PRESIDENT, SURGICAL VISION
NORTH AMERICA JOHNSON & JOHNSON
WHY: Veteran of the eye health industry with nearly 20 years of experience across vision-focused companies. Oversees subsidiary of J&J’s $5.5B Vision business that was made through a $4.3B acquisition of Abbott Medical Optics. Manufactures products for cataract and laser refractive surgery with R&D lab in Irvine. Returned to J&J after working at Alcon and Carl Zeiss Meditec AG because she saw company expanding into new patient segments.
IN THE NEWS: J&J in March announced FDA approval of TECNIS PureSee IOL with extended depth of focus. Said to be the first and only approved extended depth of focus IOL with no loss of contrast sensitivity, or a patient’s ability to tell an object apart from its background. Will be available to U.S. patients later this year.
NOTABLE: Comes from family deeply rooted in ophthalmologists. Father, Dr. Steve Schallhorn, is world-renowned ophthalmologist while sister also practices in San Francisco. Powers holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and the London Business School. First job out of college was in marketing at Santa Clarabased Visx, a provider of laser correction services that got bought by AMO for $1.3B in 2004 and is now part of J&J Vision’s portfolio.
IN HER WORDS: “A lot of innovation is happening here, and many ophthalmic companies have centers here for that exact reason.”
