President and Chief Executive Officer

Medical College of Wisconsin has appointed Dr. Shekar Kurpad, MD, PhD as the institution’s seventh President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective July 1, 2026. As President and CEO, Dr. Kurpad will lead MCW’s strategic vision to drive growth, champion academic and scientific excellence, ensure the institution’s long-term financial strength, and strengthen and foster partnerships with MCW’s clinical partners, policy makers, industry leaders, and community stakeholders.

Currently, Dr. Kurpad serves as professor of Neurosurgery and senior associate dean of Neuroscience at the MCW School of Medicine. His contributions to clinical care, research and teaching include nearly 15,000 surgical procedures and more than 150 original research manuscripts that have shaped contemporary spinal cord science and care. Dr. Kurpad has also helped shape the future of the field through his mentorship of medical and graduate students, doctoral candidates, and postdoctoral researchers.

As senior associate dean, Dr. Kurpad provides oversight of MCW’s neuroscience strategy across basic, translational, and clinical domains. He led the first enterprise-wide faculty strategic plan linking hiring, mentorship and resource allocation across basic science and clinical departments; launched new neuro-oncology and neuroimaging programs; and catalyzed more than $6 million in growth in active federal and foundation funding to MCW’s portfolio.

Dr. Kurpad has also served as the founding director of the Wisconsin Institute of Neuroscience (WINS) since 2022. WINS is a first-of-its-kind statewide neuroscience enterprise integrating more than 600 clinicians and scientists across MCW, Froedtert ThedaCare, Children’s Wisconsin and the Zablocki VA Medical Center under a unified strategic plan.

Prior to these roles, Dr. Kurpad serves as the Sanford J. Larson Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at MCW and as chief of Neurosurgery at the Zablocki VA Medical Center for more than a decade. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Bangalore Medical College and his Doctor of Philosophy from Duke University. He interned in general surgery and completed his residency in neurosurgery at the University Hospitals of Cleveland/Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Kurpad has also served three fellowships: skull base neurosurgery from the University of Tennessee; neuro-oncology from the University Hospitals of Cleveland/Case Western Reserve University; and spinal neurosurgery from MCW.