RxSight Inc.’s longtime Chief Financial Officer Shelley Thunen is stepping down after nearly a decade at the company, effective Jan. 31, the eye lens maker announced late last month.
Thunen cited the upcoming new year as good timing for the transition from the perspective of recruitment and meeting with investors.
“I think the transition is well-planned,” she told the Business Journal. “The timing is good for myself and for the company.”
Thunen will remain with the company until the end of January or sooner if a successor is announced, and transition to a consulting role, the company said.
Shares in RxSight fell 10% to $11 apiece following the news. At press time, they traded at $10.74 per share for a $434 million market cap (Nasdaq: RXST).
Took Company Public in 2021
Thunen joined RxSight in 2016 as chief administrative officer and has served as CFO since 2017. She helped take the company public in 2021 after it raised $132 million in an initial public offering at $17.50 per share.
At the time, RxSight had 25 employees and now has 500 companywide.
“The exciting part was that we were able to bring the newest intraocular lens and equipment to the IOL market as a breakthrough product,” Thunen said.
In 2024, shares passed $60 each and then began falling. They fell 38% to $7.95 in July when RxSight slashed its full-year revenue guidance by 25% due to weaker-than-expected preliminary second-quarter results.
In November, RxSight announced third-quarter results, reporting a 14% decrease in revenue to $30.3 million.
The company has two major revenue streams—the lenses themselves, called LAL, and the light delivery device machines, LDD, which uses proprietary software to deliver a short UV exposure treatment that can adjust the lens after cataract surgery in less than 60 seconds.
LDD sales dropped 68% in the third quarter, compared to a 6% increase in LAL procedure volume.
“The second half of this year is where we’re making a shift in our business model away from the leading indicator being sales of LDDs,” Thunen said during the Nov. 5 earnings call.
“We’ve built an installed base. We’ve been successful at that. We now need to optimize the value of that with LAL sales, and those coming from our existing customers with a strategic approach about who we’re going to add as customers for LDDs.”
RxSight’s primary focus moving forward is increasing the number of LAL procedures, a key metric for the company, Thunen said.
Another focus is international expansion, where the company said it’s making steady progress in Europe and Asia. RxSight currently has approval in eight foreign countries, including Australia, Korea and Singapore, and is in the process of getting regulatory approval in Japan and China, according to Thunen.
To lead this expansion, the company hired Adam Dashe as executive vice president of international in the third quarter. Dashe spent two decades at Edwards Lifesciences Corp., where he led the company’s Japan and Asia Pacific business operations, representing a combined $800+ million market.
The company also narrowed its full-year guidance to $125 million to $130 million, representing an implied decrease of 11% to 7% from a year ago.
Active Roles on Medtech Boards
Prior to RxSight, Thunen was CFO of Endologix Inc. in Irvine from 2013 to 2015. The company makes stents to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms.
Thunen worked with Chief Executive Ron Kurtz on two other ventures that were sold to larger companies: LenSx Inc., which was acquired by Alcon in 2010, and IntraLase Corp. before it was acquired by Advanced Medical Optics Inc. in 2007.
She said that stepping down will allow her to devote more time to the three boards she serves, which are locally-based Aeon Biopharma Inc., Lenz Therapeutics and Surface Ophthalmics.
Thunen described Orange County as an exciting place to work in the medical devices industry.
“The technological talent, the marketing talent, the sales talent is just so big in Orange County,” Thunen said.
