Adam Sharkawy

Adam is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Material Impact. An accomplished executive healthcare and life sciences leader, Adam brings his track record of building and leading material-based centers of innovation within several large corporates and extensive experience on both sides of acquisition transactions to the Material Impact team. His worldwide leadership spans US, International, and Emerging markets.

Adam’s successful career as a seasoned executive leader and entrepreneur in the Healthcare and Life Sciences sector encompasses a diverse background across technologies (devices, bioactives, and biologics), therapy spaces (interventional, cardiovascular, surgery, orthopedics, etc) and different business environments (leading small entrepreneurial VC-funded to large Fortune 500 corporate).

Prior to co-founding Material Impact, Adam was Sr. Vice President of The Medicines Company and Head of their Surgery and Perioperative Care Global Business Unit where he led the the $170M acquisition of Tenaxis Medical and the integration of three other acquired companies in deals totaling in excess of $1B. Before that, he helped establish Smith & Nephew’s Emerging Market divisions in Dubai where he served as a member of their executive leadership team. There he developed the product portfolio across all of Smith & Nephew’s businesses (orthopedics, sports medicine and advanced wound care). Prior to that he started the Advanced Healing Technologies / Biomaterials franchise within the Smith & Nephew Endoscopy division in the Boston area and led their R&D organization.

Adam was a member of the Abbott Vascular executive leadership team and served as their Vice President of Research and Advanced Development and New Ventures where he helped launch the world’s leading Drug Eluting Stent, the Xience/Promus system. He led the development of interventional site-specific therapies to vascular disease (including vulnerable plaque, stem cell therapy for heart failure, and diabetic nephropathy) and the creation of platforms for novel stents / scaffolds, catheters, biomaterials, and controlled bioactive delivery. In addition, Adam co-led the integration of Guidant Vascular Interventions and Abbott upon their merger in April 2006, when Guidant was acquired by Abbott and Boston Scientific for $28B.

Prior to that, Adam helped start Ventrica, Inc., a privately-held medical device company, and served as the Vice President of Research and Development to the $35M acquisition of its technology by Medtronic. At Ventrica, he contributed to the development of a novel technology to create a sutureless connection between blood vessels as part of heart bypass surgery. This product was approved and marketed in Europe. While at Ventrica, he also spun off a new venture, Ventrigraft, aimed to create the synthesis of natural blood vessels and connections in situ. Prior to that, Adam served in several technology development roles for Heartport (acquired by Johnson and Johnson for $81M) and Advanced Cardiovascular System which had been acquired by Eli Lilly and then spun out to the publicly traded Guidant Corporation.

Adam has also held a variety of consulting positions spanning industries such as aircraft (F-16 tail wing design), oil drilling (FMC deep sea drill design), and medical device (Adiana, Angiotech, Apneon, Pavad Medical).

Adam received his Ph.D. from Duke University where he researched methods of growing small blood vessels around long term implants. He also holds a Masters from Texas A&M University where he wrote a thesis on Chaos Theory and conducted research in energizing the innovation process and ideation in design. Adam remained affiliated to Duke University by serving on its Biomedical Engineering Advisory Board and to Texas A&M University by serving on its Bioengineering Advisory Board. He received his Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the American University, Cairo and before that, studied pre-medicine and Biology at the University of Delaware.

Adam is a passionate SCUBA diver, plays multiple sports including soccer and ultimate frisbee, and likes to express himself through cuisine.