Johns Hopkins to host conversation with Becton Dickinson CEO Tom Polen

Alexander Triantis, dean of the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, will host Tom Polen, chairman, CEO, and president of Becton, Dickinson and Company—and a graduate of the Carey Business School's MBA program—for a virtual conversation on Tuesday, Nov. 7, as part of the Johns Hopkins Health Policy Forum.

BD is an $18 billion global medical technology company committed to developing innovative technologies, services, and solutions in health care. It makes more than 37 billion devices annually and serves nearly 200 countries around the world.

Image caption: Tom Polen

The discussion will begin at noon and cover a range of topics, including how BD is transforming health care delivery and chronic disease outcomes, how the company addresses unmet needs in health care, and what it takes to keep health care secure in the supply chain. Johns Hopkins faculty, staff, students, alumni, and members of the general public are invited to tune in to the event; advance registration is required.

"Health care innovation is a key differentiator in access to, and quality of, care," Triantis said. "BD is a global leader in health care delivery, from supply chain to automation technologies to chronic disease outcomes around the world. This conversation is a rare opportunity to hear how one alumnus is leading it all."

Since 2009, Polen has served as president of several worldwide business units within BD's Life Sciences segment and later as president of the BD Medical segment, during which he led the $12 billion acquisition of CareFusion, spearheading the company's expansion into informatics and digital health solutions. In 2017, Polen led the strategy for the $24 billion acquisition of C. R. Bard, Inc. and shortly thereafter was named president and chief operating officer of BD. Polen became CEO in January 2020 and chairman of the board of directors in April 2021. He received his MBA from Johns Hopkins.

Polen is the 10th expert to participate in the Johns Hopkins Health Policy Forum series, which launched in fall 2020 to highlight the university's engagement with key leaders on matters of health policy and health care. Previous events featured:

• Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (October 2020)
• Rochelle P. Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (May 2021)
• Robert M. Davis, CEO and president of Merck (October 2021)
• Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (January 2022)
• Atul Gawande, assistant administrator of the Bureau for Global Health at the U.S. Agency for International Development (April 2022)
• Donna Shalala, former HHS secretary and member of Congress (June 2022)
• Xavier Becerra, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (December 2022)
• Michelle Lujan Grisham, governor of New Mexico (May 2023)
• Sudip Parikh, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (July 2023)

The Health Policy Forum series is jointly hosted by Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health, Carey Business School, and School of Nursing along with Johns Hopkins Medicine.