President of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering ("AMIBE"). He serves as a Director on the Board of AdvaMedDX, is the Chairman of the Board for KeraNetics, and on the Board of Thoratec Corporation, a NYSE-listed medical device company.

Mr. Hawkins also serves as a Member of the Advisory Boards at nContact Surgical, Arboretum Ventures, Radius Ventures, LLC, Accuitive Medical Ventures, and the A*STAR SERC Cluster Advisory Board in Singapore.