Medtronic eliminated former EVP and Medical Surgical President Bob White’s position this year when it pulled out of the ventilator market.
Because it terminated White’s employment without cause, Medtronic paid him $3.2 million in severance. That included nearly $1.6 million to cover two years of salary, the same amount to represent two years of target bonuses, and $61,259 to cover two years of continued health and dental benefits.
Medtronic announced White’s pending departure in February, effective April 26 (the end of Medtronic’s fiscal 2024).
“The company’s decision to wind down and exit the ventilator business and combine the remaining businesses within its Patient Monitoring and Respiratory Interventions operating units into a single operating unit resulted in the elimination of the position held by Mr. White,” Medtronic said in the latest filing.
Medtronic EVP Mike Marinaro is now president of the Medical Surgical portfolio. He is also president of the Surgical operating unit, a role he assumed last year after Medtronic combined the Surgical Robotics unit he led with Surgical Innovations.
Previously: Medtronic confirms global layoffs
White was one of three Medtronic EVP departures in 2024. Medtronic EVP and Global Regions President Rob ten Hoedt retired on June 28, and EVP and CFO Karen Parkhill resigned effective Aug. 2, 2024 to become CFO at HP.
White, who was 62 years old as of his departure from Medtronic, joined the company in 2015 when it bought Covidien, leading the two companies’ integration in the Asia Pacific region. “He’s been such an impactful and important leader for the company for a long time,” Martha said in February.
Before his time at Covidien and then Medtronic, he held executive roles at GE Healthcare and Merge Healthcare. (Martha and his predecessor as Medtronic CEO, Omar Ishrak, were also at GE HealthCare around the same time as White.)
White has served on the Smith+Nephew Board of Directors as an independent, non-executive director since 2020.
Medtronic executive severance payouts
Medtronic said White’s severance package was consistent with its practices for executives who are terminated without cause. That policy covers Martha as well as EVP of Global Operations and Supply Chain Greg Smith, EVP and Cardiovascular President Sean Salmon and EVP and Neuroscience President Brett Wall.
All of those executives would receive two times their annual salary, plus “the lesser of (a) the target annual cash opportunity under the [Medtronic Incentive Plan, or MIP] or (b) the actual or forecasted actual payout of the MIP based on performance.”
They would also be eligible to receive “welfare benefits” covering outplacement services and 24 months of continued health and dental insurance coverage.
Medtronic’s named executive officers (NEOs, which includes the CEO, CFO and three other top-paid executives) “are not entitled to any severance or other termination benefits in connection with a termination for any other reason,” Medtronic said in the filing.
Medtronic calculated severance payouts for those executives as if they had been terminated without cause as of the end of fiscal 2024:
- Martha: $6.6 million
- Smith: $3.4 million
- Salmon: $3.3 million
- Wall: $2.9 million
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