Former Edwards Lifesciences Chairman/CEO Mike Mussallem received the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award during AdvaMed’s annual event this week (The MedTech Conference) in San Diego.  

“The AdvaMed Lifetime Achievement Award is the medtech community’s highest honor for leaders who have dedicated their careers to transforming patients’ lives,” AdvaMed President/CEO Scott Whitaker said. “Mike has put people first his entire life, in medtech and philanthropy. He represents the best of humanity in any field. Medtech patients and colleagues have been fortunate to count him among our own. We’ve all benefitted from his vision, leadership, generosity, warmth, and singular focus on helping people enjoy good health through medtech innovation.”  

Mussallem took charge of Edwards Lifesciences when it became an independent, publicly traded company in April 2000. He led the company as chairman and CEO until his retirement in May 2023.  Under his leadership, Edwards successfully implemented a patient-focused innovation strategy with a culture centered on putting patients first, as well as giving back and creating community. 

During Mussallem’s more than two decades of leadership, the company introduced breakthrough innovations worldwide, transforming the care for patients impacted by deadly and debilitating diseases such as aortic stenosis and others affecting heart valves. Among these technologies is transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), which changed the way patients with aortic stenosis receive treatment and has helped more than 1 million patients worldwide.  

Mussallem also helped establish the Edwards Lifesciences Foundation, which, in addition to strategic giving, encourages and provides opportunities for every employee globally to volunteer in the communities where they live and work. Before assuming the Edwards corner office, Mussallem held various positions at Baxter International from 1979 until 2000, when Edwards was spun off from Baxter. Under his guidance and leadership, Edwards grew to nearly 20,000 employees worldwide, united around a patients-first culture to “dream big” and introduce groundbreaking technologies to benefit patients, physicians, health care systems and communities.    

Mussallem served on the AdvaMed Board of Directors from 2004 to 2023 and as chairman from 2008 to 2010.  

In his leadership capacity at AdvaMed, Mussallem advocated for faster patient access to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-authorized medtech, including establishing Medicare coverage of FDA-authorized breakthrough medical technologies that address underserved medical needs. AdvaMed continues to build on the momentum Mussallem set to implement this long-standing priority. 

Mussallem and his wife Linda are co-founders of the Linda and Mike Mussallem Foundation, which focuses on addressing complex healthcare challenges for overlooked populations and supporting the advancement of integrative healthcare and next-generation health care innovation. The couple also co-founded the Mussallem CHD Alliance, a new initiative dedicated to saving and improving the lives of people born with congenital heart defects.   

The AdvaMed Lifetime Achievement Award honors the accomplishments of pioneers in the medtech sector whose contributions have had a significant impact on patients’ lives and the industry as an essential part of America’s economy. Mussallem received the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award during the Oct. 7 keynote luncheon at the MedTech Conference.  

Previous recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award are: Caroll H. Neubauer (2024); William H. Longfield (2023); Lester B. Knight (2022); Edward Ludwig (2021); Ronald Dollens (2020); Cathy Burzik (2019); Vernon Loucks (2018); Jack Wareham (2017); John Abele and Peter Nicholas (2016); Dr. Thomas Fogarty (2015); Earl Bakken (2014); and John Brown (2013).