SAFE ORTHOPAEDICS: Pierre Dumouchel’s Interim Appointment as Chief Executive Officer Made Permanent

ERAGNY-SUR-OISE, France–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Regulatory News:

SAFE ORTHOPAEDICS (Paris:SAFOR) (FR0012452746 – SAFOR), a company offering innovative ranges of sterile implants combined with their single-use instruments, is today announcing that Pierre Dumouchel’s interim appointment as Chief Executive Officer has been made permanent and that Alain Coudray has been named Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Following his accomplishments since he was first appointed in March 2016, the Board of Directors has today decided to confirm Pierre Dumouchel in his position as Chief Executive Officer. In recent months, Pierre Dumouchel introduced Safe Orthopaedics’ new strategy of refocusing the Company’s activities on its most dynamic regions—France, the Rest of Europe and the Emerging Markets.

Under his leadership, Safe Orthopaedics has entered into several new distribution agreements covering Australia and New Zealand, plus Mexico and Chile in Latin America. During his tenure, Safe Orthopaedics’ offering has also been extended and the cervical range launched successfully.

Furthermore, the Board of Directors has decided to appoint Dr. Alain Coudray as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Alain Coudray was previously a non-voting advisor to the board, before being appointed as a director of Safe Orthopaedics on March 1, 2016. On June 1, 2016, he left his executive duties as Vice-President, Global Corporate Clinical Affairs at Medtronic. However, he continues to collaborate with Medtronic.

Alain Coudray is replacing Gérard Vaillant, who has decided to retire after having launched the commercial and international development of Safe Orthopaedics’ products.

Gérard Vaillant said: “After forty years in executive roles in the medical devices industry, including three with Safe Orthopaedics, it is a privilege for me to be handing over to Dr. Alain Coudray. His top-level experience at leading industry players such as Medtronic provides a perfect fit with what Safe Orthopaedics needs to implement its new international expansion strategy. I am convinced that he and Pierre Dumouchel will together be able to realize the full commercial potential of Safe Orthopaedics’ proprietary technology.”

Alain Coudray, Chairman of the Board of Directors, added: “Given the success achieved by Pierre Dumouchel in just a few months, it was an obvious decision for the Board of Directors to make his appointment permanent. His leadership and his tremendous knowledge of the organization and of surgeons’ needs form solid pillars that will underpin the successful execution of our strategy. He will continue to optimize the allocation of our sales and marketing resources to markets with the greatest potential for Safe Orthopaedics’ innovative single-use instruments for back surgery.”

About Pierre Dumouchel – Chief Executive Officer

Pierre Dumouchel is the co-founder of Safe Orthopaedics. He has 11 years’ experience in spinal medical devices industry. He began his career in the automotive industry, before joining SpineVision in 2005 as Industrialization project leader for the PediGuard. In 2008, he took over responsibility for SpineVision’s industrialization department. In 2010, he co-founded Safe Orthopaedics and led the Industrialisation, Operations and Quality/Regulatory Affairs departments. Pierre holds a master’s degree in both advanced materials engineering and in management from the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers and Institut Supérieur de Technologie et Management.

About Alain Coudray – Chairman of the Board of Directors

Dr. Alain Coudray is an international veteran of the Medical device industry with more than 20 years of experience. In Medtronic he has held various positions of responsibilities since June 2006, to become in 2014 the Vice President of Global Corporate Clinical Affairs. Before this assignment, he was European Vice President of the Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management business unit. Before joining Medtronic, Alain held the position of Vice President Central and Eastern Europe & Distributors for Guidant, based in Vienna (Austria). Alain is an active participant on the advisory board of MD Start, a MedTech incubator based in Paris, and was a Board Member of EUCOMED (European Medical Devices Industry association). Alain received his medical degree from Grenoble University, graduated from HEC Paris MBA and completed a Business executive program at Kellogg’s.

About Safe Orthopaedics

Founded in 2010, Safe Orthopaedics is a French medical technology company that develops and markets an innovative range of sterile implants and associated single-use surgical instruments, with the aim of facilitating safer, optimized and lower-cost spinal surgery. By avoiding the reuse of surgical instruments, Safe Orthopaedics reduces the risk of infection, avoids the cumbersome and unreliable logistics of instrument sterilization, and limits hospital costs. Protected by 17 patent families, the SteriSpine™ Kits are CE-marked and FDA cleared. The company is based at Eragny-sur-Oise (France), and has 37 employees. For more information, visit:www.SafeOrtho.com

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