Sonova appoints Victoria E. Carr-Brendel and Ludger Althoff

Both appointments will be effective on April 1, 2019.

Ludger Althoff will be succeeding Hans Mehl, who will continue to support Sonova until his retirement in June 2020. Victoria E. Carr-Brendel will take over her role from Hansjürg Emch. In the future, the leadership position of the President of Advanced Bionics will be based in the facilities of AB in Valencia, California, reflecting the strategic importance of the US market for the cochlear implants business of the Group and its core functions of product management, R&D and production.

“We are very pleased to welcome Victoria Carr-Brendel and Ludger Althoff to the Sonova Management Board. Their longstanding experience and strong track record will be extremely valuable in further growing our business in the fast-moving global environment we operate in”, says Arnd Kaldowski, CEO of Sonova. “We would like to thank Hans Mehl and Hansjürg Emch for their strong and long-standing contributions to the growth and strategic development of Sonova Group. I am especially grateful that both Hans and Hansjürg agreed to stay on for a longer transition phase.”

Vicky joins Sonova from JenaValve Technology Inc., a global and innovative transcatheter heart valve company, where she became CEO in mid-2015. She is an accomplished medical device executive with vast experience across several therapeutic areas. She started her career as a scientist in research and development and took on increasingly larger business roles throughout her career. At JenaValve, she was responsible for bringing the company through new product development, clinical trial completion for CE mark, and optimizing the commercial launch of their next generation valve and system. Prior to her present position, she worked as Franchise General Manager at Boston Scientific, in the Peripheral Interventions division, where she ran global business operations, including the Bayer interventional radiology acquisition. Vicky has a successful track record of growing businesses and improving profitability. Having spent her entire career in healthcare, she has a background as an innovation and growth leader, bringing with her marketing, development, clinical and strategic business experience in the medical device sector. She holds a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology and she spent 18 years in various management roles. Vicky will join Advanced Bionics on December 3, 2018 and will take over full responsibility as President when joining the Sonova Management Board as GVP Cochlear Implants effective April 1, 2019, succeeding Hansjürg Emch who plans to pursue other career opportunities. Under Hansjürg`s leadership, Advanced Bionics has overcome a period of quality challenges and has returned to significant growth over the last years. Furthermore, he has helped AB to build a strong product portfolio of innovative Cochlear Implant solutions. Hansjürg will continue to contribute as a strategic advisor to AB until the end of 2019 to guarantee a smooth transition.

Ludger brings with him extensive international experience from his current position as Senior VP Quality and Operations at ABB Power Grids where he held functional responsibility for all factories and engineering centers of the business. Before that, he held various key operation leadership positions within the Danaher Corporation, including the role of VP Global Operations of Danaher’s Dental Group and the role of VP Global Operations of Leica Microsystems. Ludger adds a wealth of experience in operations, global sourcing and logistics and is a highly experienced continuous improvement expert. Ludger will join Sonova initially as VP Operations on January 1, 2019. Following a transition phase with Hans Mehl, he will join the Sonova Management Board and take over as GVP Operations, assuming full responsibility on April 1, 2019. Hans joined Sonova in April 2007 as member of the Management Board. Together with his team, he has successfully built up and further developed the operation and service centers in Vietnam, China, Great Britain, Spain and the US, thus ensuring that Sonova is agile to react to any given market situation. Hans will provide his expertise leading IT, Regulatory and Quality as well as specific strategic projects until his retirement on June 30, 2020.

Source: Sonova