Donald J. Todd Brings More Than 30 Years of Sales & Marketing Expertise to
IRIDEX
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IRIDEX Corporation (Nasdaq: IRIX) today announced that it has appointed Donald J. Todd (52) as its new Vice President of Marketing.
Mr. Todd brings more than 30 years of sales and marketing experience to IRIDEX and has spent the last 24 years in medical technology with 12 years in ophthalmology sales and marketing. Most recently, Mr. Todd was the Vice President, Sales and Marketing for the Sorin Group North America, a worldwide leader in the open heart surgical product market. During his tenure at Sorin, he successfully implemented innovative sales and marketing plans that increased the company's market share by 2% over the course of one year. Prior to his work at the Sorin Group, Mr. Todd served as Executive Vice President for Venetec International, a world leader in catheter securement technology. In this role, he successfully initiated and negotiated a multimillion dollar distribution agreement with a strategically significant partner in Asia, which, at the time, was the largest distributor agreement in Venetec's history.
"One of our focuses going forward is to take our sales and marketing organization to the next level by implementing strategic processes and aggressive marketing strategies that will allow us to expand our relationships with our distributors and partners and, increase our sales growth," said Barry G. Caldwell, President and CEO. "I have known Don for 25 years and have watched the progress of his career. He brings the unique combination of international and domestic sales and marketing skills, experience in launching successful new product development and introduction programs and operational expertise to IRIDEX, which this role requires. We believe that Don will offer a fresh perspective on our go-to-market strategy and that his skill-set will allow him to immediately contribute to our organization. This is a key role on the IRIDEX senior management team and the entire team looks forward to working with Don."
Before Venetec, Mr. Todd spent eight years at Terumo Medical Corporation, a Japanese owned company that manufactures a wide variety of medical devices with annualized US sales of $300 million. Prior to this, Mr. Todd was the Director of Marketing and Equipment Development at Iolab Corporation, a division of Johnson & Johnson. While at Iolab, Mr. Todd was Business Team Leader responsible for overseeing the development of the overall ophthalmic business strategy for product development, manufacturing, sales and marketing. Mr. Todd began his medical technology sales and marketing career at CooperVision/Alcon, a leader in the ophthalmic surgical product market. Mr. Todd holds a BA in Business Administration from Colorado State University.
About IRIDEX
IRIDEX Corporation is a leading worldwide provider of semiconductor-based laser systems for the ophthalmology and dermatology markets. IRIDEX products are sold in the United States through a direct sales force and internationally through a network of independent distributors into more than 100 countries. For further information, visit the Company's website at www.iridex.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements relating to the IRIDEX' sales and marketing organization and processes and strategies relating thereto. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted are included in IRIDEX' quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and from time to time in other reports filed by IRIDEX with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact:
Larry Tannenbaum
Chief Financial Officer
650-940-4700
SOURCE IRIDEX Corporation
-0- 10/17/2005
/CONTACT: Larry Tannenbaum, Chief Financial Officer of IRIDEX
Corporation, +1-650-940-4700/
/Web site: http://www.iridex.com /
(IRIX)
CO: IRIDEX Corporation
ST: California
IN: HEA SEM CPR
SU: PER
SF-MW
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4034 10/17/2005 07:00 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com
