Christian & Timbers is pleased to announce the placement of Jerry Becker as SVP, Head of Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Digital Transformation at Smith+Nephew, the global medical technology company. Becker assumed the role in July 2026 and is based in Austin, Texas.
The Mandate
Smith+Nephew came to this search from a position of momentum and pressure at the same time. In December 2025 the company announced RISE, a new company-wide strategy paired with 2028 financial targets. RISE is built on four commitments: expanding reach, accelerating innovation, scaling what works, and driving disciplined execution. Enterprise AI and digital capability sit underneath all four.
The company closed 2025 with revenue of $6.16 billion, up 6.1% reported, operating profit of $794 million, up 20.7%, and free cash flow of $840 million, up 52.5%. First half 2026 revenue reached $3.10 billion with the trading margin improving to 18.3% from 17.7%. Full year revenue guidance was revised to around 4% in August, with a stronger second half expected.
That combination defined the brief. Smith+Nephew did not need an AI evangelist. It needed an operator who could build the capabilities, operating model, governance, and data foundations to deliver transformation at scale across 17,000 employees and three global business units, while the business kept hitting its numbers.
The Search
The specification called for a rare profile: enterprise-scale AI and digital transformation leadership, proven inside a complex global manufacturer with real supply chain and commercial operations, and a track record of change that held up after the consultants left. Medtech experience was welcome but not the gating factor. Operating credibility was.
That narrowed the field considerably. Most candidates with deep AI credentials came from technology-native companies where the transformation problem is different in kind. Most candidates with heavy operating backgrounds had led digital programs, not AI ones.
The Candidate
Jerry Becker spent more than 25 years at Dell Technologies, moving up through operations and into enterprise transformation leadership.
He most recently served as Vice President, AI Supply Chain Transformation, leading Dell's global AI transformation across the end-to-end supply chain, centered on AI planning, decision optimization, and agentic orchestration spanning demand, supply, inventory, and production. Before that he was Vice President, Supply Chain Planning, responsible for demand and supply planning, sales and operations planning, and digital transformation for Dell's $50 billion PC business.
Earlier in his tenure he served as Vice President, Business Transformation, leading global business model transformation for Dell's PC business, and as Executive Director, Chief of Staff to the Vice Chairman, where he built the management system for the vice chairman and the C-suite leadership team. He came into those roles from production planning and supply chain transformation, which is the part of the résumé that mattered most to Smith+Nephew. He has run the operations he later transformed.
His functional reach spans supply chain, operations, product development, commercial organizations, marketing, sales, and services. Colleagues describe him as a collaborative and servant leader who aligns stakeholders around a shared vision and develops leaders underneath him.
The Outcome
Becker now leads Smith+Nephew's Enterprise AI and Digital Transformation agenda through the RISE program, partnering across the company's global businesses and functions to change how work gets done. His focus is the capability layer: operating model, governance, and the data and analytics foundations that let AI scale past pilots.
Smith+Nephew's purpose is Life Unlimited, restoring people's bodies and their self-belief through technology. The AI mandate serves that end. Better decisions, faster innovation cycles, and more disciplined execution reach patients as products.
Congratulations to Jerry Becker and to the Smith+Nephew leadership team.