STAAR Surgical Overhauls Its Leadership Structure

STAAR Surgical, a company that develops phakic intraocular lenses (IOLs) with its Evo family of implantable Collamer lenses (EVO ICL) for vision correction, has announced several changes to its leadership structure.

Warren Foust, the company’s chief operating officer (COO) was promoted to the newly created role of president and COO. Foust will continue to oversee STAAR’s sales, manufacturing, and operations. Under the new structure, the company’s chief development officer, chief marketing officer, and chief medical officer will also report to Foust.

Magda Michna, Ph.D., the company’s chief clinical, regulatory, and medical affairs officer, was promoted to the newly created position of chief development officer. Dr, Michna will continue to oversee STAAR’s clinical, regulatory, and medical affairs functions and assume further responsibility for its quality and R&D functions.

Due to Dr. Michna’s promotion, Keith Holliday, Ph.D., who was chief technology officer and head of R&D, is departing the company.

Deborah Andrews, who retired from STAAR in 2020 and was previously its chief financial officer (CFO) from 2007-2013 and 2017-2020, was named interim CFO, effective immediately. Patrick Williams, who joined the company as CFO in 2020, is stepping down, effective immediately as well.

Williams agreed to a three-month consulting agreement to help with the transition. His departure, according to STAAR, is part of the company’s leadership realignment and unrelated to any disagreement concerning financial reporting or internal controls.

The company’s realignment is stated as part of an ongoing process to fine-tune the organization, ensure business continuity, accelerate response to changing market conditions, and grow creativity in R&D.

“I am confident that we have the right leadership team in place to fulfill our promise to patients, surgeons, and shareholders,” said STAAR CEO Steve Farrell. “Our primary objective continues to be long term revenue growth, and this commitment is unwavering. Nonetheless, we are determined to reduce costs, especially in functional areas that don’t impact our customers. We have already taken a series of steps to materially reduce our long-term cost profile, and we have identified additional opportunities to better position the company for profitable growth that we look forward to discussing with investors in more detail during our first quarter earnings call.”

Farrell was appointed CEO of the company last month, replacing former president and CEO Tom Frinzi.