AMO chief to retire; successor named

Santa Ana, CA-Abbott Medical Optics (AMO) has announced an impending change in leadership with the expected retirement of James V. Mazzo, president and chief executive officer (CEO), by the end of this year. Mazzo will be succeeded by Murthy Simhambhatla, PhD, who currently heads the Ibis Biosciences division of AMO’s parent company, Abbott Laboratories.

Mazzo, who also holds the title of senior vice president at Abbott Laboratories, became part of Abbott’s leadership when the company acquired AMO, where he had been chairman and CEO, in 2009. AMO had been spun off from Allergan, where Mazzo had held various senior executive level positions, including that of president of Allergan’s Europe/Africa/Middle East region.

Mazzo also recently completed a term as chairman of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, or AdvaMed, a trade organization that represents companies producing medical devices, diagnostic products, and health information systems. He held that role since 2008. He remains a member of the organization’s nominating committee.

Dr. Simhambhatla, Mazzo’s replacement, is an engineer by training. He holds several patents in the fields of opto-electronics, medical devices, drug delivery, and novel biological therapies for treating heart disease. Dr. Simhambhatla earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in polymer engineering from the University of Akron in Ohio.

Dr. Simhambhatla joined Abbott when the company acquired Guidant Corp.’s vascular device division; he had held various management positions at Guidant. Before leading Abbott’s bioscience division, Dr. Simhambhatla served as general manager of the vascular business in Australia and as divisional vice president and general manager of Abbott’s drug-eluting stent business. Prior to his time at Guidant and Abbott, he worked on a variety of material science product development initiatives in the electronics and opto-electronics fields at Raychem Corp.

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