Ortho Announces Board of Director Appointments

Raritan, NJ

Noted Diagnostic Industry Veteran David B. Perez Joins as an Independent Director. Chris Smith Appointed Chairman of the Board, in addition to current CEO role.

Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, a global leader of in vitro diagnostics, today announced that David B. Perez, an accomplished global medical device industry veteran, has been appointed as an independent member to its Board of Directors. 

Perez is the former president and CEO of Terumo BCT, a $1 billion, mission-driven biomedical company focused on blood and cell-based therapies, and also served on the Terumo Corporation Board of Directors. Prior to his retirement in early 2019, and throughout his nearly 20-year tenure with Terumo, Perez grew the company from a single manufacturing and R&D site through several foreign ownership structures to a global leader in blood management, blood safety, therapeutic apheresis, cell therapy and cell collections. The company now employs over 7,000 associates and serves customers and patients in more than 130 countries. 

Prior to Terumo, Perez held executive leadership roles at UroTherapies, Inc., Haemonetics Corporation, Caremark LLC/Coram Healthcare Corp. and Kendall Healthcare. 

"We are pleased to welcome David to Ortho’s board and are excited about his vast industry experience and his insight into the global blood management industry,” said Chris Smith, chief executive officer of Ortho Clinical Diagnostics. "David joins Ortho’s board at a truly unique and evolutionary time in the industry and we are confident that he will provide valuable perspective as we continue to further drive Ortho’s mission to improve and save lives with diagnostics and enhance value for our stakeholders.” 

Perez also serves on the Boards of Mesa Labs (Audit and Compensation Committees) as well as Laborie, Sarnova and Molnlycke, all three owned by Investor AB/Patricia Industries.

Today, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics also announced the appointment of Chief Executive Officer Chris Smith to the additional role of Chairman of its Board of Directors effective September 1, 2020. Smith, who joined Ortho in September 2019 as Chief Executive Officer, succeeds Robert Yates, who has served as Ortho’s Chairman since February 2019. Yates will continue to serve as a member of the Board of Directors. 

“It has been an honor to serve as Chairman of Ortho and I am confident in Ortho’s ongoing success under Chris’ leadership,” said Robert Yates. “I look forward to continuing to serve Ortho as a board member as we carry out Ortho’s next chapter of growth.”

“Ortho has continued to execute on its growth strategy while bringing innovative diagnostic assays to market across the world. We are excited to have Chris serve as Chairman and look forward to continued success under his leadership,” said Steve Wise, Managing Director and Global Head of Healthcare for The Carlyle Group. “On behalf of the Board, we also want to sincerely thank Robert for his service as Chairman. Robert skillfully led Ortho through a critical period of transformation, and we look forward to his ongoing contributions as a member of the Board.”

“I want to personally thank Robert Yates for his contributions to Ortho’s success since joining in 2014. We appreciate his guidance as board chairman over the past year as the company was going through a leadership transition and look forward to his continued leadership as a board member,” said Chris Smith, chief executive officer, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics.