- José (Joe) E. Almeida to retire as Chair, President and Chief
Executive Officer
- Lead Independent Director Brent Shafer appointed Chair and
Interim CEO
- Board has initiated a comprehensive search to select full-time
replacement
- Heather Knight appointed Chief Operating Officer
Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX), a global medtech leader,
today announced that José (Joe) E. Almeida, chair, president and
chief executive officer (CEO), will retire from his executive roles
with the company, effective immediately. He will serve in an
advisory capacity through Oct. 31, 2025.
The Baxter Board of Directors has appointed lead independent
director Brent Shafer as chair and interim CEO and has initiated a
search for a permanent CEO with the assistance of a leading search
firm. The Board will evaluate external and internal candidates. In
conjunction with his appointment, Brent Shafer is stepping down
from his role as lead independent director. Baxter director Nancy
Schlichting will assume the role of lead independent director.
“On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Joe for his
leadership and unwavering dedication to Baxter throughout his nine
years of service,” said Mr. Shafer. “Joe has guided the company
through a period of significant evolution and portfolio
repositioning, including the recently closed sale of its Kidney
Care business, while navigating market challenges and evolving
conditions. Thanks to his leadership, today’s Baxter is better able
to fulfill its mission of saving and sustaining lives while
delivering increased value for patients, customers, employees and
its many other stakeholders. I look forward to supporting Baxter’s
important work in service of its mission and working closely with
the Board to identify the permanent CEO.”
“It has been an immense honor to lead the exceptionally talented
Baxter team, which is united by our mission and passionate about
serving the more than 350 million patients who count on us every
year. With the key elements of our broad strategic transformation
complete, this is the right time for a new CEO to lead the company
into its next chapter,” said Mr. Almeida.
Mr. Almeida assumed his roles at the company in January 2016,
following more than three decades of distinguished contributions to
the healthcare industry. Under his leadership, Baxter meaningfully
evolved its strategic positioning, reorienting the company toward
higher-growth end-markets. This strategic shift has most recently
centered on the simplification of the business through the
divestment of certain non-core assets and the implementation of a
new operating model to accelerate innovation and deliver value.
During Mr. Almeida’s tenure, the company has also been widely
recognized as a socially responsible and sustainable business and
as an employer of choice.
Appointment of Chief Operating Officer
Baxter has appointed Heather Knight to the role of executive
vice president and chief operating officer (COO), effective
immediately. As COO, Ms. Knight will have responsibility for the
company’s day-to-day business operations, including global sales,
marketing, R&D, supply chain and medical and regulatory
affairs. She will report directly to the interim CEO and will also
serve as interim group president, Medical Products &
Therapies.
“Unifying leadership and oversight of operations across our
three post-separation businesses is a natural step in our
transformation, best positioning the company to capitalize on our
segment operating structure and drive incremental growth through
innovation,” said Mr. Shafer. “Heather’s decades of operational
expertise and leadership and deep knowledge of the global
commercial, operational, medical and regulatory landscape will
continue to serve our patients, customers and Baxter well going
forward.”
“I’m excited to assume this new role within Baxter, expanding my
focus on operational excellence and performance execution across
our organization,” said Ms. Knight of her appointment. “Every day I
am driven by our mission, and I am inspired by the opportunity we
have before us to further advance Baxter for the benefit of
patients and healthcare professionals around the world.”
Kidney Care Sale and Financial Outlook
The company completed the sale of its Kidney Care business to
Carlyle on Jan. 31, 2025.
The company will now report its fourth-quarter and full-year
2024 earnings results on Feb. 20, 2025. Baxter expects results for
the fourth quarter and full-year 2024 to be aligned with the
continuing operations guidance previously provided in the company’s
third-quarter 2024 earnings announcement.
The company remains committed to its previously announced 2025
financial objectives of 4% to 5% operational sales growth and
approximately 16.5% adjusted operating margin. The adjusted
operating margin guidance does not currently include any impact
from the recently announced U.S. tariffs to be implemented on
imports from Mexico, Canada and China. The company is working to
quantify the expected impact of these actions, as well as identify
potential mitigation opportunities, and plans to provide an update
on its fourth-quarter 2024 earnings conference call.
About Brent Shafer
Mr. Shafer was appointed as Baxter’s chair and interim CEO in
February 2025, having previously served as lead independent
director since February 2023. Prior to joining the Baxter Board in
May 2022, Mr. Shafer served as the chairman and CEO of Cerner
Corporation from 2018 to 2021. He has worked in the healthcare
industry for four decades, holding a number of senior leadership
roles at Koninklijke Philips NV, Hillrom, GE Medical Systems,
Hewlett Packard's Medical Products Group and Johnson & Johnson.
He also serves on the boards of Tactile Systems Technology and
Veracyte.
About Nancy Schlichting
Ms. Schlichting was appointed as Baxter’s lead independent
director in February 2025 and has served as a director of the
company since December 2021. She joined the board following
Baxter's acquisition of Hillrom, where she had previously served as
a director. Ms. Schlichting is the retired president and CEO of
Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan, a non-profit health
care organization, serving in this role from June 2003 to January
2017. She joined Henry Ford Health System in 1998 as senior vice
president and chief administrative officer, and was promoted to
executive vice president and chief operating officer from 1999 to
2003, and president and chief executive officer of Henry Ford
Hospital from 2001 to 2003. Ms. Schlichting currently serves as a
director of Walgreens Boots Alliance and Encompass Health; a
trustee of Kresge Foundation and Duke University; and vice-chair of
the Duke University Health System Board.
About Heather Knight
Ms. Knight was appointed as Baxter’s executive vice president
and chief operating officer in February 2025. In 2023, she was
named to lead the company’s largest segment, Medical Products &
Therapies, which she continues to lead on an interim basis. From
2021 to 2023, she served as president of Baxter’s Americas region
and the company’s Acute Therapies, Clinical Nutrition and
Medication Delivery business units. She joined the company in 2019
as general manager, U.S. Hospital Products. Throughout her
accomplished 30-year career in the healthcare industry, Ms. Knight
has held numerous roles in general management, global upstream and
commercial capacities at companies including Medtronic, Covidien,
Tyco Healthcare and Kendall. She currently serves as a director of
Waters Corporation.
About Baxter
Every day, millions of patients, caregivers and healthcare
providers rely on Baxter’s leading portfolio of diagnostic,
critical care, nutrition, hospital and surgical products used
across patient homes, hospitals, physician offices and other sites
of care. For more than 90 years, we’ve been operating at the
critical intersection where innovations that save and sustain lives
meet the healthcare providers who make it happen. With products,
digital health solutions and therapies available in more than 100
countries, Baxter’s employees worldwide are now building upon the
company’s rich heritage of medical breakthroughs to advance the
next generation of transformative healthcare innovations. To learn
more, visit www.baxter.com and follow us on X, LinkedIn and
Facebook.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
This release contains certain forward-looking financial measures
that are not calculated in accordance with U.S. GAAP (Generally
Accepted Accounting Principles). The forward-looking non-GAAP
financial measures include forward-looking annual operational sales
growth and forward-looking adjusted operating margin for 2025.
Those measures are provided on a continuing operations basis and
exclude any impact of the Kidney Care segment, which is reported as
a discontinued operation.
Forward-looking annual operational sales growth represents the
company’s targeted future sales growth excluding sales to Vantive
under a manufacturing and supply agreement and assuming foreign
currency exchange rates remain constant in future periods.
Forward-looking adjusted operating margin excludes potential
charges or gains that would be reflected as non-GAAP adjustments to
earnings.
Baxter has not provided reconciliations of forward-looking
annual operational sales growth to a forward-looking estimate of
annual GAAP sales growth or forward-looking adjusted operating
margin to a forward-looking estimate of GAAP operating margin
because the company is unable to predict with reasonable certainty
the impact of legal proceedings, future business optimization
actions, separation-related costs, integration-related costs, asset
impairments, unusual gains and losses, and changes in foreign
currency exchange rates, and the related amounts are unavailable
without unreasonable efforts (as specified in the exception
provided by Item 10(e)(1)(i)(B) of Regulation S-K). In addition,
Baxter believes that such reconciliations would imply a degree of
precision and certainty that could be confusing to investors. Such
items could have a substantial impact on GAAP measures of financial
performance.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements
concerning the company's financial results (including the company’s
performance for fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 and outlook for
2025) and business development and operational activities. These
forward-looking statements are based on assumptions about many
important factors, including those set forth in the company’s most
recent filings on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, which could cause actual
results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date
they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on
forward-looking statements. Baxter’s most recent filings on Form
10-K and Form 10-Q and other SEC filings are available on Baxter’s
website. Baxter undertakes no obligation to publicly update or
revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise, except as required by
law.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250202404090/en/
Media Contact Stacey Eisen, (224) 948-5353
media@baxter.com
Investor Contact Clare Trachtman, (224) 948-3020
Baxter (NYSE:BAX)
Graphique Historique de l'Action
De Jan 2025 à Fév 2025
Baxter (NYSE:BAX)
Graphique Historique de l'Action
De Fév 2024 à Fév 2025
