Heart of the matter: Patrick Verguet, Corporate Vice President EMEA, Canada & Latin America of Edwards Lifesciences

Source: The CEO Magazine

There’s no greater gift than life, and for a select group of professionals, they have the opportunity to bestow it on a regular basis. As the Corporate Vice-President EMEA, Canada and Latin America at Edwards Lifesciences, Patrick Verguet is one of these fortunate folk.

“You know what is amazing?” the Frenchman asks animatedly. “When you see a patient after treatment and they thank you for giving them 10 years or more of life when they thought they were going to die.”

When it comes to job satisfaction, statements like that are hard to beat, and go a long way to explaining why Patrick has spent more than 30 years with the leader in heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring technology.

Edwards Lifesciences began with the world’s first artificial heart valve

It’s exactly the type of customer feedback that Miles ‘Lowell’ Edwards dreamed of when he first set out to assist patients with heart valve disease. The retired engineer – who himself had experienced health scares in his youth – possessed an inventive streak (and a reported 63 patents across a range of industries).

In partnership with Dr Albert Starr, a surgeon at the University of Oregon Medical School, Lowell created the world’s first artificial heart valve in

1960 and Edwards Lifesciences was born. Nearly 60 years later, and after being acquired by and then spun off from Baxter International, the company he gave his name to has treated more than two million patients around the world.

Patrick Verguet is on a mission to improve quality of life

Heart, in all senses of the word, is what has kept Edwards Lifesciences ticking as it has expanded beyond its Californian base – currently it has a presence in over 100 countries and approximately 10,000 employees.

Click here to read more