Spooner replaced as Ventracor CEO

Former Sirtex Medical CEO Dr Colin Sutton has today taken over as chief of artificial heart company Ventracor (ASX:VCR), replacing Michael Spooner.

Ventracor chairman John Massey said the appointment reflected the company's need to have someone with broad experience in commercialisation of medical devices to lead the company.

"Dr Sutton offers Ventracor, at a crucial time, Australian, European and US market experience, detailed knowledge of the heart health area, success in the transformation of a company to becoming cash-flow positive, a long track record in managing R&D, clinical trials, quality control and leading the combination of skills reflected in Ventracor's expanding workforce," Massey said.

Massey said the company had recently gone through a board performance review process, and recognised that an expansion of skills available was required, as the company moved towards expanded trials in the US and Europe, and worldwide commercialisation.

"We have always been conscious of looking for skills that would help us," he said. "For Ventracor, Dr Sutton is exactly the right person at the right time."

Sutton, who has worked in Australia, Europe and the USA, was CEO of Sirtex until earlier this year, taking the company from IPO to a market capitalisation of $273 million in less than three years. He holds a non-executive director position at Polartechnics, and was briefly a non-executive director at Gradipore until a shareholder coup ditched that company's board a fortnight ago.

At Ventracor, he will receive an annual salary package of $400,000 plus up to $100,000 as a performance bonus. An incentive options package comprising 400,000 options vesting over the next three years based on the company achieving specific performance targets relative to the ASX200 index is subject to shareholder approval.

Spooner, who joined the company in October 2001, has been offered a six-month consultancy position by the company to assist with the handover of commercialisation activities he has been undertaking in the USA, but has not yet accepted the role, Massey said. He will leave the company with a $250,000 termination payment including a performance bonus, as well as two tranches of issued options that vested in 2002 and this month.

Massey thanked Spooner for his contributions to the company, in particular his project management skills in getting the clinical trials underway.

Market reaction to the announcement was minimal, with the share price down three per cent to $2.29 at the time of writing.