Earl brings over 35 years of experience as an engineering and business innovator in the medical device space. His innovations are the standard of care for treating stroke endovascularly – aneurysms, arterio-venous malformations, and acute ischemic stroke. He has earned 28 U.S. patents. Annual revenue for the Neurovascular business that Earl was involved in has grown from a zero-revenue start-up in 1998, to a business in excess of $1B annual revenue (now residing within Medtronic). Most recently, Earl led the Technology, Strategy and Business Development (M&A) group for Medtronic Brain Therapies - a developer, manufacturer, and commercial organization focused on endovascular therapies for hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke, electrical brain stimulation therapies for movement disorders, and neurosurgical enabling tools and therapies. In his role, Earl was responsible for portfolio management, business strategy and external technology and company acquisition and licensing.
Earl joined Micro Therapeutics Inc. (MTI) in 1998 as Vice President, R&D, and led the development of Onyx liquid embolic and delivery systems for treatment of AVMs (MTI was acquired by ev3 in 2006). At ev3 (VP of R&D), Earl led the development of Axium embolic coils for aneurysm treatment and invented the first stent-retriever for acute ischemic stroke (Solitaire FR) (ev3 was acquired by Covidien in 2010). At Covidien, serving as VP R&D and Business Development, Earl was integrally involved in acquiring and launching Pipeline Flow Diverter (Covidien was acquired by Medtronic in 2015). At Medtronic, Earl also served as interim VP/General Manager of the Enabling Technology business (>$1B in annual revenue), earned the 2017 Patent of Distinction award, and was inducted as a Bakken Fellow in 2016 (Medtronic’s highest technical award). Earl retired from Medtronic in October, 2020.
From 1995 until 1998, Earl was Vice President of R&D with Aequitron Medical, Inc., a manufacturer of portable respiratory care devices (acquired by Nellcor Puritan Bennett in 1997). From 1992 until 1995, he was Director of Engineering with Instromedix, a manufacturer of portable ECG monitors. From 1983 to 1992, Earl held various engineering and management positions with Pfizer, Welch Allyn and Hughes Aircraft Co.
Earl holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics with a minor in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego. He also holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College and an MSEE from San Diego State University.
Earl serves on the boards of a pediatric interventional cardiology company, a surgical robotics company, and a mechanical thrombectomy company; he also serves as an advisor to start-ups in the brain-computer-interface and neurovascular catheter spaces; and serves as an advisor to Octane and chair of Octane’s CEO Peer Leadership Group.
Earl recently celebrated his 39th wedding anniversary with his wife, Elisa (a consultant who provides STEM professional development). They have two children, one working in education in Los Angeles, and one in a PhD program in Sociology and Social Policy at Princeton.