Namal Nawana to be replaced by Roland Diggelmann at medical equipment maker
The chief executive of Smith & Nephew will step down after only 18 months in the job following a row over his pay.
The company, which makes artificial knee and hip joints as well as wound dressings, said Namal Nawana would stand down on 31 October by mutual agreement to pursue other opportunities outside the UK.
He will be succeeded by Roland Diggelmann, a former Roche Diagnostics executive, who has been on the Smith & Nephew board as a non-executive director since March 2018.
Diggelmann will take the helm on 1 November; Nawana will stay with the company until the end of December to “provide advice and assistance”.
It is understood that Nawana, who is based in Andover in Massachusetts, is leaving because his requests for higher pay, in line with the packages awarded by US medical device-makers, could not be met under UK corporate governance standards. The board reportedly discussed relocating the company to the US over the summer.
Shares in the FTSE 100 firm – which began as a pharmacy in Hull more than 160 years ago – fell more than 8% to £16.81 at lunchtime on Monday, wiping more than £1bn off its market value.
Diggelmann ran Roche Diagnostics, a subsidiary of the Swiss healthcare firm Roche with an annual turnover of CHF11.5bn (£9bn), for six years until 2018 and previously worked at Sulzer Orthopedics and Zimmer.
By Julia Kollewe | Guardian
Image Credti: Smith & Nephew
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