The appointment announced February 9 of Mr Wayne G Paterson as non-executive Board Chairman may prove to be an inspired choice as Admedus seeks to grow revenue from the sales of CardioCel, a xenograft material for which there is an increasing demand spanning several surgical specialties. It is already in use in over 135 significant surgical centres globally.
It comes however, at the cost of the resignations of three respected board members:
1. Mr Peter Turvey, 3 years a non-executive Director, and former head of the Audit and Risk Committee.
2. Mr Graeme Rowley, a non-executive Director for the past five years.
3. Mr Chris Catlow, non-executive Chairman for the last five years.
The present Executive Team of CEO Mr Lee Rodne, and Chief Operating Officer Dr Julian Chick, remains unchanged.
Mr Paterson is particularly well qualified to over-see the further expansion of Admedus into becoming potentially a world-ranking healthcare company. He is an Australian, living in Perth where the manufacturing plant is located. He was recruited last year to be a non-executive Director, and a member of both the Audit and Risk Management Committee, and the Remuneration Committee.
The profile information below is from Bloomberg research.
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=100454256&privcapId=24904237
Education
• Economics and Business Studies degree from the Queensland University of Technology
• MBA (Master of Business Administration) from the University of Southern Queensland
• Business courses at Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, IMD Business Course in Switzerland, INSEAD in France, and Hong Kong University of Technology
Previous Positions
• 1989 – Worked in the Infectious Diseases section of Abbott Laboratories.
• 1990 to 1994 – Management positions in Sales and Marketing for the private French Pharma “Servier”, manufacturer of medications for hypertension, Diabetes, Melanoma, Depression and Schizophrenia etc.
• 1994 to 2005 – With Roche Pharmaceuticals, becoming head for the Korean operations, and as Marketing Director in Shanghai, for China, he launched 8 new products.
• 2005 – He joined Merck as Head of Oncology for Asia Pacific
• 2007 to 2013 – He held many Senior Positions at Merck Serono SA and has been Executive Vice President and Member of the Management Board. He was head of Emerging Markets (BRIC countries) and Global Head of Cardiovascular. Endocrine and Metabolic Medicine from 2010 to 2012. He then became President of Europe, Canada, Australia and Israel from 2012 to 2013. From 2008 to 2010 he established and was President of Merck Serono Japan. He has been responsible for formulating strategies, drawing up budgets, and launching new products.
Since 2013
In June 2013 he founded a pharmaceutical marketing company known as ProCom Rx and he is its CEO.
It seeks to assist Global Pharma CEOs who wish to increase productivity, improve compliance and decrease costs within their organizations across the world.
It is incorporated in Geneva Switzerland and is in the business of providing cloud based objective commercial analytics and promotional compliance solutions to the global life sciences industry. It is a global business with offices in the US, EU, Japan, China and Australia
Through the skills and commitment of employees, ProCom Rx aims to be a leader in our selected life science commercial analytics and digital promotional compliance markets – excelling in delivery, quality and technical service to our customers.
ProCom Rx are committed to the highest levels of business and ethical behaviour and to fulfilling our responsibilities through the creation of long-term value for all stakeholders on a socially and environmentally sustainable basis.
The ProCom Rx team come from senior pharmaceutical marketing careers. Our products are designed by senior and operational level Pharmaceutical executives. Our products are purpose built for the life sciences industry and are supported by state of the art technical platforms and processes.From the ProCom Rx website. http://www.procomrx.com/about/
He is also a Director of the NASDAQ listed company Cepheid based in Sunnyvale, California. It is a leading molecular diagnostics company testing for infectious and genetic diseases.
My Viewpoint
Admedus is fortunate indeed to have a Chairman of the calibre, qualifications and experience of Mr Paterson at a time when such a person is most needed. He will bring with him numerous valuable contacts from around the world. Sooner or later the exciting Immunotherapy Division of Admedus will need the facilities of a major pharma to realize the potential of Professor Ian Frazer’s research work, and manufacture any vaccines which may be developed.
I am mindful however that there could be a conflict of interest between his role with Admedus and the company he has established ProCom Rx. I would hope that this risk will be balanced by strong independent board members and executive team.
Categories: Business, Company review, Uncategorized
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