Maria Koullick, PhD, joins AGA Medical as Senior Director of Clinical Affairs

Life Science Partner recruits former Clinical Affairs Executive at ATS Medical, Inc.

Life Science Partner announces the recruitment of Maria Koullick, PhD, a senior clinical trials executive, to AGA Medical to become Senior Director of Clinical Affairs for the company.  AGA Medical Corporation is a Plymouth, Minnesota based medical device company focused on the development, design, manufacture, and marketing of nitinol-based occlusion devices and accessories for the minimally invasive treatment of cardiovascular defects and peripheral vascular disease.  AGA Medical was recently acquired by St. Jude Medical.

Koullick comes to AGA Medical from ATS Medical, a Minneapolis-based company which was recently acquired by Medtronic.  She directed the strategy and executed the company’s clinical programs for surgical valves, repair products and surgical ablation technologies.  Previously, Koullick held similar roles of increasing responsibility at Medtronic’s Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management and Neurological Divisions.

“Maria has a unique international clinical research trajectory – from the Cardiovascular Surgery Center in Moscow to the National Cardiovascular Surgery Center in Osaka to Medtronic,” noted Tom Callaway, MD, founder and president of Life Science Partner.  “Her metric-driven skills emerge from her PhD in Biomedical Engineering, but she has also demonstrated her ability to build and lead a team that accomplishes difficult goals.  She will serve the company well in its mission to bring lasting improvements for patients with cardiovascular defects and peripheral vascular disease.”

Koullick earned her Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Organic Chemistry from the University of Chemical Technology in Moscow, Russia.  She completed her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the Bakulev Cardiovascular Surgery Center.