Season 3 - Ep. 13 | Reimagining Patient Care: A Conversation with Healthcare Innovator Ashley McEvoy

What’s life really like at the top of a $30 billion healthcare company? While many might find the prospect of serving 300 million patients around the world daunting, Ashley McEvoy, Worldwide Chairman of Johnson & Johnson MedTech, sees it as a privilege.

While at the helm of J&J MedTech, her impact has been significant: she has tripled its revenue growth since 2017 and spearheaded its entrance into telehealth, robotics, and digital surgery. At a time when senior executive tenure is often short, Ashley has carved out a career at J&J MedTech spanning almost three decades—all while maintaining an unwavering passion for providing the very best care to patients when they need it most.

In this fascinating episode of Redefiners, Ashley lifts the lid on how J&J MedTech is transforming how it delivers care to patients with the help of AI, why being an exceptional listener should be in every leader's toolbox, and why your inner voice is the most powerful voice of anyone in the world. It’s a conversation you don’t want to miss.

We’ll also hear from Fawad Bajwa, a Managing Director in our Toronto office. He’ll outline how generative AI tools like ChatGPT are changing the game for leaders, and how great leadership is critical to its successful implementation. Click here to access our report How will ChatGPT and other generative AI impact leadership?

If you enjoyed this interview, you might also like these Redefiners episodes: 

• Risk-taking and Dealmaking with Global MedTech Leader, Kevin Lobo

• Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur with Mario Schlosser, CEO and co-founder of Oscar

• Break the Bias: Closing the Gender Wealth Gap with Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and c-founder of Ellevest

Ashley McEvoy

McEvoy is transforming the future of healthcare. Under Ashley’s leadership, the $27B organization of almost 60,000 employees, nearly half of the Fortune #36 company’s employee base, drives innovation to save lives and ignite all that’s possible in every human, everywhere.

With a presence in almost every operating room in the world and more than 75 million procedures each year, Johnson & Johnson MedTech is comprised of twelve $1B+ platforms. The world’s second-largest medical devices business is also leading the industry in developing integrated, digitized solutions to improve outcomes for millions of people around the world.

Ashley is a member of the Johnson & Johnson Executive Committee and leads the MedTech Group Operating Committee. She is also Chair of the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) Board of Directors, where she is shaping and advancing the Association’s policy agenda for a two-year term, which began in March 2023. AdvaMed is the leading global trade association and consortium of companies for the medical devices industry.

Ashley has more than 25 years of experience working at Johnson & Johnson. In her time leading MedTech, she has strengthened the division’s core portfolio, spearheaded the company’s entrance into telehealth, robotics, and digital surgery, and doubled the value of its pipeline to $10 billion in 2020 from 2018. Ashley also led the deployment of $10B in capital across M&A activity in recent years to bolster the portfolio. This targeted business transformation strategy ultimately accelerated performance and led to revenue growth from 1.5% in 2017 to nearly 5% in 2021. It also resulted in market share gains in a majority of MedTech’s platforms, which enjoy #1 or #2 market position today.

Ashley and the global J&J MedTech team were recently recognized by Fast Company as one of the most innovative health companies of 2022. Ashley was recently honored as one of 50 individuals named to Forbes’ inaugural CEO NEXT list and was ranked #1 on the Top 25 Women Leaders in Medical Devices list by The Healthcare Technology Report. She ranked #41 on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women List in 2019 and was named a Woman of Achievement in 2020 by the National Association of Female Executives for her dedication to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.

A Pennsylvania native and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Ashley is proud to serve on the Board of Trustees for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where she helps guide the hospital’s mission in delivering safe, high-quality, and family-centered care. CHOP was ranked #1 on Forbes’ 2022 list of America’s Best Large Employers.