Jim Mazzo, chief executive of Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc., has discovered a key difference running a large public company versus leading a unit of another company.
You’ve got to be out in public as the frontman.
“As a new entity, I felt it was a requirement that we raise our profile,everything from local education to local boards and even working with local politicians,” Mazzo said.
Nearly three years into his job heading Advanced Medical, Mazzo has crafted a visible external presence while working internally to put Advanced Medical on track to post $1 billion in sales this year.
Mazzo is the only chief executive the company has known since spinning off from Irvine drug maker Allergan Inc. in 2002. Mazzo, who used to run the business as part of Allergan, spearheaded a couple of big Advanced Medical acquisitions last year.
The company makes contact lens care products and devices used in eye surgeries. Advanced Medical had 2004 sales of $724 million, which were up 23% from 2003.
With the spinoff and some deals under his belt, Mazzo has been making the rounds to industry, education and community groups.
His ties to the University of California, Irvine, run deep. Mazzo is a trustee of the UCI Foundation, a member of Chief Executive Roundtable and sits on the business school dean’s board of directors executive committee.
The effort goes beyond meetings. Mazzo, a second baseman and quarterback in his youth, coached one of four teams in a halftime free throw shoot-off at last month’s UC Irvine Basketball Extravaganza. The event, known as BX, raises money for scholarships.
“I have to tell you that I am a far better baseball and football player than a basketball player, but I am competitive,” Mazzo joked.
Mazzo’s team lost to that of Dwight Decker, chief executive of Newport Beach chipmaker Conexant Systems Inc.
“Unfortunately, the last two years we’ve been robbed,” Mazzo said. “But I promise,and you can tell Dwight Decker,that we will win next year because we are going to start to practice as early as we can.”
Mazzo’s also involved in industry groups. He’s on the board of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, a medical device trade group based in Washington, D.C., known as AdvaMed.
Mazzo’s boosting of his public profile has helped Advanced Medical, he said. For one, it’s made it easier to hire top workers.
“You are only as good as your people,” he said.
The effort also is designed to help Mazzo become a better chief, he said.
“I thought it was critical as the CEO that I engage myself with the right groups and right areas to ensure that I grew personally, which hopefully facilitates growing the company,” Mazzo said.
Part of the effort is rooted in Mazzo’s love for education, he said.
“Quite candidly, I’m a big believer in education,” Mazzo said. “I believe it is our requirement as people to help further support education in our local communities.”
Besides UCI, Mazzo also is an active member of Chapman University’s Board of Counselors and a trustee of the University of San Diego.
Mazzo’s also a regular on the lecture circuit. During the past year, he’s spoke at UCI, Chapman, the University of Southern California and the Orange County Forum.
His lectures touch on leadership, personal development and nuts and bolts business issues such as unlocking a company’s value through a spinoff, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance after a spinoff, leadership and personal development.
Mazzo spent 22 years with Allergan and eventually rose to corporate vice president and president of the ophthalmic surgical and contact lens care business,what Advanced Medical was known as before being spun off.
Mazzo said that his visibility can be a challenge. He handles it by prioritizing and focusing on education and industry, through his AdvaMed work.
“I have a very supportive family,my wife, Kelly, and my two kids,” Mazzo said.
And he said that several of Advanced Medical’s top executives, such as Chief Financial Officer Randy Meier, Jane Rady, vice president of strategy and technology, and Sheree Aronson, vice president of investor relations and corporate communications, also are involved in local boards and groups.
“You have (chief executives) do things that are industry-specific and just push their brand out more and drive their business,” said Peter Santora, managing director of corporate search firm Korn/Ferry International’s Irvine office.
Strategic Networking
Joining groups such as the Orange County Technology Action Network, or OCTANe, and the UCI Chief Executive Roundtable also could be a strategic networking move, Santora said.
“They all need a certain type of talent to grow here, develop here and sustain here,” he said.
Even with visibility, a chief executive, particularly of a publicly traded company, still must concentrate on results.
“CEOs have found out that visibility isn’t a bad thing, but you could lose it in 90 seconds,” Santora said.
“I think the bottom line is still king,” Mazzo said.
Wall Street wants to know that his activities don’t “interfere with my running the business,” he said.
Advanced Medical has held its own under Mazzo. Last year, Advanced Medical’s profit excluding charges doubled to $46.4 million.
Mazzo’s pushed Advanced Medical to become a power in vision correction surgery. In November, the company said it would pay $1.3 billion to buy Visx Inc., a Santa Clara-based maker of laser devices to correct vision.
The Visx deal, which is expected to close this quarter, was Advanced Medical’s second big one last year. The company paid $450 million to buy Pfizer Inc.’s cataract surgery business in April.
“We have a penchant to grow this company. We’re not shy, and we’ve done a great job of integration,” Mazzo said after the Visx news broke.
Allergan decided to spin off Advanced Medical because “our optical medical device business has distinct operations from our other remaining businesses, with different opportunities, challenges, strategies and means of doing business,” it said in a regulatory filing.
The business that eventually became Advanced Medical was growing, albeit at a much slower rate than Allergan’s core specialty drug business.
