Name: Mojdeh Poul
New title: CEO, Integra Lifesciences
Previous title: Group president, healthcare, 3M
Integra Lifesciences appointed former 3M executive Mojdeh Poul as CEO.
Poul will take over from Jan De Witte in January, according to the Monday announcement. In February, Integra said De Witte would retire once the company found a replacement.
Poul will inherit the task of growing sales of the devices while contending with the ongoing fallout from a Food and Drug Administration warning letter Integra received in 2023 related to quality issues at its Boston facility after pausing manufacturing at the site. Integra received another warning letter in 2019.
New Jersey-based Integra generated nearly $381 million in third-quarter sales from surgical, neurologic and regenerative care products.
The company is part way through an attempt to identify and fix gaps in its quality management system. The work hurt sales in the third quarter, when shipping holds drove a nearly 11% drop in organic growth at the company’s Codman Specialty Surgical business, De Witte said on an earnings call Monday.
Integra expects to resolve many of the holds in the fourth quarter but said some remediation work will continue until mid-2025. The timeline means Poul will need to oversee the conclusion of work begun under De Witte.
Stuart Essig, Integra’s executive chairman, told investors on the call that “many challenges remain” and outlined how the board expects Poul to address the problems.
“Mojdeh's going to be focused on shaping and executing our neurosurgery, tissue technologies and ENT strategic priorities,” Essig said. “These include improving our product quality and regulatory compliance, advancing our site resilience and executing on our manufacturing capacity initiatives.”
Essig became executive chairman in February after De Witte told Integra he planned to retire. Integra said in the new CEO announcement that Essig will remain executive chairman for a “limited period of time” before returning to his prior role of non-executive chairman.
J.P. Morgan analysts said in a note to investors Monday they are “hopeful that under the leadership of new CEO Mojdeh Poul, Integra will be able to turn the page on the manufacturing and quality challenges that have held back growth the last few years, though we’ll be staying on the sidelines until we see a clearer path to resolution.”
Poul spent more than 11 years at 3M and worked at Boston Scientific and Medtronic earlier in her career, according to LinkedIn. Since leaving 3M in 2022, Poul has held board positions at companies including iRhythm Technologies.
Truist Securities analysts said in a note to investors that they like Poul’s “experience overseeing business units similar to [Integra’s] core operations, as well as her extensive tenure as a manager within medtech.”
