Name: Jeannette Bankes
Current role: Incoming CEO, Tandem Diabetes Care
Previous role: CEO of patient care solutions, GE HealthCare
Tandem Diabetes Care said Thursday that Jeannette Bankes will become the company’s next CEO. Bankes will start on Nov. 16 as current CEO John Sheridan plans to retire at the end of the year.
“I’m 70 and I’ve got to make a decision at some point,” Sheridan said in a Thursday earnings call, adding that he and the board had been working together for a while to find a successor. Sheridan said he had confidence in the company’s future under Bankes’ leadership, citing her more than 30 years of operating experience.
Bankes is currently CEO of GE HealthCare’s patient care solutions business, a $3.1 billion business that includes monitoring, diagnostic cardiology and anesthesia products. Bankes drove growth and profitability across the business, according to Tandem’s statement.
Prior to working at GE HealthCare, Bankes was Alcon’s president of global franchises.
Bankes will receive an annual base salary of $900,000, according to Tandem’s latest quarterly filing.
Sheridan joined Tandem as its chief operating officer in 2013. He became CEO in 2019. The outgoing CEO will stay on as an employee through the end of the year and then serve as a consultant.
During his tenure, the diabetes technology firm launched its first hybrid closed-loop technology and introduced a tiny, tubed insulin pump.
Sheridan said he had a list of priorities he cared about before stepping down, such as developing a tubeless insulin pump, starting work on a fully closed loop automated insulin delivery system and developing coverage through the pharmacy channel.
“I feel very confident that these things are moving [in] the right direction,” Sheridan said.
Tandem’s first tubeless pump option, Mobi Tubeless, is currently in the late stages of Food and Drug Administration review, Sheridan said. The company is also working with the University of Virginia to develop a fully closed loop system that would allow people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes to reach targets without meal announcements and other inputs, although users would still have the option to enter the information. Tandem plans to start a pivotal study before the end of the year.
