Smith+Nephew Names CFO, Adds Two to Board

Anne-Francoise Nesmes has been appointed as the Smith+Nephew’s new chief financial officer. Nesmes will join Smith+Nephew by August 3, 2020, once her current commitments have concluded, when she will also be appointed to the Board as an executive director. 

Nesmes is currently CFO of Merlin Entertainments Ltd, the world’s second-largest visitor attraction operator, a position she has held since August 2016. Merlin was a constituent of the FTSE 250 before being acquired by private equity in November 2019. Nesmes is also a non-executive director of Compass Group PLC.

Prior to Merlin, Nesmes was CFO of FTSE 250 specialist animal health company Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC (2013-2016), and held a variety of increasingly senior roles at GlaxoSmithKline plc in the UK and overseas (1997-2013), including senior vice president of Finance for the £3.5 billion revenue vaccines business. 

Roland Diggelmann, chief executive Smith+Nephew, commented, “Anne-Francoise is an exceptional finance leader who has demonstrated her effectiveness supporting ambitious strategic, investment and efficiency programs in both healthcare and other sectors. I am excited that she is joining Smith+Nephew.”

As previously announced, Graham Baker will step down as CFO and leave Smith+Nephew for a new opportunity on 30 April 2020. Ian Melling, senior vice president Group Finance, will serve as interim CFO from that date until Nesmes joins. Baker will stand down as a director after the Annual General Meeting to be held at 2:00pm today. 

New Non-Executive Director
Smith+Nephew has also announced the appointment of Bob White as a non-executive director.

White is a proven medtech leader with more than 25 years’ experience spanning the US, Europe and Asia Pacific. He is currently executive vice president and president, Minimally Invasive Therapies Group and a member of the Executive Committee for Medtronic plc.

White previously served as senior vice president and president of Medtronic Asia Pacific, having led the integration of Covidien Asia Pacific when it was acquired by Medtronic in 2015. At Covidien he served in a number of increasingly senior roles including president, Emerging Markets and president, Respiratory and Monitoring Solutions. He has also held leadership positions at GE Healthcare and IBM.

White will join the Board on May 1, 2020.