SYLMAR, CALIF.—Second Sight Medical Products Inc., a developer, manufacturer and marketer of implantable visual prosthetics that provide vision to blind patients, named Steven D. Okland Jr. as commercial vice president, U.S. and Canada, according to an announcement from the company.

Among his accomplishments, Okland was president at Sanford Rose Associates—Okland Group Inc., where he specialized in commercial executive talent acquisition for early to mid-cap size companies in the medical device space. He was also vice president, worldwide marketing and sales at Miramar Labs, Inc. where he led all commercialization activities, served as vice president, worldwide marketing and U.S. sales and directed the turnaround of all commercialization activities resulting in a $250M acquisition by Bard Medical. Oakland also served as vice president U.S. sales and marketing, at Spectranetics, Inc.

“Steve brings more than 25 years of expertise in the medical device industry and proven sales and marketing leadership skills to Second Sight,” said Will McGuire, president and CEO of Second Sight. “Steve’s success in driving the growth of novel medical device technologies in early stages of commercialization will be invaluable in achieving our strategic goals. He has a proven track record of identifying talent and developing sales and marketing teams, which make him the right leader to advance our efforts to support existing and new implanting centers,” added McGuire.

Second Sight's mission is to develop, manufacture and market innovative implantable visual prosthetics to enable blind individuals to achieve greater independence. Second Sight has developed and manufactures the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System. Enrollment is underway in a trial to test the safety and utility of the Argus II in individuals with Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Second Sight is also developing the Orion I Visual Cortical Prosthesis to restore some vision to individuals who are blind due to causes other than preventable or treatable conditions.