Business Weekly | By Tony Quested
8 May 2024
Medical robotics pioneer CMR Surgical, a unicorn Cambridge company, has appointed Shlomi Cohen as its new finance chief and revealed a fresh scale-up blueprint.
Formerly with global heavyweight Lumenis, Cohen replaces Anna Wasyl, who moves to a new role in CMR’s commercial operations as Chief Commercial Partnerships and Operations Officer, working closely with CCO Massimiliano Colella.
The company is thriving from a new manufacturing facility in Cambridge where it makes the Versius robot arm for keyhole surgery – adopted worldwide in soaring numbers by leading medical institutions.
CMR tells Business Weekly that it is filling number of roles across the business globally to support its commercial success. It works closely with new and existing customers to grow its programmes with Versius – with over 20,000 surgical procedures completed using the system and more than 160 systems installed globally.
CMR has recently expanded activity in the Nordics by partnering with Kebomed – one of Europe’s leading medical device distributors – to bring Versius to Norway, Denmark and Finland; and marked expansion into Portugal with the introduction of Versius at Hospital Lusíadas in Porto.
Closer to home, it has seen more centres grow their robotics programmes with Versius, with hospitals like Milton Keynes University Hospital introducing a second system to address demand for robotic-assisted keyhole surgery, and sites such as Gloucester Royal Hospital introducing CMR’s new visual imaging technology, vLimeLite, to expand capabilities using Versius.
The burgeoning success provides the perfect backdrop for Cohen’s arrival as CFO.
In his last role he was Chief Financial and Operations Officer at Lumenis, a global company specialising in innovative, minimally invasive medical devices and advanced clinical solutions.
There he was instrumental in driving a significant increase in sales and profitability alongside doubling the equity valuation of the business. Prior to his seven years at Lumenis, Cohen was CFO at Formula Systems, a global software technology business. A graduate of the General Management Program at Harvard Business School, he is a graduate of the London Business School and a Chartered Accountant.
Supratim Bose, Chief Executive Officer of CMR Surgical, said: “As we continue to invest in bringing Versius to more customers around the world, I am pleased to be further strengthening our leadership team with Shlomi’s appointment.
“His deep knowledge of the medical devices industry and high growth businesses is a perfect fit for us. Shlomi will be hugely valuable to the team as we continue our rapid global scale up. I would like to thank Anna for her time as CFO and we look forward to continuing to work closely with her in her new role.”
Cohen added: “Versius is an extremely innovative tool and I’m very excited to be part of the team that will help to further accelerate CMR’s growth to help the company to achieve its mission of transforming surgery for good.
“CMR is an exciting, highly regarded global business in the medical devices sector. The company is operating in a very fast-growing sector of the MedTech market so I look forward to helping the CMR maximise this opportunity.”