Corasanti steps down as CEO of ConMed, firm appoints interim CEO

UTICA, N.Y. — ConMed Corp. (NASDAQ: CNMD), a Utica–based surgical-device maker, today announced that Joseph (Joe) Corasanti has stepped down as CEO, president, and board member, effective immediately. The company provided no reason for Corasanti’s resignation.

The board has appointed Curt Hartman, an independent director of ConMed and the former interim CEO and CFO of Stryker Corporation, as interim CEO, the company said in a news release.

In addition, founder Eugene (Gene) Corasanti has decided to retire, effective immediately, from the board and as an employee after nearly 44 years with ConMed, the firm added.

Joe Corasanti has been “integral” to ConMed for more than two decades and the firm is “extremely grateful” for his contributions, Mark Tryniski, chairman of ConMed’s board of directors, said in the news release.

“Joe’s leadership has been instrumental in growing ConMed into a leading global supplier of medical-technology devices. Under his tenure, the company expanded revenues, earnings, cash flow and its return to shareholders through internal growth and the completion of more than twenty acquisitions. We are also grateful to Gene Corasanti, a true entrepreneur who founded the company in 1970 with one product idea and strategic vision that became the foundation for the worldwide organization that ConMed is today,” said Tryniski.

Joseph Corasanti acknowledged in the news release that ConMed has been an “important part” of his life for more than 20 years and he’s “extremely proud” of the progress that the company has made.

Hartman is the former interim CEO and CFO of Kalamazoo, Mich.–based Stryker Corporation (NYSE: SYK) and brings more than 22 years of medical-device industry experience to ConMed.

During his tenure at Stryker, Hartman focused on initiatives that included the completion of multiple acquisitions, debt offerings, share buybacks, and an enhanced-dividend policy while “innovating” the business model to address the changing health-care landscape, according to ConMed.

As ConMed moves forward, the board has formed a search committee comprised of independent board members Mark Tryniski, Jerome Lande, Stephen Mandia, Brian Concannon and Charles Farkas to identify candidates for the permanent CEO position.

The ConMed board also announced the appointment Farkas, a senior partner at Bain & Company and former North American leader of Bain’s healthcare practice, as a new independent director, effective immediately.

The board intends to retain an executive-search firm to assist in the process, the company said.

In addition to the leadership announcement, ConMed also announced it is ending its review of “strategic alternatives,” deciding instead to have the board work with management to focus on further developing and executing ConMed’s strategic plan to grow revenues and margins, the firm said.

In the aftermath of that news, which shelved the possibility of a sale of the company, ConMed’s stock plummeted by $3.98, or more than 9 percent, today to close at $38.74.

Earnings
In its quarterly financial report, ConMed said it earned more than $10.2 million in the second quarter that ended June 30, up from the more than $9.5 million earned during the same period in 2013.

The firm generated sales of more than $188 million, a decrease of more than 2 percent over the prior-year period caused “principally” by weaker sales of general-surgery devices, surgical-visualization capital products, and the discontinuance of the Cascade PRP product line, according to the earnings news release.

ConMed is a medical technology company with an emphasis on surgical devices and equipment for minimally invasive procedures. The company’s products are used by surgeons and physicians in a variety of specialties including orthopedics, general surgery, gynecology, neurosurgery and gastroenterology.

Headquartered in Utica, ConMed employs 3,600 people with a direct sales presence in 16 countries outside the U.S.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com