For Laura Mauri, leadership isn’t about staying in your lane—it’s about seeing across the entire field and knowing when to speak up. That mindset has shaped her work as Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at Medtronic, where she oversees global clinical research, scientific intelligence, and regulatory affairs. Known for challenging the status quo, Mauri established an enterprise-wide Medical Safety function in 2022, reinforcing Medtronic’s commitment to patient-centric innovation. She’s also unified the company’s chief medical officers into a powerful internal consortium that informs strategic investments and clinical product design. “You must constantly be recognizing opportunities throughout the company and bring those forward with your personal perspective,” she says. Her ability to bridge frontline clinical insight with enterprise strategy defines her role at the highest levels of medical device leadership.
Born to immigrant parents—her father from Italy and her mother from China—Mauri’s childhood spanned continents, instilling a global perspective early on. When her mother was diagnosed with cancer during Mauri’s high school years, her interests shifted toward medicine. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and both a medical degree and master’s degree in clinical epidemiology from Harvard, all magna cum laude. Before joining Medtronic in 2018, she spent 15 years as an interventional cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital while leading clinical research as a professor at Harvard Medical School. At Medtronic, she was initially tasked with building a global clinical research and analytics function—and went on to lead the company’s pandemic-era clinical trial response and pioneer data science solutions across product areas.
Today, Mauri continues to push for a culture of thoughtful, inclusive collaboration. Whether it’s aligning with the NIH or consulting on clinical trial design, she brings both technical rigor and emotional clarity. “Sometimes we ask questions and already know the answer we want to hear,” she says. “It’s a real skill to create the space...for people to reflect and give a more complete answer.” That emphasis on listening, paired with her precision in scientific leadership, is shaping the next chapter of innovation at Medtronic.