Zimmer Biomet (NYSE:ZBH) announced today that the planned spinoff of its spine and dental businesses will be called ZimVie.
Spokesperson Laura Driscoll elaborated that “Zim” derives from Zimmer Biomet, the new company’s roots — and “Vie” is the French word for “life,” symbolizing the future. (Abbott used a similar construct with its AbbVie pharma spinoff.) ZimVie’s headquarters will be in Westminster, Colorado.
The news came at the same time that Zimmer Biomet announced more leadership appointments for the spinoff, including Richard J. Heppenstall as EVP and CFO. Heppenstall most recently served as CFO of Breg and previously held senior leadership positions at Orthofix International, Solera Holdings, Flowserve and Coopervision, among others. He’ll report directly to Vafa Jamali, the former Medtronic executive announced as the spinoff’s CEO earlier this year.
“Rich is joining ZimVie at an instrumental time for the company, as we continue to shape our operating model and business plans in preparation for the planned spin-off,” Jamali said in a news release. “His extensive experience across all areas of finance within the medtech space will be critically important as we advance toward the formation of a new independent company for our Spine and Dental businesses.”
The creation of ZimVie remains on track, with an expected close in mid-2022.
Other ZimVie leadership team appointments include:
- Vincent Binetti, GM, Bone Healing;
- Laura Driscoll, VP, Communications;
- David Harmon, SVP, Chief Human Resources Officer;
- Indraneel Kanaglekar, SVP, President, Global Dental;
- Heather Kidwell, SVP, Chief Legal and Compliance Officer;
- Mike Minette, SVP, Strategy and Corporate Development;
- Ann Vu, SVP, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance;
- Rebecca Whitney, SVP, President, Global Spine.
This story originally ran on September 14. Updated September 16 with more details.
