Sam Brusco, Associate Editor10.03.23
Baxter has appointed Joel Grade as its new chief financial officer (CFO), effective October 18. On that date Brian Stevens, who has been the company’s interim CFO since May 31, will return to his previous role of senior VP, chief accounting officer, and controller.
Grade (53) is joining Baxter after a 25-year career with Sysco, a global foodservice company with fiscal year 2023 sales of over $76 billion. He was most recently Sysco’s executive VP of corporate development and prior to that served as the company’s executive VP and CFO. He also held the roles of senior VP of finance and chief accounting officer and senior VP of foodservice operations.
Grade began his career as a senior auditor at Ernst & Young.
“I’m very excited to join Baxter, an industry leader with a rich history, compelling future, patient-centric mission, and best-in-class talent,” Grade told the press. “The opportunity to contribute to Baxter’s ongoing transformation and make a meaningful difference for our many stakeholders is both motivating and well aligned with my experience in driving scale across large organizations and successfully executing against a company’s strategic objectives.”
“Joel is a seasoned global financial executive with decades of deep operational and broad business experience as well as a proven record of results-driven impact,” added Baxter’s chairman, president, and CEO Joe Almeida. “I am confident we will benefit from Joel’s leadership as we continue to advance the transformational actions announced earlier this year to help fuel enhanced growth, innovation and value for the patients, clinicians, investors and numerous other stakeholder communities that depend on us.”
Almeida added, “I’d also like to thank Brian for serving as our interim CFO; we’re grateful for his contributions during the transition and look forward to his continued leadership in Baxter’s Finance organization.”
Grade (53) is joining Baxter after a 25-year career with Sysco, a global foodservice company with fiscal year 2023 sales of over $76 billion. He was most recently Sysco’s executive VP of corporate development and prior to that served as the company’s executive VP and CFO. He also held the roles of senior VP of finance and chief accounting officer and senior VP of foodservice operations.
Grade began his career as a senior auditor at Ernst & Young.
“I’m very excited to join Baxter, an industry leader with a rich history, compelling future, patient-centric mission, and best-in-class talent,” Grade told the press. “The opportunity to contribute to Baxter’s ongoing transformation and make a meaningful difference for our many stakeholders is both motivating and well aligned with my experience in driving scale across large organizations and successfully executing against a company’s strategic objectives.”
“Joel is a seasoned global financial executive with decades of deep operational and broad business experience as well as a proven record of results-driven impact,” added Baxter’s chairman, president, and CEO Joe Almeida. “I am confident we will benefit from Joel’s leadership as we continue to advance the transformational actions announced earlier this year to help fuel enhanced growth, innovation and value for the patients, clinicians, investors and numerous other stakeholder communities that depend on us.”
Almeida added, “I’d also like to thank Brian for serving as our interim CFO; we’re grateful for his contributions during the transition and look forward to his continued leadership in Baxter’s Finance organization.”