Helicos BioSciences Corp. (NSDQ:HLCS) president Stephen Lombardi is out effective Feb. 11, replaced by CEO Ronald Lowy for unspecified reasons, according to a filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
Lombardi, who also gave up his seat on the Cambridge, Mass.-based genome sequencing equipment maker, will be paid the balance of his $375,000 annual salary through August.
"Mr. Lombardi did not resign as a member of the Board of Directors as a result of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices," according to the filing.
Lombardi will keep the Helicos stock options and awards he was granted, although the awards vested as of Feb. 11, rather than their original vesting date of August 31. He has until mid-May to exercise the options.
Lowy, the former president and CEO of Fisher Scientific from 2004 until about a year after a merger with Thermo Electron Corp. in 2006 created Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO), worked as a consultant to Helicos from April 2007 to November of that year. He was named CEO in December 2008, just more than a year after being named to its board of directors.
Helicos registered for a $6.4 million stock sale last December, after a tumultuous year that saw it examine "strategic alternatives" before taking itself off the market in November.