Manny Villafana

In 1971 he co-founded Cardiac Pacemakers Inc.(CPI) with Anthony Adducci, Arthur Schwalm, and James Baustert, each with experience in a different aspect of the pacemaker business. All four had built their careers at Medtronic. The founding partners had multiple lawsuits by and against Medtronic, all settled out of court. CPI was a CRM company that revolutionized the pacemaker industry by introducing a long life lithium iodine pacemaker, a technology still utilized by a majority of the market.

In 1976, he founded St. Jude Medical where his team engineered the first bileaflet mechanical heart valve, which reduced the frequency of blood clots in patients. It still dominates the mechanical valve replacement market.

In 1982, Villafana founded GV Medical, which developed a device to open blood vessels open.

In 1987, he founded Helix BioCore, which eventually transformed into ATS Medical, a company that developed a bi-leaflet valve which uses an open-pivot design to reduce clots and improve blood flow.

Then in 2000, he launched CABG Medical to pursue the creation of an artificial graft for coronary bypass surgery. The company closed in 2006.

In 2007, he launched Kips Bay Medical, a medical device company that focuses on proprietary external saphenous vein support technology for use in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery.