Executive Leadership

Vladimir Makatsaria is Chief Executive Officer and a Board Member of LivaNova. Prior to LivaNova, he worked for 27 years at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), a multinational pharmaceutical and medical technologies corporation, in executive leadership roles, spanning various technologies and geographies. He most recently served as Company Group Chairman at J&J MedTech where he led Ethicon, a global leader in the surgical technologies market. Other executive positions throughout his J&J tenure include leading J&J China, J&J MedTech APAC, and Ethicon EMEA, among others. He also served on Ethicon, DePuy, and total MedTech global leadership teams. He served as Chairman of the Board of the Asia Pacific Medical Technology Association (“APACMed”) and as an Advisory Board Member to Singapore Management University. 

Mr. Makatsaria holds three degrees from The University of Minnesota: a bachelor’s degree in physiology, an MBA, and a master’s in healthcare administration.

Lucile Blaise is the Global Head of Commercialization, Obstructive Sleep Apnea. An accomplished healthcare executive with more than 25 years of leadership in the medtech sector, she has spent her career specializing in digital health, market access strategy, and transformative business growth across Europe and the United States. She joined LivaNova after 19 years with ResMed, where she held various leadership roles in marketing, sales, and strategy, including Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, President of Sleep & Respiratory Care, and Vice President of Western Europe (Benelux, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and North Africa). Prior to ResMed, she served in multiple corporate management roles in France with companies, including Löwenstein Medical, Thusane, and Medtronic. Her past board experience includes director positions with the Medical Device Innovation Consortium in Washington D.C., MedTech Europe Brussels, and the National Union of the Medical Technologies Industry in France, where she also served as chairperson.

Ms. Blaise holds a bachelor’s degree in International Business from the University of Sheffield in the U.K. and an MBA from Kedge Business School in France.

Stephanie Bolton is President, Global Epilepsy and previously served as President of LivaNova’s International Region. Ms. Bolton joined Cyberonics, a LivaNova legacy company, in 2011, where she moved into sales leadership roles and served as Vice President for multiple European markets. She also spent eight years in the pharmaceutical industry at UCB, Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, and Sankyo Pharma. Ensuring equitable patient access to the latest healthcare technologies is Ms. Bolton’s driving force. As Vice Chair of the Association of British HealthTech Industries, she advocates for sector innovation with government stakeholders. She is active in several women’s network and mentoring groups, and is known for cultivating an open, supportive culture that emphasizes diversity and inclusion.

Ms. Bolton graduated with honors from Coventry University with a degree in physiology.

Philip Kowalczyk is Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer for LivaNova. He joined the Company in August 2024. He possesses an extensive background in creating and executing strategies across the medtech industry. Prior to joining LivaNova, he spent 16 years at Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Medtech, where he served on the global leadership teams for both the Vision and Ethicon subsidiaries. He served as the Vice President of Business Development-Vision, as well as the Head of Asia Pacific Strategy and Business Development in Singapore. In this latter role, Mr. Kowalczyk led teams responsible for developing and executing regional inorganic initiatives, integrating global acquisitions across Asia Pacific, and generating business insights in the region. For Ethicon, he was Head of Global Strategy, Insights & Pricing, as well as Business Development Director. 

Mr. Kowalczyk earned a bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton University and holds an MBA in finance and strategy from The University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business.

 

Natalia Kozmina joined LivaNova in January 2025 as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO). Ms. Kozmina has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the medtech and life sciences sectors in Fortune 100 and FTSE 100 companies.  Prior to joining LivaNova, she served as Executive Vice President, CHRO and ESG Stewardship of Convatec Group PLC (LSE: CTEC) and served in senior human resources leadership roles for Iron Mountain and Smiths Group PLC. She started her career in the pharmaceutical industry as a scientist followed by commercial and general management leadership roles with Abbott and Bristol-Myers Squibb (formerly DuPont-Merck). In April 2024, Ms. Kozmina joined the Board of London-based Carclo PLC as a Non-Executive Director where she chairs the Remuneration Committee and is a member of the Audit and Risk, and Nomination committees.

Ms. Kozmina holds an undergraduate degree in chemistry from M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, a postgraduate degree in chemistry from The Ohio State University, and an MBA from The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.  
 

Sujay Mashru is Senior Vice President of Asia Pacific (APAC) and Growth Markets, where he leads all commercial activities for the APAC, Middle East, Africa, Russia, and Latin American regions. Previously, he served as Vice President of APAC for LivaNova, overseeing the rapid expansion of the business in more than 20 countries. He joined LivaNova in 2012 as part of the Corporate Development team, focusing on corporate strategic planning, mergers, and acquisitions. In 2015, he became Vice President of Commercial Operations for the International Region, where he managed business transformation projects, commercial strategy, channel partner management, and commercial excellence for all business units. Before joining LivaNova, Mr. Mashru spent seven years with Medtronic in its Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management division in commercial and engineering roles.

Mr. Mashru earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from INSEAD (Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires).

Franco Poletti is President, Cardiopulmonary at LivaNova, a position he assumed in July 2024. He began his career more than 30 years ago at Sorin Group, one of LivaNova’s legacy companies, and has since held multiple senior leadership roles. Over the past two decades, he served as Global Product Manager; Vice President, Sales, Europe, and Japan; Vice President, Sales, Europe; Vice President, Sales, Cardiopulmonary Europe; and Interim President, Cardiopulmonary. In addition to Cardiopulmonary, he has overseen other business franchises including Heart Valves, Cardiac Rhythm Management, and Neuromodulation. Mr. Poletti has developed core competencies in product development, market positioning, product launches, and sales execution. His career reflects a strong track record of operational leadership and commercial excellence across global markets.
 
Mr. Poletti graduated from Istituto Tecnico Industriale G. Galilei in Mirandola, Italy. 

Alex Shvartsburg is the Chief Financial Officer of LivaNova, leading finance, accounting, and investor relations. From November 2020 to July 2021, he served as the interim Chief Financial Officer of LivaNova. Prior to his appointment to the role, he led the LivaNova Corporate Financial Planning and Analysis group and was the International Region CFO. Before joining LivaNova in 2017, Mr. Shvartsburg was CFO and Chief Operating Officer of Caligor, a private equity-backed clinical services organization, where he was responsible for the Finance, Operations, Human Resources, and Information Technology functions. Before that, he held finance leadership roles, including the role of CFO, within the Genetic Sciences division at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Senior Finance Director M&A at Life Technologies, and for over 20 years, he held a series of finance roles of increasing responsibility within Johnson & Johnson.

Mr. Shvartsburg earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Drexel University and an MBA from LaSalle University. He is a Certified Management Accountant.

Ahmet Tezel, Ph.D., is Chief Innovation Officer of LivaNova, leading Innovation for our core businesses, OSA, and Depression programs. Dr. Tezel is also responsible for Quality for the Enterprise. He joined the company in May 2024. He has a 20-year track record, guiding teams that have developed market-leading technologies across diverse medical domains from bariatric surgery to surgical ophthalmology. Prior to joining LivaNova, he served as Company Group Chairman at Johnson & Johnson MedTech, leading its Global R&D and Innovation teams. Other R&D career experience includes executive-level positions with Ethicon, Alcon, Inc., and Allergan Inc., where Dr. Tezel developed Class III implantables and complex medical capital equipment. He has an established track record of innovation turnarounds across diverse medical technology platforms. He began his career as an R&D scientist in 2004 at Inamed Corp. in Santa Barbara, California. 

Dr. Tezel earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from Bogazici University in Türkiye and a doctorate in chemical engineering from The University of California-Santa Barbara in the field of transdermal drug delivery and vaccination.