Merit Medical (NSDQ:MMSI) said today that its board of directors voted to remove CFO Kent Stanger, who has served as CFO since the company’s founding in 1987, effective immediately, and its chief accounting officer Greg Barnett resigned from his position.
Stanger is replaced by Bernard Birkett, who has served the company’s exec veep of finance since January this year.
Merit did not offer any details on the personnel change, but stated that “after reviewing the operations of the company and the roles and responsibilities of the Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer, and Secretary of the company, voted to remove Kent Stanger from the offices of Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer, and Secretary of the company,” in an SEC filing.
Barnett turned in his resignation as CAO on Tuesday, the company said in an SEC filing, and the resignation was accepted by the board on Wednesday.
“I would like to publicly thank Kent for his many years of dedicated service to Merit. Kent has been an integral force in building this company from its beginning, and I have enjoyed working with him. I am also optimistic about the change and look forward to working with Bernard in his new role,” CEO Fred Lampropoulos said in prepared remarks.
Birkett joined the company in 1997, was promoted to its Europe, Middle East and Africa controller in 2000 and international finance veep in 2010, Merit Medical said.
The company has not found a replacement for either Barnett or Birkett’s previous positions, but said that Stanger would stay on in an interim basis to support the transition and would continue to serve on Merit’s board.