Zimmer Biomet named Bryan Hanson, an executive at rival devicemaker Medtronic, as its new president and chief executive.
The move is seen by some analysts as an effort to expand Zimmer Biomet’s target audience of its products to hospital executives, procurement departments and value assessment committees as its rivals Stryker and Medtronic have. The company’s previous chief executive, David Dvorakits, was seen as more conservative in his approach to targeting primarily orthopedic surgeons as the healthcare landscape shifted.
Hanson assumes the helm of Zimmer Biomet immediately, replacing interim CEO Daniel Florin, who will continue in his role as SVP and chief financial officer, the company said.
“We think Hanson’s potential reshaping of Zimmer Biomet’s strategy could be his biggest contribution to the long-term health of the company,” Morningstar said of the appointment.
Hanson has more than 20 years of experience in the medical device industry and was a member of Medtronic's executive committee and EVP and president of that company’s Minimally Invasive Therapies Group. As head of that group, he was responsible for the strategic direction of an estimated $9 billion in business.
Before joining Medtronic, Hanson was a group vice president at Covidien’s medical device arm, where he merged two of the company’s largest divisions—energy-based devices and surgical devices—into a single business unit.
Since the $13.4 billion acquisition that created Zimmer Biomet in 2014, the company has been reaching into its deep pockets to make M&A moves. In June, it threw down a whopping $1 billion for spinal surgery player LDR Systems in a bid to boost its spine division. And in July, Zimmer Biomet entered into robotic surgery with its acquisition of France’s Medtech for about $132 million.