LifeScience Alley president & CEO Dale Wahlstrom is stepping down from his post after 10 years, making way for organization insider Shaye Mandle.

Wahlstrom steered LSA through a third of its history, beginning with his 2004 founding of the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota. He became joint president after aligning BBAM with LSA in 2010. The former Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) executive is still on the boards of several industry and academic institutions, according to a press release.

Wahlstrom’s full retirement from LSA and BBAM will take effect on Aug. 15, 2014, allowing him to stick around and complete some "strategic initiatives already underway," but he’s handing the president & CEO role over to Mandle as of May 1.

The LSA board of directors opted to promote from within, plucking Mandle from his current role as executive vice president and COO and handing him the keys to the corner office. Mandle joined LSA in 2011 as vice president of government affairs & affiliate relations, moving up to EVP and COO in 2013. He and Wahlstrom have been colluding on important organization efforts ever since, including the creation of the Medical Device Innovation Consortium, a public-private partnership between the medtech industry and the FDA’s Center for Devices & Radiological Health.

"Dale has been a tremendous mentor to me," Mandle said in prepared remarks. "I am excited to continue LSA’s legacy of representing this community and to push us further as one of the world’s great associations."