Medtronic to Name A New Finance Chief -- WSJ
May 04 2016 - 3:04AM
Dow Jones News
By Joann S. Lublin and Rachel Louise Ensign
Medtronic PLC has hired Karen L. Parkhill as its new chief
financial officer, recruiting her from the same role at Comerica
Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
Medtronic likely will announce her appointment this week, these
people said. Comerica, a Dallas-based financial-services company,
disclosed Tuesday that Ms. Parkhill had resigned as its vice
chairman and CFO "to pursue other opportunities." She is 50 years
old, according to Comerica's latest proxy statement.
Ms. Parkhill will take over the top finance job from Gary Ellis,
who helped orchestrate Medtronic's recent acquisition of Covidien
and has been its CFO since 2005. Mr. Ellis is expected to retire
from Medtronic, which sells medical devices and surgical tools.
Medtronic did not comment late Tuesday about the expected
Parkhill announcement. Comerica did not respond to requests for
comment late Tuesday.
In January 2015, Medtronic closed its $50 billion acquisition of
Dublin-based Covidien. That deal allowed Medtronic to move its
corporate headquarters from Minneapolis to Dublin, through an
inversion, a technique aimed at lowering the company's tax
burden.
Mr. Ellis has been involved in Medtronic's efforts to take
advantage of its new inverted status to transfer some of its
overseas cash to the U.S. at lower tax rates than it would
otherwise have paid.
Things are in "good order for the company," so this may be a
good time for Mr. Ellis to step down, said Debbie Wang, a
Morningstar Inc. analyst. "Medtronic would be in good standing to
do the kind of serial acquisitions that they do to augment internal
innovation."
Medtronic becomes the latest big business to fill the top role
with an executive experienced at investment banking. Such
executives often offer strong strategic skills.
Before Ms. Parkhill joined Comerica in 2011, she worked for J.P.
Morgan Chase & Co. Her roles there included a stint in its
investment bank.
Among the investment-banking veterans to don a finance chief's
hat recently was Ruth Porat, now CFO of Alphabet Inc., Google's
parent. She came to the Silicon Valley giant as finance chief in
May 2015 from Morgan Stanley.
With Ms. Parkhill's departure, Comerica named David Duprey,
executive vice president and general auditor, as its new CFO,
effective immediately, the company's announcement said.
--Tatyana Shumsky contributed to this article.
Write to Joann S. Lublin at joann.lublin@wsj.com and Rachel
Louise Ensign at rachel.ensign@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 04, 2016 02:49 ET (06:49 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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