Senior Manager
Medtronic, Inc.
Heather Orser is the senior manager for the Applied Research team in the Research and Core Technology group. In this role, she is responsible for ensuring appropriate scope and assessment of early stage research efforts with a goal of translating work into future products. This team is focused on ensuring that Medtronic is able to advance therapy in a meaningful way for patients and the businesses we serve. Heather joined Medtronic as a Principal Engineer in 2010 where she was responsible for assessing MRI safety of neuromodulation products. In 2014, Heather transitioned to leading a DARPA program to assess the ability to improve memory using electrical stimulation. In this work, Heather led a cross functional team to deliver a product to our research partners and led overall work related to government contracting. Prior to joining Medtronic, Heather worked at IBM in integrated circuit design and system integration for fiberoptic transceivers. Heather earned her bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Minnesota State University, Mankato and her MSEE and PhD from the University of Minnesota. She is currently working towards her Executive Master’s in Science and Technology Leadership at Brown University.