RTI Surgical Augments Its Leadership Team

RTI Surgical Inc., a global surgical implant company, announced three new appointments to its senior leadership team to accelerate the company’s strategic growth initiatives. They include Jonathon Singer, a member of RTI’s board of directors, as chief financial and administrative officer, effective October 2, 2017. Outgoing CFO Robert Jordheim will leave the company to pursue new endeavors following a successful transition. RTI also appointed Olivier Visa, formerly VP of global compounding for Baxter, and Julius Aviza, past VP of global quality at American Medical Systems, to lead its OEM, donor dervices, sports business, and quality assurance function, respectively.
 
The new management additions demonstrate another important step toward positioning RTI for continued progress in executing its strategic transformation plan. The augmented leadership team has decades of highly specialized functional and industry expertise, along with a diverse skill set that is aligned to build on RTI’s recent strong performance and to advance its progress toward returning RTI to long-term sustainable growth and profitability. Each leader will play a critical role in further developing their respective functional excellence, streamlining RTI’s businesses, upgrading its processes and reinforcing a culture that is laser focused on the customer.
 
New Chief Financial and Administrative Officer
 Singer, an RTI board member since May 2016, will resign from the board to focus on his new role, which includes managing the company’s financial operations and overseeing RTI’s information technology, legal and business development functions. He will report to RTI CEO Camille Farhat.
 
“As we continue to implement our long-term growth strategy, we need the right team to accelerate and solidify our progress,” said Farhat. “I am particularly proud to welcome Jonathon who already has been a valuable contributor to RTI’s progress as one of our board members. His intricate knowledge of RTI combined with his broad business experience and deep background in strategic planning, finance, operations, IT, investor communications and business development will bring a new dimension to his role and help us accomplish the significant work ahead of us.”
 
 Singer has more than 30 years of leadership experience at publicly-traded health care and pharmaceutical organizations. Previously, he was executive VP and CFO at Sagent Pharmaceuticals, a producer of generic injectable products that won numerous awards for growth and innovation during his tenure. Singer also served as CFO of Landauer, a radiation safety products and services provider, and as VP for Global Finance and CFO of the Medical Segment at specialty medical device company, Teleflex. A certified public accountant, he has held finance, accounting, and operations roles at Cardinal Health, R.R. Donnelley & Sons and KPMG.
 
“I would like to extend my appreciation and gratitude to Rob Jordheim for his service as CFO and interim CEO,” said Farhat. “His commitment to RTI’s mission has contributed to putting us back on the path toward growth. We all wish Rob the best in his future endeavors.”
 
Additional Leadership Appointments
Further building out its management team, RTI appointed Olivier Visa as its president of OEM, donor services and sports, and Julius Aviza to the role of VP, global quality assurance. Visa has 25 years of commercial leadership experience in the global healthcare industry, with a focus on transforming businesses and building sustainable value. He joins RTI from Baxter Healthcare Corporation, where he was VP of global compounding, responsible for overseeing global profitability improvement of the outsourcing pharmacy business and ensuring that operations, quality and research and development focused on patient safety and innovation. Visa succeeds Roger Rose, president of donor services and OEM, who is leaving RTI to seek new opportunities.
 
Aviza, who previously was VP of Global Quality at American Medical Systems (AMS), has over 20 years of global Quality Assurance and leadership experience focused on building and implementing scalable quality systems. His expertise spans the medical devices sector, across new product development, sustaining engineering and operations. He has a track record of resolving quality and compliance issues and driving organizational effectiveness for multiple medical device companies including AMS, Allergan, GE Healthcare, Baxter, and Abbott Laboratories. Aviza succeeds Bryan Martin, VP of quality, who is leaving RTI to pursue other opportunities.
 
“Olivier and Julius are highly experienced executives with proven success in the health care sector who share our values of a customer-focused culture built around speed, competence, and predictable execution and growth,” said Farhat. “Olivier will be critical to furthering growth in RTI’s OEM business and driving operational excellence and profitability in its tissue business. Julius will work vigorously to ensure that our quality systems are at industry-leading standards while simplifying our processes to create a solid platform from which we can grow.”
 
He added: “I would like to thank Roger for his years of service to RTI’s customers and patients, and his passion for maximizing the gift of life and his leadership in initiating our operational excellence efforts with our valued partners on the tissue business. I also would like to thank Bryan for his hard work in stepping in and stabilizing our quality function.”
 
RTI continues to augment its leadership team having recently announced the appointments of Paul Montague as VP, human resources and Enrico Sangiorgio as VP & general manager, international markets. RTI is also recruiting for top research and development positions.