Stephen Gunther

Founder, Shoulder Innovations, Inc.

Role: Associate

Site: CDL-Wisconsin

Stream: Health & Wellness

Dr. Stephen Gunther is an academic orthopedic surgeon, inventor, and medical device entrepreneur. He began his academic career as an assistant professor in orthopedic surgery working for UCSF/Stanford Healthcare. Over the past 20+ years, he lectured nationally & internationally, published multiple medical journal articles and book chapters, participated at the leadership level in orthopedic hospitals and societies, and invented novel implants and techniques in minimally invasive surgery. He is the Founder of Shoulder Innovations, Inc. This venture has progressively grown from a novel invention to a start-up to early stage and then to a full VC backed commercial stage medical device company with more than 30M annual revenue. Dr. Gunther has fulfilled roles as scientific design team member and board member. He is the President of the Inset Shoulder Society. He has 15+ issued US and international patents. He is also a burn survivor, an honorary member of the The Center for Patient Advocacy, and a multi-year winner of the Virginia “Best Bedside Manner” award. He was previously the Head Team Physician for the US Canoe & Kayak team, and he worked directly with Olympic athletes at the USOC and USACK. He enjoys sports, family time, teaching, creativity, and mentoring.

Dr. Gunther, originally from Washington D.C, attended Middlebury College and Dartmouth Medical School. He completed orthopedic residency at George Washington University, a shoulder/elbow fellowship in Sydney, Australia, and a sports medicine fellowship at Lake Tahoe, California. Dr. Gunther earned a Teaching Scholar degree at UCSF, and he completed a Surgery Leadership degree at Harvard Medical School/Harvard Business School. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia with his wife and twin boys.