Bovie Medical Corporation, a maker of medical devices and supplies and the developer of J-Plasma, a patented new surgical product, has named Charles D. Goodwin as CEO, and has joined the company’s Board of Directors. Goodwin succeeds Robert L. Gershon, who has resigned to pursue other opportunities.
 
“After thorough consideration, the Board of Directors has voted unanimously to appoint Charlie to the role of chief executive officer,” said Andrew Makrides, board chairman. “The appointment of Mr. Goodwin represents an important strategic decision for Bovie Medical as we pursue strong growth performance and improving profitability. Charlie is the ideal executive to lead the company on its next stage of growth. The Board is confident that he will drive growth and enhance the company’s operational performance, which together we believe will increase shareholder value going forward.”

Over the course of his nearly 25-year career in the medical device industry, Goodwin has a demonstrated track record of delivering strong revenue growth and operational excellence. As vice president of Olympus Corporation’s global surgical energy group for five years, he was directly responsible for the group’s global commercial strategy, managing a team of over 500 employees with full profit and loss responsibility. Prior to joining Olympus, Goodwin was president of worldwide sales at Gyrus ACMI, where he led the business to record growth in sales and profit, and served as a key member of the executive team that negotiated the acquisition of Gyrus ACMI by Olympus for $2.2 billion. Before his promotion to president of worldwide sales, Goodwin was instrumental in developing Gyrus’s global distribution network as president, Surgical Division, where he achieved average annual sales growth of 35 percent for three consecutive years.
 
“I am excited to lead Bovie Medical as the Company commercializes its transformational J-Plasma technology and continues to grow sales,” said Goodwin. “J-Plasma represents an exciting step forward from the surgical energy technologies that have been traditionally applied in these markets, with its potential in several surgical specialties to improve surgical precision and enhance procedure safety by minimizing collateral tissue damage. I am looking forward to working together with our employees and the board to continue to drive the commercial adoption of this energy technology for the benefit of our customers and shareholders.”
 
The company now expects total 2017 revenue in the range of $37 million to $37.5 million, representing flat sales to 1 percent growth year-over-year, compared to prior guidance which assumed growth in the range of approximately 4 percent to 5 percent year-over-year. The change in the total revenue guidance range is driven primarily by softer sales performance in Bovie Medical's Core segment in the fourth quarter; J-Plasma sales growth expectations remain unchanged from prior guidance expectations.
 
The Company expects total revenue growth to be driven by:

• Advanced Energy sales growth in the range of approximately 93 percent to 98 percent year-over-year, unchanged from prior guidance expectations;
• An OEM sales decline in the range of approximately 53 percent to 54 perent year-over-year, as compared to a decline in the range of approximately 50 percent to 55 percent previously;
• Core sales growth in the range of up to 1 percent year-over-year, as compared to growth in the range of approximately 3 percent to 4 percent year-over-year previously.

The Company now expects a GAAP net loss of approximately $6.3 million, compared to prior guidance for a loss of $5 million and adjusted EBITDA loss in a range of $4.6 million to $4.8 million, compared to adjusted EBITDA loss in a range of $3.3 to $3.5 million previously. The new GAAP net loss and adjusted EBITDA loss range for fiscal year 2017 includes approximately $900,000  in separation expense related to the CEO change.
 
Bovie Medical Corporation is a maker of medical devices and supplies as well as the developer of J-Plasma, a patented plasma-based surgical product for cutting, coagulation and ablation of soft tissue. J-Plasma utilizes a helium ionization process to produce a stable, focused beam of plasma that provides surgeons with greater precision, minimal invasiveness and an absence of conductive currents through the patient during surgery. The new J-Plasma handpieces with Cool-Coag technology deliver the precision of helium plasma energy, the power of traditional monopolar coagulation and the efficiency of plasma beam coagulation—enabling thin-layer ablation and dissection and fast coagulation with a single instrument, minimizing instrument exchange and allowing a surgeon to focus on their patient and their procedures. With Cool-Coag technology, the new J-Plasma handpieces can deliver three distinctly different energy modalities, further increasing the utility and versatility of the J-Plasma system. Bovie Medical Corporation also manufactures a range of electrosurgical products and technologies marketed through both private labels and the company’s own brands (Bovie, IDS, and DERM) to distributors worldwide. The company also leverages its expertise through original equipment manufacturing (OEM) agreements with other medical device manufacturers.