STAAR Surgical Hires Two New C-Suite Executives

STAAR Surgical Company has named Warren Foust as chief operating officer and Magda Michna, Ph.D., as chief Clinical, Regulatory and Medical Affairs officer. The pair report to STAAR Surgical President and CEO Tom Frinzi.
 
“The addition of two highly regarded ophthalmic leaders to our team exemplifies the success, momentum and opportunity for STAAR as we work with surgeons to expand the market for refractive vision correction with our proprietary EVO ICL lenses to the millions of people seeking visual freedom from contact lenses and glasses,” Frinzi said. “Warren will be integral to advancing our growth objectives, especially in the U.S., including many important aspects of our commercial and manufacturing operations. He is uniquely qualified to work with the U.S. surgeon community given his experience leading one of the world’s premier ophthalmic businesses. Dr. Michna is an important addition to overseeing and advancing our global clinical and regulatory pipeline, as well as adding to the published data supporting the clinical benefits of our lens technologies. My sincere gratitude to Denise McEachern, STAAR’s Global Head of Regulatory Affairs, who is planning to retire after successfully shepherding several STAAR medical devices through the regulatory process and approval. Today, STAAR is a company delivering industry leading growth and with increasing momentum for even greater growth. Our focus remains capturing the whitespace opportunity in front of us.”
 
Most recently, Foust served as worldwide president, Johnson & Johnson Vision, Surgical, since December 2019. At Johnson & Johnson, he managed the global surgical business with approximately $1.5 billion in annual sales and 5,000 employees. Prior to Johnson & Johnson Vision, Surgical, Foust served as worldwide president of Mentor, a breast reconstruction and aesthetics business unit of Johnson & Johnson from 2018-2019, and vice president, U.S. Sales and Marketing, from 2015-2018. Before Mentor, Foust held various sales leadership roles at DePuy Synthes, the orthopedics arm of Johnson & Johnson. He started his career at Roche Pharmaceuticals as a sales representative in 1999.

Foust earned an MBA and bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama.
 
“I am so grateful to be part of the ophthalmic community,” Foust stated. “It is an honor to work at STAAR. I believe STAAR has the right technology at the right time to establish a new standard of care for refractive vision correction. My focus will be on empowering our STAAR teams and equipping our surgeon customers with the tools they need to drive growth and adoption of the EVO family of lenses. I am also very happy to work with Tom again.”
 
Michna joins STAAR Surgical from AcuFocus Inc. where she served as chief Global Clinical, Medical and Regulatory Affairs officer since April 2018. AcuFocus was acquired by Bausch & Lomb in January 2023. Prior to AcuFocus, Dr. Michna served as chief clinical officer at Presbia. From 2012 to 2017, Dr. Michna led clinical development for many premium intraocular lens and other surgical device technologies supporting the Alcon Surgical franchise. She began her industry career as a vision scientist at VISTAKON, a division of Johnson & Johnson Vision from 2008-2012, which she joined following an academic Research Fellowship with the Vision Research Group at McGill University’s Department of Ophthalmology from 2005-2008.

Dr. Michna earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in optical physics and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Melbourne, Australia.
 
“I have admired STAAR’s technology and its management team for several years and look forward to leading clinical, regulatory and medical affairs,” Michna said. “The safety and effectiveness of the EVO family of lenses is well established, and I am confident we can facilitate even broader awareness and understanding of the data within the ophthalmic community.”
 
STAAR, which has been dedicated solely to ophthalmic surgery for more than 40 years, designs, develops, manufactures and markets implantable lenses for the eye. These lenses are intended to provide visual freedom for patients, lessening or eliminating the reliance on glasses or contact lenses. All of these lenses are foldable, which permits the surgeon to insert them through a small incision. STAAR’s lens used in refractive surgery is called an Implantable Collamer Lens or “ICL,” which includes the EVO ICL product line. More than 2,000,000 ICLs have been sold to date and STAAR markets these lenses in more than 75 countries. Headquartered in Lake Forest, Calif., the company operates manufacturing and packaging facilities in Aliso Viejo, Calif.; Monrovia, Calif.; and Nidau, Switzerland.