Healthcare >> CEO Interviews >> April 14, 2002

Richard Kramp – Ats Medical Inc (atsi)

RICHARD W. KRAMP, President and Chief Executive Officer of ATS Medical, Inc., joined the company in March 1988. He has 28 years of experience designing, manufacturing and selling medical devices, including heart valves, pacemakers, oxygenators, electrosurgical equipment, catheters and other cardiovascular medical devices. Mr. Kramp holds patents on the first Lithium Powered Demand Pacemaker (1974) and the ATS Medical Heart Valve Prosthesis (1994). Mr. Kramp's employers have included Cardiac Pacemakers (Guidant), Life Instruments, St. Jude Medical, Inc., and ATS Medical, Inc. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering with postgraduate studies in Automatic Control Theory. Mr. Kramp is directly responsible for ATS Medical's Carbon Technology project begun in 2000. Profile
TWST: Could you give us a brief overview of the history and evolution of

the company?

Mr. Kramp: ATS Medical was started in the fall of 1990 by Manuel

Villafaa, myself and a team of six other