Since retiring as chief executive from Edwards Lifesciences Corp. two years ago, and chairman this year, Mike Mussallem has completely dedicated himself to the namesake foundation that he co-founded alongside his wife Linda.
Mussallem says that he doesn’t consider calls for outside business consulting or board memberships and prefers to remain focused on the foundation.
“We’re really trying to put all of our focus on making the world a better place, so it keeps us surprisingly busy,” Mussallem told the Business Journal.
The couple publicly launched the Linda and Mike Mussallem Foundation last year to focus on next-generation healthcare innovation, Down syndrome healthcare and integrative health, utilizing Mussallem’s more than two decades worth of knowledge in the medtech industry.
“We’d like to use our experience in healthcare to help others just live a better life,” Mussallem said.
Their newest focus is on congenital heart defects, having launched the Mussallem CHD Alliance in September.
The new initiative, which is still in the early stages, will focus on solutions for people born with congenital heart defects.
While the Mussallems declined to disclose how much the foundation has given to date, their fund dedicated to Down syndrome has contributed more than $25 million “toward programs that elevate dignity, access, and quality of life for people with Down syndrome,” according to the website.”
The foundation reported having $91.5 million in assets as of 2023, according to its most recent 990 data.
The Business Journal’s annual list of the biggest nonprofits in Orange County begins on page 14.
Instilling Culture of Giving
While at Edwards, Mussallem instilled a culture of giving at the company by establishing the Edwards Lifesciences Foundation, which has gifted approximately $190 million globally to date, according to its website.
Mussallem said that they began putting funds aside for their personal foundation beginning around 2016 but didn’t go public with it until last year.
“We couldn’t really give it the energy that it deserves, and now we’re able to really focus,” he said.
Linda and Mike knew they wanted to focus on supporting the Down syndrome community when starting their foundation due to their shared experience of growing up with older brothers with Down syndrome, a commonality they discovered when they met right out of college.
They bonded over how their mothers worked to ensure their brothers, Bob and George, received an education and integrated into their communities.
“Neither had big pocketbooks, but both of them, through sheer love and tenacity, dedicated themselves to lead the charge in each of their own community organizations,” Linda told the Business Journal.
Unsure of where to start, they were introduced to Shelley Hoss of Orange County Community Foundation, the third-largest nonprofit in Orange County with revenue of $233 million.
In 2005, they launched the George and Bob Fund in honor of their brothers’ memory to benefit children and adults with Down syndrome.
Over the years, the fund has made multi-year grants to Advocate Medical Group’s Adult Down Syndrome Center, Ottawa Friendship Village and Bridges Development Foundation with the last two being where Linda’s and Mike’s brothers grew up.
In 2012, the couple began giving grants to Laguna Beach-based Glennwood Housing Foundation, which provides housing and supported living services to 50 adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
“It’s a heart warmer for us,” Linda said.
From there, the couple identified integrative health, which aims to treat the whole person through mind, body and soul, as another area of giving.
They made a grant in 2020 to the University of California, Irvine’s Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute (SSIHI) that paved the way for numerous programs including an integrative cardiology fellowship program and wellness coaching certification program.
“Susan has tremendous vision and drive. We’re proud to be supportive,” said Linda, who serves on the advisory board of the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute.
An additional gift Linda and Mike gave in 2022 named the nutritional education kitchen within the institute after the Mussallems.
Personal Life Update
The couple on Aug. 18 released a personal update on the foundation’s website announcing that Mike has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“I did not share this news more broadly until now because I did not want to distract from the well-planned leadership transition at Edwards or the launch of our foundation and the major initiatives we are working on,” Mike said in a statement.
“Nor do I want to distract from the important work we are doing through the foundation moving forward.”
In the update, Mike said that while he and Linda have previously contributed to ALS-related causes, they “remain steadfast” in advancing the foundation’s key areas in integrative health, Down syndrome and congenital heart defects.
The progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects motor neurons has afflicted other local executives including the late Life Fitness founder and former Chief Executive Augie Nieto and Tom Davin, former CEO of Panda Restaurant Group and 5.11 Tactical. Davin, a good friend of Nieto’s, was involved in his nonprofit Augie’s Quest to Cure ALS. He passed away in September after being diagnosed with ALS a year ago.
Giving Back Locally
Outside of the foundation’s main healthcare focus, Mike and Linda are active supporters of several ocean-related causes in Orange County, particularly in Laguna Beach where they reside.
“We feel fortunate to be in this community and love to provide some local support,” Mike said.
They’ve given to Friends of the Sea Lion, affiliated with the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, as well as Crystal Cove Conservancy, whose mission is to restore and protect Crystal Cove State Park.
The couple also supports Laguna Playhouse, Laguna Art Museum and the Susi Q Senior Center.
One of the foundation’s most recent gifts was to Stanford University’s biodesign program, renaming it the Stanford Mussallem Center for Biodesign. The program’s mission is to develop leaders in biomedical technology innovation through hands-on, project-based activities.
The undisclosed naming gift from the Mussallems will help permanently sustain the center and enable expansions into areas such as policy, life sciences innovation and promoting greater health equity.
“We think what they’re doing is remarkable,” Mike said.
“Rather than starting with a solution and look for a need, they really focus first on identifying and prioritizing the needs then rigorously working through a process to find the very best solutions.”
‘A Spectacular Change in Technology’
After Baxter International Inc. spun off Edwards Lifesciences in 2000, Mike Mussallem led the Irvine-based company for 23 years.
In the 2000s, he oversaw the industry’s pioneering use of a catheter to replace heart valves rather than open heart surgery. There was no eureka moment.
“We had to stop the first trial because early patients didn’t live. We had to do a revamp of the procedure. It was not a straight line,” Mussallem told the Business Journal in 2023.
“There were some very good cases and then not so good.”
Eventually, the European Union in 2007 approved the procedure, followed by the U.S. in 2011.
“It now happens under an hour, no anesthesia. Patients go home within a day,” he said of the current procedure. “It’s a spectacular change in technology.”
During his tenure, he built the company from under $1 billion in annual sales to nearly $6 billion and 20,000 employees.
The stock of Edwards climbed from as low as almost $1 in the early 2000s to over $130 in 2021. The Business Journal named Mussallem its 2022 business executive of the year in the health sector.
It is currently trading at $84.71 and is valued at $49 billion, making it the most valuable public company in Orange County (NYSE: EW).
