Bruker Appoints New CFO

William Knight has stepped down from his post as chief financial officer (CFO) at Billerica, Mass.-based Bruker Corp. He will remain with the scientific equipment manufacturer in a senior management role, and will help ease the transition for new CFO Charles F. Wagner Jr.

Knight, a certified public accountant, served as Bruker’s CFO from October 2004 to February 2010, when he then took on the role of chief operating officer (COO). Beginning September of last year, Knight once again took on the role of CFO, and now will step aside for Wagner.

“During Bill’s tenure as CFO and COO, Bruker Corporation has grown from about $300 million to over $1.6 billion in annual revenue,” said Frank Laukien, Ph.D., Bruker’s president and CEO. He went on to praise Knight’s various contributions to the company over the past eight years. Bruker reported in May that its first-quarter net income climbed nearly 34 percent as revenue improved.

“Since joining us in 2010, Charlie has made significant contributions as a member of our board of directors and of our audit committee,” said Laukien of Wagner. “We believe that he will be an excellent addition to the company’s executive leadership team, and his prior experience as a member of our Board and as a public company CFO will further enhance and broaden the strength of our finance organization. Charlie will also strongly contribute to our operational excellence initiative, as well as to our corporate development and strategy evolution.”

Wagner has served as a director at Bruker since August 2010. He was executive vice president of finance and administration and CFO of Progress Software Corporation, a leading provider of enterprise software located in Bedford, Mass. from November 2010 until March 2012. Prior to joining Progress Software, Wagner served as vice president and CFO of Millipore Corporation, a global provider of products and services in the life science tools market, from 2007 until July 2010, when Millipore was acquired by Merck KGaA. He has held various executive management positions at Bain & Company and Coopers & Lybrand. Wagner also serves as a director of Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies Inc., where he is a member of the Audit Committee. He is the committee’s financial expert.

Wagner earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Boston College, and his Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.