Manny
Vice President
Puerto Rico Operations
Junctos, Puerto Rico
Why Medtronic: I joined right out of school after earning my mechanical engineering degree. Medtronic combined both my interests — technology and medicine. I was eager to use my newly acquired knowledge to help heal people.
Your role: I oversee our manufacturing operations and shared business functions in Puerto Rico. That involves four key responsibilities: 1) integrating our operations, which cross many businesses, 2) ensuring excellence, which means being a lean operation that provides the absolute best quality, 3) innovating; finding new and better ways to do what we do, and 4) engaging our people to best use their talents. We have 2,800 people working in Puerto Rico.
Your career progression: What’s kept me here is the opportunity to do many different things in many different areas and stretch my comfort level. There’s never a dull moment. In a nutshell, my jobs have included:
- Quality Assurance Engineer.
- Engineering Manager, where I supported both quality and manufacturing.
- Technical Services Manager, where I was managing facility issues.
- Operations Manager.
- Within 10 years I was promoted to Plant Manager of the pacing leads operations in Villalba, Puerto Rico. I was 33, so I was one of the youngest plant managers in the company. With that responsibility, I was getting into finance and HR oversight, as well.
- I moved to Minneapolis as Director for the pacing leads’ global manufacturing operation. I gained exposure to the Executive Leadership Team and got to see more of how the company runs.
- I co-led a team that evaluated where to open a new catheter delivery manufacturing center. We chose Galway, Ireland, and supported the start up.
- I was recruited to come back to Puerto Rico when we changed the operation’s tax status to a Controlled Foreign Corporation. It meant expanding the operations. Today, we make products for five of the company’s six business units.
What about your work is stimulating: All of us in manufacturing know the impact of what we do. We aren’t making tennis shoes here, we’re making life-saving devices. Some of our employees have Medtronic products or have family members who do. So we are driven emotionally to make quality products.
What you do for fun: I’m very family-oriented, but our children are in their 20s, so I use a small boat to get them to spend time with the family. We all love to be out on the ocean. I also scuba dive with my son.
Education: University of Puerto Rico, bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering
Professional affiliations: Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association, College of Engineers and Surveyors of Puerto Rico (CIAPR, a professional society for certified engineers)
Advice to Operations job candidates: Be passionate in everything you do and you’ll be able to overcome and learn from the day-to-day issues that arise in Operations. There are plenty of challenges, but you get to see the results of your work every day.
Medtronic is committed to providing accessibility to employment opportunities for people with disabilities. If you need technical assistance with the on-line application process, please call Medtronic at (800) 328-2518 (toll free within the US) or (763) 514-4000 (worldwide).
Medtronic is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to cultural diversity in the workforce.
- Print Page
- E-mail Page
- A
- A
- A Text Size