The most striking thing about Advanced Medical Optics Inc.’s executive ranks: There’s no clear No. 2 to high-profile Chief Executive James Mazzo.
Instead of a well-defined chain of command, Mazzo says he gives his 11 management team members room to run their operations in a bid to stanch bureaucracy at the Santa Ana-based contact lens care products and eye device maker.
Mazzo, who also serves as chairman and president, doesn’t have a layer of senior executives between him and his vice presidents. There’s no chief operating officer per se.
The closest thing to a No. 2 is Richard “Randy” Meier, the company’s financial chief and vice president of operations.
The setup reflects Advanced Medical’s relative youth,the company spun off from Allergan Inc. in 2002. But the management structure isn’t designed to concentrate power, according to Mazzo and others. It’s meant to foster camaraderie and the sense of being on a team.
“I am not a traditionalist when it comes to structure,” Mazzo said.
A second baseman and quarterback in his youth, Mazzo is coach to Advanced Medical’s team of vice presidents and business unit heads, who hail from Allergan, Advanced Medical’s acquired companies and elsewhere.
The executive team tries to be “crisp and quite agile in making decisions,” said Peter Nolan, senior vice president of manufacturing and an Irishman originally from Limerick.
The executives work together in a way that “supports fast decision making and dealing with issues on a responsive basis,” Nolan said.
The team has a strong Allergan pedigree. That includes Mazzo, who ran the business as part of Allergan for years before the spinoff.
In all, eight of the 12-member team came directly or indirectly from Allergan.
Mazzo didn’t want to lose the knowledge of those who worked at the business as part of Allergan. But he also wanted to bring in outsiders.
That includes Chief Financial Officer Meier, who previously worked for Costa Mesa’s ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., now Valeant Pharmaceuticals International.
Besides finance and operations, Meier is executive vice president and president of the company’s contact lens solution business.
Meier is Mazzo’s “key lieutenant,” said David Pyott, Irvine-based Allergan’s chief executive, Mazzo’s former boss and a onetime Advanced Medical di-rector.
“Randy gave Jim a strong financial hand” in Advanced Medical’s two acquisitions in 2004 and 2005, when it bought Pfizer Inc.’s eye surgery business and Visx Inc., a Santa Clara-based eye surgery laser maker, Pyott said.
Advanced Medical’s sense of team comes from Mazzo’s days at Allergan, according to Pyott.
Mazzo was such a team player at the drug maker that he first balked at the prospect of leading the spinoff, Pyott said.
“He told me, ‘I thought you were my friend?'” Pyott said.
Then Pyott said he explained what an opportunity it was for Mazzo to take a business that wasn’t a focus for Allergan and turn it into something.
“Jim was a passionate Allergan employee,” Pyott said.
Mazzo and the company’s others “turned an underdog into a champion,” Pyott said.
Advanced Medical executives are reluctant to pinpoint an up-and-comer or potential successor to Mazzo, who turns 50 next May.
“It’s fair to say that there are a number of strong internal executives that could aspire to (Mazzo’s) role,” manufacturing head Nolan said. “I wouldn’t say there’s an heir apparent emerging. I would say it’s more a number of people could be identified as strong potential (successors).”
Mazzo’s “not going anywhere,” said Jane Rady, Advanced Medical’s corporate vice president of strategy and business development.
Like any company, though, Advanced Medical has a succession plan that’s reviewed annually, Rady said.
The issue hasn’t been a concern for Wall Street analysts, executives said.
The biggest challenge for Advanced Medical’s executive team, according to Rady: “We’ve grown so quickly.”
“Growth has created tremendous opportunities, but it’s also a challenge to manage the staffing needs you have, the basic infrastructure you need to keep a large organization growing,” she said.
Advanced Medical could surpass $1 billion in sales this year, up about 8% from last year.
Nolan, who came to Advanced Medical from GN ReSound Corp. in Redwood City, has played a critical role.
“One of the key requirements of the spin was to establish our own manufacturing, so that presented a significant challenge,” he said.
Nolan’s team set up manufacturing for contact lens products and surgical gear and later absorbed the Pfizer and Visx operations.
Outside the office, Nolan, a married father of two and a former rugby player, still follows the game. He said he closely watched the World Cup soccer tournament a few weeks back.
“I’m an avid sports follower,” said Nolan, who also has a private pilot’s license but hasn’t flown much of late because he’s been too busy.
In 2002, the team went on a retreat in Temecula for wine tasting, Rady said. After the Pfizer deal in 2004, the group went to “one of the resorts around here, it might have been the Ritz-Carlton,” she said.
The outing included spouses, “because you’re away from your spouse as you’re doing all these transactions,” Rady said.
Rady is a 58-year-old married mother of an adult son who enjoys gardening. She joined Allergan just before the spinoff, coming from Integrated Genomics Inc. of Chicago.
“The team is important,” said Leonard Borrmann, senior vice president of research and development. “I would say there’s no person larger than the team.”
The group has its sparks, according to Borrmann, a 48-year-old, married father of three.
“People are not afraid to challenge each other, challenge thinking, challenge dogma,” he said. “In my time in the room, I’ve not seen it get ugly. But at the same time, it’s a very lively group with respect to keeping each other on our toes from a sense of humor point of view.”
The executives work together in different ways, Borrmann said. He said he works with others on committees weekly or more frequently to keep Advanced Medical’s product pipeline “moving and directionally sound.”
Borrmann’s relationship with Mazzo,even before he came to Advanced Medical in early 2004,was stoked by a common love of sports, including the Chicago Cubs.
“Jim and I, our relationship goes all the way back to the Allergan softball team when we both participated on the marketing intramural softball game,” said Borrmann, a University of Southern California graduate and Trojan season ticket holder. “Jim was the shortstop. I was the left fielder. We played together almost 10 years.”
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PROFILES
– Peter Nolan: 51, senior vice president, manufacturing. Came to Advanced Medical in 2002. Previously was senior vice president, operations, vice president, operations. Before joining, was senior vice president, global operations, of GN ReSound Corp., Bay area hearing aid maker.
– Jane Rady: 58, corporate vice president, strategic, corporate development. Part of original spinoff team. Company’s corporate vice president, strategy, technology from early 2002 to April. Was chief executive of Integrated Genomics Inc. in Chicago before coming to Advanced Medical.
– Leonard Borrmann: 48, senior vice president, research, development. Came to Advanced Medical in 2004, first serving as vice president, surgical research, business development. Previously was chief executive of Insert Therapeutics Inc. in Pasadena. Background includes nearly 14 years at Allergan.
– Holger Heidrich: 53, corporate vice president, president, cataract/implant business. Based in Germany, assumed job a year ago. Heavy roots in Allergan, joining the drug maker in 1985 as marketing and sales director for Germany.
– Douglas Post: 54, corporate vice president, president, laser vision correction business. Came to Advanced Medical after Visx buy in 2005. Was Visx’s president, chief operating officer. Based in Santa Clara.
– C. Russell Trenary III: 49, corporate vice president, chief marketing officer. Original Advanced Medical team member, starting out as president, corporate vice president, Americas region. Started career in 1981 with American Hospital Supply Corp., a unit of which would grow into Advanced Medical.
– Robert Gallagher: 47, senior vice president, chief accounting officer. Assumed titles in April. Prior, was vice president, controller since 2002, shortly after Allergan set spinoff of Advanced Medical. Background includes seven years at Allergan, six years at rival Bausch & Lomb Inc.
– Aimee Weisner: 37, corporate vice president, general counsel, secretary. Also Advanced Medical’s chief ethics officer. Was vice president, assistant general counsel of Allergan prior to spinoff. Joined Allergan in 1998 from O’Melveny & Myers LLP.
– Francine Meza: 50, senior vice president, human resources. Has Allergan roots, dating back to 1984. Before going to Advanced Medical, was vice president, human resources, for worldwide operations for Allergan.
– Sheree Aronson: 51, vice president, corporate communications and investor relations. Came to company in 2003 from H & R; Block Inc.’s RSM EquiCo, where she was director of communications.
