In May 2021, Establishment Labs — maker of Motiva breast implants — appointed Pratip Dastidar as Head of Global Operations, a move that speaks to a recurring tension in ambitious companies: the moment when vision outpaces infrastructure. With markets in China and the United States on the horizon, the company turned not to a product innovator but to an operational architect, signaling that its next frontier was not invention but execution. Simultaneously, the return of Salvador Dada to oversee new manufacturing and R&D facilities in Costa Rica quietly underscored the same truth — that growth, a
Establishment Labs Appoints Operations Veteran Dastidar to Lead Global Scaling
operational efficiencies through manufacturing, supply chain and digital technology
Mark
Why does a medical device company need a Chief Transformation Officer right now? What's broken?
Mimi
Nothing's broken, exactly. But there's a gap between what the company wants to do and what its current operations can handle. They're about to enter China, they're still working through FDA approval in the U.S., and they're building new factories. That's three different scaling challenges at once.
Mark
So Dastidar is essentially the person who makes sure the company doesn't collapse under its own growth?
Mimi
More or less. He's done this at Amazon, at Salesforce—companies that had to reinvent their operations while moving fast. At ServiceMaster, he was brought in specifically to transform how the business ran. That's the pattern.
Mark
What does "digital transformation" mean in this context? Is it just software?
Mimi
It's broader. It's about how information flows, how decisions get made, how supply chains talk to manufacturing, how sales channels coordinate globally. For a medical device company, it's also about traceability, compliance, quality control across multiple sites and countries.
Mark
And the Costa Rica expansion—is that just about capacity, or is there something else?
Mimi
It's capacity, but also strategy. Costa Rica has free trade zones with favorable terms. It's a way to serve multiple markets—North America, South America, potentially Asia—from a central hub without the tariff and logistics burden of doing everything from one place.
Mark
Why announce both moves at the same time?
Mimi
It tells investors and partners that the company has a plan. Dastidar handles the operational backbone; Dada handles the physical infrastructure. Together, they signal that Establishment Labs isn't just hoping to grow—it's building the machinery to grow.
Der Puls
- Establishment Labs is racing to enter major new markets including China and the U.S. before its operational backbone can reliably support the weight of that ambition.
- The gap between the company's global commercial reach — Motiva Implants in over 80 countries — and its internal infrastructure has become the central pressure point leadership must resolve.
- Dastidar's hire signals a deliberate pivot: the company is betting that transformation expertise drawn from Amazon, Salesforce, and McKinsey can rewire its manufacturing, supply chain, and digital systems fast enough to match its growth targets.
- Salvador Dada's return from medical leave to lead new Costa Rican facilities adds a second front to the operational push, anchoring the company's capacity expansion in physical infrastructure as well as digital systems.
- The overall trajectory points toward a company that believes its product is ready — and is now in a determined sprint to build the machine capable of delivering it to the world.
In May 2021, Establishment Labs — maker of Motiva breast implants — appointed Pratip Dastidar as Head of Global Operations, a move that speaks to a recurring tension in ambitious companies: the moment when vision outpaces infrastructure. With markets in China and the United States on the horizon, the company turned not to a product innovator but to an operational architect, signaling that its next frontier was not invention but execution. Simultaneously, the return of Salvador Dada to oversee new manufacturing and R&D facilities in Costa Rica quietly underscored the same truth — that growth, at scale, is ultimately a logistical story.
In May 2021, Establishment Labs brought in Pratip Dastidar as its new Head of Global Operations — a hire that marked a clear inflection point for the medical device company behind Motiva Implants. Dastidar came armed with a career built on operational transformation: most recently as Chief Transformation Officer at ServiceMaster, and before that in senior roles at Salesforce, Amazon, and Hewlett Packard, with time at McKinsey and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering rounding out his credentials.
The timing was deliberate. Establishment Labs was preparing to enter China and the United States while simultaneously reworking how it managed global operations and commercial channels. Dastidar's mandate was expansive — operational transformation, scaling, and digital integration — essentially rebuilding the company's internal machinery to match its market ambitions. CEO Juan José Chacón-Quirós described the move as necessary to align the company's operating structure with its growth strategy, while Dastidar pointed to the potential of combining manufacturing, supply chain, and digital technology into a more efficient whole.
The same announcement brought a second significant development: Salvador Dada, returning from medical leave, would take on a new role overseeing the construction of manufacturing and R&D facilities in Costa Rica's Coyol Free Zone. For a company already running two FDA- and ISO-compliant manufacturing sites with Motiva Implants available in more than 80 countries, the Costa Rican expansion represented a serious capital commitment to future capacity.
Taken together, the moves painted a portrait of a company that had solved its product problem and was now confronting a harder, quieter challenge — learning to grow without breaking.
Establishment Labs, the medical device company behind Motiva Implants, brought in Pratip Dastidar as its new Head of Global Operations in May 2021, signaling an aggressive push to scale the business across new markets and geographies. Dastidar arrived with a résumé built on operational transformation—he had most recently served as Chief Transformation Officer at ServiceMaster from 2018 to 2020, and before that held senior roles at Salesforce, Hewlett Packard, Amazon, and Applied Materials. He also spent time as a consultant at McKinsey and holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, giving him both the strategic chops and technical foundation the company was seeking.
The appointment came at a pivotal moment for Establishment Labs. The company, which makes silicone gel-filled breast implants and related aesthetic technologies, was preparing to enter significant new markets—notably China and the United States—while simultaneously overhauling how it managed its global operations and commercial channels. Dastidar's mandate was broad: oversee operational transformation, scale global operations, and lead digital transformation initiatives. In essence, he was being asked to rebuild the company's internal machinery to match its ambitions.
CEO and Founder Juan José Chacón-Quirós framed the hire as essential to the company's next phase. "With incredible opportunities ahead, we are taking steps to align the company's operating structure with our growth strategy and product development efforts," he said. The goal was to integrate the company's global commercial channels and address what leadership saw as growing demand from partners and patients. Dastidar himself emphasized the operational angle in his response, pointing to the potential for "operational efficiencies through the combination of manufacturing, supply chain and digital technology."
The same announcement also revealed that Salvador Dada, who had been on medical leave since mid-March, would return to the company as Head of Special Projects. His first assignment: overseeing the construction and launch of new manufacturing facilities and R&D labs in Costa Rica's Coyol Free Zone. This expansion was framed as critical infrastructure to support the company's growth in both existing and new markets. Establishment Labs already operated two manufacturing sites compliant with FDA and ISO standards, with Motiva Implants available in more than 80 countries. The Costa Rican facilities represented a significant capital commitment to capacity.
The timing suggested a company in transition. Establishment Labs had received FDA approval for an investigational device exemption in March 2018 and launched its U.S. clinical trial for Motiva Implants the following month—a process that typically takes years. By 2021, the company was preparing for what it hoped would be broader U.S. market access while simultaneously pushing into Asia and scaling its operational backbone. Bringing in someone with Dastidar's track record in transformation and scaling suggested the company believed its biggest constraint was no longer product development but rather the ability to manufacture, distribute, and manage growth across multiple continents.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
Scaling global operations and integrating our global commercial channels will allow us to best address the growing needs of our partners and patients.— Juan José Chacón-Quirós, CEO and Founder
Establishment Labs is an industry disruptor and I look forward to contributing to their mission of improving women's health in medical aesthetics.— Pratip Dastidar, Head of Global Operations
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