In Episode 6 of SWE’s Diverse podcast series, Jessica Rannow, FY17 President of the Society of Women Engineers, interviews Dr. Luann Pendy, Senior Vice President of Global Quality at Medtronic. She is our opening keynote speaker at WE16, SWE’s annual conference in Philadelphia.
Based in Minneapolis, Luann is the leader of the Quality function at Medtronic. She reports directly to Medtronic’s CEO and provides strategic direction and oversight for all areas of quality and regulatory compliance across the global company.
Luann is the Executive Sponsor of Medtronic’s Women’s Network which is a resource group creating and promoting opportunities for women in the workforce. She is also a member of the Leadership Council on Advancing Women at the Conference Board.
Last year, she was named to the National Diversity Council’s list of the Top 50 Women of Influence in Technology.
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As the leader of the Quality function at Medtronic, Luann works to assure end-to-end quality, reliability and regulatory compliance, from development through manufacturing, distribution and end-customer use. She is responsible for driving the strategic direction for the quality program through the implementation of policy and standards across Medtronic. She joined Medtronic as the Vice President, Quality in 2008. She currently is a member of industry councils with AdvaMed and the Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC), working to promote the “Case for Quality” strategy, an initiative shared by the device industry and FDA to improve device quality.
Prior to this role, Luann served as the Corporate Vice President of Global Quality and Regulatory Affairs at Hospira, Inc. where she led worldwide quality and regulatory affairs for the design and manufacture of medical devices and pharmaceuticals. She started her career at Abbott Laboratories in 1987, where she held several leadership roles in technical product development and quality for the diagnostics, devices and pharmaceutical business divisions. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from University of Michigan and her Doctorate of Philosophy from Rush University in Chicago, Illinois.
