A retired Zimmer Biomet executive has thrown his name into the ring for the Kosciusko County Council District 1 seat.
Todd O. Davis filed his candidacy at the Kosciusko County Clerk’s Office at 9 a.m. Friday for the Republican nomination. He faces incumbent Kimberly Cates in the May primary.
“I’d been contemplating it for a while. I talked to some of the people who I really know and respect that have served in government - like our mayor, Joe Thallemer; Andy Zay, who is a state senator; Diego Morales, who is running for secretary of state. They really encouraged me. They felt like I could make a difference, given what my skill set was at Zimmer Biomet for all those many years,” Davis said of why he decided to run. “I really saw a gap where the orthopedic industry is not being represented today in the county government, and I think that that’s something I fill pretty uniquely.”
Davis retired from Zimmer Biomet in July 2019 where he served as president and general manager of the Global Knee Business.
He moved to Warsaw from Ohio with his family when he was in the second grade and graduated from Warsaw Community High School. After graduating summa cum laude from Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio, with a degree in management science, he returned to Warsaw to start his orthopaedic career at Zimmer, according to a news release he provided. He spent the next 33 years working in the industry in positions of increasing responsibility with Zimmer, Biomet and then Zimmer Biomet.
In 2019, he founded TDOrtho Consulting LLC and continues to work in the medtech sector, consulting for such companies as Canary Medical, Enhanced Medical Nutrition Inc., PeekMed, Warburg Pincus, Kneevoice, Wells Fargo, Engage Surgical and JointVue, the release states. He provides executive coaching, business development strategies, merger and acquisition guidance and marketing insights to orthopaedic and medtech companies around the world.
The County Council race is the first time Davis has sought an elected position.
“I just think that the county budget is a big dollar amount that, having run a $300 million budget at Zimmer Biomet, that I can do that well and I just thought that was a good way to start. I live in Leesburg, so that town government wasn’t attractive to me, I wanted to do it on a bigger scale,” he said.
At this point, he said there were no other government issues he would champion because he needs to do more due diligence on what the county’s issues are.
“I just feel very strongly that the orthopaedic industry is the No. 1 employer in our county, it’s the No. 1 source of revenue in our county and I’m worried about it. I want to make sure it stays here to the extent that it can, and also beyond. What happens ‘if’ – with everything that’s been going on with COVID – there’s a lot of headwinds against elected procedures. And you’ve seen cutbacks by Zimmer Biomet, all across the industry. People have been shrinking our employment base so it just concerns me,” Davis said.
If elected, he said he would be accessible to the public and that would be a priority.
“I’m retired, so I have a lot of bandwith to be available, to be accessible. I know there are a lot of events that I can start attending and will do so. So, I want to be present in the community, visible in the community,” he said.
When he retired he told his wife, Paulette, that he wanted to be more available to his family, his faith and his community.
“I’ve done a lot with my family, my faith and my community activities, that’s where I’ve really been relegated to things I was already doing before I retired, so this is the first thing that I feel like I can really contribute,” Davis said.
He is a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church and serves on the Parish Council. He serves as Board of Directors vice president for Kosciusko Home Care and Hospice, is a member of the Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club and a member of the American Legion, North Webster, Post #253.
Paulette is president of the Board of Directors for Catholic Charities, Fort Wayne/South Bend diocese, and is a member of the Warsaw City Public Arts Commission.
Todd and Paulette have three grown children.
