Most Memorable Medtronic Moments Under CEO Omar Ishrak

The medtech giant with humble beginnings will go through a major leadership change next year.Medtronic announced Wednesday that Omar Ishrak will retire as CEO on April 26, which marks the end of the company's current fiscal year. Geoff Martha, who currently oversees Medtronic's restorative therapies group (and previously led the company's spine business), will succeed Ishrak as CEO on April 27.Ishrak has served as CEO of Medtronic since June 2011 and has led the company through some significant milestones. The news does not come as a surprise given that Ishrak is approaching the company's mandatory executive officer retirement age of 65.Ishrak is expected to serve as the company's executive chairman after he retires to provide counsel and guidance to Medtronic's leadership and oversee the CEO succession. In the meantime, Martha will assume the newly created role of Medtronic president and become a member of the company's board of directors, effective Nov. 1, 2019.“Today, we announced leadership changes that meet both the board’s objective of executing a thoughtful leadership transition as well as my personal desire to begin transitioning my duties as CEO to a new leader coinciding with the start of our next fiscal year,” Ishrak said. “This plan and its timing enable Geoff and I to partner on achieving Medtronic’s key financial performance goals as well as delivering on our critical pipeline milestones, including several important product launches. Leading Medtronic as CEO is an honor and a privilege, and I know that Geoff is the right leader to take Medtronic to the next level of its growth and evolution. Geoff is a results-oriented, dynamic, and innovative business leader who is passionately committed to our mission, the advancement of our growth strategy, and the development and diversity of our people. I am confident he has the right track record, commitment, vision, and judgment to lead our company.”Mike Matson, a medtech analyst at Needham & Co., said he believes Medtronic's CEO succession plan will be received positively by investors."Martha is a strong CEO candidate, in our view, since he has been highly visible to investors and was in our view instrumental in turning around [Medtronic's] spine business which was losing share for years prior to Martha taking the helm," Matson said.Image Created by MD+DI News Editor Amanda Pedersen