Tim Murawski
| Tim Murawski | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | |
| 🏡 Residence | Chicago, IL |
| 🏳️ Nationality | United States |
| 🏫 Education | BBA |
| 🎓 Alma mater | Western Illinois University |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| 🌐 Website | https://augmedics.com/ |
| tim_murawski | |
| tim.murawski.augmedics/ | |
Tim Murawski is a Chicago-based executive businessman in the Medtech field. Tim Murawski, President and Chief Commercial Officer for Augmedics, has been part of the growth of health care and medical technology for the last 30 years, including having a role in the increasing availability of robotic procedures. This type of hardware has made certain surgeries faster, less invasive, and easier to recover from.
The entrepreneur has built several successful medical device startups. He makes sure to regularly present new products and devices to clients as well train employees to sell these products. He also enjoys building partnerships with existing companies to make their products more accessible to health care clients.
Augmedics’ key product is its XVision system, which provides the ability for spine surgeons to use augmented reality to enhance their procedures.
In spring 2020, when many businesses were shutting down, Augmedics was able to raise $15 million in Series B shares, with a big part of the investment made by an employee-owned LLC.
Tim Murawski continues to look forward to the future of medical technology, with an eye on ways to improve surgery and patient outcomes as well as discovering what other products might be under development or need better representation.
Early Life[edit]
Tim Murawski was born June 26, 1961, in the Chicago area. He was the fourth child of five, and both of his parents worked, which he later credited with providing a strong work ethic.
He attended Western Illinois University and earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, focusing on Operations Management and Supervision.
His first job in the health care/medical area was in the purchasing department of a large R&D facility. After meeting many of the vendors, he became interested in their world and thought it would be fun to try life on the other side of the desk and focus on the sales side of new products.
The first sales position Tim Murawski was hired for was selling InterLink Needless IV products as part of Baxter Healthcare’s IV division. This was the early 1990s when many in health care were concerned about HIV/AIDS contagion, and nurses and others wanted to avoid accidental sticks with contaminated needles. Baxter's needless products caught on well. He was Territorial Sales Manager for nearly four years.
Career[edit]
Tim Murawski then moved into a period of startups, beginning with General Surgical Innovations, which sold a variety of health care products. He also stayed in this role for about four years, including positions as Territory Sales Manager and Sales Manager – West. The next venture was with Intuitive Surgical, where, as Director of Sales, he first began to learn about and promote robotic surgery options. As Area Sales Manager and Area Sales Director, he not only had the opportunity to talk to clients about their needs but headed a team of account managers.
This was followed by a role at Hansen Medical, where he was Vice President of Sales and Director of National Accounts. Next was Mazor Robotics, where he returned to promoting robotic surgery options. Here, he had various sales leadership positions such as Vice President of U.S. Accounts and Vice President, Global Renaissance Business.
Each position helped him better educate surgeons and their staff on the value of robotic/augmented procedures and that investment in this technology benefitted everyone. He also suggested ways to improve training so surgeons would be more familiar and comfortable with the products so they could perform more frequent procedures.
Mazor Robotics was acquired by Medtronic in a $1.6 billion transition that Tim Murawski helped put together.
AugMedics[edit]
In 2019, he began his role at Augmedics. This involved building a team to promote these augmented surgical devices to spinal surgeons and hospitals. Company founder Nissan Elimelech, a biomechanical engineer, developed the Xvision Spine System, or XVS, as a way to make it easier for surgeons to see what’s going on in the spine.
The XVS received FDA approval in 2020. The product consists of a transparent headset worn near eye level. Surgeons can see the position of their tools along with an augmented image of the patient’s spine. They are able to look directly at the patient and see this display rather than having to move their head to look at a separate monitor. It also can potentially lead to fewer people in the operating room since the surgeon can now have easier access to the real-time data.
As President, Tim Murawski has said his role is to introduce the product to the American medical establishment. This also includes regular check-ins with his Sales, Marketing, Medical Education, Operations, Products, and Finance managers. This ensures everyone communicates and is familiar with the different products.
At the same time, the management team also likes looking ahead to future trends, whether it’s new products or upgrades to current products.
Tim Murawski also makes it a point to hear from Key Opinion Leaders regularly to learn what people like about its products and what improvements can or should be made.
In fall 2019, the company began raising funds to get XVS out into the world in fall 2019 and planned a second round in spring 2020. But the coming of COVID lockdowns made the prospect of finding investors to raise $15 million appear doubtful. But with support from shareholders AO Invest, Terralab Ventures, and a new employee-created LLC called Aug Management, the goal was met.
Personal Life[edit]
Tim Murawski has been married for 35 years and they live in the Lake Zurich area. During a typical day, he shares that he tries to make it home for dinner each night. He also enjoys waterskiing, tennis, yard work, and spending time with his wife and dog.
