2021 WOMEN IN MEDTECH (continued)
How Hologic made a major pandemic pivot
Wendy Millette
chief compliance officer, Fresenius Medical Care North America Fresenius Medical Care
Hologic CFO KARLEEN OBERTON reflects on key decisions and turning points of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Camilla Møhl
SVP, people and culture Coloplast
Mary Moreland
EVP, human resources Abbott
B Y J I M H AMMER AN D MAN AG I N G ED I TO R
Francesca Morichini chief HR officer Amplifion
H
ologic's fiscal year closes in September, but Chief Financial Officer Karleen Oberton had seen enough by late July to call it: 2021 would be the best financial year ever. Oberton and the women's-healthfocused company have come a long way since sketching out doomsday scenarios in March 2020. "We quickly went from counting every penny to these exponential sales on the COVID testing," Oberton said in an interview with Medical Design & Outsourcing. She shared the company's path through the pandemic, ramping up its diagnostics business to support and grow its surgical and breast health lines for the post-pandemic future.
Anthea Muir EVP, APAC Amplifion
Atsuko Murakami CFO HU Group
Kelly Murphy
SVP and general counsel Henry Schein
Shana Neal
EVP, chief human resources officer Owens & Minor
Anne-Françoise Nesmes
"While already a strong leader, Karleen became an even stronger partner to me and the entire Hologic leadership team through her quick actions, clear communication and thoughtful ideas and actions early on and throughout the pandemic."
CFO Smith+Nephew
Carrie Nichol
VP, controller and chief accounting officer Zimmer Biomet
Judith O'Grady
CVP, global regulatory affairs Integra Lifesciences
Catheryn O'Rourke
chief legal and compliance officer Smith+Nephew
Karleen Oberton CFO Hologic
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Medical Design & Outsourcing
we generated from sales of our COVID assays, buying back our own stock and making several acquisitions to accelerate our growth and ensure that we to come out of this pandemic a stronger company." It's a story that starts well before COVID-19, back in December 2013 when MacMillan came on as CEO. "He was the third CEO in six months. ... I was brushing off my resume," Oberton said. "[But] he was focused on commercial excellence, he was focused on accountability and he expected more of finance." In his first 14 months, MacMillan ousted every executive who was on board when he joined except for Oberton. She met with MacMillan as he prepared to bring in a new CFO, sharing her perspective on the company and offering
10 • 2021
"While already a strong leader, Karleen became an even stronger partner to me and the entire Hologic leadership team through her quick actions, clear communication and thoughtful ideas and actions early on and throughout the pandemic," CEO Steve MacMillan told MDO. "Karleen made moves to preserve cash and retain our financial flexibility, [enabling] Hologic to make a significant impact in addressing the global crisis. … Karleen and the team efficiently redeployed the strong cash flow www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com
to draw up plans to support the new finance chief. MacMillan gave her a call the next day "in Steve fashion," she said, telling her the two executives between her and the CFO were out. "He's like, 'Hey, those two guys are gone. It's all yours. Don't do homework, just do the work.'" MacMillan promoted Oberton to chief accounting officer in 2014 and CFO in 2018.
