GUEST BIO

Stacy Enxing Seng, Independent Director, Corza Medical, and Venture Partner, Lightstone Ventures
Stacy began her career in 1986 in medical device sales and never looked back. She gained formative experience with American Hospital Supply, Baxter, SciMed Life Systems, and Boston Scientific before cofounding ev3 Peripheral Vascular in 2001. As President, she worked alongside a talented and dedicated team to build a leading endovascular company—taking it public in 2005 and guiding it through a successful $2.7B acquisition by Covidien in 2010.

Inspired by Covidien’s mission and leadership, Stacy stayed on to lead the $2.1B Covidien Vascular business, growing it to $2.7B by 2015 when Medtronic acquired Covidien for $47B. After that milestone, she shifted her focus to governance, company creation, and venture capital. Today, Stacy serves as an Independent Director with both public and private companies including LivaNova, CALA Health (Chairwoman), Contego Inc. (Chairwoman), Imperative Care, and Corza Medical. She is also an Operating Partner with the team at Lightstone Ventures. Previously, Stacy served as Vice Chair of Sonova (retired June 2025) and as an Independent Director for multiple successful exits including Vesper Medical (Philips), Hillrom (Baxter), preCARDIA (Abiomed), Claret Medical (Boston Scientific), Spirox (Stryker), CVI (Philips), FIRE1, and Solace Therapeutics.

A frequent speaker at healthcare and leadership forums, Stacy is passionate about authentic leadership, high performance teams, and career ownership—particularly in the context of women’s leadership, communication, and empowerment. She has been recognized among Minnesota’s Top 100 Women in Business and Favorite Role Models for Women in Business. Stacy earned her B.A. in Public Policy from Michigan State University and an MBA from Harvard University. Her greatest joy is time spent with her husband and their adult son.

MODERATOR BIO

Geoff Pardo, General Partner, Gilde Healthcare
Geoff Pardo joined Gilde Healthcare in 2011 and is a General Partner leading Gilde’s US Investments out of Boston, MA. He led the investments in Inari Medical (NASDAQ: NARI), Axonics Modulation Technologies (NASDAQ: AXNX), CVRx (NASDAQ: CVRX), Eargo (NASDAQ: EAR), InovaLabs (acquired by ResMed), BionX (acquired by Ottobock), Vapotherm (NYSE: VAPO), and Vesper Medical (acquired by Royal Philips), serving on the board of each company.  Most recently he has led investments in and serves on the board of Alleviant Medical, Mainstay Medical, Ablative Solutions (Chairman), Nalu Medical (Chairman), Spire Health (merged with Wellinks), VS3, Shoulder Innovations and GT Medical.

Previously, he was a Partner at Spray Venture Partners where he led investments into Interlace Medical (sold to Hologic), Solace Therapeutics, TearScience (sold to J&J) and Cascade Ophthalmics. He served on the board of Solace, TearScience and Cascade, and was actively involved in Interlace and Conventus Orthopedics. Geoff also served as President & CEO of Facet Solutions, a spinal implant company focused on treating lumbar spinal stenosis until the company was sold to Globus Medical in 2011. He has also worked at Cardinal Partners as an Associate leading their investing activity in the medical device sector.
Geoff began his career in medical devices as a product manager with Synthes USA.

He has a B.A. with honors in History from Brown University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business. He is a US citizen based in Gilde Healthcare’s Cambridge, MA office. Geoff is also Chairman of Advamed’s Medtech Investor Working Group which focuses on the key issues that affect emerging medtech companies and the investors which support them.

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TRANSCRIPT

Geoff Pardo: 0:00

Welcome to the MedTech Talk Podcast. This is your host, Geoff Pardo, and it's my pleasure to welcome Stacy Enxing Seng to this episode. Stacy has had a fascinating career in MedTech with leadership roles in some of the most well-known and innovative companies. She was pivotal from the earliest days of ev3 and has played a significant role in the development of countless early stage companies. On this episode, we're going to tap into her insights around innovation, leadership, and the key challenges we face at the medtech industry. Stacy, welcome to the podcast.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 0:36

Hey, thanks so much, Geoff. It's really great to be with you.

Geoff Pardo: 0:40

Yeah, I'm really excited to do this. You and I had a chance to work together on the Vesper board, and I got to know you a little bit then, but of course not as much as I would have liked to. So this is a great, a great chance for me. And I think as you know, I like to start these episodes with learning a little bit more about the background of people like you in our industry, and in particular, what uh started to motivate them or move them towards uh medtech. So if you don't mind, I wonder if you could start with some of your background and you know where you grew up, what were your early interests? And I know for you in particular, you faced an early encounter with the healthcare system as um as a child growing up, and and maybe you could talk about that and the impact it had on you.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 1:25

Sure. So I grew up in Arlington Heights, Illinois, which is outside of Chicago, and uh feel very blessed. I had a very happy childhood, and my interests really were horses. So I absolutely thought I wanted to be a vet from a very young age. Um I started working at the Arlington Park racetrack in the backstretch in the mornings when I was 13.

Geoff Pardo: 1:53

Oh wow.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 1:54

With race horses, as well as in the concession stands in the afternoon. And the backstretch was seven days a week, um, with work beginning at 5: 45. So it was pretty grueling work, but I loved it. And uh I really spent my summers there. And ultimately, that was actually quite a formative experience for me. Um, from uh, you know, medicine perspective, um, I ended up having a health issue when I was in high school. I had an appendix that was leaking that created an abscess, and I ended up getting quite sick and had to spend quite a bit of time in high school dealing with the after effects of a ruptured appendix and peritonitis. And I actually loved being in the hospital, even though I was a patient. Uh, I was just fascinated by the physicians and the nurses, and it just created a real spark and kind of curiosity in me for just being in the you know medical environment. And so I don't know that that ever formed me to want to go into healthcare, but ultimately when I started working with American Hospital Supply, I mean, it reconnected with me how much I enjoyed being in the hospital.

Geoff Pardo: 3:18

Yeah. Well, that makes a lot of sense. And I think as you and I talked ahead of this episode, I mean, if you can intellectualize your your own your own healthcare challenges, it is pretty fascinating to you know to understand uh you know everything that's being done. Uh I'm curious though, what uh you uh the desire to become a vet, um what what happened with that uh interest?

Stacy Enxing Seng: 3:42

Well, I you know, I loved animals and specifically horses. And I, as I mentioned, you know, worked at the racetrack. But when I was coming out of Michigan State, um really going into the real world, I realized that, you know, I couldn't keep working at the racetrack. And so I amazingly was able to land a job, an internship, my freshman year out of Michigan State uh at IBM. And I worked there my freshman summer through all of the holidays and consecutive summers until I graduated from Michigan State. And while working there, I guess I so loved working with the people at IBM that it made me, you know, lose my interest in wanting to be a vet. And it really formed my interest in wanting to go into business. And, you know, my father had always been in sales and he was quite an entrepreneur of sorts. He started his own company at 50. And just growing up, he instilled so much in me. Both my parents did. But between working at IBM and then, you know, seeing my father in action, I really started just connecting with the construct of going into business. And um, I never changed my public policy degree at Michigan State. I mean, I kept focused on public policy, but the actual work outside of Michigan State in the internships at IBM really gave me a taste for sales and marketing.

Geoff Pardo: 5:26

Yeah. And I love that. I love I love the public policy background. I mean, I I myself was a history major and I didn't have any science, but but I'm curious what it was about American hospital supply that, you know, that that really caught your attention.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 5:41

Yes. Well, so American Hospital Supply, joining them out of college, um, you know, I was probably like most college students, I was just looking for a job. And as I mentioned, was a public policy major. I was very fortunate that the individual that I worked with at IBM was very supportive of me in kind of presenting to the school, presenting to Michigan State, why I should be able to interview as a business student, even though my degree was in public policy. And Michigan State actually supported that. So I had the opportunity to interview with a lot of companies. And what really attracted me to American Hospital Supply and sparked my interest there, you know, I would almost say it was less about the fact that they were working in medical products, but really more about the fact that they were going to give me an opportunity to go into sales. And specifically, I just super connected with the people that I met at American Hospital Supply during the interview process. And I remember distinctly thinking there was one individual in particular, Jim Derleith. And I just remember thinking, wow, you know, if there's someone as great as this guy really loving what he's doing at American Hospital Supply, you know, I really think I could love it there too. And so I would say that is really what formed my decision was the people and truly connecting, you know, with the people at American Hospital Supply.

Geoff Pardo: 7:23

Yeah. And I think this is like a consistent theme, it struck me throughout your career, is really the people element, which we all know is so really important in any business, but but just given how collegial our industry is, you know, particularly important in our in our business. And one of the stories you told me, I wonder if you could, you know, recount it, is you go to you know you go to Baxter, then you go to Harvard Business School, and coming out of maybe tell a story of coming out of HBS and and uh thinking you're gonna go to one company and sort of the events that took place uh after that.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 8:01

So, in terms of now going out of HBS into SciMed?

Geoff Pardo: 8:06

Exactly. So going from HBS into SciMed and and maybe the story of how you actually landed at SciMed.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 8:13

Yeah. So, you know, I had this great experience of being a sales rep for American Hospital Supply. And then I went into marketing for American Hospital Supply, who was now acquired by Baxter. And while I was working in, you know, the corporate offices in marketing, this was in Magaw Park up in northern Illinois, um, I did in fact notice that all of the executives at Baxter and Hospital Supply, they basically had most of them their MBAs. And I started to get this realization that, you know, I really wanted to be a CEO. If you talked to my then, you know, 25, 27-year-old self, that's what I would say I had wanted to do. And so because I was a public policy major, I thought, you know, I really need to get a degree in business that is an academic degree in business. So I was planning to go to business school at night. You know, I never even considered giving up the work that I was doing at Baxter because I really enjoyed it so much. But there was a gentleman by the name of Tony Kessman, and he was really kind enough to point out to me, you know, Stacy, you're so young in your career and you're so motivated. Why don't you just go full-time to business school and why don't you go to Harvard? And I was from the Midwest, and I mean I had heard of Harvard, but I really never gave it any consideration.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 9:49

And I visited the school, was very impressed with the program, decided to apply to it, and applied and had a fabulous two-year experience there. While I was there, I stayed extremely focused on healthcare. And um, you know, fortunately, there was um a professor at Harvard, and she was extremely focused on healthcare as well. So I joined like the healthcare club, and there were a number of other individuals at the school that were very focused on, you know, healthcare, med tech, biotech, pharma. And through that process, started realizing what I really wanted to look for was call it a more high technology um medical technology experience than what I had had at American Hospital Supplied Baxter, which was a little bit more kind of supplies-based. So that was became my focus. And so, of course, I was quite interested in a lot of the names that we now know. And I was actually quite interested in Medtronic and actually had an offer to join them. But in the process, I ran into a guy, and so to your point, the theme of people kind of creating interesting opportunities for me. I ran into a guy in the airport after my interviews with Medtronic when I was heading back to Harvard Business School. His name is Mark Stoutberg. He had been at SciMed. He had also been at Hospital Supply. We had worked together there. And he told me about what SciMed was doing and he got me an interview there.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 11:30

And so I researched the company, and I thought this whole emerging field of interventional cardiology was just fascinating to me. And so at the end of the day, I felt that Medtronic, while it was an absolutely incredible company, and actually the financial offer from Medtronic was better than SciMed's, um, but somehow I really connected with kind of the intensity and the competitive nature of SciMed. Um, it was kind of a great combination of work hard, play hard. And in some ways, I really felt it would challenge me, um, maybe take me much more out of my comfort zone. And and I also think I felt like I had something to prove there because there was a gentleman everybody knows, Mike Berman. Uh, he was the VP of New Modality Marketing, which was the group that I was going to join at SciMed. And uh, you know, he kind of said, you can check that Harvard degree at the door. It doesn't really mean anything here, just performance does. And I kind of liked that. That, you know, that sounded like a strong challenge to me.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 12:38

And then when I actually had the offer from SciMed and I was trying to decide between SciMed Medtronic, Dale Spencer, who was the CEO at the time, he called me personally and said, you know, what would it take for you to say yes to us? And I did not want to go around my direct manager or Mike Berman and change the offer. Um, but I did say, well, I think your offer is very fair, but I would certainly appreciate if you took care of my business school loans and covered those. And Dale, without hesitation, said, Done, what else? And I said, you know, that that is more than enough. And I will have a decision for you tomorrow. But I think the important point is that when I hung up that phone between kind of Mike's challenge to me about the impact that he expected me to make at the company, um, and it wasn't about degree, it was about performance. And then when I hung up the phone with Dale, I mean, they really made me feel like I was going to make a difference there. And, you know, that's one thing I think great leaders do. And uh so I said yes.

Geoff Pardo: 13:50

And that's a great segue. I mean, it's um, you know, coming myself coming into this business, one of my early mentors was Dan Cole, who was at SciMed and who you know. Um and it just, you know, it's I heard a lot about Dale Spencer and Mike Berman, and just there's tremendous number of leaders, you know, coming out of SciMed. And I'm I'm curious kind of the the impact or some of the key things you learned in that in that SciMed experience.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 14:18

Oh, yeah, for sure. Well, definitely focusing in on the fact that the common link a lot of times is the people that you're surrounded by. And, you know, I think in all those companies, they were people of character. Um, I mean, they were very positive, can do people, competitive people, people who like to win. They like to win as part of a team. Of course, there's always some egos, but um, I think at the end of the day, what I got out of SciMed in particular, I would say that, you know, it was a combination of things. You mentioned Dale Spencer, Dan Cole. I mean, the two of them were cut from the same cloth in terms of, you know, eye on the prize, focus on the mission, a really demanding environment, but exceedingly fair, great questions. And they were at the top.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 15:10

So, you know, I came in as a product manager. So my immediate world was really much more Mike Berman. And I think he was a magician at demanding being exceedingly well prepared. I mean, he was just so darn smart. And every two weeks, uh, as a product manager in his group, you would have to be in a Monday morning update review meeting with him. And I mean, I would get so stressed out, you know, every other week preparing for that meeting, which was going to be a no-stone unturned meeting, because I knew without question he would find that stone. So, I mean, one of the similarities that I think connected the people at SciMed, and specifically I would give Mike credit for this, uh, was bringing out skills that ultimately I think formed some of my tendencies personally as a leader to demand a lot from my teams and ensure that they were exceedingly well prepared. But I also had the benefit in my immediate world, you know, as a product manager and working my way up of working with Paul Buckman. And I think he really knew how to make people feel good about themselves and their work.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 16:26

Um, you know, he created a real positivity with his teens and with our customers. And I think I gained a lot of my likability as a leader from watching and working with Paul. And I also think he opened so many doors to me with connecting me with our sales reps and our customers because he was so well liked. And when I think about, again, the people that I worked with there, and I would, I guess, credit him in my career as I've always really valued the voice of the customer and equally important the voice of the sales team, um, as they are really the eyes and ears of the company. And so, you know, it just seemed like whether it was at the very top of the house with um Dale and Dan, or it was my immediately, my immediate world, you know, it was just this combination of incredible intensity, but high character. I mean, I always felt personally very supported. Um, and that, you know, the people made the difference. And that was our responsibility to make the difference for our customers. So it was just a really positive experience.

Geoff Pardo: 17:39

And so, you know, it makes a lot of sense. And and and so SciMed gets acquired by Boston Scientific. Um, and and maybe talk a little bit about that, but but in particular, you you know, you make the decision uh at some point post-acquisition to go to a very, you know, a much earlier stage company. So maybe walk us through uh that transition to what would become ev3.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 18:06

Sure. Yeah, that was a seminal experience for me, no doubt. Um so SciMed was acquired by Boston in 1995. And uh, you know, I proceeded to work with Boston Scientific out of the cardiovascular group for the next five years. And so I loved working at Boston Scientific. Again, it was just kind of a continuation of the people story. They just attracted and had such great people. And at the time I was the VP of cardiovascular marketing in this 2000, you know, 1997 to 2000 time frame. And I, as I said earlier, knew I really wanted full PL uh general management experience because my career goal at that time remained that I wanted to be a CEO.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 18:59

And so I realized, and this is not intending to sound as if it was a narrow job, but I realized that the president roles at Boston Scientific were while critically important, they were really just sales and marketing responsibility because Boston Scientific had established functional executives, you know, across the RD, clinical manufacturing, regulatory, et cetera, that reported up to the then CEO, who was Jim Tobin. And so because of this, I mean, I came to the realization that while I absolutely loved the culture and the people of Boston Scientific, that I was likely going to need to leave to find that right next opportunity for me that was gonna allow me to have full PL responsibility. And so at this same time, I had had a conversation with Dale Spencer, who, as I mentioned, had been the CEO of SciMed, and he had stayed a mentor of mine. I mean, one of the great gifts he gave me was after he left, the two of us would meet, you know, usually two, three times a year, and we had our own little kind of book club.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 20:14

We were both avid readers, and we would like to share, you know, life stories through books, business stories through books, and we would always come to breakfast with a book for each other. And so we were having one of these breakfasts, and I shared with him uh what I had concluded, and that I likely felt like I was in my last job with BSC, even though I didn't want to be because I love the company. And he said, Well, can I tell you about an idea that I have? And so he told me about the strategy for EB3 at that breakfast. And he explained that he had already lined up investment, and the investment was from someone I did not know, Bess Weatherman at Warburg Pincus, and Dick Emmett, who I did know because he had been on the board of SciMed at the vertical group. And the strategy totally resonated with me at that breakfast because ev3 was intending to innovate and serve customers across peripheral neuro and the emerging structural heart areas. And as Dale was explaining this to me, he was suggesting that, you know, there was not enough innovation in that area. As I was a VP of cardiovascular marketing at Boston Scientific, at least at Boston Scientific, I could see that this was the case. And I felt like this was also the case at the other strategics because the time frame of this, kind of these late 90s into the early 2000s, the stent business was so crucial. I mean, it was such an exciting business. It was doing so much for patient care, but there was the elephant in the room, and it was the emergence of a lot of the drug-alluding stent work. And I mean, these were huge, massive financial undertakings, and the market space was so competitive that it really was as if the large strategics, while they had a portfolio of companies or technologies and they were doing work in the other areas, they were really predominantly focused on, you know, the stent wars.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 22:27

And so I think Dale rightly assessed that this was to the detriment of innovation in peripheral and neuro. And while there were some standouts there, like target therapeutics as an example, you know, they were very focused on neuro and microtherapeutics. By and large, Dale's assessment was accurate. So, you know, while I was not smart enough to come up with that idea of ev3, I think I was smart enough to listen to them and immediately get it. And um, at breakfast, at that breakfast, I said, I am in. I want to do this. And uh all I really wanted or required was to meet the investors. And so, you know, I knew Dick, as I mentioned, and I met Bess. And like I was incredibly wowed by Bess Weatherman uh instantaneously. Um, for me, this was really the first time that I had met a female executive, a female in the power role. I mean, she was our investor, she was our lead investor. And uh it just made such a positive impression on me from the perspective of a woman in business meeting this just, you know, incredibly talented person. And then the other requirement was I also wanted to give Boston Scientific two months' notice. And while that was kind of a long notice period, I did not want to pull the rug out from under them. I felt so grateful for the experience that they had given me. But I mean, I was just all in on the idea of ev3 the moment that I heard about it. I was kind of thunderstruck and I just knew I had to do it.

Geoff Pardo: 24:06

Well, that's awesome. And and what were those early days like? I mean, following that transition, what what was it like uh at ev3 in those most formative days?

Stacy Enxing Seng: 24:16

Well, it was exhilarating, right? Um, it was exhilarating because, you know, we just, I felt, had an amazing group of people. We had um extremely supportive investors. I mean, they were very demanding, but very supportive. We did not have to spend time raising money like a lot of, you know, early stage companies need to do. Um, we obviously had to earn the right to the money that Warburg and Vertical were putting in, but we didn't have to go out there and raise. And I think that was a big value driver for us. Um, and it allowed us to focus on our mission. And, you know, I just explained the strategy. I mean, we really felt like we were this new breed of company in the spaces where the strategics were not. And we had a powerful checkbook. So we spent a tremendous amount of time with customers and really trying to find, I would say, undervalued assets that we felt in our hands. You know, some people referred to EB3 in the early days as a roll-up. And on some level, I can understand why it can be articulated as that, because, you know, we kind of bought our way initially into platforms that we felt were meaningful, but then our goal and our objective was to really take those platforms and to re-engineer, re-innovate, really spend time with the customer, understand what the customer needed and want, wanted. And through our early business development efforts, I think we left no company under undiscovered that could potentially be an acquisition target for us. And so, I mean, it was a very high-pace environment, um, a lot of intensity, but I think we were all very united in this mission uh to really create and bring innovation to the peripheral neuro and structural heart spaces. Although, you know, we kind of got out of structural heart a couple years into the journey because we just appreciated that it was going to take so much capital to develop those markets. So we really focused on some of the, you know, call it more 5, 10K technologies that you could get across the bow quicker because we had an established sales organization in the US and outside the US. Uh, so we kind of became ev2, um, you know, peripheral and neuro the first couple of years into the journey, but we kept the name ev3.

Geoff Pardo: 27:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. ev3 rolls up the tongue a little better.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 27:03

But yeah, a little better.

Geoff Pardo: 27:05

Yeah. How hard was, you know, as as venture investors, you know, we often preach uh sort of laser focus uh with our companies um on sort of specific technologies, knowing how hard it is even to just get one technology across the goal line into the market. Now, here at ev3 you have multiple technologies, multiple, multiple franchises. How how hard was that at ev3 to kind of maintain focus when you're actually, you know, dealing with so many technologies?

Stacy Enxing Seng: 27:38

Yeah, I mean, I think you're really drilling into one of the big areas of difficulty we had in the first, you know, I'm even gonna say the first three to five years. Um, you know, we had to be able to work well in a very high-change environment. So I think it was a tribute to a lot of the leaders and their capabilities that we had at both the neurovascular and the peripheral vascular business groups. Uh, we had to learn company integration because, of course, we were acquiring so many companies along that journey. I think we had to learn how to build teams. But to your question, I think we were a little long in learning the importance of the vital few versus the useful many. Because, you know, at our early years at ED3, we had such a big appetite and we had so many irons in the fire that to your question, you know, at times we could, I think, lose sight of a disciplined decision making and resource allocation process. And so we had to get good at despite the broad portfolio, you know, now in today's jargon, I co-allocation and really understanding the vital few things that were really going to move the valuation needle. So, you know, as an example, when it came to acquisitions and bringing new technology into the company, uh, we had a neurovascular and a peripherovascular business group. And with our balance sheet and our PL, we really only had the ability to do kind of one acquisition at a time. We were very serial acquirers. And a lot of times, you know, PV would have to bow down for envy because that was going to be the bigger value driver for the totality of the company. Um, and so I think as a leadership and management team, at the end of the day, that's what we had to get quite good at was, you know, recognizing, call it the greater good for the good of the company and less about maybe your own PL and really be crystal clear on the strategy as a team as to what was going to move the Evaluation needle and ensuring that we were really feeding that and um you know doing first things first. And it started creating kind of a flywheel environment. I mean, we it seemed almost the better we got at the vital few, the more everything started to go well. And so, you know, even today, you know, 20 years later, I mean, this is something I try and constantly ask myself, both in my personal and my professional life, you know, trying to be crystal clear on those things that are vital and ensuring that those are well resourced, well funded, well focused on. Because it really does create, I think, effective alignment at the top of the house and all the way down through the employees.

Announcement: 30:52

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Geoff Pardo: 31:09

Now you you mentioned, you know, the acquisitions that uh ev3 was making, and one of those in particular was really, I think, a uh pivotal acquisition, and that was Fox Hollow. And uh I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that, because that was not the easiest of uh integration, uh, I gather.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 31:27

No, for sure not. Um, you know, ultimately, I think it's one of the things I'm most proud of, but it was very difficult and it created a lot of challenge. And I think that is where maybe I best learned the importance of culture and respecting how to integrate when it comes to, you know, two competitive companies now coming together. Um, we really felt like the atherectomy technology would be a really critical value driver to ev3 peripheral. And we were both really similar-sized companies with similar-sized sales forces. At that time, we made a change, and it was one that candidly I was frustrated over, which was that we were gonna split sales from the rest of the company. So I was gonna manage the rest of the peripheral vascular business, kind of all the backroom operations, and one of my colleagues was going to be the president effectively of the sales and marketing organizations. And we went into the deal basically saying that one plus one would equal three. You know, we would take this technology, you know, we would take this technology, we would bring it into the company, and the incredible momentum that Fox Hollow was having, we would automatically get that. And we kind of planned that to go forward positively. What really started happening was one plus one was starting to equal 1.5. I mean, it was a bit of a falling knife on the revenue. We slammed the two selling organizations together. We didn't really spend a lot of time with the customers. Interestingly, as kind of in conflict as the Fox Hollow and the ev3 sales team were, because the ev3 sales team was selling stents, the Fox Hollow team was selling uh atherectomy, there was actually the same conflict going on even with customers. You know, there were customers that were hawkers, and there were customers that were stenters. And I just think we underclubbed that. And so without going through all the messy detail, I think at the end of the day, when we really stepped back, we really spent a lot of time with customers understanding what they wanted. So, what did call it the stenters need in order to be able to utilize atherectomy? And what did the high volume atherectomy users want, as well as starting to listen to the sales reps and get them to understand, you know, how would we position this whole portfolio complementary? When we kind of put the ego out of the deal and really listened to the culture of it, I think we started learning some important lessons. And what we heard from the customers was they wanted data, you know, they wanted clinical studies, significant clinical studies. And I can recall in a board meeting unleashing the spending that was going to be necessary for what we called the definitive trials, which was a series of three trials that were massive undertaking. Um, they wanted to know what really the answer was going to be. You know, was this going to be successful? And honestly, I didn't think that we really knew which was the risk, but what we knew for sure was that's what the customers were going to demand in order to be able to use the device, you know, broadly speaking. And then from the sales perspective, we created, you know, it was almost like a team of rivals concept. We created some of the top performing reps that had been top performance from Box Hollow and the same with ev3. We got them together. And at the end of the day, it was really one of the sales leaders um that came up with this concept of preserving treatment options. And that if you led with atherectomy, um, you could preserve options and you could follow that on with other technology, including Astent. And um, you know, Rob Williamson, who I think some people know had an extremely successful contribution at Shockwave, um, Rob was the one that said, let's, you know, basically call it the continuum of care. And, you know, this came up from the groundswell. And so by this point, I was running, again, all of sales and marketing and the whole peripheral vascular group. And I just, you know, dug into that, those two things. Like what's always the guiding light? It's what do the customers need to best treat their patients? And what do sales reps need to be able to support and sell the technologies in their portfolio? And so we ended up, I think, doing a really good job with it. And when you really fast forward to the Covidien acquisition of ev3, atherectomy was without question the technology that built fences that prevented the other competitors from coming in. We started learning that every time our customers would use atherectomy, they would also tend to use all the other ev3 products. Um, and, you know, it was really an revenue accelerator for us going into Covidians. So, you know, Dr. Simpson's vision of removing the material and preserving treatment options came to pass, but it wasn't um despite a number of bumps along the way.

Geoff Pardo: 37:12

Yeah, that's fascinating. And it's something that, you know, I think integration in general is just one of the most challenging things in our business. You know, it's so exciting to get the deal done, but then to have that combination have one plus one equal three, as you say. I mean, that that is really tough. And I wonder, I mean, I'm curious, as you've seen that now a number of times in your career, you've been the acquirer, you've been the acquiry. What any sort of key things? I mean, you've mentioned some of them in terms of making sure the customer is always the guiding light, but when you've seen it done badly or you've seen it done well, like what how would you counsel a company today if you were either doing a big acquisition or being acquired in terms of that successful integration?

Stacy Enxing Seng: 38:04

Yeah. Well, you know, it's kind of like we all instinctively know, but they sound like the soft skills. A lot of times you want to spend your energy on, you know, the IQ of the deal and the math of the deal and all those types of things. And there's no question, like when I think about the ev3 Fox Hollow deal, we had put a lot of synergies into the deal. So, I mean, right out of the gates, we had to be beholden to significant reductions in cost structure. And sometimes that's a requirement, but I think it's tough to go into deals when you really have to drive a lot of cost savings and you base the value, part of the value of the deal on those cost savings.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 38:47

Because to me, that immediately starts to disrupt what I'm going to call, you know, the values of running the business and the culture of running the business and recognizing that when you're the acquirer, you're acquiring something because it works really well and it's very promising. And so, therefore, the people and the strategy and the culture with which they're running that business, you have to respect that. You have to embrace that, you have to listen to that. And I just think you can't take a sledgehammer to it. And so, you know, when I think about the transition to Covidien, I mean, were the cultures of ev3 and Covidien different? Well, of course they were.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 39:37

But I think that the Covidien leadership team, I mean, major props to Joe Almeida, who really sponsored the deal, but Rich Melia, their CFO, Chuck Dockendorff, Amy Wendell, Brian Hanson, Joe Woody. I mean, first of all, they did not drive a lot of synergies into the deal. They really looked at we are acquiring this whole portfolio and this is going to be new for us. But so, you know, it was a tuck-in in effect. But what they did really well, which I think is easy to say and hard to do, is they really listened to us. I mean, I think they made the ev3 teams feel like we were in control of making this a success at Covidien, and they were there now to support us to make it a great success. And I am really proud of the fact that, you know, inside of Covidien, I mean, I think our turnover rate was less than 5%, which is kind of amazing. We kept all of our salespeople. Um, you know, lots of credit to the Kevin Cordell, Tim Lanier, John Zarens of the world. I mean, they kept their teams very, very well motivated. They gave us tremendous resource to go after additional acquisitions. They gave us tremendous resource to continue to innovate outside of our RD groups.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 41:06

And so, you know, they just really listened to us along the way. And I think that that is a difficult thing for an acquirer to do because of course your business is running well too. That's why you can do the deal. Um, so it's, you know, pretty easy to kind of fall in love of with your own playbook. But I think if you allow your acquisitions, if you keep the right people, if you respect the culture, if you listen and you don't take a sledgehammer, and you allow for the changes to happen over time, um, I think that that is what creates, you know, a success in combination, of course, with just the clarity of why we're doing this, the strategy of what we're trying to accomplish. Um, and I think Covidien just did that exceedingly well with ev3. And I think we at ev3 did a really good job of pushing back on Covidien when we felt that they were gonna go in the penalty box with you know their acquisition. Um, it was a very transparent, very communicative process, and I would say, you know, very invested leaders at the top uh to ensure it succeeded.

Geoff Pardo: 42:20

You mentioned um Bess Weatherman uh, you know, early on and um and and also Dick Emmett, but just and this is always interesting for me, you know, as a as a venture capitalist, is learn one of the great things is learning from you know your peers and people you work on the board with. And by now you've worked with countless venture capitalists, but you know, beyond of course the financial wherewithal of Warburg, you know, Bess is a pretty special investor. I wonder what you know what what things you saw that made her so good and and uh and just in, you know, maybe transcending beyond that is you know, what makes a good investor like Bess, do you think?

Stacy Enxing Seng: 43:01

Mm-hmm. Um, well, you know, from my first meeting with Bess all the way through to working with her, and actually just as a quick aside, you know, she achieved the Lifetime Achievement Award at the recent Phoenix CEO conference, and it was so well deserved, and it was really special for me to be there and see that. Um, Bess is Bess. You know, she is so authentic, she's very transparent. She was always well balanced in her comments. She always would support through a well-vetted process what management really wanted to do. And, you know, ultimately, of course, there were CEO changes. Um, I think there were times where, you know, she had to be the decision maker in that.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 43:49

But, you know, you never felt like you didn't know where you stood. You never felt like you didn't understand where she stood on her investment in the company. And I just think that creates for a great investor. I mean, obviously they have to wear their investor hat and get out of it what they're looking to get out of it, but they also, you know, are so fundamental to ensuring that the company feels like they can succeed and that they are in the boardroom, which was really my primary interface with her, that the questions were well and balanced and seeking to understand and then also giving back input and, you know, expecting progress on that input. So for me, um, I just am a huge believer in communication and transparency.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 44:45

And I think to her core, you know, Bess is an exceedingly transparent person. And uh sometimes the news was difficult. Most of the time the news was helpful, but it was always honest and transparent. And I think that's what I was in impressed by. Um, you know, and then I was just for me personally as a female leader, I just loved that combination that she brought to the table. You know, she was just clearly a um thoughtful, demanding, stylish, you know, excellent communicator. I was just kind of wowed by her, you know, all the way around.

Geoff Pardo: 45:25

And it's a, you know, it's a nice segue, actually, and be and uh not to, you know, uh cut off kind of the the next phase of your career, but I want to jump actually to your role on the boards of you know, many uh really interesting and and emerging companies. And I have a couple of questions. One is, you know, how hard is it to transition from being kind of the the doer, the operator, the leader to a role where you're you're really influencing. Um how hard a transition was that for you?

Stacy Enxing Seng: 46:00

Well, you know, I think it was clearly a transition. And I think for me, the biggest challenge was transitioning from, you know, fingers on everything to the phrase that I heard very early on. I think Hank Kucheman, uh former CEO of Boston, was one of the first people to say it to me. But, you know, working on uh nose in, fingers out. And I'm sure you've heard that phrase before. And so I had to learn to filter that. Um, but I think it's a natural transition that people go through. And, you know, hopefully it wasn't too painful for the CEOs that I worked with. But I would say that was the transition for me.

Geoff Pardo: 46:42

Yeah, yeah. And and uh what, you know, what was what are some of the lessons you learned as an operator? Uh I mean, maybe that was the lesson, kind of nose in, fingers out, but uh but what do you think you brought from your years as an operator to now being a board member? What are the key qualities you try to bring to that role?

Stacy Enxing Seng: 47:04

Yeah, sure. Well, um, you know, certainly because I do have a lot of operating experience, um, I really try and be someone who is a partner to the CEO, uh sounding board, um, somebody that, you know, channeling the leaders I've had in my career and observing some of the other, you know, gray lion investors that I've worked with, um, is this aspect of transparency and really trying to stay focused on this vital few concept, you know, having it very clear in my mind so that when I work with the CEOs, it's really about are these decisions going to drive value and spend less energy on some of the execution details and more energy around the strategy of what's going to drive that value and the people that are part of driving that. You know, do we have the right players? Does the CEO have the right team, the right resources? And so it can be an art form, but I think that's you know, where I try and drive value as a board member or a chair of the board.

Geoff Pardo: 48:23

And as chair, I wanted to ask you about that as well, because the chairperson has kind of a special, you know, responsibility on the board. And that is, you know, that's different from the the the board member. And I'm I'm curious how you've handled that. I mean, when you know, I'd be curious what you think uh is the role of the chairperson versus the board member, maybe to start with.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 48:46

Yeah, well, you know, certainly I try and use my executive leadership experiences when it comes to what I'm going to call kind of creating a respectful environment, transparency, communication. I mean, I think one of my roles, even though the board members are all showing up as independents and they have their own independent independent investor or fiduciary responsibilities, you know, I like to ensure that as a board, we are generally aligned around what the value drivers are, what we're trying to accomplish, listening to all board members, ensuring that feedback is shared, not operating with hidden agendas. And so that is spending time with the various different board members and creating an environment, especially in the closed session, where I'm constantly asking everyone for their feedback. And, you know, by and large, all of my experiences have been pretty positive.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 49:49

And then I translate that into my partnership with the CEO. You know, I kind of look at my role as chair as being the person that is going to spend the time with the CEO, you know, help be a thought partner to them, many times be the bearer of difficult topics and feedback, but try not to shy away though to those, do that transparently and letting them know that I'm here to support them and let's think together about how to address the gaps, but that this is a gap that needs to be addressed. So we're not going to shy away from that. And, you know, so to this point, I would say that my experience is some of those team dynamics are really important to lead in the boardroom for the board members. And then the other really important constituent is to partner with the CEO. And, you know, that is where I try and ensure that all board members are reasonably aligned and where there is disagreement among board members, that we spend the time to ensure a transparent process and oftentimes a well-governed and documented process. You know, I want to make sure that, you know, there's no, as I said, hidden agendas. It's a respectful environment. And that we retain a strong relationship with the CEO unless and until we decide that we need a different CEO.

Geoff Pardo: 51:17

Yeah.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 51:17

And that we handle that in a very, you know, above board, respectful way.

Geoff Pardo: 51:23

Yeah. And actually, I want to I want to address that because I think it's so interesting, you know, an adage that, you know, I'm sure, you know, in kind of our side of the business is when, you know, we've real when we on the kind of board and investor side have realize maybe we have the wrong CEO, that too often we stick too long with that CEO. We and kind of you look back and you realize that should have made the change earlier. And I think that is often the case. However, sometimes people, it's you know, that people don't give enough, I guess, um, enough to sort of the ability for people to develop and change and grow in their role. Um, and I wonder how you've balanced that in your in your role today as far as how do you make the decision that you actually don't have the right person versus someone that simply needs the room to grow.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 52:17

That is such a tough one. I mean, honestly, I would like to listen to all your podcasts on that, because I'm not sure I have any kind of a silver bullet answer, but I will kind of provide maybe a couple of categories. One is to me, every time in my gut, I think it's not the right person. It typically is not the right person, and it typically also takes me too long to come to that decision. Um, so I do think, you know, when you get a preponderance of feedback, and so that means you're spending your time really understanding the feedback from all the board members, and you're ensuring that you're spending enough time with that CEO or even their management team that if you just can't get that feeling out of your gut, it it's probably the right decision, as uncomfortable sometimes as it can be. Now, on the flip side, when my gut tells me this is somebody with DNA, I mean that they have the right DNA. Um, they handle themselves with values, they focus on the vital few things. Maybe it's a style issue, maybe they are suffering from needing to wear the cape, you know, and not really leverage their team or they haven't hired a strong enough team.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 53:42

That's where I will spend time. I mean, to me, that's worth spending the time because, you know, everybody, I mean, I think I was a reasonable executive, but there was certainly early in my career times where I would like feel like I was the one that had to make every decision and really didn't understand how to work through my team. Um, and, you know, sometimes, especially in smaller companies, that's the case. Um, because, you know, the buck stops with the CEO. So they are responsible. But I kind of look at it and it's perhaps not too beneficial as a guiding answer. You know, on the one hand, if you really feel that way, it's it's likely the move is necessary. On the other hand, you know, if they have some core instincts, if they create the right followership, if you really understand that they understand what the market needs and the customers need, um, you know, then I think yes, it's a learning process and you should spend the energy and the time there. Um, and I think also you have to see the true, call it interest, passion, and intensity of the CEO, you know, the willingness to take feedback. I mean, I think whenever I've worked with people that, you know, don't quite have a rhino hide, I mean, they are defensive over feedback. Um, that's always a warning light for me.

Geoff Pardo: 55:15

Yeah.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 55:15

And especially when it's a CEO, you know, I really feel like the most successful people that I have worked with are those that are a bit unflappable in the face of difficulty, and they are absolutely willing to take feedback and and really try and understand it. And when I see that, that kind of flips me into let's see if we can make this work.

Geoff Pardo: 55:39

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Now we're nearing the end of our time. Uh I want to go kind of rapid fire through a few remaining uh questions that I'm really curious about your answers to. Um, so if you'll allow me to do that, uh what are some of the innovations? Maybe pick uh a couple or three that you're most proud to have been a part of.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 56:02

Oh my gosh, that is hard because I have really been part of many things, but I I I can't help it. I love the dispatch drug delivery catheter, which was in 1993 to 95. And, you know, that was my baptism into interventional cardiology. You know, it just really gave me access to the luminaries of the world at that time, Patrick Saroyce, Marty Leon, Eritople, Steve Ellis, Paul Tirstein. I mean, I was spending so much time with those guys because it was really the early precursor to what ultimately became drug delivery balloons, drug delivery stents, you know, all the venous technologies.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 56:44

I mean, this concept of delivering drugs, you know, site specifically. So I'm I'm very proud of that one. I'm I'm proud of what we did with Fox Hollow. I think the Forect system and the innovation work that ev3 did on the, you know, clinical trials and the product development was impressive. And obviously it leveraged the platform that Fox Hollow provided to us. Um, in my current world, it's kind of back to the future because I think I'm really proud of Contigo, which is a limestone investment that's a carotid artery stent system. I mean, we had carotid artery stents, you know, the protege back in the early days of ev3, but there wasn't the reimbursement environment for it. And, you know, Dr. Ravish Satcher was really the one that first envisioned this three-in-one system. Um, so it feels a bit full circle to now see the clinical data out of this transformative technology, not just in CAS but carotid artery stenting, but what they're also pursuing in TCAR. And, you know, I also think it's pretty cool that we're collaborating with Medtronic on that. And collaborations a lot of times don't work great. Medtronic has been an outstanding partner.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 58:05

And it's really fun to work with Dave Muller and the PV team because, of course, they're now the owners of the old school ev3 portfolio. So, you know, that just feels like a bow around it for me right now. And and then I have to call out imperative care because I'm working with them right now. And having had neurovascular in my past, um, you know, I've always been kind of a fan groupie of Fred Kashrabi's. And I think what Fred is doing, his vision that uh started with Dr. Nick Hopkins, who of course has left us, but his impact has remained. And uh they were both, I mean, Nick was such a special person. Fred is a special person innovator and leader. And so I really love the ideas that are happening at imperative care. I think they are very much aligned to making the world a better place. And it's kind of just really fun to be part of that.

Geoff Pardo: 59:01

Yeah, absolutely. And maybe to end and not to end on such a big question, but what what do you what is the biggest issue we face in med tech and and what are you most in what are you most concerned about?

Stacy Enxing Seng: 59:14

Oh my gosh, that is a big question. I would say, you know, I mean, there's there's like always, honestly, there's always choppy waters. So I am more positive than I am negative. And I think that, you know, med devices is coming out. Everybody had difficulty during the COVID years. Um, but I think we're starting to come out, and innovation and technology trends are exciting, and you know, there certainly is more investment, but I think the investment is far more selective than it used to be, and it takes more to get to the return profiles, and you know, that can create some investor stress and come.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 1:00:00

Company innovation or company pipeline stress. I mean, honestly, in the world today, to me, it's always about those things that you can't control. And, you know, we've had a number of those. I mean, whether it's a geopolitical environment or the tariffs or, you know, the government shutdown that we're currently in, I mean, those are the things that I find very distressing. Um, you know, because they feel like they're shooting yourself in the foot. Um but relative to our industry, I mean, there's certainly some things that are challenging, but by and large, I think if you get the right leaders and the right character um and the right innovations focused on what customers really need, um, I think ultimately success prevails. And I also think, and I am not an expert in this, but I try and listen quite a bit, you know, it's pretty exciting to think about what is now available to us with so much of, you know, robotics and brain computer interface and uh, you know, um, just all the AI ML devices and digital healthcare and wearables. Um, you know, we're in a company, Cala, that's a wearable but uh with the medical device um rigor. And it just feels very transformative. So, you know, I think we're in a bit of chock, but to me, uh there's a lot of success on the horizon. So I am much more positive.

Geoff Pardo: 1:01:34

Well, I agree. And uh, I mean, I feel like there's a crisis thrown in our industry like every year, it seems, and and it's incredible how resilient our entrepreneurs are. And uh it's really, really fun to be a part of. And uh I can't thank you enough. This is really a thrill for me, and uh really appreciate all the time and and perspective you shared.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 1:01:56

Well, it was my pleasure, and uh really you've done just an amazing job with your podcast. So I am gonna go back and take a listen to all a hundred of them or whatever it is. I can I can better answer that question of when to move on CEOs and when to keep.

Geoff Pardo: 1:02:14

Thank you, Stacey.

Stacy Enxing Seng: 1:02:16

All right, have a great afternoon.

Geoff Pardo: 1:02:18

Thanks.