Executive search firm Rosenzweig & Company has placed the new president and CEO of eSight Corp., a leading vision enhancing platform based in Toronto.
Robert Vaters joins eSight from Newport Board Group where he served as a partner in the healthcare practice focusing on medical device companies. In his new role, Mr. Vaters will lead all strategic and business aspects of eSight Corp. during its next stage of growth.
“We have only begun to discover the transformative possibilities of our technology,” said Sam Ifergan, executive chairman of eSight. “Robert has the experience and track record to help eSight during its next stage of our growth and disrupt the vision healthcare industry.”
“This is a technology that can provide huge benefits to large numbers of people – people who can’t see,” said Jay Rosenzweig, CEO of Rosenzweig & Company. “The exciting challenge was uncovering someone who could take an already great business and product and grow it to next levels, so that it could be shared at scale with the world.”
Extensive Experience
“We got to talking to people in the tech space generally and in medtech specifically, who have had success scaling businesses, including creating markets where perhaps these markets didn’t previously exist,” said Mr. Rosenzweig. “The more we talked with people in this space to understand what drives success in this area, including which levers will drive success, the more we were able to hone in on what works, and ultimately that ideal candidate who is up to the task. We were thrilled to have uncovered Bob, who is highly seasoned, understands the complexities of the business, and has the sophistication and experience to grow it.”
Mr. Vaters is a C-suite leader with extensive experience navigating organizations through the U.S. healthcare and technology industries. Prior to Newport, Mr. Vaters served in progressive leadership roles, touting a strong track record of growing companies and executing mergers. His accomplishments include exceeding multi-year expansion goals as CEO of Orthofix International where he was a finalist for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Dallas in 2012. He also raised $30 million in equity as president and chief financial officer of Caladrius Biosciences. In addition, Mr. Vaters helped the turnaround of Inamed, and the resulting $3.2 billion sale to Allergan. He serves on the board of directors of Hydroworx, a Middletown, PA water therapy company.
He will be relocating from New York to eSight’s headquarters in Toronto. “It is important in these cases to have candidates who are all in from a motivational standpoint,” said Mr. Rosenzweig. “This was exactly the case for Bob, whose mom unfortunately suffered years ago from the kind of eye problem eSight can solve. She tried so many options that were ineffective, and Bob of course wishes eSight had been available to her when she needed it. The mission is so important to him, and that makes for a great fit with the client.”
Respected Recruiters
Mr. Vaters joins an accomplished executive team. This includes chief technology officer Charles Lim, a global technology visionary with 20 years of experience and proven record of scaling businesses. In this role, Mr. Lim leads the technology, product and operations teams and is responsible for the transition from a revolutionary hardware company to an agile mobile cloud computing IoT device. Mr. Vaters is also joining the ranks of chief operating officer and president of eSight International, Gregory Ogorek. Mr. Ogorek is an avid entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience creating and scaling companies, as founder and co-founder of four start-ups in six different countries including the U.S., Canada, France, Czech Republic, Poland and Romania.
eSight is a leading vision-platform organization with the stated promise of helping people see the world, and change the world. Its current leading-edge product portfolio includes eSight 3, electronic glasses with enhanced vision technology that are clinically proven to improve sight for people living with vision loss. eSight is registered with the FDA and EUDAMED, and is inspected by Health Canada.
Toronto-based Rosenzweig & Company is an executive search firm focused on the critical, often specialized recruiting needs of its clients. The firm also offers management assessment, onboarding and executive coaching, organizational effectiveness, digital media strategy, and risk advisory and compliance services to a growing international client base. Mr. Rosenzweig, the founding partner of the firm, is an expert in designing, building and attracting world-class executive teams. He consults to public and private companies, including large global corporations, emerging growth to mid-sized businesses, professional services firms, and private equity and venture capital firms.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media