Michael N. Cannizzaro has been hired as Vice Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Sunrise Medical. He is described as an executive with significant experience in successfully leading healthcare businesses, and will also join the company’s Board of Directors. His recent experience includes six years at J.W. Childs Associates, a Boston, MA private equity firm. Prior to that he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Beltone Electronics from 1998 until June 2000 when he sold the company to GN ReSound.

This comes shortly on the heels of the announcement by Sunrise to split its business into two parts - Sunrise Mobility and Devilbiss Healthcare.

“Jim Elrod, Managing Director at Vestar Capital Partners - the major Sunrise shareholder (who took Sunrise private in 2000) and is a major equity investor in Sunrise, commented, “Success in today’s healthcare environment requires a solid understanding of underlying clinical solutions, reimbursement, competitive dynamics, and the changing patterns of distribution. We are very pleased to attract someone with Mike Cannizzaro’s experience. Mike has the ability to build upon the solid foundation that Mike Hammes developed in creating highly attractive, focused businesses from the historical operations of Sunrise Medical.””

The full release is here

“Sunrise Medical Appoints Healthcare Industry Veteran as Vice Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Michael N. Cannizzaro to Lead the Newly Separated Sunrise Mobility and DeVilbiss Healthcare Units

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Interesting interview published in the September issue of Health Executive provides insight into Sunrise’s performance, strategies and plans in a tough industry environment.

Hammes goes on to talk about the role of technology, the Delphi partnership and the importance of associate training.

Mike Hammes talks to Michelle Rivera about how his company is setting a whole new standard in the homecare and extended care products industry.

The medical products industry is struggling, but according to CEO of Sunrise Medical, Mike Hammes, his company has managed to surpass its competitors with its 3% to 5% annual growth rate.

“Our level of profitability is not as good as we want it to be, but it is stable,” said Hammes. “We’re constantly working on innovative products to capture marketshare, such as power chairs, manual rehabilitation chairs, and respiratory products, all of which have been well accepted by both end users and customers.”

Source: www.healthexecutive.com

In addition to all this, as an observation from my perspective - Sunrise Medical has one of the most global oriented and talented multinational management teams in the industry.