Sherry Farrugia is an innovative health care and life sciences executive who excels at driving growth for new products while also creating return on investment for stakeholders. She brings significant expertise in using strategy to create solutions that were previously unimagined while also appropriately managing risk. As CEO of the Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI), she positioned the organization to serve industry in addition to academia, leading to the commercialization of numerous medical devices. By creating new programs, new pricing models and new partnerships for GCMI, she built a repeatable revenue stream that produced record revenues. Further she leveraged this success to sell GCMI, a non-profit state/academic affiliate, to an industry partner, Veranex, thus creating a company that enhances Atlanta’s reputation as the LifeScience hub of the Southeast. She currently serves as Senior Vice President at Veranex an end to end service provider for medical device companies where she leads preclinical services for North America.

Sherry built from the ground up and led for seven years the Pediatric Technology Center (PTC) at Georgia Tech in partnership with Children’s HealthCare of Atlanta (CHOA) and Emory School of Medicine. She created an organization that allowed engineers and clinicians to understand each other’s world which led to innovative solutions in the area of pediatric care. By showing donors a healthy ROI, PTC was able to create new devices to extend the life of children and grow funding by a factor of 4. Due to Sherry’s leadership, PTC is now a sustainable organization that has delivered multiple patents and over 90 funded projects while also substantially improving the brand recognition of CHOA as a national medical center for children.

Sherry won the President’s Award for Excellence in Multidisciplinary Team Research and has been a six-time winner of the Georgia Bio Award. She was also named Women of the Year in Technology in 2018. She is sought-after speaker on the topics of medical device commercialization and creating public-private partnerships designed to thrive. She was a founding member of the International Society of for Pediatric Innovation and currently serves on their Board. Further she has held numerous board and advisory board positions including Medical University of South Caroline (MUSC) Innovation Board, Atlanta Ronald McDonald House, TAG Health, and most recently Morris, Manning, & Martin Technology Advisory Council.

Sherry holds a Bachelor’s of Science from Auburn University in Chemistry. She also attended the University of Oxford where she received a Certificate in Global Innovation. She lives in Atlanta where she enjoys spending time with family, reading and gardening