CFO Karen Parkhill discusses leadership, innovation and restructuring Medtronic — the largest organization in medtech.
Karen Parkhill drew on her experience in the banking industry to offer Medtronic a prognosis as the COVID-19 pandemic started rippling across the globe.Parkhill, Medtronic’s CFO and EVP, was CFO of JPMorgan Chase’s commercial banking business during and after the 2007-2008 financial crisis, and then served as CFO at Comerica before joining Medtronic in 2016 under former CEO Omar Ishrak.
“When the pandemic hit, we didn’t know how bad, how long it was going to affect us,” Parkhill said in an interview with Medical Design & Outsourcing and MassDevice. “We needed to quickly decide whether we were going to cut back on R&D, on manufacturing, on our employee base. I took the lessons learned from stress tests in the financial services sector and quickly showed that Medtronic had the financial stability to withstand very severe stress from COVID.”
She said Medtronic kept its plants operating at full capacity, kept personnel in place without cutting pay, and worked with suppliers and customers to help them through the crisis.
“We built great credibility and a stronger long-term relationship with our suppliers, our customers and our employees as a result,” Parkhill said. “I look back on the very early stages of the pandemic with a lot of pride that Medtronic was able to handle it the way we did.”
Jason Weidman, Medtronic SVP and president of its coronary and renal denervation business, said Parkhill complements her financial smarts with compassionate and caring leadership. “When something difficult is going on or there’s a really tough situation we’re dealing with, one of her first questions is always going to be, ‘How is the team doing?’ ”
Parkhill, who is leading Medtronic’s restructuring initiatives, discussed more about leadership, culture and innovation.
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