Steve Mapa earned an engineering management degree at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He served in the Army during the first Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, as a second lieutenant. After active duty, looking for work, he found his military leadership experience didn’t register with private sector employers. At the time, in the early 1990s, programs to help veterans shift to private sector positions didn’t exist. “It was really quite the challenge to transition and find a career with purpose,” Steve told me on the Medtech POV podcast.
Steve found work at a chemical company, where he learned sales, and eventually, switched to medtech, with a position at GE Healthcare. His West Point classmate Mike Minogue, recently retired as Abiomed CEO, helped him network in the industry. Steve saw parallels between the sense of higher purpose in the military – serving the country – and medtech, serving patients. Hearing from patients how they were able to enjoy life’s milestones was the best part of working in medtech. Steve felt fortunate to have a mentor ease his transition into a rewarding medtech career.
Now, Steve feels fortunate to lead an organization that he didn’t have for his own career transition. MedTechVets offers the training and mentorship necessary to connect military veterans with medtech positions. The MedTechVets training academy has a 95 percent job placement rate and an 84 percent retention rate. It’s the kind of program Steve is well-suited to lead toward continued success as the new president and executive director of MedTechVets.
To learn more about MedTechVets and hear the full conversation with Steve Mapa, download the Medtech POV podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever podcast streaming is available.
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