BUSINESS DRIVERS

Randy Thurman has been appointed executive chairman of CardioNet Inc. (Conshohocken, PA), a wireless medical technology company focusing on the diagnosis and monitoring of cardiac arrhythmias. Thurman has extensive business development and investment experience and has been chair or director of numerous companies in various industries. Most recently, he served as chairman and CEO of Viasys Healthcare Inc. (Conshohocken, PA), which was acquired by Cardinal Health (Dublin, OH) in June 2007 for $1.5 billion. During his six years with Viasys, he increased the firm's value fourfold and led 12 strategic acquisitions. Prior to Viasys, Thurman was chairman and CEO of Corning Life Sciences (Acton, MA) and president of Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Pharmaceuticals Inc. Thurman also continues to serve as senior adviser to New Mountain Capital LLC, a leading private and public equity investment firm.

Medtronic Inc. (Minneapolis) has named CEO William A. Hawkins as chairman of its board of directors. As chairman, Hawkins succeeds Arthur D. Collins, who is retiring from the board after six years, in accord with the company's 2007 transition plan. Hawkins joined the company in 2002, and has served as CEO since August 2007. Prior to Medtronic, Hawkins held numerous executive positions in the medical technology field, most recently as president and CEO of Novoste (Springfield, VA). Medtronic also appointed Kendall J. Powell, chairman and CEO of General Mills, to be chair of the board's corporate governance committee.

Biophan Technologies Inc. (Pittsford, NY), a developer of next-generation technology for the medical device industry, has named Margaret V. Russell as chief financial officer. Russell was formerly partner, director, and senior manager at Insero and Co. CPAs PC. As part of Insero's outsource accounting services group, she specialized in software, pharmaceutical, and medical device companies. Prior to this, Russell served as manager of the assurance and business advisory services division at Arthur Anderson LLP and was senior auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Biophan also announced the retirement of Robert J. Wood, who has served as interim chief financial officer since June 2007.

Alex Chanin has been promoted to chief operating officer of Vital Signs Inc. (Totowa, NJ), a company that manufactures and markets single-use medical products for the anesthesia, respiratory, critical care, sleep therapy, and emergency markets. Chanin will retain his duties as chief information officer and, in addition, will be responsible for overseeing the company's subsidiaries. Chanin has a combined 20 years of experience in consulting, operations, research and development, and information technology within the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

Intelligent Medical Implants AG (IMI; Zug, Switzerland) announced that Robert J. Hill has joined the company as vice president of operations. As an experienced medical device executive, Hill will help to bring IMI's product, the learning retinal implant system, to commercialization. Hill comes to IMI after spending 14 years in various director positions at Intervascular Inc. (La Ciotat, France). There, he led the company to ISO 9001/EN 13485 certification, CE marking, and FDA listing, and spearheaded the development of the world's first approved antimicrobial graft. Prior to Intervascular, Hill spent more than 10 years as a principal consultant at Pira International.

Volker Wetekam, PhD, has joined provider of clinical work flow and diagnostic imaging solutions, Agfa Healthcare (Mortsel, Belgium), as executive vice president for the company's global healthcare IT division. Wetekam brings to Agfa more than 14 years' experience in the healthcare IT sector at Siemens Medical Solutions (Malvern, PA). In his new position, he will define and implement the strategic positioning of Agfa Healthcare's IT division, which manages both the company's imaging informatics and its enterprise IT businesses.

Rockwell Medical Technologies Inc. (Wixom, MI), a specialty pharma company that develops, sells, and distributes hemodialysis products, has appointed Richard Zager, MD, to its scientific advisory board. Zager is currently the director of nephrol­ogy at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle).