Smiths Group shares were down 1.5% to 1,414.5 in early morning trading on Thursday, following the firm’s announcement of several new executive appointments.
The engineering company confirmed its appointment of Clare Scherrer as Chief Financial Officer, who has been an advisor to the firm for seven years and is scheduled to replace John Shipsey from 29 April.
She previously spent 25 years at Goldman Sachs, where she worked as partner for over 10 years and was most recently the Co-Head of the Global Industries Business.
Her experience covers a broad range of industrial industries, with specialised interest in the technology sectors, including energy, safety, security and aerospace.
Smiths has also hired Bernard Cicut as President of John Crane, who will take over the position from Jean Vernet on 18 April.
Cicut joined the company from his previous role at 3M as President of the business’s $4.5 billion Personal Safety Division, where he led increased growth and a four-fold increase in global respirator supply during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The group announced Vera Kirikova as Chief People Officer, who is set to replace Sheena Mackay from April 18.
Kirikova joined the company from her prior position at Rio Tinto, where she worked as Chief People Officer between 2016 to 2021, following her 22 year employment at Schlumberger in a variety of senior leadership roles.
Smith also announced that Group Head of Strategy is officially set to become an Executive Committee role, with present Group Head Diana Houghton consequently promoted to the Committee from April.
Houghton has been in the role since 2019 and joined the company in 2013, with her contributions playing a key role in developing the firm’s growth strategy over the past few years.
“On behalf of the Board I would like to thank John, Jean and Sheena for their significant contributions to Smiths over the years and wish them continued success in the future,” said Smiths Group CEO Paul Keel.
“At our Capital Markets Event in November, we laid out a plan to accelerate growth at Smiths and deliver on our significant potential.”
“We’re now seeing multiple examples of this such as the earlier than expected close of the Medical Sale, ramp-up in new product activity, and first half results which delivered 3.4% organic revenue growth. Today’s announcement further builds on our momentum.”