Today, Zimmer announced the replacement of long-time President & CEO, Ray Elliott who will remain as Chairman of the Board until November 2007. His replacement will be David Dvorak who has been Group President, Global Businesses and Chief Legal Officer. Mr. Dvorak has also been named to the Board of Directors.
The Company also announced today that Sam Leno, CFO of Zimmer has resigned and has been named CFO of Boston Scientific. Zimmer has announced that James Crines has been named Executive Vice President, Finance and CFO. Mr. Crines has been a corporate office at Zimmer since 2001.
During the conference call several of the analysts speculated that the promotion of the Company's Chief Legal Officer could mean that there was a problem with the Department of Justice's investigation or that Zimmer was for sale. Mr. Elliott quickly dismissed these ideas recognizing this type of speculation as "Business 101". He explained that while Sam Leno and he have been the face to Zimmer for several years, several key executives including Mr. Dvorak and Mr. Crines have been involved in the strategic decision making process for years.
The management change at Zimmer follows a number of key changes at several of the largest orthopedic companies. In an article we wrote in April 2006 (Turnover at the Top) we stated there had been 10 new top executives hired over a two year period. In addition to today's announcement from Zimmer, other big moves in the past year included Jeffrey R. Binder joining Biomet as President and CEO and Michael Dormer resigning from his post as Worldwide Chairman of Medical Devices and Diagnostics of Johnson & Johnson.
