MicroVention Inc., Orange County’s sixth-largest medical device maker with about 1,150 local workers, has expansion plans in its hometown of Aliso Viejo, with a sizeable new lease recently signed just up the road from its 2-year-old headquarters, and close to 50 open jobs for its operations in the city.
Those growth plans for the neurovascular device division of Japan’s Terumo Corp. will be overseen by a new top executive, the Business Journal has learned.
The company, which makes coils and related devices used for treating strokes and other diseases of the brain’s vascular system, saw a change to its leadership mid-month when Rich Cappetta stepped down as chief executive after 20 years with the company, and 11 years as CEO.
Kazuaki Kitabatake has been named interim CEO and president at the company, which regulatory filings indicate earned about $370 million in revenue last year.
Kitabatake has been with parent company Terumo since 2007, most recently serving as a managing executive officer responsible for investor relations and corporate communications between international markets.
Company officials tell the Business Journal that MicroVention is actively looking for a full-time replacement for Cappetta and the company has already identified potential candidates for the job.
‘Legacy of Innovation’
Cappetta said he left to pursue other interests, and that he is looking to invest in medical startups and is keeping an eye out for other opportunities.
He told the Business Journal last week via email that he “built a strong, solid, successful company that will carry on and continue our legacy of innovation and execution.”
Cappetta started at MicroVention two years after its 1997 founding, as the vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. He moved up the ranks until becoming CEO in 2008.
Terumo bought MicroVention in 2006 on undisclosed terms, helping push the company’s growth into overdrive.
The most notable sign of that growth: it outgrew its former Tustin headquarters, necessitating a move to a three-story office built for it in the Summit Office Campus in Aliso Viejo, next to the local hub of Pacific Life Insurance Co.
The 205,000-square-foot building, which opened in 2017, is the last office slated for the Summit campus. It’s leased entirely to MicroVention for office work, as well as research and development and manufacturing, including a clean room.
The company said at the time the office could hold about 800 workers; about two-thirds of its current employment totals in OC. It still has offices in Tustin, as well as another existing spot in Aliso Viejo.
An expansion appears in the cards. Records from real estate market tracker CoStar Group Inc. indicate that the company has leased an additional 30,000 square feet at a nearby building at the Summit, a space previously used by Predixion Software.
The new lease is effective at the start of next year, and is among the top three office leases in the city over the past 10 months, according to CoStar records.
Company officials didn’t confirm the site of the new location, but noted last week that “MicroVention will be expanding to other office space in the near future to support that growth and expansion.”
Job Push
The company’s website lists 50 open positions in Aliso Viejo, in a variety of engineering, scientific and corporate roles.
MicroVention has grown its local employment figures nearly tenfold over the past decade, thanks to new product lines, acquisitions, and increased sales of its devices.
In 2016, Terumo bought Sequent Medical, a privately held medical device firm that makes a microcatheter used in aneurysm embolization systems, and is also based in Aliso Viejo.
That purchase was valued at $280 million up front, and up to $100 million to be paid based on the achievement of specific development or commercial milestones.
