Anika Therapeutics CEO Joseph Darling Suddenly Passes

Anika Therapeutics Inc. announced with great sadness that Joseph Darling, its president and CEO, passed away unexpectedly yesterday in Upstate New York. He was 62.
 
“We are shocked and greatly saddened by the passing of Joe Darling,” said Joseph Bower, Chairman of Anika’s Board of Directors. “He was a visionary leader with a passion for healthcare, a devoted father to his children and a good friend. On behalf of the Board of Directors and all Anika employees, as well as the many people he worked with and mentored over the years, we would like to extend our deepest condolences to the Darling family, including his wife, Maureen, and children, Jon and Jordan. We will miss Joe dearly.”
 
The company’s Board of Directors will immediately initiate a search to identify a new CEO. A leading executive search firm will be retained to assist in the process.
 
Effective immediately, the company’s Board has established an interim Office of the President to provide ongoing leadership and oversight of the day-to-day operations of the company while the search is conducted. The Office of the President is to be filled by Sylvia Cheung, CFO, James Loerop, Executive Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Planning, and Thomas Finnerty, Executive Vice President of Human Resources. Anika Board member, Dr. Cheryl Blanchard, will meet regularly with the Office of the President. All will remain in their current positions while carrying out their new responsibilities.
 
Darling joined Anika as president in July 2017 and was appointed CEO in March 2018, bringing more than 20 years of extensive experience in executive management and leadership from publicly-traded, commercial-stage companies, including Abbott Laboratories, Baxter Healthcare, Smith+Nephew, CONMED, and Wyeth-Ayerst. Before joining Anika, Darling held executive leadership positions with two small privately held orthopedic companies.
 
Prior to these roles, Darling held senior level executive positions at CONMED Corporation, a global, publicly-held, diversified medical device company, as Global President of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Linvatec Corporation, and as Executive Vice President of Global Corporate Commercial Operations. At CONMED, Darling led five global business units with approximately $760 million in annual revenues and re-energized the organizational efforts in sales, marketing, R&D, and business development activities that allowed the company to expand its portfolio of product offerings to its customers. Darling oversaw the launch and commercialization of many key new products while at Linvatec including several new sports medicine technologies in the shoulder (Shoulder Restoration System, Y-Knot Shoulder Anchor line), along with new products in the knee and hip joints.
 
Before joining CONMED, Darling was Senior Vice President and General Manager for the sports medicine and biologics business at Smith+Nephew, where he played an important role in defining a global strategy that propelled the company to a leadership position in the sports medicine field. While at Smith & Nephew, Darling and his team were pioneers in developing the Hip Arthroscopy space from a commercial perspective.
 
Darling launched his career at Abbott Laboratories where he was involved in the commercialization efforts of many pharmaceutical products in the neuroscience, antimicrobial, cardiovascular, and HIV treatment space. While at Abbott Laboratories, he held management positions in sales and marketing before joining Wyeth-Ayerst Pharmaceuticals in roles of marketing for the pain and inflammation and women’s healthcare franchises. He later joined Baxter Healthcare as a Vice President of marketing and health systems. Darling received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Syracuse University.