From Minneapolis to Dublin: Izmirlian Students Follow Medtronic Value Chain

This story is part of the Student Voices series, which provides a firsthand perspective of the student experience at Georgetown McDonough.

My name is Varsha Venkatram (BGA’25), and I am a rising senior studying in the Dikran Izmirlian Program in Business and Global Affairs (BGA) program at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business and Walsh School of Foreign Service. I am also pursuing a minor in computer science. As part of the BGA program, I traveled across the Western Hemisphere this May, learning about Medtronic’s global value chain. The experience was unforgettable.

How I Arrived at Georgetown

I am originally from San Jose, California, and at first, I didn’t want to attend Georgetown at all. My older brother went here, too, and I stubbornly wanted to avoid following in his footsteps. But one day, my mom showed me the BGA program – interdisciplinary, a mix of the practical and the academic, small classes, discussion-based, international travel. Say that again – international travel?!

So, I applied to Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, with the hopes of joining the BGA program.

Two years later in my junior year, I went on those very international trips that first piqued my interest. In March of 2024, we traveled to the Dominican Republic, seeking to understand domestic politics and the relationship between business, government, and society. In May, we set off once again, this time following around Medtronic. 

Global Business Operations and Group Projects

Medtronic is the world’s largest medical technology company, headquartered in Ireland. The company produces everything from ventilators to stents to (terrifyingly large) catheters. 

We were first introduced to the company at the start of our Global Business Operations course. Trevor Gunn, vice president of international relations at Medtronic, visited the class in early April and described the company’s mission and products, explaining some of the regulatory and political challenges the company faces. 

From there, we were assigned our project: To create our own medtech company, detailing how it would make an international move. The aim was to understand the complexities of international expansion – weighing different markets, finding suppliers, dealing with regulation, and understanding the financial ramifications. 

Prior to the trip, we presented a draft of our project, which defined the company and laid out the broad strokes of the international expansion. My team’s company specialized in capsule endoscopies (shoutout to my teammates Victoria, Ryan, and Carina), planning a partnership with a German company to create a more sustainable product. 

(Note for future BGA students: In hindsight, it would have been helpful to align our product choice with the products we were going to see in person. For example, one team chose pulse oximeters and were then able to see the real production process and understand the costs during one of our site visits.) 

The Travel: Around the World with 36 Students (and Some Supervision)

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Final exams done, we set off to Minneapolis, Minnesota, the very next day. (Note: The travel is exhausting, so sleep whenever you can!) 

Medtronic used to be headquartered in Minneapolis before relocating to Dublin after acquiring Irish company Covidien in 2015. Our first day of programming involved a series of talks and Q&A sessions with senior leadership at Medtronic, starting off with Valerie Finarty and Greg Smith, who oversee global operations and supply chain, where we had the opportunity to ask anything in relation to our project, coursework, or personal career development. 

We were encouraged to respectfully ask hard-hitting questions, such as “What does it mean to make a fair profit?” and “Was there a motivation for moving to Ireland beyond reducing taxes?” to their C-suite, including CEO Geoff Martha and Jennifer Kirk, global controller and chief accounting officer. To their huge credit, they answered directly and honestly. These first sessions were some of the most valuable to me — we received real answers to real questions from people in positions we aspire toward. 

The next day, we visited our first manufacturing sites in Minneapolis. It was interesting to see how Medtronic facilities in different regions of the world have wildly different capabilities. The Minneapolis and Ireland sites were highly specialized and automated in comparison to the more labor-focused site in Mexico. 

San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico

Off we went to the West Coast, my home! Our day trip to Tijuana, after crossing the land border, (another surreal experience) was centered around manufacturing. We took a gemba (factory floor) walk of both sites in the city, visiting a clean room and covering ourselves head-to-toe with gear to prevent contamination of sensitive medtech products. 

Seeing how a production line works in real life was an unmatched opportunity, but what I took away more was our conversations about genuine business issues. The Tijuana plant used to be owned by Covidien, and we learned about the on-the-ground impacts of mergers and acquisitions, transfer pricing between the United States and Mexico, and the impact of trade agreements, which restricted the locations the plant could ship to.  

Dublin and Galway, Ireland

After a day spent working on our project and exploring San Diego, 19 or so hours of travel, and a time change later, we were seeing the sights of Dublin and then Galway. I had never been to Ireland and truly appreciated that we were able to explore the locations we visited – a personal highlight was the Cliffs of Moher. Part of the learning was in the travel itself. 

This was our final set of days with Medtronic, during which we dove deeply into research and development and the day-to-day life of Medtronic workers. After a few clean room tours, discussions of supply chains and European regulations, and learning about medical product use, we said our thank yous and goodbyes to Medtronic. 

At one point during the trip, I asked our professor, Mario Ramirez, why Medtronic was hosting us; providing meals, a constant supply of regionally-sourced snacks, and their time. Mostly, he said, it was because of a genuine interest in developing the next generation of talent, and particularly Georgetown students due to connections with alumni. It was a useful perspective shift for me – first, revealing the opportunities that come with a Georgetown education, but also the value I – and all young people – can bring to the workforce. 

Brussels, Belgium

Brussels was our final stop and our fifth flight. Remember when I said to sleep? Despite how much I enjoyed the business part of the trip, I have to say that Brussels blew me away. We first visited the U.S. Mission to the European Union and then headed over to the military base that is NATO – phones on airplane mode, no unsanctioned photos. We heard from experts on the Russia-Ukraine war, their insights into the effects of U.S. politics on NATO, and other topical discussions. The visit, including one to the European Commission, made me seriously consider working for an international organization – perhaps a future aspiration. 

After meeting with some Georgetown alumni in Brussels and doing some essential shopping for chocolate, the international travel portion of our Medtronic trip was concluded. 

Washington, D.C., and Reflections

Don’t worry, we still had our final project to complete, including a presentation to Medtronic executives. During our final days working through the financials on Excel and beautifying slides, I realized that beyond the academic learning (of which there certainly was a ton), it was the people who made the trip: Our incredible professors, Mario Ramirez, Brad Jensen, and Andreas Kern, the wonderful team of McDonough personnel, and, of course, my fellow BGA cohort members. I loved getting to know them – learning from the unique, insightful questions each one of them asked and laughing, dancing, and living with them for those weeks. The BGA trip wouldn’t have been as invaluable and unforgettable without this group of people. 

My final line in my Medtronic notebook was simply this: I am insanely lucky, and grateful.