Effective immediately, Masimo has tapped Michelle Brennan to be its interim CEO, following the resignation of the company’s founder and long-time chief, Joe Kiani, amid his ouster from the board after a years-long proxy battle.
Brennan, formerly a medical device executive at Johnson & Johnson, was elected as a Masimo director last year, as part of the first salvo from activist investor Politan Capital Management. In mid-2023, the hedge fund nominated Brennan—as well as the firm’s managing partner, Quentin Koffey—to replace two members after acquiring a 9% stake in the company.
And last week, Politan added two more: Darlene Solomon, once a senior VP at Agilent, plus Stryker’s previous chief financial officer, Bill Jellison. They claimed the seats belonging to Kiani as well as Chris Chavez, former CEO of Trivascular and Advanced Neuromodulation Systems.
“I am grateful for the trust of the Board and excited by the opportunity to help Masimo continue to grow and lead as an innovation-focused company,” Brennan said in a statement. “As we go through this transition, the Board and management team are excited to learn from and work with our employees, while focusing on ensuring seamless service and support for our customers.”
Masimo said it has retained a headhunting firm, Korn Ferry, to help search for a new successor, and that the company plans to continue its strategic review for the future of its consumer-focused healthcare and audio businesses—some of the main sticking points in Politan’s proxy fight over the past two years, starting with Masimo’s $1 billion acquisition of Sound United and the subsequent plans to spin it out along with its high-tech baby monitor, smartwatch and other products outside the sphere of its hospital patient monitoring activities.
As Kiani departs, it remains unclear what will happen regarding the nearly 300 Masimo staff who previously said they would follow him out the door if he was voted off the board. That included the company’s chief operating officer, Bilal Muhsin, who had submitted a conditional resignation letter.
However, it appears Muhsin will be sticking around. In Masimo’s press release, he joined CFO Micah Young in saying: “We are excited about the strong momentum of the business and its future prospects for growth. We look forward to providing more details on the upcoming third-quarter earnings call next month.”