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# CDRH Product Evaluation Head Maisel Retiring
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/cdrh-product-evaluation-head-maisel-retiring/
- Published: 2024-02-16T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T14:23:15.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Devices, #legacy-id-D5156384

After serving 14 years at FDA, CDRH Office of Product Evaluation and Quality (OPEQ) director **William Maisel** is set to retire this spring, according to an agency email to [*MedTech Dive*](https://www.medtechdive.com/news/fda-william-maisel-retire-opeq-cdrh/707721/?ref=fdaweb.com). OPEQ is responsible for the program areas for approving and clearing medical devices, such as 510(k)s, PMAs, IDEs, *de novo* and product development protocols. OPEQ deputy **Owen Faris** will serve as acting director until a replacement is hired after a national search, the agency says.

Prior to joining CDRH in 2010, Maisel was associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Medical Device Safety Institute, a non-profit organization affiliated with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. A board-certified cardiologist with more than 15 years of clinical experience, Maisel was formerly chairman of CDRH’s Circulatory System and Post-Market Medical Device Advisory Committees, and a former member of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Coverage Advisory Committee.

In the early days of his FDA career, Maisel was caught up in a prostitution sting in the Maryland suburbs. In 2012, he pleaded guilty in Maryland district court to charges of soliciting prostitution ([see story](https://fdaweb.com/login.php?sa=v&aid=D5122971&cate=&stid=%241%24DE4.Qm3.%24.6pYbzWfBcZJHegY%2FtQUO%2F&ref=fdaweb.com)). According to charging documents from the court, an undercover female police officer approached Maisel at a restaurant on Route 1 in Jessup, MD and asked him if he wanted “a date.” He agreed and asked how much it would cost for sex. The undercover officer led Maisel to a nearby hotel room, where police officers arrested him.

Maisel received his undergraduate degree in biology from MIT, his medical degree from Cornell Medical College, and his Masters in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. He has published more than 120 research manuscripts, book chapters, and scientific abstracts on regulatory science, device innovation, and medical device safety and effectiveness.