Edwards Lifesciences CEO Bernard Zovighian (left) and retired CEO and Chair Mike Mussallem [Photo courtesy of Edwards Lifesciences]
The structural heart device developer and manufacturer also reported a big increase in compensation paid to its median employee for the year ended Dec. 31, 2024.
Recruiting and retaining top talent — both at the executive and engineering level — is crucial in the medtech industry, but employee compensation is kept secret in most cases. Medical Design & Outsourcing tracks and analyzes these pay figures when disclosed by major device developers and manufacturers.
Edwards Lifesciences is the world’s 23rd-largest medical device company, according to our 2024 Medtech Big 100 ranking by revenue.
That ranking was based on the company’s 2023 sales of $6 billion. Edwards Lifesciences reported 2024 sales of $5.4 billion after selling its Critical Care business to Becton Dickinson & Co. (BD) for $4.2 billion. Excluding sales from that business, revenue increased nearly 9% year over year.
Edwards Lifesciences executive pay
Edwards Lifesciences CEO Bernard Zovighian [Photo courtesy of Edwards Lifesciences]
Related: What Edwards Lifesciences CEO Bernard Zovighian learned from Mike Mussallem
The second-highest-paid Edwards Lifesciences executive in 2024 was former Corporate VP of Critical Care Katie Szyman at $5.5 million, including a $490,769 salary, $4.2 million in stock awards, a $729,760 bonus and $39,327 in other compensation. Her total compensation increased 27% from the year before.
Szyman moved to BD with the Critical Care business (renamed to BD Advanced Patient Monitoring), leading it as worldwide president until January 2025, when she left to become CEO of Masimo.
The third-highest-paid Edwards Lifesciences executive in 2024 was Corporate VP and CFO Scott Ullem at $5.3 million, including a $774,333 salary, $2 million in stock awards, $1.9 million in option awards, a $525,938 bonus and $70,088 in other compensation. His total compensation decreased 11% from the year before.
The fourth-highest-paid Edwards Lifesciences executive in 2024 was Corporate VP and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement and Surgical Structural Heart Group President Larry Wood at $4.6 million, including a $778,500 salary, $1.6 million in stock awards, $1.5 million in option awards, a $656,370 bonus and $72,615 in other compensation. His total compensation decreased 15% from the year before.
The fifth-highest-paid Edwards Lifesciences executive in 2024 was Former Corporate VP of Europe, Middle East, Africa, Canada and Latin America (EMEACLA) Jean-Luc Lemercier at $3.8 million, including a $587,253 salary, $1.3 million in stock awards, $1.2 million in option awards, a $484,019 bonus and $165,070 in other compensation. His total compensation decreased 60% from the year before.
The sixth-highest-paid Edwards Lifesciences executive in 2024 was Donald E. Bobo, Jr. at $3.7 million, including a $737,054 salary, $1.2 million in stock awards, $1.1 million in option awards, a $576,131 bonus and $51,932 in other compensation. His total compensation decreased 13% from the year before.
The sixth-highest-paid Edwards Lifesciences executive in 2024 was Corporate VP of Transcatheter Mitral and Tricuspid Therapies Daveen Chopra at $3.7 million, including a $627,346 salary, $1.3 million in stock awards, $1.2 million in option awards, a $556,133 bonus and $53,779 in other compensation. His prior-year compensation was not disclosed.
Two of the executives received awards — $1,000 for Szyman and $4,000 for Bobo — through the Innovation Rewards Program, which “compensates active employee inventors for their patent contributions to our company,” Edwards Lifesciences said.
“We are driven by our culture that puts patients first and our long-term corporate strategy that creates value with therapies that transform care and focuses on large, under-treated diseases,” the company said in the filing. “Our annual plan is essential to executing our strategy and seeks to do the right thing for patients, identifying unmet clinical needs and developing breakthrough therapies, while maintaining trusted relationships with our stakeholders.”
“As a direct result of our strategy, we have introduced therapies, such as transcatheter aortic valve replacement, transcatheter mitral and tricuspid therapies, novel resilient surgical heart valves and noninvasive advanced hemodynamic monitoring, and we have strengthened our leadership positions,” the company continued. “Successfully managing our business in a challenging, highly regulated, dynamic environment requires talented and energetic leaders who champion our strategy and deliver on our commitments. Our executive compensation programs are designed to emphasize performance-based compensation, reward financial performance and the implementation of our corporate strategy and align the financial interests of our executives with those of our long-term stockholders.”
Edwards Lifesciences median worker pay and CEO pay ratio
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires publicly traded companies to calculate the gap between CEO compensation and pay for its median employee.
Edwards Lifesciences calculated its median employee wage at $74,125, up 47% from $50,368 the year before.
The latest median employee pay figure put Edwards Lifesciences’ CEO pay at 197 times more than its median employee’s pay in 2024. That pay gap narrowed from 265:1 the year before.
At other medtech companies that offer more details about their median workers than required by the SEC pay disclosure rules, those median medtech workers often hold technical roles such as device design or engineering.
Edwards Lifesciences shareholders will cast advisory “say-on-pay” votes on the company’s executive compensation practices at the May 8 annual meeting. Shareholders overwhelmingly voted in support of the company’s executive pay the year before.
More medtech compensation analysis for CEOs, top-paid executives and median workers
- GE HealthCare executive compensation plunges after one-time spinoff awards
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- BD reports pay increases for some execs, decreases for others
- Baxter CEO pay surged before his departure — along with the median employee’s wage
- Stryker increases pay for top execs, reports slightly lower wage for median employee
- Solventum paid CEO Bryan Hanson $40M in spinoff’s first year
- Intuitive Surgical discloses pay for execs and median workers while urging votes against shareholder proposals
- Boston Scientific CEO pay breaks $20 million for the first time since Ray Elliott
- Abbott’s device leader got a big pay bump as sales surged
- Cardinal Health CEO pay climbs to $25M; Median worker pay dropped
- Johnson & Johnson discloses executive pay and new security measures
- Medtronic CEO pay jumps 30%, employment and median worker pay drop
- No bonuses for Penumbra execs despite growing sales 25% to $1B
- Integer discloses executive pay, including separation payments for ex-EVPs
- Outset Medical investors target executive pay after recalls and warning letter
- BD limits executive severance after ‘golden parachute’ shareholder proposal overcomes board opposition
- Zimmer Biomet changes executive pay plans after shareholder vote
