An internal email from soon-to-be-CEO Joe Almeida at Covidien plc (NYSE:COV) obtained by MassDevice details a slew of changes to the company’s management structure.
Almeida was tapped earlier this year to succeed the retiring Richard Meelia at the end of this month.
After reviewing the company’s organizational structure, Almeida wrote, “it’s clear that we need to further strengthen our Company so we can hone our competitive edge and maximize our great potential.”
“My goal is to ensure that we are optimally positioned to overcome the many challenges we face and to capture the many new opportunities that the evolving global healthcare market presents. Our industry is changing at an unprecedented pace. Customers increasingly demand value-based innovation, clinical performance and cost effectiveness,” he wrote. “At the same time, the global economic environment has tightened, and emerging markets continue to present formidable challenges, even as they remain a tremendously attractive opportunity.”
Effective July 1, Almeida’s former position as president of Covidien’s medical device segment will cease to be. Instead, a new tier of group presidents will report to Almeida in the corner office. Energy-based devices president Bryan Hanson will become group president overseeing that division and the surgical devices division, which will see current president Scott Flora leave the Mansfield, Mass.-based company.
Pete Wehrly, now president of respiratory & monitoring solutions, will be group president overseeing that segment plus vascular therapies and Covidien’s operations in Japan, Australia-New Zealand and Canada; Wehrly will choose his successor at the R&MS division. Joe Woody (vascular therapies), Roy Noda (Japan), Conrad Crighton (Australia-New Zealand) and Vafa Jamali (Canada) will all report to Wehrly.
Almeida is also creating another new position, senior VP of quality & operations, pulling Mike Sgrignari from his role as VP of operations for the medical device business to fill the position. The new role combines oversight of Covidien’s quality assurance, regulatory affairs, logistics, global sourcing, environmental health & safety, operational excellence, engineering and capital/real estate operations.
The following will reporting directly to Sgrignari:
- Kamal Ayoub, Vice President, OpEx
- Len Flynn, Director, Supply Chain
- Glenn Ghostlaw, Vice President, Distribution and Inventory Planning
- Joe Jansen, Vice President, Corporate EH&S
- Michael Linney, Vice President, EMEA Logistics
- Danielle Meyers, Director, Corporate Capital and Real Estate
- Siobhan O’Bara, Vice President, Customer Operations and SCS
- Graham Phillips, Vice President, Corporate
Engineering and Quality Improvement Program (QIP) - Joe Sapiente, Vice President, QA-RA for Medical Devices and Medical Supplies
- Dirk Stevens, Vice President, QA for Pharmaceuticals
- Pete Sturtevant, Vice President, Transportation and SCS
- David Wohler, Vice President, Global Sourcing
Global supply chain senior VP Jim Muse is retiring after 32 years with the Tyco Healthcare spinout).
The vice presidents of operations for each business will also report “dotted line” to Sgrignari: Tom Berry of pharmaceuticals, Mike Crowe of surgical devices, Adam Grover of R&MS, David Helsel of medical supplies, Bruce Lamb of EbD and Scott Pleau of Vascular Therapies. Regulatory affairs for pharmaceuticals will continue to report up that unit’s chain of command..
Finally, Almeida wrote, health systems president Matt Gattuso will report to medical supplies president James Clemmer and CTO Paul Hermes to Hanson, “with a dotted-line reporting relationship” to Brian King, president of emerging M markets.
“Leaders of the other areas reporting directly to me remain unchanged at
this time,” Almeida concluded. “These include Jim Clemmer, President, Medical Supplies; Matt Harbaugh, Interim President, Pharmaceuticals; and Brian King, President, Emerging Markets; as well as Chuck Dockendorff, Executive Vice President, Finance; Mike Dunford, Senior Vice President, Human Resources; Eric Kraus, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs; John Masterson, Senior Vice President, Legal; Dr. Michael Tarnoff, Global Chief Medical Officer; and Amy Wendell, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development.”
