Stanton Rowe, Chief Scientific Officer, Edwards Lifesciences

Stanton Rowe, Chief Scientific Officer of Edwards Lifesciences, will deliver the Biomedical Engineering Department’s annual Maroney-Bryan Distinguished Lecture on Friday, April 6, at 4:00 PM in 1005 GBSF (main floor auditorium). The lecture will be followed by a reception. The topic of the lecture will be:

Against All Odds: the Development of the Transcatheter Heart Valve

Just ask doctors what they want and need, right? The experts all said they did not need it, and it would never work. Transcatheter heart valves are one of the fastest growing multi-billion dollar products. How could cardiothoracic surgeons, industry and the “experts” get it all so wrong, especially when it has saved and improved so many lives?  

A 1975 graduate of UAH, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences, Rowe has been chief scientific officer of Edwards Lifesciences since 2008 and also serves as corporate vice president of advanced technology. He joined Edwards Lifesciences in 2004 when Edwards acquired Percutaneous Valve Technologies, a company he helped found in 1999 and of which he served as president and chief executive officer.

Edwards Lifesciences is a global leader in patient-focused medical innovations for structural heart disease, as well as critical care and surgical monitoring. The company collaborates with the world’s leading clinicians and researchers to address unmet healthcare needs, working to improve patient outcomes and enhance lives.

Previously, Rowe was corporate vice president of business development and strategic planning for Datascope from 1996 to 2000 and was vice president of business development for Johnson & Johnson’s interventional systems division (JJIS) in Warren, N.J., responsible for the company’s coronary stent development efforts.

At JJIS and the related Cordis Corp., Rowe held a variety of positions with increasing levels of responsibility, including heading the company’s business development, advanced technology, worldwide clinical research and marketing groups. Rowe joined Cordis after previously holding several positions in product management for a number of medical device companies.

Rowe served on the board of directors of InSeal Medical Ltd. from 2010 to 2016 and as a director of Neural Analytics from 2015 to 2016.

He is also on the board of directors for the Discovery Science Center in Orange County, Calif., as well as on the advisory boards for the engineering or biomedical engineering schools at UC Davis, UC Irvine, Georgia Tech and Brown University.