Women hold 23.6% of executive leadership roles at the largest medical device companies in the world, according to an analysis of Medical Design & Outsourcing‘s latest Medtech Big 100 ranking of the top companies by revenue.
That number is not significantly different from our 2022 analysis, when women held 23% of executive roles. However, the average composition has increased year-over-year. The average composition within the top 100 companies is 23.1%, a 1.3 percentage point increase over 2022.
Composition refers to the number of women in leadership roles as a share of the total number of executives within a certain company. The rise in average composition means that companies are creating more gender-diverse executive teams year after year.
These modest improvements from the previous year underscore the persistent gender gap in high-ranking medtech roles. These executive leadership roles help shape the direction and decision-making of companies responsible for saving and improving patient lives, so it’s crucial to diversify the executive ranks to be more representative of the patient population.
Women are half of the workforce and make 90% of household healthcare decisions, but only around a quarter to a third of engineers are women, said Holly Scott, VP and senior partner at The Mullings Group.
“In order to serve our diverse world in healthcare, we need individuals who think, innovate and develop solutions for problems for all of us,” she said.
While there was a significant uptick in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) activity in 2020 and 2021, initiatives impacting the leadership level will take time, Scott said. And many companies have pulled back on their DEI programs “based on market demands — not uncommon when times become lean,” she noted.
“Unfortunately, emphasis on DEI has long been a luxury rather than a requirement,” Scott said.
Thirty-three executives joined our list this year, a drop from the 50 new executives in 2022.
"This all comes down to the end game," said Jill Canada, VP of corporate/enterprise sales at Avail Medsystems. “If what we are trying to influence is the number of women in C-suite roles, what we need to focus on is the feeder roles for the C-suite and make sure we have enough qualified women thriving in those roles. If the funnel for those roles isn’t robust, we’ll never have the ideal number of women in the C-suite.”
Our analysis looks at job titles from the leadership pages on corporate websites and the executives' personal LinkedIn pages. We excluded 18 Medtech Big 100 companies from this analysis because they did not list executive leaders on their websites or provide information to determine an executive’s gender, such as pronouns and/or executive portraits.
Prevalence and composition of women in leadership roles
Of the 882 listed executives at the largest medical device companies, 208 were women with an average composition of 23.1%. The executives in this year’s analysis have spent on average of 3.4 years in their roles.
Seven companies listed no women in leadership roles as of August 20. That's three fewer companies than in 2022, and six fewer than 2021. Those companies include:
- Carl Zeiss Meditec (0/2)
- Demant (0/3)
- Dräger (0/5)
- Konica Minolta (0/8)
- Masimo (0/6)
- Medacta (0/3)
- Nevro (0/8)
The women executives at each company have titles that break down into the following roles: divisional president (47), human resources (45), regulatory (44), finance (23), medical (23), general counsel/legal (19), communications (18), information (15), marketing (9), CEO (7), operations (6), corporate secretary (5), R&D (1) and chief of staff (1). Note that some leaders hold one title for multiple roles, such as “SVP, general counsel and corporate secretary.”
The companies with the highest percentage of female executives are Medline Industries, Ambu, Fresenius Medical Care and Paul Hartmann, all of which have women in at least 50% of their C-suite roles. Three of those companies have women CEOs (more on that in a bit). Medline Industries had the highest composition of women in leadership roles at 52.6%, with women holding those roles for an average of 4.6 years.
The biggest challenge, Scott said, is that change will take the same long decades it takes for women to build their careers to the executive level.
“These efforts take time, and because economic conditions drive company commitment for resources, the programs that support these efforts need to be sustaining. With that said, this kind of change starts at the individual level," she said.
More women in the corner office
Seven women held CEO roles at the top companies, up one from last year. Those companies are Accuray, Ambu, B. Braun Melsungen, Barco, Fresenius Medical Care, GN Hearing and Paul Hartmann.
Fresenius Medical Care is new this year as Helen Giza took over as CEO in December 2022. She was previously deputy CEO, CFO and chief transformation officer.
Women are attracted to organizations where they see other women represented at the executive level, because that shows they will have a voice and be able to make a difference, Scott said. “This starts with thought leadership from the top.”
Among the women-led companies, women hold 50% of executive leadership roles at Ambu, 12.5% at Accuray, 40% at B. Braun Melsungen, 13.3% at Barco, 50% at Fresenius Medical Care, 33.3% at GN Hearing and 50% at Paul Hartmann.
Men and women alike in executive leadership positions and on boards must do their part, said Canada. And she added that it’s not just about how many CEOs are women.
"The end game is increasing the number of women thriving in CEO roles, not just in CEO roles," she said. "That means we need to be intentional about development."
