Manny Villafaña

Manny Villafaña has a substantial track record of founding companies that develop and deliver successful medical products to the healthcare market. Medical 21 is Manny’s eighth medical device company, and he has led his previous seven companies to an IPO financing.

As the founder of Cardiac Pacemaker, Inc. (CPI)/Guidant, he co-invented the first long-life lithium-powered pacemakers and defibrillators which revolutionized the pacemaker industry. The technology he developed in 1972 is still in use in virtually every defibrillator and pacemaker worldwide. CPI was purchased by Boston Scientific for $27 billion.

He was the founder of St. Jude Medical, Inc and the co-developer of the St. Jude heart valve – an innovative mechanical bi-leaflet heart valve that dramatically reduced the frequency of blood clots. This is the most commonly used prosthesis in the world, in approximately five million patients. St. Jude was purchased by Abbott Laboratories for $30 billion.

Manny went on to develop several other companies including ATS Medical, which introduced the new generation ATS open-pivot heart valve. ATS was purchased by Medtronic for $400 million.

Born in the South Bronx to Puerto Rican immigrants, Manny quickly showed aptitude as a salesman. In his early 20s, he went to work for Picker International, a medical device exporter, selling medical products on behalf of companies such as Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc., which precipitated his relocation to Minneapolis.