Anika Therapeutics Mourns the Sudden Passing of Joseph Darling, President and Chief Executive Officer
January 29 2020 - 4:30PM
Anika Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANIK) announced today with great
sadness that Joseph Darling, its President and Chief Executive
Officer, passed away unexpectedly on January 29, 2020 in Upstate
New York. He was 62.
“We are shocked and greatly saddened by the passing of Joe
Darling,” said Joseph Bower, Chairman of Anika's Board of
Directors. “He was a visionary leader with a passion for
healthcare, a devoted father to his children and a good friend. On
behalf of the Board of Directors and all Anika employees, as well
as the many people he worked with and mentored over the years, we
would like to extend our deepest condolences to the Darling family,
including his wife, Maureen, and children, Jon and Jordan. We will
miss Joe dearly.”
The Company’s Board of Directors will immediately initiate a
search to identify a new CEO. A leading executive search firm will
be retained to assist in the process.
Effective immediately, the Company’s Board has established an
interim Office of the President to provide ongoing leadership and
oversight of the day-to-day operations of the Company while the
search is conducted. The Office of the President is to be filled by
Sylvia Cheung, Chief Financial Officer, James Loerop, Executive
Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Planning, and
Thomas Finnerty, Executive Vice President of Human Resources. Anika
Board member, Dr. Cheryl Blanchard, will meet regularly with the
Office of the President. All will remain in their current positions
while carrying out their new responsibilities.
Mr. Darling joined Anika as President in July 2017 and was
appointed CEO in March 2018, bringing more than 20 years of
extensive experience in executive management and leadership from
publicly-traded, commercial-stage companies, including Abbott
Laboratories, Baxter Healthcare, Smith & Nephew, CONMED, and
Wyeth-Ayerst. Before joining Anika, Mr. Darling held executive
leadership positions with two small privately held orthopedic
companies. Prior to these roles, Mr. Darling held senior level
executive positions at CONMED Corporation, a global, publicly-held,
diversified medical device company, as Global President of its
wholly-owned subsidiary, Linvatec Corporation, and as Executive
Vice President of Global Corporate Commercial Operations. At
CONMED, Mr. Darling led five global business units with
approximately $760 million in annual revenues and re-energized the
organizational efforts in sales, marketing, R&D, and business
development activities that allowed the company to expand its
portfolio of product offerings to its customers. Mr. Darling
oversaw the launch and commercialization of many key new products
while at Linvatec including several new sports medicine
technologies in the shoulder (Shoulder Restoration System, Y-Knot
Shoulder Anchor line), along with new products in the knee and hip
joints. Before joining CONMED, Mr. Darling was Senior Vice
President and General Manager for the sports medicine and biologics
business at Smith & Nephew, where he played an important role
in defining a global strategy that propelled the company to a
leadership position in the sports medicine field. While at Smith
& Nephew, Mr. Darling and his team were pioneers in developing
the Hip Arthroscopy space from a commercial perspective. Mr.
Darling launched his career at Abbott Laboratories where he was
involved in the commercialization efforts of many pharmaceutical
products in the neuroscience, antimicrobial, cardiovascular, and
HIV treatment space. While at Abbott Laboratories, he held
management positions in sales and marketing before joining
Wyeth-Ayerst Pharmaceuticals in roles of marketing for the pain and
inflammation and women's healthcare franchises. He later joined
Baxter Healthcare as a Vice President of marketing and health
systems. Mr. Darling received a Bachelor of Arts in Political
Science from Syracuse University.
About Anika Therapeutics, Inc.Anika
Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANIK) is a global, integrated joint
preservation and regenerative therapies company based in Bedford,
Mass. Anika is committed to delivering therapies to improve the
lives of patients across a continuum of care from osteoarthritis
pain management to joint preservation and restoration. The company
has more than two decades of global expertise commercializing more
than 20 products based on its proprietary hyaluronic acid (HA)
technology platform. For more information about Anika, please visit
www.anikatherapeutics.com.
Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release
includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section
27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, concerning, but not limited to,
the establishment of an Office of the President and the management
leadership structure of the Company. The Securities and Exchange
Commission ("SEC") encourages companies to disclose forward-looking
statements so that investors can better understand a company’s
future prospects and make informed investment decisions.
Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties,
many of which are outside our control, which could cause actual
results to differ materially from these statements. Therefore, you
should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements can be identified by such words as
"will," "likely," "may," "believe," "expect," "anticipate,"
"intend," "seek," "designed," "develop," "would," "future," "can,"
"could," and other expressions that are predictions of or indicate
future events and trends and that do not relate to historical
matters. All statements other than statements of historical facts
included in this press release regarding our strategies, prospects,
financial condition, operations, costs, plans, and objectives are
forward-looking statements. Please refer to the factors set forth
under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company’s Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, filed with the SEC,
as may be amended or supplemented in subsequently filed Quarterly
Reports on Form 10-Q for important factors that we believe could
cause actual results to differ materially from those in our
forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement made by
us in this press release is based only on information currently
available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made.
We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking
statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to
time, whether as a result of new information, future developments,
or otherwise.
For Investor Inquiries: |
For Media Inquiries: |
Anika Therapeutics, Inc. |
W2O Group |
Sylvia Cheung, 781-457-9000 |
Jeremy Berrington, 312-241-1995 |
Chief Financial Officer |
jberrington@w2ogroup.com |
investorrelations@anikatherapeutics.com |
|
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d46c34ab-5979-4e45-970b-3e38b36293e7
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