Pittsburgh entrepreneur Gerald McGinnis, ‘revered’ as an impactful startup advisor and mentor, has died

Gerald “Jerry” McGinnis Sr., the Pittsburgh-area startup advisor, investor and founder of medical supply company Respironics, died on Thursday at 89.

The entrepreneur is credited with helping to jumpstart the Pittsburgh tech industry in the 21st century.

“As a mentor, Jerry was a straight shooter with no BS,” said Dave Mawhinney, executive director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. “He told you the truth with respect and would explain why. I always really appreciated that about him.”

A native of Illinois, McGinnis earned his engineering degree from University of Illinois, then his master’s degree from University of Pittsburgh. He started his career at Westinghouse Electric Corporation before founding Respironics in Murrysville in 1976, serving as its president and CEO for 18 years. Early products included anesthesia masks and the first CPAP machine for sleep apnea. The company went public in 1988 and was acquired by electronics giant Philips in 2007 for more than $5 billion.

One of the ways he left a mark on the local community was endowing the McGinnis Venture Competition, run annually by the Swartz Center.

“The Swartz Center is saddened to hear of the passing of our long time friend, Gerald E. McGinnis,” the center tweeted Friday morning. “His legacy will live on in our hearts.”

The Swartz Center is saddened to hear of the passing of our long time friend, Gerald E. McGinnis. Gerry endowed our annual McGinnis Venture Competition & his legacy will live on in our hearts. Condolences to his daughter Alicia @AudreysKitchPGH and the entire McGinnis family. pic.twitter.com/6vMZFMgaFG

— CMU Swartz Center (@CMUSwartzCenter) January 26, 2024

Through the competition, CMU student entrepreneurs vie for $60,000 while receiving mentorship from the university’s alumni and investors in the region. The 2024 competition is currently underway, with the final pitch event scheduled for March 19.

“Jerry was an amazing supporter of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Western Pennsylvania,” Swartz Center director Mawhinney told Technical.ly, noting that the competition founded in his name helped launch some of the region’s “most successful current startups: BlastPoint, Gather.AI, CoPilot, Shift Robotics, to name just a few.”

Alongside venture capitalist Don Jones and M. Stephen “Doc” Heilman, both McGinnis’ peers, Mawhinney counts McGinnis as an inspiration for himself and other modern Pittsburgh entrepreneurs.

“I am better for having known Jerry,” Mawhinney said, “and I will use his wisdom to help the next generation of startups.”

William Kaigler, now the founder of medtech company sovaSage and an entrepreneur-in-residence at Tepper, started his career at Respironics in 1999 and got to know McGinnis well. He recalled meeting the CEO and initially feeling intimidated, but quickly learned that McGinnis wanted to get to know him first as a person, not just an engineer or employee.

“I never forgot the warmth and the conversation that he had with me,” Kaigler told Technical.ly about his first day at Respironics. “That’s the way Jerry approached everything. He made everyone feel special.”

The two later became close friends. McGinnis served as an initial sounding board as Kaigler developed sovaSage, then as an investor and board member.

Even during challenging times at Respironics, such as product recalls, Kaigler remembered McGinnis as always focused on what was best for the customer or patient. (This past fall, Philips Respironics reached a $479 million partial settlement over claims of millions of defective breathing devices.)

“That value was such a rock solid foundation for him that it impacted everyone in the company,” Kaigler said.

“He was tremendously loved by everyone who knew him at Respironics.” Kaigler stopped, correcting himself. “No — he was revered.”