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6 n e w h a v e n B I Z | F e b r u a r y 2 0 2 3 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m C o r n e r O f f i c e H o l l y S h e f f i e l d President CooperSurgical Education: Bachelor's degree, Cornell University; MBA, Columbia Business School Age: 52 By Norman Bell F rom a corner office in Trumbull, Holly Shef- field leads a workforce of 3,000 spread across 26 locations around the world. She's the president of CooperSurgical, a medical equipment and health services com- pany that's turning more than $1 billion a year in revenue. CooperSurgical forms the eastern branch of e Cooper Cos., paired with California-based Cooper- Vision, a power in the optical-lens market. Together, they form a specialty healthcare firm that generated $3.3 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2022, which ended Oct. 31. Yet, CooperSurgical is better known on New York's Wall Street than on New Haven's Church Street. A little more local recognition would be "nice," Sheffield acknowledges. CooperSurgical occupies 267,000 square feet of leased space in Connecticut, including about 77,000 square feet in its Trumbull headquarters at 75 Corporate Drive. It also has 190,000 square feet of distribution, manufacturing and engineering space in two other Trumbull build- ings at 95 and 50 Corporate Drive. CooperSurgical's roots stretch back 50 years when it began manufacturing surgical equipment for the obstetrics and gynecology fields. Today, Cooper's catalog is extensive and includes about 600 medical devices. Many are manufactured at the main design and production center in Trum- bull where CooperSurgical employs about 500. But the largest driver of its 21st-century growth has come from IVF — in vitro fertilization — and contraception. Cooper opened its California Cryo- bank in the late 1990s for eggs storage. Its offering in contraception — Paragard — is an intrauterine device. A series of acquisitions in recent years have accel- erated the growth. And in October, Cooper expanded its reach in genomics research with a multiyear deal with BioSkryb Genomics. Integrating components e acquisitions of Generate Life Sciences in late 2021 and Cook Medical's reproductive health busi- ness in 2022 are major building blocks that comple- ment and diversify Cooper's business, Sheffield says. Privately held Generate is a leader in supplying donor eggs and sperm for fertility treatments. It also brings cryogenic preservation technology for storing eggs and stem cells from cord blood and cord tissue. e Cook Medical deal brings minimally invasive medical devices in the fertility, obstetrics and gyne- cology fields. Sheffield expresses unbridled enthusiasm for the potential of the additions but cautions that 2023 will be a year largely focused on integrating the new components — and about 600 new employees — into Sheffield, a voice for women's health, leads Trumbull's CooperSurgical through acquisitions, growth CooperSurgical President Holly Sheffield speaks with attendees at the grand opening of the company's life sciences Innovation Center in Houston, Texas. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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