Ten Hoedt — who is also a member of Medtronic’s Executive Committee — gave notice of his intent to retire from the world’s largest medical device company on June 1, Medtronic said in a single-sentence filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
He was 63 years old as of April 28, according to SEC filings. In recent years, Medtronic cited a mandatory retirement age of 65 for departing executives such as former CEO Omar Ishrak, former General Counsel and Secretary Brad Lerman and former Chief Medical and Scientific Officer Dr. Rick Kuntz.
Ten Hoedt’s departure comes during a time of major change at Medtronic, which includes portfolio management moves such as shuttering Medtronic’s ventilators business, layoffs and last year’s early retirement program, greater expense discipline, and increased use of automation and digitization. At the same time, the company says it has made strategic R&D investments to support future growth.
MassDevice has reached out to Medtronic for more information about ten Hoedt’s retirement, including who will take over his duties.
As global regions president, ten Hoedt has “full responsibility for Medtronic products and therapies” across the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, the company says on its website. That includes the Hugo surgical robotics system, a program that started with Medtronic’s $43 billion acquisition of Covidien. Hugo won a CE mark in the European Union in 2021.
“Robotics and artificial intelligence are the undeniable future of healthcare, with incredible potential to not only advance patient care, but increase access to these benefits,” he said in the Medtronic news release announcing Hugo’s CE mark.
Medtronic’s Hugo system is not yet approved by the FDA, though the company said last month that more clinical studies are in the works to support a submission for FDA review.
Medtronic named ten Hoedt as one of its top-paid executives last year, with $5 million in total compensation for fiscal 2023.
He is also one of the largest individual Medtronic shareholders, with approximately 540,000 shares as of August 2023, according to an SEC filing. That filing only listed two executives with more stock at the time: Chair and CEO Geoff Martha with 795,000 shares, and former EVP and Medical Surgical President Bob White at 623,000.
White — whose Medical Surgical portfolio included Hugo — also retired this year, a departure announced by Martha on the company’s third-quarter earnings call in February. Medtronic has not had an earnings call since ten Hoedt gave notice, and the company does not appear to have discussed his pending departure publicly.
Rob ten Hoedt’s Medtronic career
A hospital visit after a “pretty horrible accident” at the age of 18 set ten Hoedt on his career path.
“Although it was a dreadful experience, I was impressed with everything that happened inside that hospital — the doctors, the nurses, the care, the way things were going,” he said in a 2014 interview filed with the SEC as the company was closing its acquisition of Covidien. “And laying in my bed looking at the ceiling, I knew that this was my destiny. I wanted to do something in healthcare.”
“I’m from Europe and Europe has been living under socialized healthcare systems for as long as I’ve known,” he later continued. “But those systems are coming to a very complicated situation right now. The governments can’t afford it anymore. There’s too much demand. It’s time to transform healthcare. And I want my children and my grandchildren to have the same care that I’ve always had and I think that we as a new company can support the systems in such a way with value, economic value, with the opportunity of getting ourselves involved in the delivery of care, supporting systems, total solutions, services and solutions. I think we have the opportunity now in the new company to transform healthcare for our future and for our children.”
Ten Hoedt joined Medtronic in 1991 with the title of marketing manager for Western Europe’s neurological business.
“In 1994, he went on to lead the start-up of Medtronic’s Gastro-Uro business in Europe, for which he subsequently held global responsibility,” the company said at its website. “In 1999, Rob was appointed Vice President & General Manager of Vitatron, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Medtronic in The Netherlands, with responsibility for developing and marketing pacing devices. Under his leadership, Vitatron built a strong image and market position in the medical technology world.In 2006, Rob moved to Medtronic’s European headquarters in Tolochenaz, Switzerland, to lead the Western European Cardiovascular business which later expanded to Europe & Central Asia (ECA).”
Ten Hoedt wrapped up his final term as board chair for MedTech Europe last year, but is still chair of the board for Medmix, chair of the supervisory board for NLC Health Ventures, and a board director for Fagron.
“My personal leadership style, first of all, is all about the team and about working together,” he said in his interview during the Covidien merger. “I think you can title it as a servant leader. I don’t necessarily want to tell everybody exactly what to do but I want to facilitate a leadership team and a group of people to get the best out of themselves. And doing that in the environment of Medtronic has been a great pleasure and I’m looking forward to the next years to continue to do so.”