Eythor Bender

Eythor Bender: Profile

With extensive worldwide experience in leading medical device, life science, and bionic device companies from concept through commercialization, Eythor is an authority at defining and executing the immediate and future strategies needed to guide a company to market leadership. His personal enthusiasm for non-invasive technologies that augment mobility, strength and safety, and also provide a greatly improved quality of life for those in need, makes him a natural fit with the company’s mission.

Throughout his career, Eythor has championed innovation; fostering and spearheading creativity in medical technologies and taking them from unconventional approaches to FDA-approved products that communities aspire to. Such was the case with the boomerang-shaped prosthesis Cheetah Flex-Foot® by Ossur. Worn by Ossur Americas-sponsored, history-making, bilateral amputee Oscar Pistorius from South Africa, Eythor and his team helped him win the right to compete in the Olympics. Today the Cheetah Flex-Foot is the prosthesis used by nearly every medalist at the Paralympics.

This year, Berkeley Bionics is introducing two new exoskeletons to the market that augment mobility, strength and endurance: eLEGS powers wheelchair users up to get them standing and walking again; and HULCTM (Human Universal Load Carrier) enables users to carry up to 200 lbs. for hours and over all terrains, while reducing the likelihood of back-injuries.

Eythor is a native of Iceland, with a Masters in Business and Economics from Germany, where he began his career with Hewlett Packard in medical diagnostics and computer imaging. He went on to join Nordic-European Ossur, which pioneered the field of commercial bionics. Eythor led Ossur’s Americas division, taking it from a start-up to a world leader in the field of wearable, non-invasive technologies designed for amputees, injury prevention, rehabilitation and pain relief. He lives in San Francisco and recently spoke at TED2011 in Long Beach, California.

Previously, Eythor was the CEO of Rex Bionics. Prior to that, Eythor spent 13 years in executive management with Ossur, a global leader in the development, manufacture and distribution of non-invasive orthopedic products, serving the last six years as president of Ossur Americas. A driving force in the company’s unprecedented growth, during his tenure, the company mushroomed from a $3 million niche business to a $380 million international market leader with a global distribution network. In just three years and under his direction as president, sales for the division quadrupled. Eythor shaped the company’s strategies from a variety of perspectives, and was heavily involved in award-winning bionic product innovation, global business development, sales and marketing, 13 strategic acquisitions, and their IPO in 1999.

Prior to Ossur, Eythor worked for Hewlett Packard in Europe as Product Manager for both the Medical and the Computer Peripheral divisions.

Eythor has a Masters in Business and Economics from Eberhard-Karls University, Tübingen, Germany. He is fluent in German, Icelandic and English. He is an active member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and an ardent heliskiier.