William Hawkins

William A. Hawkins III E'76
Mr. Hawkins is retired Chairman and CEO of Medtronic and currently a corporate director serving on public and private boards as well as non-for-profit boards. He was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering and is an AIMBE Fellow.
Mr. Hawkins assumed the role of CEO of Medtronic, one of the worlds' largest and most innovative medical technology companies in 2007 and became Chairman of the Board in 2008. He retired from Medtronic in June of 2011. Following Medtronic Mr. Hawkins joined TPG Capital and subsequently became the CEO of Immucor. He stepped down from Immucor in 2016 to work in Private Equity and to serve on various Boards.
Prior to Medtronic, Mr. Hawkins served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Novoste Corp. Nasdaq (NOVT) and held senior leadership positions at American Home Products, Johnson & Johnson, Guidant Corp., and Eli Lilly & Co. He began his medical technology career with Carolina Medical Electronics in 1977.
He is a Senior Advisor to EW Healthcare Partners, a leading private equity firm investing in life sciences. He is Chairman of the Board of Bioventus (BVS: Nasdaq) and on the Board of Virtue Labs, Baebies, Cereius, Cirtec Medical, Biogen (BIIB: NASDAQ), MiMedX (NASDAQ: MDXG) and lead director of Immucor. He is on the Global Advisory Board of Home Instead, Senior Care. Mr. Hawkins was elected to the Duke University Board of Trustees in 2011 and currently serves on the Executive Committee, Audit and Compliance Committee, and External Engagement Committee. Mr. Hawkins is Chair of the Board of the Duke University Health System. He is a member of the NC Biotech board and serves on the Board of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation Society.
Mr. Hawkins also serves as a Member of the Advisory Boards at Arboretum Ventures, Hatteras Venture Partners, HealthQuest Ventures, and past member of A*STAR SERC Cluster Advisory Board in Singapore, and the Biomedical Research Council of Singapore.