For the third time in two months, the corner office at Osmetech Inc.’s London headquarters will have a new inhabitant.
The company said Jon Faiz Kayyem, a board member and major stakeholder at the molecular diagnostics maker (which has offices in Maynard, Mass.), will man the helm on an interim basis until a permanent replacement is found.
The move comes just six weeks after Osmetech announced that former CEO James White would be stepping down and new board chairman Christopher Gleeson would fill be filling in as CEO. For the past six weeks Gleeson has served the company as joint chief executive, along with Kayyem, who will now fill the role on his own.
The 45-year-old Kayyem is the founder of Clinical Micro Sensors, which was sold to Motorola in 2000 and then to Osmetech in 2004. He went on to found Efficacy Capital, a San Diego, Calif.-based fund, which owns about 33 percent of Osmetech’s stock, according to the company.
In late June, when the company announced it raised about $8.5 million through an equity sale, both Efficacy and Kayyem personally invested in the round. That financing also saw Gleeson invest $1 million of his own money and assume the chairmanship.
Coincidentally, the company also announced that Mark Lappe, Kayyem’s partner at Efficacy, resigned his seat on the Osmetech board to concentrate on running his “management consulting business.” Both Kayyeem and Lappe joined the board in December 2008.