Caren Mason (l) and Thomas Frinzi.

  
LAKE FOREST, Calif.—STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ: STAA), a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of implantable lenses for the eye, announced that president and chief executive officer Caren Mason will be retiring on Dec. 31, 2022, after leading the company through a significant period of revitalization and growth for more than seven years. STAAR’s board of directors has appointed ophthalmic industry executive Thomas “Tom” G. Frinzi, current board chair of STAAR, to serve as president and CEO, effective Jan. 1, 2023.

To ensure a seamless transition, Mason has agreed to serve in an advisory role through Dec. 31, 2023.
 
“Under Caren’s leadership, STAAR has achieved numerous significant milestones including accelerating average revenue growth above 25 percent over the past several years and gaining U.S. FDA approval of our EVO lenses earlier this year,” noted Aimee S. Weisner, chair of the board’s nominating and governance committee. “At the same time, Caren has overseen a dramatic increase in shareholder value with shares of STAAR increasing in value by almost 10 times during her tenure. She leaves STAAR in an incredibly strong financial and market position.”
 
Mason was appointed president and CEO of STAAR in March 2015 after serving as an independent director on STAAR’s board of directors since 2014. Prior to joining STAAR,  Mason served as CEO and in other senior executive roles at numerous innovative health care, life sciences, diagnostic technology, and medical device companies.
 
Frinzi was appointed to STAAR’s board of directors in June 2020 and has extensive experience in the ophthalmic and medical device industries at both large, well-established companies and innovative start-ups. He served as worldwide president, surgical for Johnson & Johnson’s Vision business, and previously served as senior vice president of Abbott Laboratories and president, Abbott Medical Optics (AMO).
 
Prior to Abbott, he served as president and CEO of WaveTec Vision, a developer of surgical systems for eye surgery. He previously held senior positions in commercial operations, business development, and sales and marketing at Bausch + Lomb Surgical, Refractec and Chiron Vision.
 
“Tom is the ideal leader to serve as STAAR’s next CEO,” said Weisner. “He brings more than 40 years of ophthalmic and medical device experience to his stewardship of STAAR and has the vision and expertise to continue STAAR’s strong trajectory of growth and leadership position in implantable lenses for myopia. As chair of the board, Tom has been a significant contributor to STAAR’s success for more than two years, and we are confident he will excel as STAAR’s CEO.”
 
STAAR also announced that it expects to achieve total net sales for the fourth quarter of 2022 in the range of $64 million to $66 million.