William "Bill" A. Hawkins (born 1954) was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Medtronic

Medtronic

Medtronic, Inc. , based in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the world's largest medical technology company and is a Fortune 500 company.- History :...

 from 2008 until 2011.

Early life

Hawkins received a bachelors of science degree in electrical and biomedical engineering from Duke University

Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

 in 1976. He also earned an MBA from University of Virginia's

University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

 Darden School of Business

Darden Graduate School of Business Administration

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business is the graduate business school associated with the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Darden School is one of the world's leading business schools, offering MBA, Ph.D. and Executive Education programs...

 in 1982.

Career

Following his graduation from Duke, Hawkins began his medical technology career with Carolina Medical Electronics in 1977. Prior to joining Medtronic in 2002, Hawkins was the President and CEO of Novoste from 1998 to 2002.

Hawkins is a member of the Board of Visitors of Duke's engineering school

Edmund T. Pratt Jr. School of Engineering

The Edmund T. Pratt Jr. School of Engineering is one of two undergraduate schools at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, USA. The other is the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. It is also one of ten graduate and professional schools at Duke...

.