Heggestad Fills Orthofix CFO Chair

Mark Heggestad is taking over the books at Orthofix International N.V.

Heggestad will replace the Interim CFO David Ziegler on May 9, 2014. Ziegler has been the company’s interim CFO since April 21, 2014. Ziegler succeeded Emily Buxton who voluntarily resigned from the company. Buxton had been named interim CFO in October 2012 and given the permanent role in April 2013.

The company recently emerged from a protracted internal financial review which resulted in restatement of previous revenue. He’s got a clean deck.

Brad Mason, the company’s president and CEO since March 2013, said there is a “lot to do” in the next few years to “become best in class” in the company’s finance and business processes. “I believe Mark will be a great partner to the executive team and me in leading these efforts and that he will keep the company focused on the key initiatives that will drive shareholder value.”

Before joining Orthofix, Heggestad served as executive vice president and CFO at American Medical Systems Holdings, Inc. (AMS) where his supervisory responsibilities included finance and accounting, investor relations, internal auditing, IT, business development and strategic planning among others. He is no stranger to disruption as he was at American Medical Systems (AMS) during a time when the company CEO left after missing revenue expectations and a difficult merger and acquisition.

Prior to AMS he held a variety of executive and management roles at Medtronic, Inc., including vice president of finance and IT for the cardiac surgery business, vice president of corporate audit & compliance assurance and vice president of corporate finance, assistant controller. Before joining Medtronic, he was as an audit manager for KPMG.

As an inducement to join the company, Heggestad has been granted stock options to purchase 32, 000 shares of the company’s common stock, as well as 33, 000 restricted shares of common stock. The exercise price of the stock options will be the closing price of the stock on May 5, 2014, the date he became an employee. The stock options and restricted shares of common stock will each vest in one-fourth annual increments beginning on the first anniversary of his first date of employment.