Halfway through its fiscal year, Medtronic is finally filling the vacancy at the helm of its neuromodulation operating unit.
The company has selected Paolo Di Vincenzo to take on the role, effective Oct. 30, it said in an announcement this week.
He’ll replace Nnamdi Njoku, the former president of the segment, who left Medtronic in March to join Zimmer Biomet as president of sports medicine, surgical, upper extremities and restorative therapies, according to Njoku’s LinkedIn page.
Di Vincenzo, meanwhile, is joining Medtronic fresh off a nearly decade-long stint at Smith+Nephew, where he held various global marketing and leadership roles, culminating in a term as a senior VP for the British devicemaker and general manager of its advanced wound management business in the U.S.
Prior to that, Di Vincenzo worked his way up the corporate ladder in a handful of marketing roles at wound care company Systagenix, BD and Roche Diagnostics.
In his new role, he’ll be overseeing both the day-to-day operations and overall strategy of Medtronic’s neuromodulation business, and he’ll report to Brett Wall, president of the company’s neurosciences portfolio.
“Paolo is a results-driven leader who puts people first,” Wall said in the announcement. “I’m thrilled to have him join this team as Neuromodulation moves into the era of personalized medicine with sensing technology. He will play a key role in advancing our capabilities in these areas while driving business execution in alignment with Medtronic’s focus on a performance-driven culture.”
The neuromodulation segment—which is joined by Medtronic’s cranial and spinal technologies and specialty therapies divisions under the neuroscience portfolio umbrella—comprises the company’s spinal cord stimulation systems and other implanted neurostimulators.
In its most recent financial report, covering the first quarter of its fiscal year 2024, Medtronic reported growth of 3.7% in the neuromodulation business, contributing to the neuroscience portfolio’s overall increase of around 5%. In total, the neuromodulation unit brought in $420 million around the globe for the quarter.
The segment got off to a strong start in the second quarter: Medtronic announced in August that it had received European CE mark clearance for its Inceptiv spinal cord stimulator, which is designed to be a closed-loop system—meaning it’ll automatically adjust the neuromodulation therapy it delivers to adapt to users’ movements and reduce discomfort.