Paul LaViolette to Leave
Boston Scientific Jim Tobin to Remain
as President and CEO "for the foreseeable future"
June 4, 2008 -- Boston Scientific
announced yesterday that Chief Operating Officer Paul LaViolette,
50, will be retiring at the end of this month and
his duties will be assumed by current President and CEO Jim Tobin,
who will remain in his position "for the foreseeable future".
The position of COO, held by LaViolette since 2005, will
not be replaced. LaViolette will serve as a senior
adviser to Boston Scientific through December 31 and, according
to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
will receive separation payments of $5.4 million and $1.8 million
over the next two years, assuming he is in compliance with "the
non-competition, non-solicitation, non-disparagement and assignment
requirements set forth in the Separation Agreement."
Paul LaViolette
LaViolette's career in the
device field began in the early days of angioplasty, when he
joined USCI Division of C.R. Bard, the company that introduced
the Gruentzig balloon catheter and coronary angioplasty into
the U.S. He served USCI in several capacities, ultimately as
president. He joined Boston Scientific in 1994.
Pete Nicholas,
Co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Boston Scientific, stated
in a press release that, "Paul LaViolette has served this Company
with passion and enthusiasm for almost 15 years, and as a friend
and colleague I want to thank him for all he has done."
LaViolette's departure took some analysts
and members of the investment community by surprise, according
to an article in today's Wall Street Journal. Some expressed
that they "thought
he was being groomed" as
the next CEO and wondered that this "departure may raise
questions about succession planning."
In September, Burt Cohen of Angioplasty.Org
sat down with Paul LaViolette during a special weekend celebration
in Zurich, Switzerland: the 30th Anniversary of Coronary
Angioplasty. LaViolette, who was invited to participate, reflected
back on interventional cardiology over the past
three
decades,
how device companies and physicians have developed the field together
to change cardiology and where things may be moving in the future.
Video excerpts from that conversation follow (running time
7:49).
