Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry Magazine
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Originally Published MDDI August 2005

NEWSTRENDS

AdvaMed Names Former Aide as New President

Erik Swain

AdvaMed has tapped a former top aide to be its new president, after a search that lasted more than four months.

Stephen J. Ubl was named in July to head the largest medical device industry trade association. From 1998 to 2004, Ubl had been AdvaMed's executive vice president for government relations. He had left last year to start his own healthcare consulting firm. He replaces Pamela G. Bailey, who resigned in March to take the helm at the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association.

Ubl takes the reins at a crucial time. By the end of the fiscal year in September, the user-fee provision of the Medical Device User Fee and Modernization Act of 2002 (MDUFMA) must be revised or else the program will cease. Industry has been critical of high fee increases and Congress's failure to come through with promised funds for the CDRH budget in the first years of the program. In his previous position at AdvaMed, Ubl was at the forefront of negotiations that led to MDUFMA.

AdvaMed's board decided it needed someone with Ubl's kind of experience to tackle those kinds of issues.

“Steve's knowledge of the medical technology industry, along with his demonstrated leadership and successes on the legislative
and regulatory fronts, makes him the ideal person to lead Adva-Med into the future,” said AdvaMed Board Chairman Arthur D. Collins, who is also chair and CEO of Medtronic Inc. (Minneapolis). “He possesses a rare combination of policy depth and political acumen that has earned bipartisan respect on Capitol Hill and among policymakers.”

Before his first tenure at AdvaMed, Ubl was a special assistant to Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) and vice president, legislation, for the Federation of American Hospitals. He has been named by The Hill newspaper and Legal Times as one of the nation's top lobbyists for his role in passing FDA and Medicare reform.

“I'm honored that the board has entrusted me with representing medical technology innovators who are saving and improving millions of people's lives every day. I look forward to leading AdvaMed during this time of important changes in medical technology and healthcare policy,” Ubl said.

“AdvaMed members are at the forefront of developing advances needed by patients and our health system—technologies for disease prevention and management, personalized medicine, device and drug integration, and health information systems, to name a few. I am eager to explain the remarkable benefits of these medical technologies to people both inside and outside the beltway.”

AdvaMed has about 1300 members that manufacture around 90% of the devices in the $80 billion U.S. market and around 50% of those in the $175 billion global market.

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