MedtechWomen Announces Surbhi Sarna as Recipient of Fourth Annual Ferolyn Powell Leadership Award

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- MedtechWomen today announced that Surbhi Sarna, president and CEO of nVision Medical, a Boston Scientific company, has been named the recipient of the fourth annual Ferolyn Powell Leadership Award at the organization’s MedtechVision 2018 conference.

Established in 2015, the award recognizes a leader who embodies persistence, passion, dedication to innovation and patients, and commitment to mentoring others in the medical technology sector. Ferolyn Powell, a leader in the medical device industry and a mentor to young entrepreneurs, was recognized with the first award posthumously, which was named in her honor.

“Surbhi’s commitment to innovation in women’s health and her passionate leadership makes her a clear choice for the Ferolyn Powell Leadership Award. She embodies the entrepreneurial spirit and drive that Ferolyn also exemplified,” said Amy Belt Raimundo, MedtechWomen co-founder and managing director, Kaiser Permanente Ventures. “She is a true example of perseverance for women in this industry, and an extraordinary example for young girls in STEM – much like Ferolyn.”

Surbhi brings a decade of experience in bringing medical devices from concept to market, and as a teenager, personally experienced the negative impact of the lack of definitive diagnostic tools for women’s health. This fueled her passion for developing innovative devices to assist women in making informed treatment decisions. In 2011, Surbhi founded nVision to mobilize her commitment in addressing this unmet need in women’s healthcare. The company was acquired by Boston Scientific in April 2018 in a deal worth $275 million.

As an inventor on a dozen patents, Surbhi’s clinical background began early in her career as she served as a product development engineer at BioCardia. Her previous experience includes serving as both an engineer and a research and development scientist for Abbott Laboratories’ Vascular business, and as a clinical scientist at Stanford University School of Medicine. She received her B.A. from University of California, Berkeley.

“I feel incredibly honored to receive an award in Ferolyn’s name,” said Surbhi. “It’s because of women like her that I could imagine myself being a CEO, and conversations I had with her will always stay with me.”

Ferolyn Powell made an indelible impression not only as an individual in her San Francisco community, but also globally, as a business leader and innovator. She was best known as president and CEO of Evalve, Inc., a start-up medical device company founded in 1999. Under her leadership, Evalve was acquired by Abbott Laboratories. Ferolyn oversaw the development and commercialization of the MitraClip^® System, a breakthrough technology to repair the leaky heart valves of patients with mitral regurgitation, a common heart condition, without invasive open-heart surgery. The MitraClip device was approved by the FDA in 2013. One of a handful of women CEOs, Ferolyn was generous with her time, mentoring young entrepreneurs through the Stanford Biodesign Program, now known as the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign.

About MedtechWomen

MedtechWomen is a 510(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization dedicated to highlighting and connecting women leaders in medical devices and diagnostics. The organization was founded in 2010 when a group of women acted on their vision of bringing together sector leaders and policymakers to discuss real-world solutions to the most challenging issues in the medical technology industry today. They enlisted the support of their mentors and a broadening circle of colleagues to bring this vision to reality, resulting in the inaugural MedtechVision conference in 2011.

Founders and organizing members of MedtechWomen are innovators from across the U.S. in varied aspects of the medtech sector including business leaders, financial investors, researchers, physicians and experts in new product commercialization. For more information please visit www.medtechwomen.org.

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