STAAR Surgical CEO Caren Mason to Retire; Tom Frinzi Appointed New CEO

STAAR Surgical, a maker of implantable lenses for the eye, announced president and CEO Caren Mason will retire on December 31, 2022 after leading the company for over seven years.
 
Ophthalmic industry exec Thomas G. Frinzi, current STAAR board chair, will begin leading the company as president and CEO beginning January 1, 2023. Mason will serve in an advisory roles through December 31, 2023 to ensure a seamless transition.
 
“On behalf of the entire Board, I want to thank Caren for her exceptional tenure as STAAR’s President and CEO since March 2015,” Aimee S. Weisner, Chair of the Board’s Nominating and Governance Committee, told the press. “Under Caren’s leadership, STAAR has achieved numerous significant milestones including accelerating average revenue growth above 25% over the past several years and gaining U.S. FDA approval of our EVO lenses earlier this year. At the same time, Caren has overseen a dramatic increase in shareholder value with shares of STAAR increasing in value by almost 10 times during her tenure. She leaves STAAR in an incredibly strong financial and market position.”
 
Mason was named STAAR president and CEO in March 2015 after serving as an independent director for the company since 2014. Before joining STAAR, Mason was a CEO and served in other executive roles at numerous healthcare, life sciences, diagnostics, and medical device companies.
 
“Serving as CEO of STAAR Surgical has been the highlight of my career,” said Mason. “I am proud of STAAR’s accomplishments under my leadership over the past seven years, and I am grateful for the many dedicated professionals around the world who make STAAR such a phenomenal company. I look forward to watching STAAR’s continued success and have great confidence in Tom and the amazing STAAR leadership team.”
 
Frinzi was appointed to STAAR’s board in June 2020. He served as worldwide president of surgical for Johnson & Johnson Vision, and was previously senior VP of Abbott Labs and president of Abbott Medical Optics. Before Abbott, he was president and CEO of eye surgical systems maker WaveTec Vision. He also held senior positions in commercial operations, business development, and sales/marketing at Bausch & Lomb, Refractec, and Chron Vision.
 
“I am honored to be selected to lead STAAR as CEO and excited about our company’s future, especially our significant opportunity launching EVO ICL in the United States,” said Frinzi. “Caren has set the company on extremely strong footing, and I will be highly focused on continuing our global growth and ensuring STAAR continues to lead the industry with innovative lens-based solutions that offer freedom from glasses and contact lenses. We have an incredibly strong team, a life-transforming solution for patients, and we are well positioned to continue to deliver for patients and the physicians who serve them, while also driving value for our shareholders.”
 
The company also revealed it expects to achieve net sales of $64-66 million for Q4 2022.