Jorge Gomez’s tenure as Moderna’s CFO came to a close after just one day on the job. Gomez’s departure is tied to a probe launched by his previous employer, Dentsply Sirona, which forced Dentsply to delay its quarterly financial report.
In Dentsply’s earnings call, interim CEO John Groetelaars elaborated on the investigation and said it focuses on the use of sales incentives with its dealers, whether they were properly reported to the SEC, “as well as whether those incentives were directed by executives of the company, both former executives as well as potentially executives that are still here, to hit compensation targets.”
Despite Gomez’s short stint at Moderna, he will receive a full year’s salary of $700,000 and 12 months of COBRA health insurance coverage as part of the company’s executive severance plan but forfeit his signing bonus and other incentives.
The biotech firm’s freshly retired finance chief, David Meline, has agreed to reprise his role while the company continues its hunt for his successor. Meline initially joined Moderna in June 2020 and before that spent five years as the CFO at biopharmaceutical company Amgen. He also held senior finance roles at 3M and General Motors.
Moving forward, the rapidly growing drug-maker will likely have an eye for CFO candidates with a wealth of expertise operating at international companies, as CEO Stephane Bancel specifically called out Gomez’s “experience leading the financial functions of multinational healthcare companies” in his April hiring announcement.
Last year, the fast-growing mRNA COVID-19 vaccine-maker reported $18.5 billion in sales, an astronomical jump from just $803 million in 2020. The company is poised to blow its sales numbers out of the water again in 2022, and has already signed orders worth around $21 billion.
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