AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, May 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wright Medical Group N.V. (NASDAQ:WMGI) today announced that they will create a new digital organization and appointed Jason Asper as sr. vice president, chief digital officer. This appointment is in addition to Mr. Asper’s current responsibilities for strategy, corporate development and information technology.
This new digital organization will focus to execute Wright’s transformative digital surgery strategy to develop new platforms, accelerate surgical solutions and drive software technology innovation across the business. This organization will build upon the company’s highly differentiated, market-leading BLUEPRINT™ software by leveraging emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality to provide innovative and transformative software-enabled surgery platforms and solutions for the extremities markets.
This newly created organization will bring together our software-enabled surgery, information technology, and analytics organizations. In his new role, Mr. Asper will be responsible for developing and executing Wright’s transformative digital surgery strategy across the company’s extremities business units as well as leveraging technology to drive efficiencies across all functions of the company. Jean Chaoui, the former chief executive officer of IMASCAP and Wright’s newly named vice president, chief software technology officer, will report to Mr. Asper and continue to lead the centralized software organization. This combined leadership team will further accelerate development of the company’s BLUEPRINT™ platform, deploying new software-enabled solutions to create a comprehensive digital eco-system to improve patient outcomes.
Robert Palmisano, president and chief executive officer, commented, “Since the acquisition of IMASCAP, we, along with our physician partners, have developed a multi-year strategy and pipeline that I believe will be transformational for shoulder surgery. The opportunities for Wright in further developing and deploying our digital technology, including our BLUEPRINT platform into other areas, are enormous. We have a leadership position in our software enabling technology, and we want to take full advantage of that lead to maximize the revenue potential of our pipeline across all of our businesses. Building out our digital ecosystem is a key component of our business strategy, from a surgeon and patient perspective, as well as in terms of future business growth and product development. Jason’s proven track record of success will serve us well as we focus on fully developing the BLUEPRINT technology for shoulder as rapidly as possible, expanding our digital technology in lower extremities and evaluating additional opportunities for our digital technology in other areas of medtech.”
Mr. Asper joined Wright in 2017 as Wright’s senior vice president, strategy, technology and corporate development. Prior to joining Wright, Mr. Asper served as a principal for Deloitte Consulting LLP, a global consulting company, focused on strategy and technology primarily in the Medical Device industry. Mr. Asper has a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from Indiana University.
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About Wright Medical Group N.V.
Wright Medical Group N.V. is a global medical device company focused on extremities and biologics products. The company is committed to delivering innovative, value-added solutions improving the quality of life for patients worldwide. Wright is a recognized leader of surgical solutions for the upper extremities (shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand), lower extremities (foot and ankle) and biologics markets, three of the fastest growing segments in orthopaedics. For more information about Wright, visit www.wright.com.
™ and ® denote trademarks and registered trademarks of Wright Medical Group N.V. or its affiliates, registered as indicated in the United States, and in other countries. All other trademarks and trade names referred to in this release are the property of their respective owners.
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This release includes forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of words such as “anticipate,” “expect,” “plans,” “intend,” “could,” “may,” “will,” “believe,” “estimate,” “continue,” “guidance,” “future,” other words of similar meaning and the use of future dates. Forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to, statements about the company’s ability to: successfully create a digital organization and leverage such organization to develop new software platforms, successfully expand new and existing software platforms into lower extremities and other clinical areas, successfully develop new applications and functionality for our BLUEPRINT™ enabling technology, successfully leverage emerging technologies, successfully create a complex digital eco-system for medical products and procedures, successfully drive and accelerate software innovation and solutions across our business, and improve patient outcomes. Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. Each forward-looking statement contained in this release is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statement. Applicable risks and uncertainties include, among others, failure to attract the talent necessary to build out an effective digital organization, failure to successfully develop a new digital ecosystem or effective new digital products or solutions, competition from other industry participants with similar strategies, failure to develop digital products or solutions that are accepted by the marketplace or which result in improved patient outcomes, inability to develop software solutions that are economically feasible (including from a reimbursement standpoint), inability to successfully partner with third parties needed to develop or license the software and hardware platforms required to execute our digital strategy, failure to successfully expand our digital technologies to lower extremities and other clinical areas, failure to launch new or improved BLUEPRINT™ modalities or to do so on a timely basis, intellectual property challenges to our digital products, platforms and services; and the risks identified under the heading “Risk Factors” in Wright’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 30, 2018 filed by Wright with the SEC on February 27, 2019 and subsequent SEC filings by Wright, including without limitation its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2019. Investors should not place considerable reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this release. Investors are encouraged to read Wright’s filings with the SEC, available at www.sec.gov, for a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of the date of this release, and Wright undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Wright’s business is subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, including those referenced above. Investors, potential investors, and others should give careful consideration to these risks and uncertainties.
Investors & Media:
Julie D. Dewey
Sr. Vice President, Chief Communications Officer
Wright Medical Group N.V.
(901) 290-5817
julie.dewey@wright.com