After a long search, DME manufacturing giant Invacare Corp. has named Matthew Monaghan, a health and aerospace executive with a reputation for turnaround expertise, as its new president and chief executive officer.
The company has been searching for a new leader since the company’s previous President and CEO, Gerald Blouch, retired from his leadership positions with the company and his spot on its board of directors on July 31, 2014. Blouch had come into the CEO position after well-known company leader A. Malachi “Mal” Mixon, III suffered a stroke in 2010. Mixon then announced he was executive chairman of the company’s board of directors, effective Dec. 21, 2014.
Blouch was replaced by Robert Gudbranson, Invacare’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, who served as the company’s interim president and chief executive officer, while retaining his role as CFO.
Effective April, Monaghan will take the helm of the company effective April 1. Until then, Gudbranson will continued to serve as interim president and CEO, and then resume the role of senior vice president and CFO when Monaghan steps into the top spot.
Monaghan currently serves as senior vice president and general manager of Zimmer Inc.’s Global Hips business, where he is responsible for more than $1.3 billion in revenue and the division’s new product development, engineering, clinical studies, quality, regulatory affairs and marketing functions. He also oversees the company’s global reconstructive research group.
Prior to joining Zimmer in 2009, Monaghan spent eight years as an operating executive for two leading private equity firms, Texas Pacific Group (TPG) and Cerberus Capital, where he led operational improvements of portfolio companies. Among the most notable were the carve-out of a global medical device business from Baxter Healthcare, making significant improvements at a U.S. personal insurance business and running a consumer durable goods business spun off from Newell-Rubbermaid.
“Our Board conducted a thorough and comprehensive search over the past six months and unanimously concluded that Matt is best suited to lead Invacare through this critical time and into its next phase of growth and development,” said Dr. C. Martin Harris, Interim Chairman of Invacare’s Board of Directors. “In addition to his medical device background, he has proven turnaround experience, which will be critical to Invacare as it works through its short-term challenges.”
“I am honored to have been selected to lead Invacare at a time of unprecedented opportunity for the company,” Monaghan said. “Invacare is well positioned to take advantage of the growing global home healthcare market. I look forward to working closely with Invacare’s Board of Directors, executive team and talented and hard-working associates to continue to turnaround this business, innovate, and resume the Company’s historical market leadership position.”
Publicly traded, Invacare detailed the terms of the employment agreement in a Jan. 22 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (http://1.usa.gov/1uHYTSL). The agreement runs from April 1 to April 1, 2020, with an initial annual salary of $750,000 per year. Monaghan’s annual Executive Incentive Bonus Plan has an initial bonus opportunity of 100 percent of his annual salary. A Long Term Incentive Plan offers an annual equity grant with a value of $1.4 million as of the April 1 grant date.
The main challenge Monaghan will face stepping into the new role is Invacare’s two-year-old consent decree with the Food and Drug Administration that sharply curtailed the company’s research, development and manufacturing activities. The company is working on passing its third and last audit in order to lift the injunction.