Autonomic Technologies Appoints New Chief Commercialization Officer

Autonomic Technologies Inc. (ATI) has appointed Karl Schweitzer as chief commercialization officer. In this new role, Schweitzer will lead the company’s global sales and marketing efforts, bringing therapies to physicians and their patients who suffer from severe and disabling headaches.

Schweitzer has more than 25 years experience in the field of medical devices. For the past nine years, he was vice president at Medtronic Inc., most recently serving as a member of the global leadership team within the company’s $2 billion neuromodulation business. During his tenure as vice president and international general manager, Medtronic launched the first posture adaptive neurostimulator for pain, the first rechargeable neurostimulator in DBS for movement disorders, obtained approval for several new indications and expanded its direct presence in international markets. Prior to that role Schweitzer served as vice president for the company’s Cardiac Surgery division. He came to Medtronic from Boston Scientific Inc., where he was vice president for the central and eastern European region. Previously Schweitzer held senior leadership roles at Eli Lilly’s Medical Devices division, which later became Guidant Corp.

“Karl brings an impressive track record of driving growth at multinational medical device companies that have consistently maintained their leading positions in their markets,” said Ben Pless, president/CEO of ATI. “We are pleased to have such an accomplished executive join ATI, and we look forward to continued growth under his capable leadership.”

Schweitzer received his master of Business Administration degree from INSEAD in Fontainebleau (near Paris, France), Doctor of Law degree from the University of Vienna (Switzerland), and Master in Business Informatics degree from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Autonomic Technologies develops and commercializes therapies for the treatment of severe headaches. The company’s initial product, the ATI Neurostimulation system, is CE marked in Europe for the treatment of cluster headache. The system currently is being investigated in a multi-center, randomized study for the treatment of high frequency, high disability migraine.