Joe Kiani Elected as New Caltech Trustee

Joe Kiani is founder, chairman, and CEO of Masimo, a global medical technology company that specializes in the development and manufacture of noninvasive patient-monitoring technologies, medical devices, and sensors. He also established the nonprofit Patient Safety Movement Foundation to eliminate deaths resulting from preventable errors in hospitals.

Kiani earned bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from San Diego State University. He received the Society for Critical Care Medicine Technology Excellence Award, the Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 Life Sciences Award, and the Hubert H. Humphrey Dawn of Life Award, among other recognitions.

Kiani reflected on his career as an innovator and his personal interests.

What has been your most notable achievement? Your biggest challenge?

My most notable achievement is creating SET Pulse Oximetry, which has saved tens of thousands of babies from becoming blind and saved countless lives. My biggest challenge was getting our breakthrough technology in the hands of U.S. clinicians due to the perverse GPO [group purchasing organization] system (subject to multiple New York Times stories and Senate hearings that I was a part of).

What words do you live by?

My guiding principles:

• Remain faithful to your promises and responsibilities.
• Thrive on fascination and accomplishment, and not on greed and power.
• Strive to make each year better than the year before both personally and for the team.
• Make each day as fun as possible.
• Do what is best for patient care.

Please tell us something about yourself that isn't widely known.

I love poetry, and I have co-founded a production company to create media to help educate and entertain, including co-founding A Starting Point, a civic engagement site, with Chris Evans and Mark Kassen.