Biden in September of last year placed close confidant Joe Kiani, the founder and CEO of the medical technology company Masimo Corporation, on the influential President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Kiani’s company, which manufactures various medical devices, has received almost $3 million in federal government contracts since Biden took office in 2021. Its contracts include funding from the Department of Defense and Department of Health and Human Services.
The council, according to its website, “advises the president on matters involving science, technology, education, and innovation policy” and “provides the president with scientific and technical information that is needed to inform public policy.”
The new post and contracts were awarded just a few years after Kiani emerged as one of Biden’s biggest benefactors. In 2017, the Masimo Foundation donated at least $1 million to the Biden Foundation, on top of up to $500,000 from Kiani and his wife, according to donations that were disclosed by the foundation. During the 2020 campaign, Kiani bundled more than $1 million for Biden and hosted in-person and virtual fundraisers for him. Kiani also gave $750,000 to the pro-Biden super PAC Unite the Country, and his foundation gave another $1 million for Biden’s inaugural committee.
The Biden-Kiani relationship dates back years, and the president has not attempted to shield the friendship. At a 2018 conference sponsored by an organization Kiani funds, Biden referred to the businessman as “one of my closest friends.” In 2015, then-vice president Biden delivered the keynote address at Kiani’s Patient Safety, Science, and Technology Summit.