John Simpson Builds His Successful Career on Constantly Striving for a Better Way (Part 1)

A husband, father, world-renowned physician, venture capitalist and prolific entrepreneur, John Simpson, MD, has helped revolutionize the field of cardiology via his innovations.

Credited with inventing and commercializing the first over-the-wire balloon catheter used for percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) and helping to create the field of interventional cardiology, John also founded and successfully exited numerous companies, including Advanced Cardiovascular Systems (ACS) and Devices for Vascular Intervention (DVI), which were both acquired by Eli Lily; CVIS, acquired by Boston Scientific; Perclose, sold to Abbott; LuMend, acquired by Cordis Corporation; and Fox Hollow, acquired by ev3, which is now part of Medtronic. Today, he continues to innovate in his work as a senior advisor to Cordis-X.

Andrew Cleeland had the pleasure of chatting with John to learn more about his career as a serial entrepreneur as well as his insights on what it takes to drive innovation.