Joseph Knight

Venture Advisor

Joseph Knight is an Executive in Residence in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. He previously spent seven years as the President and CEO of InnAVasc Medical, a medical device company developing novel vascular access treatments for dialysis patients. In 2022, InnAVasc was acquired by W.L. Gore and Associates.

Joe has 20 years of experience in medical device innovation and commercialization. He has been part of the intellectual property development, business, and strategic planning for four different ventures – including iRhythm Technologies (NASDAQ: IRTC; 2022 market cap of $3.5B) and as Founder/CEO of Medici Medical Technologies. Prior to InnAVasc, Joe spent five years at Medtronic in various marketing, business development, and strategy roles. He served as the European Marketing Manager in Switzerland, responsible for ensuring successful launch of four separate technologies related to the CoreValve/Engager product lines within 15+ individual countries in the European Union. In his last role with Medtronic, as the Director of Strategic Marketing, he developed and executed the strategy that led to Medtronic’s $100M acquisition of CardioInsight.

At Duke, Joe is part of the core faculty for the Design Health Program where he teaches multiple courses on medical device innovation. He has also taught marketing at the Fuqua School of Business. Joe served eight years as an infantry soldier in the U.S. Army, reaching the rank of Staff Sergeant and was awarded the Expert Infantryman’s Badge (EIB), among the most prized peacetime decorations. He holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, an M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, an M.S./B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of South Florida and completed Stanford’s Biodesign Innovation Fellowship.

Joe is a co-inventor on numerous patents that have assisted in the care of over 4 million patients. Joe counts his biggest achievement as being the first person in his family to go to college.