Milton “Chip” Morris ’92, ’04 MBA

Electrical engineer and inventor holding 30 patents

A native of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Milton “Chip” Morris earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at Northwestern in 1992, where he also played wide receiver on the football team. Encouraged by mentors at Northwestern, he pursued master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering at the University of Michigan. During this time, Morris developed an algorithm that helped improve cardiac patients’ experiences with implantable defibrillators—a breakthrough that led to his first patent and first job in the medical device industry. In 2004, he earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, adding business, entrepreneurial, and team-building skills to his extensive knowledge of the medical device industry.

In 2015, he became president and CEO of NeuSpera Medical Inc., a California-based startup that creates implantable medical device technology to improve the lives of patients with chronic illnesses, from diabetes to chronic pain to cancer. In this role, he leads a team of engineers and scientists on the cutting edge of bioelectronics medicine. Prior to working at NeuSpera, he served in senior research, product development, and marketing roles at Cyberonics, InnerPulse Corp., and Guidant Corp. (later Boston Scientific).

Morris and his wife, Renee, have four children and live in Houston, Texas. He is an active mentor of at-risk youth through a program at his church called Boys’ Rites of Passage. Morris also serves on the McCormick School of Engineering Advisory Council.