SAN DIEGO, CA–(Marketwired – February 05, 2014) – NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUVA), a medical device company focused on developing minimally disruptive surgical products and procedures for the spine, is pleased to announce executive leadership changes that will foster the Company’s continued evolution into an increasingly profitable, $1 Billion Start-up™.<br /><br />Effective February 1, 2014, Quentin Blackford was promoted to the Executive Leadership Committee as Executive Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. Blackford joined NuVasive in 2009, and with nearly 15 years of financial experience within medical device organizations, his effort and insight will be invaluable as NuVasive drives toward $1 billion and beyond in revenues with improved profitability.<br /><br />The Company also announced the resignation of Craig Hunsaker, Senior Vice President of Global Human Resources, which will be effective March 31, 2014. Hunsaker will assist in the transition of his responsibilities to Mike Paolucci, who has been appointed Executive Vice President of Global Human Resources, effective immediately.<br /><br />Mike Paolucci joins NuVasive from Life Technologies Corporation™, a global life sciences company with over $4 billion in revenue, which was recently acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific. He brings more than 20 years of broad global human resources experience at the executive and board level that will be instrumental to NuVasive’s evolution into a larger, global business. At Life Technologies, Paolucci was responsible for the global compensation and benefit programs that encompassed more than 10,000 employees in nearly 40 countries. He also served as a human resources business partner for various business segments and was responsible for the Company’s human resources technology systems. Prior to Life Technologies, he served as Vice President in various human resources capacities at Hewlett-Packard and EDS Corporation, from 2000 to 2009.<br /><br />Alex Lukianov, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are exceptionally grateful to Craig for all of his contributions during his tenure with NuVasive. I am thrilled to welcome both Quentin and Mike to the NuVasive Executive Committee. Their strong propensity for outstanding standards, steadfast focus, and wealth of experience in achieving excellent outcomes will be instrumental to our executive leadership team. I look forward to their contributions and have tremendous confidence in the team we have organized to help us achieve our market share taking strategy.”<br /><br />About NuVasive<br /><br />NuVasive is an innovative global medical device company that is changing spine surgery with minimally disruptive surgical products and procedurally integrated solutions for the spine. The Company is the 4th largest player in the $8.7 billion global spine market.<br /><br />NuVasive offers a comprehensive spine portfolio of more than 90 unique products developed to improve spine surgery and patient outcomes. The Company’s principal procedural solution is its Maximum Access Surgery, or MAS® platform for lateral spine fusion. MAS provides safe, reproducible, and clinically proven outcomes, and is a highly differentiated solution with fully integrated neuromonitoring, customizable exposure, and a broad offering of application-specific implants and fixation devices designed to address a variety of pathologies.