Thoratec goes back to the future with CEO appointment
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Keith Grossman has retaken the helm of left-ventricular-assist-device manufacturer Thoratec after an eight-and-a-half year hiatus. Mr Grossman has replaced Gary Burbach, who stepped down as CEO on 22 September. The move comes as the company has been reporting declining sales of its franchise HeartMate II LVAD system in the face of growing competition in the market, particularly from number-two player HeartWare International. Mr Burbach succeeded Mr Grossman to lead Thoratec in 2006. Mr Grossman, who has since remained on Thoratec’s board of directors, had served as CEO for 10 years, during the period in which Thoratec became a public company and came to dominate the LVAD heart-failure market with its HeartMate devices. Since he stepped down in 2006, he has worked in private equity and, in 2011, he took over as CEO of permanent birth-control device firm Conceptus, which was bought by Bayer in 2013. In conjunction with the announcement of the CEO transition, the firm provided updated revenue guidance for the current (third) quarter of $102-107m, which is below the consensus analyst estimate by about $2.5m.
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