Two prominent Orange County medical device companies appointed new leaders last week.<\/p>\n
Following months of corporate upheaval marked by proxy battles, acquisitions and failed deals, Masimo and Staar Surgical Co. are starting fresh with new executives at the helm.<\/p>\n
Irvine-based Masimo has tapped Chief Commercial Officer Tim Benner to lead the medtech firm as president under Danaher ownership. He assumes the role from Katie Szyman, who became chief executive of Masimo in early 2025 and led the company though its $9.9 billion acquisition by Danaher before stepping down in June.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Aliso Viejo-based Staar Surgical promoted Warren Foust to permanent chief executive after serving as interim co-CEO since February alongside Deborah Andrews after Staar\u2019s proposed $1.6 billion sale to Alcon fell through.<\/p>\n
Benner Leads Masimo\u2019s Next Chapter
Benner joined Masimo in 2025 as chief marketing and strategy officer.<\/p>\n
Masimo is now turning to Benner, who has 30 years of executive experience in the medtech industry, to lead the company under Danaher.<\/p>\n
His appointment follows a turbulent period for Masimo, which became embroiled in a two-year proxy battle with activist investor Politan Capital Management that led to the ouster of founder Joe Kiani in 2024.<\/p>\n
Masimo has also been engaged in a high-profile legal battle with Apple Inc., most recently securing a July court ruling that upheld a $643 million jury verdict in its favor.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery company evolves, and Masimo is entering an exciting new chapter built on a strong foundation of innovation and clinical excellence,\u201d Benner told the Business Journal.<\/p>\n
Prior to Masimo, Benner was chief commercial officer at Irvine-based Inari Medical Inc. and part of the executive team that sold the company to Stryker Corp. for $4.9 billion last February.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s held similar leadership positions at Abbott, Terumo Neuro and Edwards Lifesciences Corp. in Irvine where Benner spent nearly nine years as vice president of global strategy.<\/p>\n
Benner said that one of his priorities in the coming months is to \u201camplify Masimo\u2019s engineering DNA\u201d as the company prepares to launch about 20 new products over the next three to four years.<\/p>\n
Last month, the company announced that it received 510(k) clearance from the FDA for a sedation score designed for pediatric patients. The cleared function is used in Masimo\u2019s SedLine brain function monitoring platform.<\/p>\n
The same day Benner\u2019s appointment was announced, Danaher also named Julie Sawyer Montgomery as CEO and president of the parent company, effective Oct. 1.<\/p>\n
She will relocate from Orange County to Danaher\u2019s headquarters in Washington, D.C. for the role, according to the company\u2019s 8-K filing.<\/p>\n
Sawyer Montgomery previously was executive vice president of Danaher\u2019s diagnostics segment, which comprises six companies including Brea-based Beckman Coulter, and led the Masimo acquisition.<\/p>\n
She succeeds Rainer Blair, who is retiring and will serve as senior advisor until March 31.<\/p>\n
Foust Navigates Staar After Failed Alcon Deal
Staar Surgical, an implantable eye lens maker, is also undergoing a leadership transition after a turbulent year of its own.<\/p>\n
Last August, Staar agreed to be acquired by Alcon for $1.5 billion. Five months later, however, Staar terminated the deal due to opposition from its largest shareholder, Broadwood Partners, which holds an approximate 31% stake in the company.<\/p>\n
Broadwood criticized the deal\u2019s terms, including the valuation and process, prompting Staar to open a 30-day \u201cgo-shop\u201d period, during which no other proposals were received.<\/p>\n
Broadwood ultimately succeeded in removing Chairwoman Dr. Elizabeth Yeu and CEO Stephen Farrell, who took over for Tom Frinzi last February.<\/p>\n
Following Farrell\u2019s resignation, Foust and Andrews were appointed interim co-CEOs at the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n
Foust joined Staar in 2023 as chief operating officer after leading the surgical vision unit of Johnson & Johnson. Prior to that, he also spent four years as worldwide president of J&J\u2019s Mentor brand of breast implants and tissue expanders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say this is an excellent choice,\u201d Jim Mazzo, who has been an executive for nearly five decades in the ophthalmology industry, told the Business Journal. \u201cWarren Foust has done an outstanding job to guide Staar over the last year and a half. He continues to be a positive force in our industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, Staar reported first quarter revenue more than doubled to $93.5 million, coming in well above Wall Street\u2019s $77.4 million forecast as demand rebounded in China, its largest market. The company\u2019s sales fell 24% to $239 million last year as distributors worked through elevated inventory levels in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have now largely moved past many of the challenges that we faced in 2025\u2026 those issues are behind us now\u201d Foust said during the company\u2019s first quarter earnings call.<\/p>\n
In Starr\u2019s preliminary second quarter earnings, the company expects revenue to exceed $90 million, up 120% from the prior year. It will release full financial results on Aug. 12 after the market closes.<\/p>\n
At press time, Staar traded at $22.76 and had a $1.1 billion market cap. Shares are down about 37% since reaching a 52-week high of $35.87 in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two prominent Orange County medical device companies appointed new leaders last week. Following months of corporate upheaval marked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-429016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}