Avinger Announces Change in Board Leadership

Avinger Inc., a developer of treatments for peripheral artery disease (PAD), has announced that John B. Simpson, Ph.D., M.D., founder and executive chairman of Avinger, is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities. Concurrent with Dr. his departure, James G. Cullen has been appointed non-executive board chairman. 
 
“Avinger has benefited significantly from Dr. Simpson’s clinical expertise and guidance over the last 10 years as we have developed and introduced our suite of peripheral vascular products, and we join patients and physicians in thanking him for his many contributions to Avinger and the interventional cardiology industry more broadly over the last several decades,” said Jeff Soinski, Avinger’s president and CEO. “We are delighted that Jim Cullen has agreed to expand his board leadership role at Avinger, and look forward to continuing to benefit from his exceptional strategic and operational expertise. With strong R&D leadership in place and continued engagement with our physician users and clinical thought leaders, we are well-positioned to continue to advance our Lumivascular technology and are excited about the anticipated launch of our next generation products in 2018.”
 
Cullen has been on Avinger’s Board of Directors since December 2014 and has been its lead independent director since January 2015. He served as a director of Johnson & Johnson from 1995 until 2015, and was presiding director of the Johnson & Johnson board from 2003 to 2012. Cullen currently serves as a director of Agilent Technologies and Keysight Technologies, an electronic measurement spin-off from Agilent. He served as Agilent’s non-executive board chairman from 2005 until March 2017. Cullen was non-executive board chairman of Neustar Inc. from 2010 until its acquisition earlier in 2017. He is also a past director and member of the investment and finance committees of Prudential Financial Inc. In 2000, Cullen retired as president, chief operating officer and vice chairman of Bell Atlantic Corporation (now Verizon), positions he held since 1993.

Avinger is a commercial-stage medical device company that designs and develops an image-guided, catheter-based system that diagnoses and treats patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). Avinger is focused on changing the way vascular disease is treated through its Lumivascular platform, which currently consists of the Lightbox imaging console, the Ocelot family of chronic total occlusion (CTO) catheters, and the Pantheris family of atherectomy devices. Avinger is based in Redwood City, Calif.