Governance Board

John O’Dea has over 30 years experience in the medical device industry and currently works at surgical device company Palliare which he co-founded in 2018. He previously worked at Medtronic following their acquisition in 2017 of GI Diagnostic company Crospon which he founded in 2006. In 1998 he co-founded Caradyne, an Irish respiratory medical device company, which was acquired by Respironics Inc. in 2004. In the past 35 years he has held R&D management positions in Nellcor Puritan Bennett and engineering positions in Digital Equipment Inc. and in Dataproducts Inc. He is a named author on 18 U.S. Patents. He holds Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Electronics Engineering all from University College Dublin and an MSc in Clinical Research from NUI Galway. He is Chairman of the External Advisory Board of BioInnovate Ireland at NUI Galway. He is a past Chairman of the Board of the Irish Medical Devices Association, and a Past President of Engineers Ireland. In 2016 he was awarded a Doctor of Engineering (honoris causa) by NUI Galway for his contribution to the Irish Medical Device industry, and received the 2016 Outstanding Contribution to Medtech Award from the Irish Medtech Association, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland.