Becton, Dickinson ($BDX) is losing its chief financial officer to "an entrepreneurial opportunity," the medical device and instrument maker disclosed. A veteran Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) and AstraZeneca ($AZN) executive has been named as his interim replacement.
David Elkins served as executive vice president and CFO since 2008. According to the company, he'll become CFO of Round Rock Research, a technology licensing outfit. His departure, however, appears amicable. Vincent Forlenza, BD's chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement that he is "generally disappointed" that Elkins is leaving, and that he "has been an outstanding chief financial officer."
His departure comes on Nov. 7, following BD's release of its fiscal 2012 financial results. The company assures investors will still generate diluted earnings per share between $5.33 and $5.38. In August, BD scaled back its full-year profit forecast after posting a 4.7% drop in net income for the fiscal 2012 third quarter, which hit below what analysts were predicting.
Not wasting any time, BD named its Senior Vice President and Controller Suketu Upadhyay as interim CFO, and he'll take the slot on Nov. 9. He's certainly got the background for the job, having held executive-level finance positions at both AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson prior to arriving at BD in 2010.
Investors, meanwhile, seemed generally unfazed by the change. BD's stock traded at $76.87 late Wednesday morning, down less than ½ of 1%.
Becton Dickinson made the news under less optimistic circumstances a few days ago, after a judge ruled that the company infringed on four Hologic ($HOLX) diagnostic patents, owned by Hologic's recent acquisition, Gen-Probe.
- read the release