Medtronic rolls out big guns to raise hopes of jobs boost

Date Published: 13-Oct-2010

There are strong hopes on the job creation and investment front for Galway, after the full Board of Directors and Executive Management Committee of Medtronic – which includes some of the biggest industry leaders in the United States – visited the city earlier this week.

Such was the sheer magnitude and importance of the visit, the executives from the medical devices company – one of the biggest employers in the West – were given a VIP escort along the unopened stretch of the new M18 Ennis to Gort motorway, after flying into Shannon Airport from the United States.

Medtronic CEO William Hawkins is said to have been “super impressed” with Galway’s roads and transport infrastructure, and with NUI Galway in particular.

It was the biggest ever visit of executives to the facility at the Parkmore Business Park in Galway, where around 2,000 people are employed in developing and manufacturing medical devices for the treatment and management of cardiovascular and cardiac rhythm disease.

The team of 24 directors and executives were joined by handlers, personal assistants and corporate security personnel. Sources say that while no announcement is due, the visit is seen as “very positive”.

As well as having a bi-monthly board meeting in the five-star Glenlo Abbey Hotel, the company heads also launched the Galway Science & Technology Festival which takes place next month, and visited NUI Galway. The board visits Medtronic plants around the world each year.

The Medtronic board members who visited Galway are some of the biggest industry leaders in the US and includes the CEO of Delta Airlines; a director of US Airways; a retired chairman of Johnson & Johnson; the CEO of the Nielsen Company (media marketing and TV ratings); the CEO of the Duke University Health System; the CEO of General Mills (a food conglomerate); a former chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission; the chairman of the World Economic Forum USA and a director of Stericycle, the worldwide waste management company.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.