They go head-to-head in just about everything else, but it’s likely that the brass at Boston Scientific and Medtronic both have the Blue Devils going all the way in March Madness.
Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) and Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) share a more than healthy rivalry when it comes to stents, pacemakers and other cardiovascular devices, but when it comes to basketball, it’s all Duke baby!
That’s because the Dukies literally infest the front offices and boardrooms of the two medical device giants.
At Medtronic, notable alumni of the Durham, N.C.-based college include CEO William Hawkins (who attended the school’s famed Biomedical Engineering program in the 1970’s). Dr. Victor Dzau, one of the company’s directors, is the chancellor for health affairs, president and CEO of the Duke Health System, even if he’s a McGill University alum (they don’t have a horse in this race).
At Boston Scientific the blue runs even deeper, with co-founder and board member Peter Nicholas representing Duke as the company’s top alumnus. BSX board member Katharine Bartlett is a law professor at Duke and served as the dean of the law school from 2000 to 2007; fellow board member Ernest Mario is a trustee emeritus at Duke and has served on the school’s board for nearly 20 years.
BoSci CEO Ray Elliot, a University of Western Ontario graduate, is probably more partial to hockey. Now that he’s based in Boston, he might just be saying “Go Terriers!” as the long-shot Boston University squad hits the court.
A bet on Duke is never a bad thing when it comes to education, but it’s also where a lot of the smart money is going this March as the team looks to repeat as NCAA tournament champions. The Blue Devils won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament this year and are heading into the tournament as a number-one seed.
There’s one place they won’t be getting any love, however: MassDevice world headquarters, in the heart of Boston University, our alma mater. The Terriers are a number 16 seed going into the tournament, facing the Kansas Jay Hawks March 18. Ray, let us know if you need some help memorizing those BU cheers.
The Massachusetts Medical Devices Journal is the online journal of the medical devices industry in the Commonwealth and New England, providing day-to-day coverage of the devices that save lives, the people behind them, and the burgeoning trends and developments within the industry.
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