Surgalign Appoints Executive Vice President, Digital Surgery

Surgalign Spine Technologies has expanded its C-Suite team, appointing Marc Mackey as executive vice president of Digital Surgery, effective immediately.

“As an organization, we are highly focused on harnessing technology to make digital surgery a reality that delivers better outcomes to patients, surgeons and medical centers,” said CEO Terry Rich. “Our vision goes well beyond robotics, record keeping and post-op analysis. We are building a platform that will support surgeons before, during and after each surgery by anticipating, tracking progress to plan, recognizing anatomy, including the uniqueness of each patient and learning as it goes.”

In the newly created position, Mackey will report directly to Rich and lead the company’s efforts to redefine and lead digital surgery. 
 
Mackey will assume leadership of an interdisciplinary digital surgery team formed when Surgalign acquired Chicago-based private technology company Holo Surgical Inc. and its revolutionary Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence (ARAI™) platform in September 2020. The team, today housed in Surgalign offices around the world, consists of clinicians, engineers, technologists and medical device veterans all tasked with reimagining what might be possible when cutting edge technology is thoughtfully and robustly applied to modern surgical practices.
 
“Surgalign caught my eye when it acquired Holo Surgical. As I spoke with the executive team and had a closer look at the company, not only did I see an executive team and board committed to success in the space, but there is universal alignment around a vision for what the future of medicine and surgery should look like that aligns almost perfectly with my own,” said Mackey. “The chance to be a meaningful contributor to advancing the possibilities of digital surgery was an opportunity I could not pass up.”
 
Mackey will collaborate closely with Dr. Kris Siemionow, M.D., Ph.D., Surgalign’s chief medical officer and a board-certified spine surgeon, and Prof. Cristian Luciano, Ph.D., a virtual and augmented reality expert. Both are co-founders of Holo Surgical.
 
“When we acquired Holo Surgical last year, we knew we needed a special kind of executive with the right experience, a track record of success and forward vision to lead the development of digital surgery here at Surgalign,” added Rich. “In Marc Mackey, that is exactly what we’ve found, and we are thrilled to bring him aboard.”
 
Mackey joins Surgalign with more than 25 years of orthopedic and surgical enabling technology experience across the spectrum of business functions, including product development and strategic marketing, business development, corporate strategy, technology innovation, and post-acquisition portfolio integration. He spent more than 20 years at Brainlab, leading the orthopedic division prior to its acquisition by Smith+Nephew in 2019. When that acquisition closed, Mackey led the integration and assumed leadership of the digital surgery and robotics division. He began his career as a life sciences research engineer in the space shuttle program and started his medical device career in sales of neurosurgical robotics.
 
Mackey earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Purdue University and a master’s degree in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego. He will be based in San Diego, Calif.