Bilal Muhsin spent 25 years at medical device maker Masimo Corp.
Now, the former chief operating officer has been tapped to be an executive vice president at Becton, Dickinson and Co. and president of the newly-formed Connected Care segment, which includes the Advanced Patient Monitoring unit based in Irvine and Medication Management Solutions (MMS) in San Diego.
Muhsin’s transition from Masimo comes a year after he told the board he’d resign if founder Joe Kiani was removed from the company.
Muhsin will remain based out of Orange County and split time between the two businesses in Irvine and San Diego, “while also spending time at our world headquarters in New Jersey,” according to a BD spokesperson.
Connected Care is a result of a multi-year restructuring at BD to become a “pure-play medtech” company, and is one of four newly created business segments, which also include Medical Essentials, BioPharma Systems and Interventional.
Under Muhsin, Connected Care will make smart devices using AI and advanced analytics to improve patient care in areas such as pharmacy automation, according to the company.
Muhsin will report to Tom Polen, chairman, CEO and president of BD.
Part of what attracted him to BD was its extensive portfolio, according to Muhsin.
“After meeting with Tom Polen and hearing about his vision for the organization and the opportunity to come in a make a real impact in transforming the future of healthcare, it was clear that this was an opportunity I could not pass up,” Muhsin told the Business Journal in an email.
BD is a global medical technology company with more than 70,000 employees worldwide and generated revenue of $20.2 billion last year, $3.3 billion of which came from the MMS unit. It’s currently valued at $52 billion (NYSE: BDX).
C-Suite Swap Â
Muhsin’s move to BD comes five months after another notable executive swap between Masimo and BD.
Katie Szyman, who was set to lead BD’s Advanced Patient Monitoring (APM) unit as worldwide president, left five months into the role to accept the position of CEO at Masimo in February.
“I was very happy there, and it was going very well,” Szyman told the Business Journal in June. “Then, all of a sudden, this opened up, and this doesn’t open up every day—an opportunity that’s in the same city, that’s in the same adjacent space and that is a fantastic growth opportunity. I just felt like I had to answer the call and look at it.”
Since she’s taken over, Masimo has redirected focus to its core healthcare business that sells to hospitals.
One of her first major moves was to engineer the sale of Masimo’s consumer audio business to Harman International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., for $350 million. The transaction is expected to close by the end of this year.
Masimo had spent about $1 billion to acquire the unit in 2022, a deal that caused the stock to crater and eventually led to the ouster of Kiani, who founded the company in 1989. Kiani is on the Business Journal’s annual list of the wealthiest in Orange County (see page 20).
Prior to BD, Szyman was the corporate vice president and general manager of the unit back when it was called Critical Care and owned by Edwards Lifesciences Corp.
BD acquired Critical Care from Edwards last year for $4.2 billion and renamed it to BD APM, moving into the former Alteryx Inc. headquarters at Spectrum Terrace.
BD has since appointed longtime Edwards sales and marketing exec Tim Patz to replace Szyman. Patz will report to Muhsin.
The headquarters for Masimo and the Connected Care unit are about two miles apart along the 133 Laguna Freeway in Irvine.
Smart Monitoring Devices
The Connected Care segment already has an extensive product portfolio from its APM and MMS businesses.
In April, APM released its first product since the BD acquisition.
The HemoSphere Alta platform is an advanced version of its hemodynamic monitor with predictive AI to help identify blood pressure instability.
The rest of APM’s portfolio includes the Swan Ganz IQ pulmonary artery catheter and the ForeSight IQ tissue oximetry sensor.
Meanwhile, the MMS unit focuses on infusions and medication delivery technologies. Within its portfolio is the BD Alaris Infusion System and BD Pyxis medication management software and dispensing machines, which BC acquired from CareFusion for $12.2 billion in 2014.
Muhsin said that they plan to continue to add new products and software every year.
“We will be the leading advanced medical technology company and I’m looking forward to driving that alongside our world class team of associates across the globe,” he said.
Resignation from Masimo Â
Last June, Muhsin expressed his intent to resign from Masimo amid a contentious proxy battle with Politan Capital Management attempting to force out Kiani from the company he founded.
Kiani was ousted as chairman in September following the annual shareholder vote and resigned as CEO shortly after.
“I strongly disagree with the false accusations made by Politan in its recent fight letter and fight deck and have no intention of remaining with the company if Quentin Koffey and Politan take control of it,” Muhsin wrote in a June 26, 2024 letter to the board.
A year later, Muhsin resigned, telling the board he was leaving “to pursue other opportunities,” according to regulatory filings.
Before he became COO in 2019, Muhsin held several roles including executive vice president of engineering, marketing and regulatory.
Masimo has yet to name a replacement for Muhsin.
