Smith & Nephew hires Deepak Nath as new chief executive as operating profits rise

The company announced that Dr Deepak Nath has been appointed as the CEO, succeeding Roland Diggelmann, who will step down by mutual agreement.

The statement said: "Deepak joins Smith & Nephew from Siemens Healthineers where most recently he was President of the Diagnostics business segment responsible for $6 billion of sales and 15,000 employees. During his time there he led a major programme to drive growth and margin expansion through improved execution and a strong results-focused culture."

Roberto Quarta, Chairman of Smith & Nephew, said: "On behalf of the board, I am delighted to welcome Deepak as Smith & Nephew's incoming CEO. Deepak is a highly experienced leader with a track record of significant improvement in operations and execution at major global healthcare businesses . He is joining us at an inflection point for the business and will bring his drive, experience and expertise to lead the team in delivering our Strategy for Growth at pace.

"I would like to thank Roland for his commitment and leadership during challenging times, and the important work he has done to ready Smith & Nephew for our next stage of development."

Smith & Nephew has also reported its results for the fourth quarter and full year ended 31 December 2021. Over the financial year, Smith & Nephew reported an operating profit of $593 million, an increase of 101% over the previous year.

Mr Diggelmann said: "We finished 2021 with a solid fourth quarter, despite nearly a week less trading than in 2020 and the impact of Omicron, which affected the typical quarter-end pick up in average daily sales.

"For the full year we delivered on our guidance commitments on both the top and bottom line. We are beginning to see our step up in R&D investment bear fruit, and all three franchises contributed to our double-digit revenue growth."