Second Sight Announces Departure of Will McGuire, President and CEO, and Appointment of Gregg Williams as Acting CEO
March 12 2020 - 4:15PM
Business Wire
- Mr. McGuire to Remain on Second Sight’s Board
of Directors -
- Company continues to advance its breakthrough
neuro-modulation technology, the Orion® Visual Cortical Prosthesis
System, aimed at providing useful artificial vision to millions of
blind individuals -
Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ: EYES) (“Second
Sight” or the “Company”), a developer, manufacturer and marketer of
implantable visual prosthetics that are intended to create an
artificial form of useful vision for blind individuals, today
announced the departure of Will McGuire, President and Chief
Executive Officer (“CEO”), effective March 27, 2020, to pursue
another professional opportunity located closer to his family. Mr.
McGuire remains as a director on Second Sight’s board.
Effective March 27, 2020, Gregg Williams, the Company’s Chairman
of the Board, will assume the role of Acting CEO. Reporting to Mr.
Williams will be John T. Blake, Chief Financial Officer and Pat
Ryan, Chief Operating Officer. The Board is initiating a search
process in order to identify the future CEO.
“I have tremendous confidence in John’s and Pat’s abilities and
I look forward to working together with them to lead the Second
Sight team into this exciting new phase of our journey,” stated
Gregg Williams.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank Will for his
many contributions to Second Sight over the past four and a half
years as President and CEO, during which time he led the
implementation of our strategy to focus on the development and
advancement of our breakthrough Orion® Visual Cortical Prosthesis
System. I also look forward to his continued contributions as a
board member. I believe that the 12-month results from the Orion
Early Feasibility Study are extremely encouraging, and we continue
to make great progress advancing this life-changing
neuro-modulation technology, not only in pursuit of our quest to
treat all forms of blindness, but eventually in many other fields
using derivatives of the same basic core technologies and
software,” continued Mr. Williams.
“It has been my honor to lead the incredibly talented team at
Second Sight,” said Will McGuire. “I am extremely proud of the
accomplishments we have achieved in the successful advancement of
Second Sight’s breakthrough neuro-modulation technology, which has
the potential to provide useful artificial vision to virtually all
profoundly blind individuals. I remain excited for the opportunity
to continue supporting the team in my role as a board member.”
About Second Sight
Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ: EYES) develops,
manufactures and markets implantable visual prosthetics that are
intended to deliver useful artificial vision to blind individuals.
A recognized global leader in neuromodulation devices for
blindness, the Company is committed to developing new technologies
to treat the broadest population of sight-impaired individuals. The
Company’s headquarters are in Los Angeles, California. More
information is available at www.secondsight.com.
About the Orion Visual Cortical Prosthesis System
Leveraging Second Sight’s 20 years of experience in
neuromodulation for vision, the Orion Visual Cortical Prosthesis
System (Orion) is an implanted cortical stimulation device intended
to provide useful artificial vision to individuals who are blind
due to a wide range of causes, including glaucoma, diabetic
retinopathy, optic nerve injury or disease, and eye injury. Orion
is intended to convert images captured by a miniature video camera
mounted on glasses into a series of small electrical pulses. The
device is designed to bypass diseased or injured eye anatomy and to
transmit these electrical pulses wirelessly to an array of
electrodes implanted on the surface of the brain’s visual cortex,
where it is intended to provide the perception of patterns of
light. A six-subject early feasibility study of the Orion is
currently underway at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los
Angeles and the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. No
peer-reviewed data is available yet for the Orion system. The
Company anticipates negotiating the clinical and regulatory pathway
to commercialization with the FDA as part of the Breakthrough
Devices Program.
Safe Harbor
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as
amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended, which are intended to be covered by the “safe harbor”
created by those sections. All statements in this release that are
not based on historical fact are “forward looking statements.”
These statements may be identified by words such as “estimates,”
“anticipates,” “projects,” “plans,” “strategy,” “goal,” or
“planned,” “seeks,” “may,” “will,” “expects,” “intends,”
“believes,” “should,” and similar expressions, or the negative
versions thereof, and which also may be identified by their
context. All statements that address operating performance or
events or developments that Second Sight expects or anticipates
will occur in the future, such as stated objectives or goals, our
refinement of strategy, or that are not otherwise historical facts,
are forward-looking statements. While management has based any
forward-looking statements included in this release on its current
expectations, the information on which such expectations were based
may change. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and
uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially
from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various
factors, including those risks and uncertainties described in or
implied by the Risk Factors and in Management’s Discussion and
Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations sections
of our Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed on March 19, 2019, our
Form 10-Q filed on November 14, 2019, and our other reports filed
from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We
urge you to consider those risks and uncertainties in evaluating
our forward-looking statements. We caution readers not to place
undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which
speak only as of the date made. Except as otherwise required by the
federal securities laws, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking
to publicly release any updates or revisions to any forward-looking
statement contained herein (or elsewhere) to reflect any change in
our expectations with regard thereto, or any change in events,
conditions, or circumstances on which any such statement is
based.
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