Jeff Herzog is a seasoned medical device, surgical products, and healthcare supply chain executive with more than four decades of experience spanning sales leadership, product commercialization, strategic sourcing, distribution, hospital procurement, and clinical value analysis. Throughout his career, Jeff has operated at the intersection of manufacturers, distributors, surgeons, hospital executives, and supply chain leaders, giving him a rare 360-degree perspective on how healthcare products are developed, introduced, adopted, contracted, and sustained in complex clinical environments.
Jeff’s professional journey has been closely tied to Herzog Surgical, where he progressed through marketing, territory management, and executive sales leadership over a career spanning more than three decades. Early in his tenure, he developed marketing materials, supported trade shows, organized sales conferences, and gained direct exposure to the commercial realities of the surgical device industry. He later advanced into territory management roles across Los Angeles, the San Francisco East Bay, and Northern California, where he built enduring relationships with surgeons, clinicians, and hospital decision-makers while developing expertise in the full procure-to-pay lifecycle.
As Vice President of Sales, Jeff expanded his influence from individual territories to broader strategic and operational leadership. He has directed sourcing and procurement initiatives involving surgical capital equipment, consumable devices, and clinical products while managing the complete process from RFP evaluation and contract negotiation through implementation, education, and clinician adoption. His work has required balancing financial objectives with clinical priorities, ensuring that cost savings never come at the expense of product quality, patient care, or physician confidence.
One of Jeff’s most distinctive strengths is his ability to align clinicians, suppliers, and healthcare administrators around mutually beneficial solutions. He has led large-scale product standardization and conversion initiatives across major healthcare organizations, including Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, CommonSpirit Health, Dignity Health, Adventist Health, and other prominent systems. By building consensus among surgeons, supply chain teams, and finance leaders, he has helped organizations achieve substantial long-term savings while driving high levels of clinician adoption.
Jeff has also spent his career building and expanding commercial networks. He has developed sales forces, recruited and trained representatives, managed distributor relationships, and created national channels capable of supporting both established manufacturers and emerging companies. Over the course of his career, he has participated in the launch and commercialization of hundreds of surgical products, providing him with deep practical knowledge of what determines whether a new medical technology succeeds in the marketplace. His expertise encompasses product positioning, sales execution, contract strategy, clinical education, distribution development, physician engagement, and post-launch support.
His entrepreneurial leadership is further demonstrated through his role as President and co-founder of the Alliance of Surgical Distributors. Through the organization, Jeff has helped independent surgical distributors combine purchasing influence, strengthen supplier agreements, improve service levels, and identify nontraditional cost-reduction opportunities. He has also advised organizations on inflation, tariffs, sourcing risks, and long-term procurement strategies, helping members navigate an increasingly complex and globally connected healthcare supply chain.
Jeff’s international experience adds another dimension to his strategic perspective. Throughout his career, he has established business relationships and partnerships involving Japan, China, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. His academic background also reflects an early interest in international commerce, with studies in international business, international trade, Japanese, marketing, and communications through the University of Hawai‘i’s Shidler College of Business, King’s College London, and California State University, Sacramento. He speaks Spanish and is currently expanding his linguistic capabilities by studying French.
Communication and education have remained central to Jeff’s leadership throughout his career. He is an experienced presenter who has spoken at national and regional conferences, conducted corporate and clinical training programs, and educated audiences on subjects including the history and evolution of surgical instruments. His decades of firsthand experience allow him to communicate effectively with audiences ranging from operating room professionals and clinicians to corporate executives, sales teams, entrepreneurs, and supply chain leaders.
Jeff’s impact extends well beyond business. He spent more than a decade mentoring high-risk high school students through People Reaching Out, offering personal and professional guidance during important stages of their development. He has volunteered in food rescue efforts, supported international surgical missions by coordinating medical supplies for underserved populations, contributed to youth music education through the Sacramento Blues Society’s Blues in the Schools program, and previously participated in civic service through a local planning commission.
As Jeff moves into the next chapter of his career, board and advisory service represents a natural extension of the work he has done for decades. He is particularly interested in medical devices, surgical products, hospital services, healthcare supply chain, repair services, distribution, and organizations serving inpatient hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. He is equally comfortable supporting an emerging company building its first distribution infrastructure or advising a large multinational organization on market expansion, contracting, strategic sourcing, commercialization, and channel development.
What makes Jeff particularly valuable in a boardroom is the breadth of his operational perspective. He understands the manufacturer’s challenge of bringing products to market, the distributor’s challenge of building effective channels, the hospital’s challenge of controlling costs, and the clinician’s need for reliable products and trusted support. Having navigated each of these environments, Jeff can quickly identify commercial obstacles, assess market readiness, challenge assumptions, and help management teams convert promising ideas into scalable and sustainable business strategies.
For startups and growth-stage companies, Jeff brings especially relevant experience. He understands how to build distribution networks, create effective sales organizations, structure supplier relationships, navigate hospital contracting, achieve clinician adoption, and avoid the common mistakes that can derail promising product launches. His career has been defined by transforming relationships into results and by empowering organizations to compete more effectively in one of the most demanding and regulated markets in the world.
Character:
Jeff leads with integrity, generosity, and a deep commitment to relationships, mentorship, and service. His longstanding involvement in youth mentoring, international surgical support, food rescue, community leadership, and music education reflects values that extend far beyond professional achievement.
Knowledge:
He possesses extensive expertise across medical devices, surgical instruments, hospital operations, healthcare procurement, strategic sourcing, clinical value analysis, GPO contracting, sales force development, and product commercialization. His experience across manufacturers, distributors, healthcare systems, and clinical stakeholders gives him an unusually comprehensive understanding of the surgical marketplace.
Strategic:
Jeff has repeatedly translated market opportunities into practical commercial strategies involving product launches, distribution development, contracting, physician engagement, sourcing, and scalable sales infrastructure. His ability to anticipate adoption barriers and operational challenges allows him to help leadership teams make better-informed decisions before costly problems emerge.
Communication:
A confident presenter, educator, negotiator, and relationship builder who communicates effectively across clinical, commercial, and executive audiences. His ability to translate complex healthcare, supply chain, and product considerations into clear business priorities enables him to create alignment among stakeholders with very different objectives.
