Name: Heather Knight
New title: Executive vice president and group president, medical products and therapies
Previous title: President, acute therapies, clinical nutrition, medication delivery, Latin America and Canada
Name: Reaz Rasul
New title: Executive vice president and group president, healthcare systems and technologies
Previous title: President, front line care
Name: Alok Sonig
New title: Executive vice president and group president, pharmaceuticals
Previous title: President, pharmaceuticals
Baxter promoted executives to head three of the four new global business units it’s establishing to simplify the company’s operating model alongside a plan to spin off its renal care and acute therapies businesses.
The three group presidents take up their new roles on March 1, the Deerfield, Illinois-based company said in a regulatory filing.
Knight was Baxter’s general manager of U.S. hospital products before being named president of acute therapies, clinical nutrition and medication delivery. In 2021, her responsibilities expanded to include product sales in Latin America and Canada. She joined Baxter in 2019 from Medtronic, where she was vice president and general manager of the global gynecologic health, colorectal health and hernia businesses.
Rasul joined Baxter in 2017 as general manager, acute therapies. He became head of the medication delivery business in 2021, and led those two global business units until his appointment as president of front line care last year. Before joining Baxter, Rasul was an executive with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and GE Healthcare.
Sonig, who leads the global pharmaceuticals business unit, including Baxter’s biopharma solutions business, joined the company in 2022 from Lupin, where he was U.S. CEO and global head of R&D and biosimilars.
Baxter also announced that Cristiano Franzi, senior vice president and president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, will serve as interim head of the newly announced kidney care global unit while the company continues its search for a new president of that business. Franzi will continue to lead EMEA operations while in the interim role.
The company said it intends to complete the design of its new operating model by early second quarter 2023, with an updated reporting framework expected to be implemented during the second half of 2023.
“One major benefit of the (reorganization) is that we believe Baxter will start providing segment operating margins, which investors have desired for some time,” J.P. Morgan analyst Robbie Marcus said in a research note.
Baxter last week said it would lay off less than 5% of its global workforce, or about 3,000 people, as part of an initiative aimed at generating $300 million in cost savings this year.
