Year after year, CEOs Unplugged is one of the most anticipated programs at The MedTech Conference. These candid, executive-level conversations offer a closer look at how industry leaders are navigating the challenges and opportunities shaping medtech today.
Across 14 sessions, CEOs and senior executives will share perspectives on the forces influencing investment, innovation, partnerships, growth, and the future of the industry, with discussions spanning AI and the workforce, value creation, global uncertainty, and building, scaling, and exiting medtech companies.
Hear what these leaders are thinking — and discover who you could meet at the global medtech industry event of the year.
Explore the sample attendee list and register for The MedTech Conference, October 18–21 in Boston, to access the full MTC26 attendee list and start requesting meetings.*
Meeting requests in our partnering and planning system, MyMedTech, are available to All-Access Attendees only.
Lessons from Building, Scaling and Exiting MedTech Companies
Sponsored by Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Building a MedTech company that reaches patients at scale demands a different high-stakes decision at nearly every stage — when to raise, when to expand globally, when to go public, and when to merge or sell. This panel brings together CEOs who have built transformative MedTech businesses, plus a banker who has managed the sector’s transactions, IPOs and strategic financings.
Moderated by a dealmaker behind many of healthcare’s most notable deals over 30 years, the conversation examines how these leaders made their toughest calls — and what those decisions meant for growth, valuation and patient impact.
Featured Speakers
Keith Pagnani — Co-Head of Mergers & Acquisitions, North America, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Ramin Mousavi — Founder & Chairman, NovoMed Partners; Former President & CEO, CathWorks
Yassaman Salas — Global Co-Head of Healthcare Investment Banking, Goldman Sachs
Katie Szyman — Senior Advisor, Danaher
The ASC Reckoning: How Medtech Leaders Are Rebuilding to Win
Sponsored by ZS
The shift of surgical volume to ambulatory surgery centers is separating medtech companies building for where care is headed from those still optimized for where it has been. Hospital-bound procedures are becoming outpatient at a pace medtech commercial models weren’t designed to absorb. The buyer is different. The economics are different. The decision-maker, workflow, contract structure and margin calculus are all different.
For medtech CEOs, this demands far more than a sales force adjustment or a channel tweak. Winning the ambulatory era requires a fundamental rethink of portfolio strategy, capital allocation, product architecture, organizational structure and incentives. In this session, leaders share where they are placing bets, lessons learned and how they are building organizations capable of leading the ambulatory era.
Featured Speakers
Bhargav Mantha — Principal and Global Medtech Practice Leader, ZS
Lisa Earnhardt — Executive Vice President & Group President, Medical Devices, Abbott
Kevin Lobo — Chair and CEO, Stryker
Winbourne Macphail — CEO, SCA Health
The Executive Case for Simulation-First MedTech
Sponsored by Dassault Systèmes
As MedTech regulatory and market demands intensify, traditional linear development paths can no longer keep pace with the urgent need for rapid innovation. To innovate faster and maintain a competitive edge, leading device developers must shift evidence generation to the very beginning of the product lifecycle.
Rather than waiting for late-stage clinical trials or physical prototyping loops to uncover performance limits, engineering and R&D teams are now leveraging virtual patient populations and high-fidelity computational modeling. This panel will discuss how integrating virtual testing at the concept stage enables innovators to:
- Impact the early design cycle
- Drive innovation and move faster
- Build a predictable regulatory path
Featured Speakers
J. Cris Salinas — SVP, Global MedTech Sales, Dassault Systèmes
Namal Nawana — Worldwide President, DePuy Synthes
Ivan Tornos — President & CEO, Zimmer Biomet
Resilient By Design: Navigating Uncertainty in MedTech Supply Chains
Sponsored by Kearney
Geopolitical uncertainty is reshaping the foundations of global supply chains. For medtech companies, rising tariffs, regionalization pressures, natural disasters, climate change, and volatility in critical inputs are forcing a shift from cost-optimized networks to resilience-driven strategies.
Supply chain decisions are no longer purely operational—they are increasingly central to enterprise risk management and long-term growth. This session will examine how medtech CEOs are embedding uncertainty drivers into strategic planning and redesigning their supply chains to operate in an era of persistent disruption.
Discussion topics will include managing single-source risk, balancing global efficiency with regional proximity, and identifying “no-regret” moves across a range of future scenarios. Panelists will also share how advanced analytics and AI are enhancing visibility and enabling faster, more informed decision-making in complex and rapidly changing environments.
Featured Speakers
Erik Blazic — Partner and Global Lead, Medtech, Kearney
Heather Knight — Chief Commercial Officer, Solventum
Jon Rennert — Chairman, ZOLL Medical
Christopher Toth — Chief Executive Officer, Vantive
EXPLORE ALL CEOS UNPLUGGED SESSIONS
These are just four of the fourteen CEOs Unplugged sessions you’ll find at The MedTech Conference. This year’s agenda features 400+ industry experts and timely discussions spanning AI and digital health, medtech investment, commercialization strategies, global market expansion, diagnostics, health access and the policy, business and technology trends shaping the future of the industry. Explore the agenda and join thousands of medtech leaders October 18–21 in Boston for the industry’s can’t-miss event.