February 12, 2021
Jim Schuermann joined Saluda Medical as President in June 2020. The company also announced that founder and CEO John Parker, Ph.D., will take on the new role of Chief Scientific Officer while remaining on the company’s Board of Directors.
Jim Schuermann has more than 25 years of healthcare and medical device leadership experience. Prior to serving as President of Saluda, Mr. Schuermann held the role of Chief Business Officer at Avedro, which executed its initial public offering and then was acquired by Glaukos in 2019.
Prior to his time at Avedro, he was Vice President and General Manager of Medtronic’s Mechanical Circulatory Support, a newly formed business unit in the Cardiac & Vascular Group. Before Medtronic, Jim Schuermann was Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at HeartWare and held a number of roles at Boston Scientific. Jim started his medical device career at Sherwood-Davis & Geck, a division of American Home Products.
Jim Schuermann holds an MBA degree from Golden Gate University and a BS from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.
This realignment in leadership comes as Saluda Medical advances its pipeline of spinal cord stimulation innovation and continues toward global commercialization and pursuing FDA approval. Mr. Parker’s vision for Saluda started 11 years ago when closed-loop SCS and evoked compound action potential (ECAP) measurements began as a concept. Today, that very novel approach is on track to be the next revolution of technology for impacting the lives of millions of patients living with chronic and debilitating pain.
“Under John’s leadership, we were the first to develop transformational science leading to the first spinal cord stimulation therapy designed to measure and automatically optimize therapy in real-time to provide life-changing results for patients with chronic pain,” said Chris Beare, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Saluda Medical. “The board looks forward to building on John’s vision and growing our global company to deliver this therapy to patients around the world.”
“I am excited to step into the role of CEO with John focused on cutting-edge research and continuing Saluda’s mission to continue to develop the unmatched technology in the field of pain management during this key chapter of the company evolution,” said Jim Schuermann, President, and CEO.
“I am very proud of the research and inventions we have created and the magnificent team we have built to help realize the mission of Saluda Medical,” said Dr. John Parker, Founder, and Chief Scientific Officer. “As we move forward during this pivotal time on the path to global commercialization, I’ve never been more energized and optimistic about the work we are doing to advance the field of SCS. I look forward to working to further the science and evidence supporting what we believe will be the new gold standard of chronic pain management.”