Pneumacare Appoints New CEO

Cambridge, U.K.-based medtech company Pneumacare lost its CEO earlier this month as Ward Hills stepped down to set up several companies both inside the United Kingdom and abroad. He left on good terms—Pneumacare Chairman Bill Mason drew attention to his “outstanding track record,” and said he had “accomplished a great deal for the business and its investors.”

According to Mason, Hills “[Took] the reins of the company early on its history and [steered] it through a difficult but exciting period of funding, product development, regulatory approvals and in 2012, the first distribution and sales in the clinical environment.”

Taking Hills’ place is newly appointed Mark Harwood, a medical device industry veteran who previously was CEO of ArjoHuntleigh Inc. (a member of the Getinge AB Group) in Roselle, Ill., and subsequent to that, served as vice president of Baxter International Inc. He also has served as president of RF Technologies Inc. based in Brookfield, Wis.

Harwood has extensive regulatory and quality experience, which will be beneficial to Pneumacare as it finalizes its U.S. Food and Drug Administration 510(k) clearance of the Thora-3DI in the United States. The device translates the data obtained from a lung scan into an interactive three-dimensional output and allows the clinician to view the pulmonary function data in defined regions within the thoracic space, claims the company.

“I am looking forward to working with the team, increasing revenue and brand awareness in core markets, providing our customers and stakeholders an attractive return on investment and to build long term business relationships with them,” said Harwood.

“He [Harwood] has experience growing small companies in the medical device space as well as managing large teams of several hundred people involved in commercial, manufacturing and regulatory aspects of the businesses with which he has been involved,” said Mason. “His experience includes critical and long-term hospital care as well as special needs patients. He has a strong global track record in Europe and North America. He arrives at Pneumacare at a critical time in its development and our board believes he will play a pivotal role in taking the company to the next stage of its development and beyond.”

Pneumacare develops lung health technology, including devices that provide respiratory diagnostic and imaging data for patients.

Photo of Mark Harwood courtesy of businessweekly.co.uk.