Executive Staff

Gary S. Guthart, Ph.D. joined Intuitive Surgical in April 1996. Effective January 2010, Dr. Guthart was appointed as Chief Executive Officer. In July 2007, he was promoted to President. Prior to that, in February 2006, Dr. Guthart assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Intuitive, Dr. Guthart was part of the core team developing foundation technology for computer enhanced-surgery at SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute). Dr. Guthart is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Affymetrix, Inc. He received a B.S. in Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Engineering Science from the California Institute of Technology.

Lonnie M. Smith joined Intuitive Surgical as Chief Executive Officer in June 1997 from Hillenbrand Industries, where he was Senior Executive Vice President. Mr. Smith joined Hillenbrand in 1978 and during his tenure he was also a member of the Executive Committee, the Office of the President and the Board of Directors. Mr. Smith has also held positions with The Boston Consulting Group and IBM Corporation. Mr. Smith received his B.S.E.E. from Utah State University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. In January 2010, Mr. Smith resigned as the Chief Executive Officer of Intuitive Surgical. Mr. Smith remains as the Chairman of the Board as well as an executive officer of the Company. Mr. Smith also currently serves on the boards of directors of several private companies.

Jerome J. McNamara joined Intuitive Surgical in April 1999. In July 2007, Mr. McNamara was promoted to Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Marketing. Prior to joining Intuitive Surgical, Mr. McNamara was the Vice President at Valleylab. Prior to Valleylab, Mr. McNamara worked at United States Surgical Corporation for nearly 17 years where he held positions in senior sales management, marketing and national accounts. Mr. McNamara graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Biology.

Jim Alecxih joined Intuitive Surgical in September 2000 as Area Sales Manager, Texas and Central U.S. He was promoted to Director, National Accounts, in September 2002; to Director, Southeast U.S., in May 2003 and to Vice President, Eastern Area Sales in October 2003. He was then promoted to Vice President, US Sales in January 2007 and to Senior Vice President, Sales – Americas/Australia in January 2010. Prior to joining Intuitive Surgical, Mr. Alecxih was a Regional Business Director for Indigo, the start-up urology division of Johnson & Johnson. Before joining Indigo, Mr. Alecxih worked as a Sales Representative for UltraCision, the start-up medical device manufacturer that developed the Harmonic Scalpel. Prior to this, he worked for Automated Instruments, a Division of U.S. Surgical. Mr. Alecxih received his B.A. in Business from LeTourneau University in Longview, TX

Salvatore J. Brogna joined Intuitive Surgical as Director, Mechanical Engineering, in 1999 and was promoted to Vice President, Engineering in 2005. In 2010, Mr. Brogna was promoted to the position of Senior Vice President, Product Development. Prior to joining Intuitive, Mr. Brogna led design and development of complex robotic systems at Adept Technology and at Unimation. Mr. Brogna is a graduate of Clarkson University where he earned a BS and a MS in Mechanical Engineering.

Augusto V. Castello joined Intuitive Surgical in May of 2002 from US Surgical, where he was General Manager for their Puerto Rico manufacturing operations from 1998 to 2002. He was promoted to Senior Vice President, Product Operations in 2009. During his 10 years at US Surgical, Mr. Castello acted in the capacity of Engineering Director, Materials Director, Manufacturing Director and General Manager. Prior to US Surgical, Mr. Castello acted as Operations Manager for Clayton Industries and Engineering Manager for Ormco/Sybron. Mr. Castello received a BSME from California State University at Long Beach.

Mark J. Meltzer joined Intuitive Surgical in December 2007. Prior to joining Intuitive Surgical, Mr. Meltzer served as General Counsel of FoxHollow Technologies Inc. from October 2004. Prior to FoxHollow, Mr. Meltzer served as General Counsel for Epicor Medical Inc. and Ventritex Inc. Mr. Meltzer graduated cum laude from UC Berkeley with a B.S. in electrical engineering. He received his J.D. from UC Hastings where he served on the law review. Mr. Meltzer, a registered patent attorney, was appointed as a special master in federal court where he assisted in the evaluation and administration of complex patent cases. Mr. Meltzer has tried cases to juries and has argued before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. His pro bono work has included the representation of indigents and non-profits before courts and administrative agencies and volunteer service in federal anti-poverty programs.

Marshall L. Mohr joined Intuitive Surgical in March 2006. Prior to that, Mr. Mohr was Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Adaptec, Inc. Prior to joining Adaptec in July 2003, Mr. Mohr was an Audit Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers where he was most recently the Managing Partner of the firm’s west region technology industry group and led its Silicon Valley accounting and audit advisory practice. Mr. Mohr received his B.B.A. in Accounting and Finance from Western Michigan University. Mr. Mohr serves on the corporate board of Plantronics, Inc and Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc.

Colin Morales joined Intuitive Surgical in March 1999 as Director of Field Service. He was promoted to Vice President of the Customer Support Group in July 2005. In 2010, Mr. Morales was promoted to the position of Senior Vice President, Customer Support and is responsible for Field Service, Products Support, Order Management and Customer Service Operations. Prior to joining Intuitive, Mr. Morales was with Acuson for more than 13 years, where he held various management positions in field and customer service. Mr. Morales received his associate’s degree from The DeVry Institute of Technology in Phoenix, Arizona.

David J. Rosa joined Intuitive Surgical in March 1996 and has held leadership positions in engineering, clinical development, marketing and product development. In 2011, Mr. Rosa was promoted to the position of Senior Vice President, Emerging Procedures & Technology. Prior to joining Intuitive, Mr. Rosa contributed to the development of trans-esophageal transducers for Acuson Corporation. Mr. Rosa graduated magna cum laude with a BSME from California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo. He also holds a MSME from Stanford University.

Myriam J. Curet, MD joined Intuitive Surgical in December 2005 as Chief Medical Advisor. During this time she also held a faculty position as Professor of Surgery at Stanford University. Since October 2010 she has served as a Consulting Professor of Surgery at Stanford University with a part time clinical appointment at the Palo Alto Veteran's Administration Medical Center. Dr. Curet received her MD from Harvard Medical School and completed her general surgery residency program at the University of Chicago. She then worked for the Indian Health Service for four years before finishing her Surgical Endoscopy fellowship at the University of New Mexico. She was on the faculty at the University of New Mexico for six years prior to joining the Stanford University Department of Surgery in 2000.

Aleks Cukic joined Intuitive Surgical in September 2001. Prior to joining Intuitive, Mr. Cukic worked for United States Surgical Corporation for 12 years and held senior positions in sales, business development and in marketing management for both the parent company and its Valleylab Division. He also worked for JHK Investments, a Connecticut based investment group, in a strategic planning capacity. Mr. Cukic holds a BS in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Frank Grillo joined Intuitive Surgical in August 2008, as Vice President, Business Development, and became Vice president, Marketing and Business Development in November 2008. Prior to joining Intuitive, Mr. Grillo worked for Kyphon / Medtronic since January 2006, most recently as Vice President, Marketing and Business Development. Prior to Kyphon, Frank worked for Boston Scientific Corporation, where he held the positions of Vice President, Marketing, Women's Health, Urology/Gynecology Division from May 2002 through January 2006, and Vice President, Marketing, New Modalities, Urology Division from March 2000 through April 2002. Prior to his roles in marketing, Frank was the Director of New Business Development for the cardiology and drug delivery groups at Boston Scientific from September 1996 through February 2000. Mr. Grillo holds an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Business at Northwestern University and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University.

Nancy L. Hill joined Intuitive Surgical in April 2011. Prior to joining Intuitive Surgical, Inc., Ms. Hill was the Vice President, Worldwide Human Resources at LifeScan, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson medical device company providing blood glucose monitoring and insulin delivery devices, from 2002 to 2011. Ms. Hill has over 20 years of Human Resources experience , including a broad range of HR leadership roles at Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI), Tandem Computers and several start-up companies (CoSine Communications, Inc. and ParcPlace-Digitalk). Ms. Hill received a B.A. degree in English and Communications at Bowling Green State University and is a Certified Executive Coach. She has a passion for people and has demonstrated HR leadership by growing global companies, developing leaders and building exceptional teams.

Angela Wonson joined Intuitive Surgical in October 2012 as Vice President, Communications. Most recently, Ms. Wonson was Executive Vice President and Director of Healthcare Media at Weber Shandwick. Prior to that, she held the position of Senior Vice President, National Healthcare Media for Edelman Public Relations in New York. In 2001, Ms. Wonson became the Cleveland Clinic’s first Chief Communications Officer where she built the national and international media relations programs including the Cleveland Clinic News Service, which distributes daily breaking news to health and science journalists globally. Ms. Wonson graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Communications from University of California, San Diego and holds a Master in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.