Leading an Innovative Medical Device Company: Rich Mueller, COO, Life Spine, Inc.

Rich Mueller

COO

Life Spine & Centric Medical

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-mueller-40830015/

Mr. Mueller has successfully brought to market over 150+ products in the medical field, holds 29+ Issued Worldwide Patents, and is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Life Spine, Inc., a privately held innovative spinal implant company, and Centric Medical, Life Spine’s Foot & Ankle implant company.

Previously, Mr. Mueller was Chief Technology Officer then COO at TransEnterix, Inc. where he restarted the company, developed the first in market patient side surgical robot for general surgery, listed the company on the NYSE MKT board (TRXC) and raised >$200M.  Mr. Mueller also served as Vice President of Product Development at NuVasive Inc. (NASDAQ: NUVA), a publicly traded spinal device company whose rapid growth was fueled by product innovations.  Mr. Mueller saw the development and launch of >100 novel products that fueled growth from $10M to >$750M during his tenor.  Additionally, he was Director of Research and Product Development at Theken Spine, an Akron Ohio spine start-up, later acquired by Integra Life Sciences.  He has also worked in R&D and Manufacturing for Volk Optical, an ophthalmic medical device company that was acquired by Halma, Procter & Gamble, and AcroMed (acquired by J&J Depuy Spine).  Mr. Mueller is also the Founder & owner of ION VISION, Inc., an ophthalmic medical device company that he started in 2003.

Mr. Mueller attended CWRU from 1990 – 1995 graduating with a BS Mechanical Engineering, Minor in Economics, where he played basketball for Coach Bill Sudeck and was a Cooperative Engineer at AcroMed.  He has been a board member and Chair of the Mechanical & Aerospace Department Advisory Board since 2009, CWRU Alumni Admission Ambassador since 2012 and started and funded the Joseph Prahl Scholarship Fund in 2018. In June of 2021, Mr. Mueller joined the Case Western Reserve University Board of Trustees.

Mr. Mueller is married to Megan Riva Mueller, CWRU BSRN 1995, and have 3 children Richie (19), Michael (18), and Marley (14) residing in a Chicago suburb St. Charles IL. In his spare time, Mr. Mueller enjoys driving more than fixing his classic car collection.