Retired Edwards Lifesciences CEO and Chair Mike Mussallem said he found meaning in medtech’s mission to help patients like the heart valve recipients who would visit with Edwards employees. [Photo courtesy of the Linda and Mike Mussallem Foundation]
The award is considered one of the medtech community’s highest honors, recognizing leaders who have dedicated their careers to improving patients’ lives.
“Mike has put people first his entire life, in medtech and philanthropy. He represents the best of humanity in any field. Medtech patients and colleagues have been fortunate to count him among our own. We’ve all benefitted from his vision, leadership, generosity, warmth, and singular focus on helping people enjoy good health through medtech innovation,” AdvaMed CEO Scott Whitaker said in a news release.
Mussallem became CEO of Edwards when it was spun off from Baxter International in 2000. He retired in 2023 after more than two decades leading the company. Under his tenure, Edwards grew to nearly 20,000 employees worldwide and introduced devices such as transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), which changed the way patients with aortic stenosis are treated.
Related: What Edwards Lifesciences CEO Bernard Zovighian learned from Mike Mussallem
He also oversaw the creation of the Edwards Lifesciences Foundation, which supports philanthropic initiatives and employee volunteerism. Prior to Edwards, Mussallem held roles at Baxter from 1979 until the spinoff.
Related: What Mike Mussallem learned from his first (and maybe worst) jobs after engineering school
Mussallem served on AdvaMed’s board from 2004 to 2023 and chaired the organization from 2008 to 2010. During his time with AdvaMed, he advocated for faster patient access to FDA-authorized technologies, including Medicare coverage for breakthrough devices.
Mussallem and his wife, Linda, co-founded the Linda and Mike Mussallem Foundation, which supports health care innovation and underserved populations, as well as the Mussallem CHD Alliance, focused on congenital heart defects.
Read MDO’s profile of Mussallem, which was the cover story of our Leadership Issue in January: Mike Mussallem: Leading medtech innovation with heart, meaning and focus
Previous recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award are Caroll H. Neubauer (2024); William H. Longfield (2023); Lester B. Knight (2022); Edward Ludwig (2021); Ronald Dollens (2020); Cathy Burzik (2019); Vernon Loucks (2018); Jack Wareham (2017); John Abele and Peter Nicholas (2016); Thomas Fogarty, MD (2015); Earl Bakken (2014); and John Brown (2013).
Presentation of the award will take place during the keynote luncheon on Tuesday, Oct. 7.
