(RTTNews) - Cutera, Inc. (CUTR), a provider of aesthetic and dermatology solutions, announced Wednesday that its Board of Directors has appointed Sheila Hopkins as Interim Chief Executive Officer and Janet Widmann as Independent Chair of the Board, effective immediately.
The appointments of Hopkins and Widmann follow the immediate terminations of Daniel Plants as Executive Chairman and David Mowry as CEO, for cause.
The search for a permanent CEO is underway, the company said.
Cutera also announced that it is withdrawing its full-year 2023 outlook.
The decision to terminate Plants and Mowry was made following joint and unanimous recommendations from a special committee comprising all members of the Board's Governance and Corporate Responsibility Committee and the majority of the members of the Board of Directors.
Cutera now noted that in November 2022, the Board's independent directors began exploring a CEO transition. Plants then strongly recommended the immediate termination of Mowry and indicated that he wanted to succeed him as the Company's next CEO. Previously too, Plants had attempted to gain the CEO role in February 2021 by recommending removing Mowry.
After serious consideration, the Board instead decided to seek an external CEO candidate. Following this, in an apparent campaign to seize control of the company, Mowry and Plants issued a press release in which they disclosed and mischaracterized highly confidential internal deliberations of the Board in direct violation of their employment agreements and their fiduciary duties as directors and officers under Delaware law.
The Board will make a formal recommendation regarding the special meeting demands of Plants and Mowry in due course. Stockholders are not required to take any action at this time.
The new interim CEO, Hopkins, has served as a member of Cutera's Board of Directors since May 2021 and currently serves as a director for Prestige Consumer Healthcare. She previously served as President, Global Vision Care and Executive Vice President of Bausch + Lomb. She was also with Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble and Tambrands.
Widmann has served as a member of Cutera's Board of Directors since December 2021. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Avista Corp. and Acorn Health, and has been an advisor to Vida Health.
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