Newly minted NuVasive CEO Greg Lucier has quite the pedigree when it comes to building successful companies.
Lucier, who was named permanent CEO of the San Diego, Calif.-based spinal device company in May 2015, built Life Technologies from a start up (then named Invitrogen) to a global biotech juggernaut with 12,000 employees and just under $4 billion in sales. Those numbers were good enough to entice Thermo Fisher Scientific to pony up $13.6 billion in 2014 for the company.
Lucier didn’t let much grass grow beneath his feet though. He recently jumped from board member to permanent CEO of NuVasive this year, following the ouster of former CEO Alex Lukianov in April. The company ousted Lukianov over violations of its internal expense account and personnel policies. NuVasive officials turned to Lucier in the transition, naming Lucier interim CEO and chairman while it sought a replacement – who turned out to be Lucier.
At the time of Lukianov’s departure, Wall Street analysts speculated that the move would hasten a sale of NuVasive. However, Lucier isn’t talking about a flip of the company, rather he’s promising to transform and move the company forward.
“First we’re going to be the best in the world, then we’re going to be first in the world,” he said. “We can be a very profound company by being the best in spine.”
In this episode we talk to Lucier about his career, his philosophies on building successful companies, whether or not opportunity at NuVasive will come close to his time at Life Technologies and his membership in the exclusive GE Healthcare club.
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