Sanaz has a unique combination of technical leadership and marketing expertise. While at Medtronic as an R&D Engineering Manager, she led a cross-company team to develop two cardiovascular medical devices through all phases of innovation – from inception to commercial launch. This includes needs finding, concept generation, device design, product development, high volume manufacturing, and global commercial launch. Medtronic’s decision to invest in the coronary therapy delivery space with the development of these two new products stemmed directly from a global needs finding initiative led by Sanaz in partnership with IDEO. She played a critical role in conducting the research, synthesizing a strategy, and gathering organizational support to create multiple new product development programs.

Beyond her technical leadership capabilities, Sanaz also has a critical understanding of the medical device industry business needs, customer interface, and commercialization process. As a Product Marketing Manager at Medtronic, Sanaz helped drive the global launch of these two cardiovascular medical devices with a $250M market size. In addition to engineering, marketing, and leadership roles in public companies, including Medtronic and Becton Dickinson, Sanaz also has experience in technical and strategic consulting to start-ups, venture capital firms, and non-profit organizations.

Sanaz has expertise in the Stanford BioDesign Process to identify unmet healthcare needs and develop solutions. Sanaz holds a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Stanford University, a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, and a B.S. in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley. She is an inventor and published author on 10 patents and scientific publications, and an invited speaker at various conferences, including Cardiovascular Research Technologies and MedTech Vision highlighting female leaders within the medtech industry.