In response to new Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha’s strategic direction in 2020, Carol Surface led a comprehensive operations-model change to increase decision-making speed, better understand customers, and improve agility.

In response to Covid, Surface and her team focused on global employee support, including increasing contributions to the employee emergency assistance fund, which delivered $1 million in need-based grants. She also hired a chief inclusion and diversity officer, helping Medtronic achieve its 2020 DEI goals: 40 percent women in management roles and 24 percent ethnic diversity in U.S. management.