Nawana Named DePuy Spine President

DePuy Spine has a new leader.

His name is Namal Nawana. Nawana was appointed to the position of Worldwide President on March 15. He replaces Gary Fischetti, who was promoted to Company Group Chairman for all DePuy franchises in January.

A company spokesperson told OTW via email that Nawana began his career as a research engineer at Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1992, then, serving as a Product Development Engineer with Howmedica International. He has been with Johnson & Johnson and DePuy for more than 13 years, serving in roles in Engineering, Marketing, Sales and General Management in Canada and ASPAC.

In 1997, Nawana joined Johnson & Johnson Orthopaedics as a Technical Support Manager in the UK. He was promoted to Sales Director, DePuy Orthopaedics and Trauma, France and where he led a team that achieved a sales turnaround. In 2004, Namal was promoted to General Manger for DePuy Canada and later was appointed to lead and build the DePuy business in Australia. When promoted to Area Vice President of Johnson & Johnson Medical, Australia and New Zealand in 2009, he assumed responsibility for MD&D (Medical Devices and Diagnostics) franchises in Australia and New Zealand, leading a team of over 700.

He earned Medical Engineering and Master of Medical Science degrees from the University of Adelaide in South Australia and an MBA at Henley Management College in the UK. He also earned a Johnson & Johnson’s Six Sigma PE Black Belt.

Nawana is taking charge of DePuy’s spine business at a time of pushback for some spine procedures from payers, pricing pressure from competitors and a low-single-digit growth rate for the spine market. Some analysts are predicting that market to grow in the 3% to 4% range in 2012.