New Director Appointed and Two Directors Retire
OTTAWA, May 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - MDS Nordion, a
leader in providing products and services for the global health
sciences market, today announced that Dr. Oye Olukotun, Chief Executive Officer of
CardioVax Inc, has been appointed to its Board of Directors.
"We welcome Oye to the Board and look forward to benefiting from
the breadth of his experience," said William Anderson, Chairman, MDS Board of
Directors. "We are always looking to strengthen and renew the
Board. With over 25 years of experience in clinical research and
drug development in the pharmaceutical industry, Oye's knowledge
and perspective will be valuable in guiding the long-term strategy
and ongoing operations of Nordion's business moving forward."
"MDS Nordion has built strong leadership positions in its core
businesses enabling the company to deliver positive financial
returns," stated Dr. Olukotun. "I believe there is potential to
leverage these core competencies as a platform for long-term growth
and innovation and look forward to exploring these opportunities
with my fellow directors and the Nordion management team."
Dr. Olukotun is also a co-founder of VIA Pharmaceuticals and
served as the Chief Medical Officer since the company's formation.
He is a Board Certified Cardiologist and has been instrumental in
the submission of more than 14 New Drug Applications, Premarket
Authorization Applications, and 510k Applications. He is a Fellow
of the American College of Cardiology as well as the American Heart
Association. He is a member of the Boards of Directors of the
publicly traded biotechnology companies, Icagen, Inc. of
Durham, North Carolina; SemBioSys
Genetics, Inc. of Calgary, Alberta,
Canada; and BioClinica Inc.of Newtown, Pennsylvania. As a member of the MDS
Board of Directors, Dr. Olukotun will serve on the newly formed
Technology Committee, and the Human Resources & Compensation
Committee.
Dr. Olukotun will replace Mr. Gregory P.
Spivy who is retiring from the Board. Mr. Spivy, a Partner
at ValueAct Capital, joined the MDS Board in April, 2008. ValueAct
Capital, once MDS's largest shareholder, no longer holds any MDS
shares.
Mr. James S.A. MacDonald, who
joined the MDS Board in January 2004
and served as Chair from November
2008 to January, 2010, will be retiring from the Board at
the end of June.
"On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank both Jim and Greg
for the contribution they have made to MDS," said Mr. Anderson. "In
particular, their valuable involvement over the past two years in
managing us through an important transition period as we
repositioned the Company to focus on Nordion."
About MDS Inc.
MDS Inc. (TSX: MDS; NYSE: MDZ) is a global health science
company that provides market-leading products and services used for
the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease. We are a
leading provider of innovative technologies for use in medical
imaging and radiotherapeutics, and sterilization technologies
benefiting the lives of millions of people in more than 65
countries around the world. Our products and services are used
daily by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, medical-device
manufacturers, hospitals, clinics and research laboratories. MDS
has more than 850 highly skilled people in five locations. Find out
more at www.mdsnordion.com.
SOURCE MDS Inc.