BOSTON SCIENTIFIC (South Tipperary)

Conor Russell, Vice President Operations, Boston Scientific, Clonmel

Boston Scientific has three strategic locations here, Galway, Cork and Clonmel, and employs over 5,500 people. Here in Clonmel, we are in operation since 1998 and we primarily focus on long-term implantable electronic devices such as pacemakers, defibrillators, spinal cord stimulators and deep brain stimulators. In its 21 years, the Clonmel site has expanded and grown and today employs over 1,000 employees in areas such as product development, manufacturing operations, capital equipment repair, supply chain and distribution.

These medical devices are highly innovative and transform patients’ lives every day around the world. From our defibrillator device that delivers lifesaving therapy to our cardiac patients when they need it most, to our deep brain stimulation device that delivers an electrical stimulus to the brain to alleviate the involuntary muscle movements associated with Parkinson’s disease, it is easy to see why our work is important. Here at the site, we often say that it is a privilege to work in this industry where we have such a profound impact on patients’ lives. With that privilege is also a responsibility to deliver the highest quality products for our patients.

Our success depends on having a culture where people are highly engaged and are enabled to do their best work. The devices we design and manufacture are complex and require people with strong technical and business skills that can collaborate strongly with other teams across the globe. We are constantly focused on continuously developing our employees and we work closely with our educational partners in the region to develop the technical and leadership capabilities of our people, so they are always learning and stretching to take on the next challenge.

Boston Scientific has invested in Clonmel for many reasons but primarily because of our ability to attract and retain top talent. Clonmel and the surrounding region offers a great quality of life. With affordable housing, high-quality schools and access to many different sports clubs and outdoor amenities such as the recently opened Suir Blueway, it’s easy to see why people choose to relocate to this area and while most of our employees live locally, we have also a significant number of people who take on a relatively short commute from the surrounding areas of Kilkenny, Cork, Waterford and Limerick. Ireland is also recognised as one of the top five global medtech hubs in the world with 38,000 people employed. This has enabled a growing medtech ecosystem to develop through indigenous, startup, academia and the multinational sector, and it will be through this collective strength that the whole industry, as well as Boston Scientific, will continue to lead at a global level within the medtech industry.