2020 Power 50: Michael F. Mahoney

Michael F. Mahoney, chairman & CEO of Boston Scientific

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Michael F. Mahoney

Title: Chairman & CEO
Company: Boston Scientific
Location: Marlborough
Colleges: University of Iowa & Wake Forest University

Mahoney has made Boston Scientific into a behemoth by going on an acquisition spree.

The Marlborough medical device company has watched its annual revenue jump 50% since Mahoney became president and CEO in 2012, surpassing $10 billion in 2019. A series of purchases was largely responsible for that: a $4-billion deal for British cancer firm BTG and a $465-million acquisition of a California biotech, Vertiflex, last year. Five other deals totaling more than $1.7 billion took place in 2018: the Bedford prostate health firm Augmenix, the Minnesota firm NxThera, and three California firms: Millipede, VENITI and Claret Medical. Boston Scientific did it in part by bucking the trend of stock buybacks.

Under Mahoney, Boston Scientific didn’t spend a dollar on buybacks from 2015 on. Mahoney had proven himself before rising to the top spot at Boston Scientific, having chaired the medical devices and diagnostics division at Johnson & Johnson, overseeing 50,000 employees and seven franchises. He spent 12 years at General Electric Medical Systems of Illinois and six at Global Healthcare Exchange of Colorado, where he was president and CEO. He has served on the board of the Boys & Girls Club of Boston, chaired the board of governors of the Boston College CEO Club, and sat on the American Heart Association CEO roundtable.

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