Dive Brief:
- STAAR Surgical has named Warren Foust and Deborah Andrews as interim co-CEOs as it seeks a permanent leader, the company said Monday.
- Stephen Farrell stepped down as CEO at the end of January, leaving the company after an activist investor successfully lobbied for STAAR shareholders to reject Alcon’s $1.6 billion buyout offer.
- Foust and Andrews, STAAR’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer, respectively, will manage the company’s day-to-day operations with support from the board until a permanent CEO is found.
Dive Insight:
STAAR’s board is considering internal and external candidates for the CEO job.
Foust will act as interim co-CEO until either Aug. 1 or the appointment of a permanent CEO, whichever comes first. The deal allows Foust to resign within five days of STAAR announcing the appointment of someone else as CEO while remaining eligible for severance payments and benefits.
Foust joined STAAR in 2023 as chief operating officer. STAAR added president to Foust’s title in 2025. The initial appointment followed a three-year tenure at Johnson & Johnson, where Foust worked as president of the surgical vision unit. Foust has also worked at Mentor, J&J’s DePuy Synthes and Roche.
Andrews rejoined STAAR as interim chief financial officer in March and took the position on a permanent basis in June. The executive retired in 2020 after more than 20 years at STAAR, only to return to the company as part of the leadership shakeup that Farrell led shortly after becoming CEO. Foust became president as part of the changes.
STAAR has assigned five directors to a committee that is leading the search for a permanent CEO. Neal Bradsher and Christopher Wang, executives at investment funds that opposed the Alcon deal, are two of the five directors. They are two of the three directors STAAR agreed to appoint after the Alcon deal collapsed and it reached an agreement with Bradsher’s Broadwood Partners.
