Aspect Medical Systems Inc. cut a deal with a New York investment fund rather than face a protracted and messy board fight.
The Norwood-based brain-monitoring equipment maker said it will support the nomination of Jon Biro and Melvin Keating, both of First Biomed LLC, to its board of directors for three-year terms starting in June. Keating will also be given a seat on the compensation committee and Biro will be appointed to the auditing committee.
Aspect also accepted the resignation of two current board members, David Feigal Jr. and Boudewijn L.P.M. Bollen. Vincent Scialli, the third member of First Biomed’s group, will be given a board seat to replace one of the departed board members, as will James Mahoney Jr. Scialli, who’ll be re-appointed next year, also gained a seat on the company’s corporate governance board and nominating committee.
The company will hold its annual shareholders meeting June 5.
Bollen, who was Aspect’s president of international operations from 1998 until his retirement in April of last year, steps down from the board after 11 years. He owns about 125,000 shares of Aspect stock, according to the company’s most recent proxy filing.
Feigal departs having served on the board since 2004. A principal at NDA Partners LLC, a Falls Church, Va., product development consulting firm, Feigal spent 12 years with the federal Food & Drug Administration as director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research and the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Feigal owns 25,000 shares of Aspect stock.
The moves follow news of First Biomed’s shot across Aspect’s bow, announcing its intention to nominate three officials to Aspect’s board due to what it called the need to “optimize the company’s capital structure and maximize stockholder value.”
First Biomed, which operates a series of investment vehicles under the “First Health Funds” umbrella, has been steadily buying shares of Aspect Medical Systems since June 2007 and currently owns a roughly 14 percent stake in the company.
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