MedTech companies operate in a constant state of technological disruption. The last thing they need is a disruption of C-suite continuity. Organizations need to pass the baton like a sprinting relay team. They can't afford to miss a step as they deal with issues like the impact of US tariff policies on prices and supply chains.

The marketplace has little tolerance for leadership disruption. To retain and increase hard-won market share, MedTech companies need to turn leadership succession into a competitive advantage.

“Proactive succession planning enables smooth leadership transitions, preserves institutional knowledge, and signals strong governance,” Irish observes. Without it, MedTech companies could be swamped by any number of challenges.

 

What Are the Talent Pipeline Challenges for MedTech?

A significant skills gap exists between traditional medical device leadership and digital-first capabilities. MedTech companies have been slow to adopt to digital compared to other sectors, in part because of their hardware-centric legacy, according to a report by McKinsey & Company.

This creates friction when recruiting talent from technology sectors. MedTech companies must compete for executive talent with the technology and pharmaceutical sectors. Better-resourced tech giants and Big Pharma firms may offer more generous compensation.

 

Disruptive Technology

As MedTech organizations move toward connected devices with value-added services, they find that innovation and product development are more complicated.

Legacy firms, in particular, need new leaders who understand the potential of AI-enabled diagnostics, software-as-a-service revenue models, and data analytics capabilities.

 

Regulatory and Compliance Complexity

The regulatory environment for medical technology grows more sophisticated each year. FDA frameworks in the United States, the European Union’s Medical Device Regulation (MDR), Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA), as well as emerging regulations in other key Asia-Pacific markets, demand increasingly specialized leadership expertise.

In China, for example, leadership succession directly affects regulatory execution and business continuity, explains Beryl Chu, Boyden Partner, China. “China’s regulator, the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), is comparable to the FDA in the United States, but operates within a more policy-driven and rapidly evolving regulatory framework,” Chu explains. “Leadership gaps—particularly in China GM, Regulatory, or Quality roles—can quickly translate into approval delays, heightened compliance risk, and loss of hospital or tender access.”

China MedTech companies must treat succession planning as a core Board-level risk management priority, not a downstream HR exercise, Chu emphasizes.

In general, MedTech companies need leaders who proactively shape the regulations environment, such as by directing lobbying efforts to encourage Medicare coverage of breakthrough devices.

“The most effective successors,” Chu adds, “are hybrid leaders who combine deep local regulatory and stakeholder expertise with strong alignment to global quality systems, governance standards, and headquarters expectations.”

Finding the right executives—leaders who can direct regulatory compliance while maintaining innovation velocity—can mean outpacing competitors by getting products to market faster.

 

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Ownership Matters: Succession Realities Across Business Models

Ownership structure significantly influences succession strategy, timelines, priorities, and risk tolerance. Different organizational types require tailored approaches to leadership continuity.

“Regardless of size or structure, however, it is imperative that Boards and company leaders keep an eye on forecasting talent needs for both succession and growth,” observes Diane Turek Pire, a Boyden Managing Partner, US, and Global Practice Leader, Human Resources.

 

Founder-Led and Family-Owned MedTech Firms

In family-owned MedTech firms and those led by their founder, emotions can play an oversized role in succession planning.

The founder often embodies the company's identity, vision, and key relationships—from clinical champions to regulatory contacts to investor confidence. When that individual steps away, the organization must preserve what made it successful while evolving to meet new challenges.

“The problem for family-owned organizations is their scarcity of resources to attract and retain talent,” Carlos Ochoa, Boyden Managing Partner, Spain, explains. “They must compete with large, listed companies and PE-backed firms that have great resources to recruit talent.”

Founders, and families, who have devoted decades to building their companies sometimes struggle to let go, even when they intellectually recognize the need for new leadership.

“We have found family-owned companies that are committed to the incorporation of external talent,” Ochoa says. “But only those family-owned companies with family protocols and deep values of humility are capable of changing their governance style and creating a culture that attracts the talent and leadership needed to remain competitive.”

Successful founder transitions require maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit and leadership culture while professionalizing governance structures.

Best practices. Founder-led and family-owned firms are most successful when succession planning begins early, ideally 5-10 years before anticipated transition. Structured mentorship programs for next-generation leaders are critical. These organisations can establish gradual leadership transitions where founders and successors share responsibilities during multi-year handoff periods. Ideally, external board governance can provide objectivity that internal stakeholders cannot.

“New generations of leaders need to be more open to cultural considerations, particularly in light of an increasingly diversified pool of material and technology sourcing,” says Alexandre Sabbag, Boyden Managing Partner, Brazil. “Successful family-owned organizations tend to invest, on the one hand, in broadening the multicultural mindset of their management teams and, on the other, in increasing diversity across their organizations. This allows decisions to more naturally reflect and address the needs of historically underrepresented client segments.”

PE-Backed MedTech Platforms

Private equity ownership changes the leadership succession roadmap. Investment horizons typically span 3-7 years. This compresses the timeline for lining up new leaders. It also creates pressure for rapid value creation.

PE-backed firms often pursue buy-and-build strategies, acquiring multiple companies and integrating them into platforms. Leaders must excel at post-merger integration, synergy realization, and value creation across portfolios.

Succession planning is frequently overlooked in PE-backed healthcare businesses and is recognized as critical to preserving momentum through periods of transition, with leadership issues at exit viewed as major risks.

Philipp Buis, Boyden Partner, Switzerland, observes that across international markets VC-/PE-backed firms often have difficulties attracting C-Suite leaders who bring a track-record in achieving aggressive value-creation milestones.

“The senior talent pool for experienced C-level executives who combine Medtech, clinical, regulatory, digital, and scaling capabilities with a deal sheet of strategic transactions is thin,” Buis says.

Best practices. Private equity in MedTech should focus on leadership benchmarking and identifying operational excellence from day one. Before closing a transaction, they must conduct rigorous leadership assessments as part of due diligence, noting retention risks and succession needs.

 

Public MedTech Companies

Public company succession operates under intense scrutiny. Institutional shareholders expect transparency about leadership continuity. Board governance requirements mandate formal succession planning and regular reviews. Market reactions to news about CEO succession can be swift and severe.

Best practices. Many companies find success by balancing internal development and strategic executive search options. Promoting only from within can perpetuate legacy thinking, while relying on external search sends troubling signals to current managers about their futures and to investors about the quality of in-house talent. Companies that act with strategic foresight can improve accountability and avoid surprises by establishing leadership succession metrics and stakeholder alignment protocols. For public companies, succession best practices include contingency plans for unexpected departures.

 

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What Are Some Effective Leadership Pipeline Development Tactics?

The time to build a succession strategy is well before you need it. Savvy MedTech organizations embed leadership continuity planning into annual strategic reviews and systematically build bench strength at multiple organizational levels.

Let's review some effective tactics companies can use to build their leadership development pipelines.

• Rotational assignments.  John Thrower, Boyden Partner, Japan, says functional rotation is a well-established feature of Japanese corporate development, designed to cultivate holistic business insight. Organizations can rotate high-potential leaders through R&D, Quality/Regulatory, Market Access, Commercial functions, and other areas to help them build a global perspective. P&L responsibility in smaller business units provides general management experience. “And leading medical device companies increasingly use geographic rotation to fast-track leadership readiness,” Thrower adds.
• Mentorship and sponsorship. Structured mentorship programs connect current and future leadership to accelerate the latter's development. However, reverse mentoring could benefit both parties. Executive sponsorship for high-potentials creates advocacy at senior levels—sponsors actively promote their protégés, provide stretch assignments, and open doors to visibility.
• Diverse pipeline resources. Organizations need to build both internal and external leadership pipelines. Internal high-potential talent should be identified and supported with relevant development plans, which could include rotational assignments, involvement in key projects, and additional training. Externally, leaders should always be “talent scouts” for their organizations, observes Diane Turek Pire. “Companies must be prepared to cultivate relationships with industry contacts who may be candidates at a future date.”
• Learning boards. Creating advisory councils for high-potential leaders provides exposure to board-level discussions and strategic decision-making. These forums enable emerging leaders to observe governance processes, engage with board members, and develop strategic thinking capabilities.

 

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Critical Capabilities for Next-Gen MedTech Leaders

As MedTech organizations plan leadership transitions, they're seeking people with a distinctive set of capabilities. Whether the position is CEO, CFO, or some other C-suite desk, success will hinge on expertise in product, technology, clinical, and commercial operations, plus leadership and communication skills.

• Digital and innovation acumen. Leaders must drive AI and digital health innovation while maintaining core device profitability. Understanding platform-based business models and how to monetize data.
• Regulatory fluency. Leaders must navigate international regulations while expeditiously turning innovations into profitable products.
• Strategic leadership. Top leaders will possess M&A integration expertise across cultures, systems, and geographies. They also know how to allocate resources across R&D, operations, and other needs to maximize growth and profit.
• Stakeholder management. MedTech companies face demands from investors, health care providers, their patients, regulators, and many other stakeholders. MedTech leaders need political sophistication and problem-solving ingenuity to keep all the plates spinning. “They also need ​​a multicultural and inclusive mindset,” notes Sabbag. “Leaders must develop a deep understanding of the expectations, constraints, and priorities of the industry’s stakeholders to build sustainable, trust-based relationships.”
• Change management. Organizational resilience is a must in the MedTech whirlwind. It's not enough for leaders to know what changes need to be made. They must also have the emotional intelligence to lead key players in an organization to embrace and promote change.

“MedTech’s talent pipeline challenge is fundamentally a human challenge,” says Josh Blackman, Boyden Partner, Interim Management, United Kingdom. “Leaders must make talent strategy a core business priority by not just filling today’s roles, but proactively nurturing the skills and leadership capability needed to drive the next wave of medical breakthroughs.”

 

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Orchestrating a Smooth Executive Transition

MedTech leadership succession planning could be the difference between success and failure in an intensely competitive, complex field.

Organizations that build a leadership succession framework may have a better chance to:

• Maintain strategic momentum while competitors stall.
• Preserve institutional knowledge while others experience brain drain.
• Project confidence while others wobble.
• Attract and retain top talent by signalling long-term opportunity and clarity.

The next decade will see significant leadership turnover as baby boomers retire and career transitions accelerate. A strategic partner with global experience in leadership placement could help your board get ahead on leadership transition—a much better position than playing catch up.

 

For MedTech organizations seeking to discuss their leadership strategy, Boyden's MedTech Practice offers the global expertise and local insights necessary to identify, evaluate, and place the executives who will drive success in your business.