InnovHeart s.r.l., a developer of the novel Saturn Transcatheter Mitral Valve Replacement (TMVR) system for the treatment of mitral regurgitation, announced today the appointment of David James Wilson, an experienced healthcare and medical device executive as Chief Executive Officer of the company and executive member of the Board of Directors.
Mr. Wilson’s career spans over 30 years and includes broad, global leadership expertise in business strategy and operations, R&D, commercial readiness and product launches. He dedicated two decades in roles of increasing responsibility with various Johnson and Johnson (J&J) companies, including as the Worldwide President of Cordis. In this role, he led the global integration of Cordis into Cardinal Health and rejuvenated the product portfolio through business development deals. Mr. Wilson held other leadership roles at J&J companies, namely President of Mentor, Vice President of Ethicon R&D and Vice President of Ethicon Biosurgicals. Earlier in his tenure with J&J, he attained senior leadership roles at Cordis Endovascular as Vice President of R&D and Regional Director of Sales. Most recently, Mr. Wilson was the President of Global Plasma at Haemonetics Corporation where he led the global commercialization of a next generation plasma collection system. He is the holder of 10 medical device patents and has served as a Board member of several educational and healthcare institutions in the US. His education includes a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Auburn University, a Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University.
“I am excited to join the talented team at InnovHeart at this pivotal time of focus and commitment to significantly advancing Transcatheter Mitral Valve Replacement (TMVR) procedures enabled by our transformational Saturn platform,” said Mr. Wilson. “The innovative Saturn technology has the potential to be life changing for patients with regurgitant mitral valves and I’m eager to further the clinical validation of the trans-septal Saturn system.”
Dr. Keith Dawkins, Chairman of the company, added, “This is an important time for InnovHeart as we transition from a trans-apical to a trans-septal delivery of the Saturn valve. We have been encouraged by the outstanding medium term results of the trans-apical system, and we fully anticipate that the best-in-class hemodynamics will be reflected in the first-in-human implantation of the same Saturn valve trans-septally. David’s range of leadership skills will further enhance the commitment, drive and engineering prowess of the strong InnovHeart Team.”
“We welcome with great pleasure David’s decision to take the lead of InnovHeart. His broad business and operational leadership attributes will effectively drive the Company through the forthcoming clinical validation of the Saturn trans-septal TMVR system. With David’s guidance, we will succeed in raising the Saturn technology to become the pioneering technology in the TMVR space,” said Giovanni Righini, founder and Chief Technology Officer of InnovHeart.
