BRESCIA, Italy — Jack Springer, the former worldwide general manager of Cordis Endovascular, a unit of Johnson & Johnson (J&J), has been appointed vice president and general manager of Invatec-USA, based in Bethlehem, Pa., a subsidiary of Invatec s.r.l., a leading manufacturer of interventional devices for coronary and peripheral work and RFA equipment. The company is headquartered in Brescia.

Springer joins Invatec from Neuromonics, a start-up company specializing in the treatment of tinnitus, where he had served as president and CEO since 2006.

Before Neuromonics, Springer’s career at Cordis Endovascular began before the Cordis merger with J&J in 1996 and continued until 2006. During that time, he was instrumental in the successful introduction and establishment of a wide range of interventional devices whose revenues currently exceed $500 million annually.

Springer spent four years as an officer in the U.S. Army, serving in several leadership positions within an Air Defense Battalion, after which he began his career in medical devices at Abbott Diagnostics.

Invatec (a contraction of “Innovative Technologies”) was founded by two entrepreneurs, Andrea Venturelli and Stefan Widensohler, in 1996. With its three production sites in Brescia, Italy, and another in Frauenfeld, Switzerland, Invatec competes aggressively in the global interventional markets.

Product systems are developed from proprietary metal-, plastic- and surface-treatment technologies and produced in a vertically integrated manufacturing process independent of outside vendors. This model supports continuous and fast development cycles.

The success of Invatec's initial products led to the company's transformation into one selling both cardiology devices and innovative products in the carotid and peripheral markets. The company is privately held and has approximately 800 employees worldwide.