Medical Device Link.

Originally Published MX May/June 2005

BUSINESS DRIVERS

Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, NJ) has nominated Michael M. E. Johns, MD, executive vice president for health affairs at Emory University (Atlanta) and CEO of the school's Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center, for its board of directors. Johns has overseen health sciences at Emory since 1996, and has also served as vice chair of the council of the Institute of Medicine (Washington, DC). As a surgeon, Johns has worked extensively with head and neck tumors.

Woody

Hirsch

Flora

Augusti

Illingworth

In conjunction with its formation of a new clinical therapies division, Smith & Nephew Orthopaedics (Memphis) has announced a handful of new executive appointments. Joe Woody, who joined the company in 2003 as vice president of sales for clinical products, will be vice president and general manager of the new division. Steve Hirsch, senior vice president and general manager of the reconstructive division, will hold the newly created title of president of Smith & Nephew Orthopaedics in Europe. Scott Flora, senior vice president and general manager of the trauma division, will replace Hirsch in the reconstructive division. Mark Augusti, who has served as vice president for global trauma marketing since joining the company in 2003, has been promoted to Flora's position as general manager of the trauma division. "We believe these major appointments will enable our divisions to make efficient decisions locally, based on their customers' specific needs," said Dave Illingworth, president of Smith & Nephew Orthopaedics. In particular, Illingworth noted the company's focus on Europe. "We expect the European market to grow, and in terms of the Birmingham Hip, we expect the market to expand," he said. "We have an excellent distribution vehicle in place through our sales force, and we will continue to invest in our specialized sales force through Orthopaedics."

Healthcare consultant Carl F. Siekmann, formerly vice president of corporate development services at the Mattson Jack Group, has been named vice president for corporate development at Biolitec Pharma Ltd. (East Long Meadow, MA). In the newly created position Siekmann will oversee the company's U.S. operations and will report to Biolitec Group president and CEO Wolfgang Neuberger, PhD. "We are confident that he will provide the necessary leadership in partnering and commercializing our pharmaceutical portfolio, and in ultimately attaining a leading position for Biolitec in photodynamic therapeutic products," said Neuberger.

John Feilders has been hired as president and COO of Orthosoft (Montreal), a manufacturer of multiplatform surgical navigation systems for the computer-assisted orthopedic surgery market. He previously served as head of international for Bio-Matrix Scientific Group Inc. (San Diego). Feilders has also worked as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch and as an analyst at Putnam, Hayes, and Bartlett.

Greg Baldwin, chairman and CEO of Baxa Corp. (Englewood, CO), has joined the board of directors of Healthprolink Inc. (Bellevue, WA), a developer of pharmacy-management and clinical-documentation software. Baldwin joined Baxa in 1993 as senior vice president for worldwide sales and marketing. He was promoted to president and CEO in 1997. The two companies previously had a comarketing agreement. Baxa still holds a financial interest in Healthprolink, although the sales and marketing efforts of the two companies remain separate.

Minetti

Peter L. Minetti has been promoted to vice president of quality and regulatory compliance at Fujirebio Diagnostics Inc. (Malvern, PA). Since joining Fujirebio in 2000, he has built and overseen the company's FDA-compliant quality system. Previously, Minetti held regulatory compliance, quality assurance, and quality control positions at Biopool International, Organon Teknika, and Coulter Immunology. He has also worked in the diagnostics division at Pfizer Inc., at Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Inc., and with the U.S. Public Health Service.

Signore

Horn

Hemostatic product manufacturer Z-Medica Corp. (Wallingford, CT) has appointed Tom Signore executive vice president of operations. In his position, Signore will direct strategic planning and operations and will oversee the company's manufacturing functions. He was formerly director of sourcing for information technologies at GE Medical Systems (Milwaukee). "Tom Signore's experience implementing high-quality manufacturing strategies is impressive and crucial with a product like QuikClot hemostatic agent, which has such a global impact," said Z-Medica COO Jeffrey Horn.

Cytomedix Inc. (Rockville, MD) has appointed Ronald R. Baker, current president of Bioventions Inc., a biotechnology and pharmaceutical consulting firm he founded in 2004, to the newly created position of vice president of sales and marketing. In his new role, Baker will complement Kol Bio-Medical Instruments Inc. in the latter's representation of Cytomedix in select East Coast markets. Baker previously held sales, marketing, and management positions at Diagnostic Assay Services Inc., Molecular Oncology Inc., International Clinical Laboratories Inc., Corning Healthcare, and Hoffman-La Roche Inc. More receently, he worked at BioReliance Corp. as vice president for sales, marketing, project management, and regulatory services. BioReliance was acquired by Invitrogen Corp. (Carlsbad, CA) in 2004.

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