Ashley McEvoy, who has led Johnson & Johnson’s medtech business as its EVP/worldwide chairman, is leaving the healthcare products company to pursue other opportunities, J&J announced earlier this week.

The 27-year company veteran is being succeeded in her role by Tim Schmid, currently chairman for J&J’s Asia Pacific (APAC) medtech unit. To support the transition, McEvoy will remain at the company into the first quarter of next year, the pharma giant said.

J&J CEO Joaquin Duato praised McEvoy for leading a “significant transformation of our medtech business resulting in improved performance.”

Indeed, 12 of the franchise’s platforms deliver more than $1 billion in sales, and of those, it has the top or second place market position in 11 out of 12, according to a recent analysis by Shagun Sing of RBC Capital Markets.

“My time at J&J – and in particular leading the medtech business, our team of more than 70,000 colleagues worldwide – has been the honor and privilege of my career,” McEvoy wrote in a LinkedIn post Monday. “I’m proud of the way we have transformed the medtech business.”

Under her watch, the unit’s pro-forma growth has risen from 1.5% to 7.9% (year-to-date), she noted. 

The business has also deployed more than $22 billion in capital in acquisitions. Most notable of those was its $16.6 billion acquisition of cardio medtech firm Abiomed, which closed in 2022 and pushed J&J into the high-growth heart failure market. 

Looking ahead, RBC’s Sing forecasts the medtech business to deliver organic growth above pre-pandemic levels with 7.5% in 2023 and around 6% in 2024 and beyond. 

During the early 1990s, McEvoy joined J&J in the consumer products group, overseeing classic brands like Tylenol and Zyrtec before going on to serve as president of the company’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit. 

She moved to medtech in 2009, serving as president of Ethicon  before advancing to become company group chairman of vision and diabetes care prior to assuming her current role.

She is also chair of the board of directors for AdvaMed, a global trade group representing the medical device industry. 

As for her successor, Schmid is also a 30-year J&J veteran who, prior to his APAC tenure, held a variety of leadership roles in sales, marketing and general management. These included chief strategic customer officer for medtech.