BUSINESS DRIVERS

Siemens Medical Solutions (Malvern, PA) announced that several members of its executive leadership team have been selected for positions with the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT), whose mission is to accelerate the adoption of robust, interoperable health information technology. Gail E. Latimer, vice president and chief nursing officer, was reappointed as a member of the CCHIT inpatient electronic health Record (EHR) work group. Donald Bechtel, chief privacy officer of Healthcare Data Exchange, a service of Siemens Medical Solutions, was selected to participate in the CCHIT privacy and compliance expert panel. David Tao, DSc, of Soarian Enterprise Systems, was appointed as cochair of the CCHIT EHR foundation work group. He was also selected as a member of the CCHIT interoperability expert panel. Also, product manager Eric Ringle was appointed as a member of the CCHIT emergency department EHR work group. In related news, Janet Dillione, president of the healthcare IT division of Siemens Medical Solutions, has been named one of the most powerful women in the technology channel by CMP Channel's VARBusiness magazine.

Aspect Medical Systems Inc. (Norwood, MA) has announced that Boudewijn Bollen will retire from his role as president of international operations during the first quarter of 2008. After this time, Bollen will serve on a parttime basis as a senior company adviser and will remain a member of the board of directors. Bill Floyd, vice president of sales and marketing for Aspect, will work with Bollen throughout a transition period starting in September 2007, and will be promoted to executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing upon Bollen's retirement.

NeoGuide Systems Inc. (San Jose, CA), a developer of technology to prevent and treat colorectal cancer, has announced the appointment of Jim Talbot to vice president for quality and regulatory affairs. In this role, he will oversee all aspects of the company's quality assurance and control system and will manage the regulatory approval process for new products in the United States and abroad. Talbot brings more than 25 years of experience in quality, reliability, and regulatory affairs to NeoGuide. He most recently served as director of quality at Boston Scientific's Fremont, CA, facility, where he oversaw the design and development of the company's neurological catheters, GDC coils, and interventional ultrasound products.

Richard A. Gonzalez, president, chief operating officer, and a member of the board of directors of Abbott (Abbott Park, IL), plans to retire after 30 years with the company. Gonzalez will remain with Abbott until September 30, 2007. Upon his retirement, the heads of Abbott's four operating businesses—medical devices, pharmaceuticals, nutritionals, and diagnostics—will report directly to Miles D. White, chairman and chief executive officer of Abbott.

EyeGate Pharma (Waltham, MA), which focuses on the development of devices to treat intraocular diseases, announced the appointment of Michael A. Patane, PhD, as vice president of research and development and the promotion of Michael P. Manzo to vice president of engineering. Most recently, Patane was executive director for global discovery chemistry at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (Cambridge, MA), where he was responsible for infectious diseases and ophthalmology drug discovery programs. Manzo joined EyeGate in the fall of 2006 as senior director of engineering. Previously, he was president and chief operating officer of Jenline Industries (Gloucester, MA), a developer of silicone-based products used in optics, medical electronics, healthcare, and telecommunications.

FlowMedica Inc. (Fremont, CA), a medical device company developing targeted renal therapy, has appointed Gary Saxton as president and chief executive officer. Saxton was previously the executive vice president and chief operating officer of BioSphere Medical Inc. (Rockland, MA), a medical device company that has developed and commercialized minimally invasive therapeutic applications for its microsphere technology. Prior to his role with BioSphere, he was a strategy and market development consultant within the medical device industry. He previously served as vice president of sales and marketing at Symphonix Devices Inc., and as vice president of marketing at Cardiogenesis Corp. Saxton has also held a variety of management positions within Medtronic Inc.

EndoGastric Solutions (Redmond, WA) has appointed Kelvin Higa, MD, and John Hunter, MD, to its scientific advisory board. Higa is a professor of surgery at University of California, San Franciso-Fresno and the president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. Hunter is Mackenzie professor and chairman of surgery at Oregon Health & Science University and past president of the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons.

Luminex Corp. (Austin, TX) has named Douglas C. Bryant as its executive vice president and chief operating officer. Bryant will oversee all elements of the company's operations, including worldwide sales and marketing, the company's molecular diagnostics subsidiary, Luminex Molecular Diagnostics, the Luminex Bioscience Group, as well as the company's manufacturing and worldwide service and support operations. Bryant brings more than 23 years of industry experience in sales and marketing, product development, manufacturing and service and support in both the life sciences and diagnostics markets. He has held a number of positions during his career, most recently as vice president of Abbott Vascular, Asia and Japan. He served previously as vice president of global commercial operations for Abbott Diagnostics and Abbott Molecular, and also ran Abbott's diagnostics operations in Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

CoreValve (Irvine, CA) has elected Barbara A. Caulfield as a member of its board of directors. Caulfield serves as executive vice president and general counsel with Affymetrix Inc. (Santa Clara, CA), which she joined in July 2001. From 1994 until June 2001, she was a partner at the law firms of Latham & Watkins and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, where she developed expertise in mediation of life science and computer technology disputes. Previously, Caulfield served as United States District Judge for the Northern District of California from 1991 to 1994. Prior to her tenure on the U.S. District Court, she was chief litigation counsel for Pacific Bell Telephone Co., a partner for Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, and a professor of law at the University of California, Hastings Law School and University of Oregon Law School.

Dirk Kuyper has joined Alphatec Holdings Inc. (Carlsbad, CA) as president and CEO, as well as a member of the company's board of directors. Concurrently, John H. Foster resigned as the company's president and CEO, though he will remain chairman of the board of directors. Since 2004, Kuyper served as the president of Aesculap Inc. From 2001 to 2004, he served as Aesculap's executive vice president and chief operating officer, prior to which he held other positions of increasing responsibility at Aesculap. In addition to Kuyper's appointment, Alphatec, a medical device company focused on the surgical treatment of spine disorders, recently appointed orthopedic surgeon Frank P. Cammisa Jr., MD, to its scientific advisory board. Cammisa is chief of the spine service at the Hospital for Special Surgery (New York City) and associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Weill Medical College of Cornell University (New York City). In addition, Cammisa is an associate scientist in the research division at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

BioControl Ltd. (Yehud, Israel), a developer of implantable devices for the treatment of autonomic disorders, has announced the composition of its scientific advisory board. The six members who will advise the company on its scientific direction and clinical research initiatives are: William C. Little, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the cardiology section at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center; Brian Olshansky, MD, a tenured professor of medicine and internationally known electrophysiologist at the University of Iowa Hospitals; Milton Packer, MD, a professor and a Gayle and Paul Stoffel Distinguished Chair in cardiology, and a professor and chair of the department of clinical sciences at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School; Hani N. Sabbah, PhD, a tenured professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University and Wayne State University, and the director of cardiovascular research at the Henry Ford Health System; Peter J. Schwartz, MD, chairman of cardiology at the University of Pavia; and Dr. Karl Swedberg, MD, professor of medicine and head of the department of emergency and cardiovascular medicine at the Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University. In addition to the new advisers, BioControl announced that Paul Hauptman, MD, has joined the company as its new medical director. Hauptman is a professor of internal medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine and director of heart failure in the division of cardiology.

Johnson & Johnson Inc. (J&J; New Brunswick, NJ) announced that its board of directors has unanimously appointed William D. Perez, president and chief executive officer of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., as a director of J&J. Perez became president and CEO of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., a leading global confectioner and the world's largest manufacturer and marketer of chewing gum, in October 2006. Before joining Wrigley, he served as president and CEO of Nike Inc. "Bill's vast and diverse experience in leading global consumer businesses will be invaluable, particularly to the continuing growth of our premier consumer healthcare business," said William C. Weldon, chairman and CEO of J&J.

Laparoscopic systems manufacturer Viking Systems Inc. (San Diego) has appointed Robert F. Mathews to the position of executive vice president and chief financial officer. Prior to joining Viking Systems, Mathews was senior vice president and chief financial officer for the clinical technologies and services (CTS) segment of Cardinal Health (Dublin, OH), where he was responsible for the global finance function across all of the CTS businesses. Before joining Cardinal Health, Mathews was with Alaris Medical Systems, now a business unit of Cardinal Health.

Smith & Nephew plc (London) has appointed Joseph DeVivo as president of its orthopedic reconstruction division. He will be based at the company's orthopedic reconstruction headquarters in Memphis. DeVivo joins Smith & Nephew with 18 years of marketing, development, sales, operations, and executive leadership experience. Most recently he served as president and CEO of RITA Medical Systems Inc., which was acquired by AngioDynamics (Queensbury, NY) in 2006. Previously, he served as president and chief operating officer of medical robotics company Computer Motion Inc. before it was acquired by Intuitive Surgical Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA) in 2003. From 1993 to 2002, DeVivo was at United States Surgical, a division of Tyco Healthcare (Mansfield, MA), where he held a wide variety of roles.