Medtronic – at the beating heart of Galway MedTech success

When Medtronic first opened its doors in Galway back in 1982, there were 30 staff who may or may not have known that they were at the start of something big. Forty years on, there are up to 4,000 employees in what is one of the pillars of the West’s MedTech sector.

Gerry Kilcommins wasn’t quite there at the very start, but he has been to the forefront for most of those years; the North Galway man now has a title that wouldn’t fit on the average business card – Vice President, Global Manufacturing, Vascular Therapies & Implants and, most recently, Country Director of Campus Ireland at Medtronic – and that’s a fair commentary on his working life too.

But as he reflected on the past 40 years last week, he was also looking forward with excitement to the future – and a period of growth and development that he predicts will put all before now into the shade.

“I firmly believe we will see more changes in medical technology in the next ten years than we have in the last one-hundred,” he says.

Medtronic’s mission is a simple one – to alleviate pain, restore health and extend life – but achieving that requires the company to be at the very vanguard of medical science and technology.

And last week’s announcement of 200 new jobs in Research and Development, as well as the opening of another new Galway facility, across from their existing three plants in Parkmore, will help keep the company at that cutting edge.

Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.