He died after a 10-month battle with glioblastoma, his family said. He was 62.
“He was surrounded by his family and fittingly, he passed away shortly after a Notre Dame victory while resting comfortably in a Stryker bed,” Scannell’s family said.
Scannell spent three decades with Stryker. He joined the company in 1990 and held various sales and marketing leadership roles in Stryker’s Endoscopy business. At the time, Stryker had 2,000 employees with stock selling for about $1.95 per share.
Throughout his tenure at the orthopedic company, Scannell’s ambition, curiosity and competitive drive molded the company’s sales strategy, catapulting Stryker into the Fortune 500. He established Stryker as what his family called a “salesperson’s paradise,” motivating his team in the field while outperforming the competition.
From 2003 to 2018, Scannell led three business divisions. He oversaw Stryker Biotech as VP and GM, Stryker Spine as GM and president, and MedSurg and Neurotechnology as group president before his promotion to Stryker president and chief operating officer.
When he retired in 2021, Stryker employed 40,000 employees with stock trading around $290 per share.
“Numbers like these tell a remarkable story, but Tim simply wanted to be remembered as a great teammate who was consistently there for his colleagues, peers, family and friends,” Scannell’s family said in an obituary. “To draw attention to his own accomplishments was not his style. However, it’s impossible to leave out Tim’s contributions to Stryker when remembering him.”
Scannell was an advisor to Stryker for more than a year after his retirement. He was later elected to the Stryker Hall of Fame for exceptional performance and an award was created in his name.
Stryker grants the Tim Scannell Award to “sales winners who had outsized impact on teammates while demonstrating extraordinary integrity, commitment to Stryker while being exemplary role models.”
His family said Scannell considered the acknowledgement by his peers an “honor of a lifetime.”
In retirement, Scannell was appointed chair of Insulet’s board of directors, where he helped accelerate innovation for type 1 and type 2 diabetes wearable technology. Earlier this year, Scannell sat on six boards where he continued to share his insight after decades of shaping the industry.
“Tim thrived on the complexities of business, embracing challenges others found daunting — not afraid to take on the unknown and plan a path forward,” his family said. “He brought an elite athlete’s mentality and broad intellectual curiosity to his work, always balancing intensity and psychological discipline. At home, it wasn’t much different.”
He is survived by his wife, Brigid; his sons Shane and Spencer; his daughter, Kenna; his brothers Robert and James and his sister, Maura.
Service details are available through the Van Emburgh-Sneider-Pernice Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, the family is welcoming donations to the National Brain Tumor Society in Scannell’s memory.
