Pete Schommer is the President and CEO of Surgenti Consulting LLC, a strategic advisory company formed in 2023 to help venture capital and private equity-backed medical device companies by providing coaching, mentoring, strategic advice, and access to a network of experts. With his background in Operations, M&A, and Marketing, he can cover an uncommon breadth and depth of challenges, making him a “Swiss Army Knife” in his ability to help businesses.
With over twenty-five years of experience in the medical device industry, Pete has a record of leading highly successful teams for Kendall Healthcare, U.S. Surgical, Tyco Healthcare, Covidien, and Medtronic. He’s led Logistics, Mergers and Acquisitions, and Marketing teams at the Senior Director and Vice President levels. Much of his experience has been working in global roles where the majority of revenue was generated outside the U.S. His experiences include international acquisitions, innovative product launches, supply chain redesign, and revitalizing mature product lines.
Pete’s career in healthcare began in 1997 as a Supply Chain Planner for Kendall Healthcare in Massachusetts. For the next ten years, he worked in Logistics for Kendall Healthcare, U.S. Surgical, and Tyco Healthcare, culminating in a role as Vice President of Logistics where he oversaw the move of the distribution center from Connecticut to Joliet, IL, along with a significant upgrade to the warehouse management systems. He also played a key role in selecting the company’s forecasting software package as part of their ERP strategy. In 2008, he took on the role of Vice President, Mergers, Acquisitions, and Integrations for the Surgical Devices business at Covidien in Connecticut. In that role, he led the integration of Tissue Science Labs and powerful Medical Interventions. He also negotiated the purchase and oversaw the integration of Covidien’s Irish distributor, Healthcare 21. Success in those projects led to a role as Vice President, Marketing, Wound Closure, where he launched the innovative V-LocTM barbed suture, led an assessment of the competitiveness of the portfolio that resulted in reinvestment in the products and filled several portfolio gaps, and led the successful sale of the biosurgery product line to Integra Life Sciences. With the acquisition of Covidien by Medtronic, Pete took on a role supporting the launch of the HugoTM RAS System, the first major competitor to Intuitive Surgical. He developed the Go First strategy to launch in Chile, Panama, and India while waiting for CE Mark and sold the first three robots for the company. As the robot launched, he moved into a new role as the leader of a team of clinical specialists. During the pandemic, he hired and trained the first ninety specialists in diverse markets, from Chile to Japan to the EU. He left Medtronic in May 2023 to found Surgenti Consulting, LLC.
In addition to his work in Medical Devices, Pete is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Connecticut, where since 2006 he has taught OPIM 5110, a survey course in Operations Management. He has experience with in-person learning, distance learning, and online learning formats.
Pete graduated with Honors and with Merit from the United States Naval Academy, earning a Bachelor of Science degree. He went on to earn a Master’s in History from Norwich University and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Connecticut, finishing with a 4.0 GPA and being inducted as a student fellow into the university’s Hall of Fame. Since 1999, he’s maintained his Certification in Production and Inventory Management from APICS.