Lusk Boulevard at Vista Sorrento Parkway in San Diego. Photo: RightCowLeftCoast, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Tandem Diabetes Care is about to get its first new chief executive in seven years. Jeannette Bankes, who has spent three decades running medical device businesses for some of the biggest names in the industry, takes over the San Diego insulin pump maker on Nov. 16.
She succeeds John Sheridan, who joined Tandem as chief operating officer in 2013, became CEO in 2019 and will retire at the end of the year. Sheridan stays on as an employee through December and then becomes a consultant, the company said in its Nov. 5 announcement. Bankes also joins the board.
“I’m 70 and I’ve got to make a decision at some point,” Sheridan said on the company’s earnings call, according to MedTech Dive. He said he and the board had been working on a successor for a while.
Who she is
Bankes comes from GE HealthCare, where she was president and CEO of the Patient Care Solutions segment, a $3.1 billion business covering patient monitoring, diagnostic cardiology, maternal and infant care and anesthesia equipment. Before that she was senior vice president and president of global franchises at Alcon, the eye care company, where she oversaw product development and commercialization across surgical, vision care and ocular health.
Earlier stops include Merck and Boston Scientific. Over 30-plus years she has worked in product management, marketing, sales, clinical and regulatory strategy, medical affairs, operations and manufacturing. She holds a bachelor’s degree in medical technology from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania.
That’s a résumé built around big, regulated hardware businesses, which is a good match for a company whose growth depends on getting new devices through the FDA and into insurers’ coverage.
“Tandem’s compelling mission, differentiated portfolio and global reach create a meaningful opportunity to improve the lives of more people with diabetes,” Bankes said in the announcement. Board chair Beckie Robertson called her “the right CEO to build on this foundation.”
What the job pays
Tandem’s quarterly filing puts Bankes’ base salary at $900,000 a year. The board also approved a one-time inducement grant of restricted stock units worth up to $10 million, effective Dec. 15. A third vests after one year and the rest in eight quarterly pieces after that. The company said part of the grant is meant to make up for unvested stock she gave up by leaving GE HealthCare.
What she inherits
Tandem says about half a million people worldwide use its pumps. Its lineup is the Tandem Mobi, a small tubed pump, and the older t:slim X2, both running its Control-IQ+ automated insulin delivery software.
Sheridan laid out the projects he wanted moving before he stepped aside, and they’re now Bankes’ to finish:
- A tubeless version of the Mobi, which Sheridan said is in the late stages of FDA review. Tubeless patch pumps are where much of the competition is.
- A fully closed-loop system being developed with the University of Virginia, designed to manage blood sugar without users having to announce meals. Tandem planned to start a pivotal study before the end of the year.
- Broader coverage through the pharmacy channel, which can make pumps cheaper and easier to get than the traditional medical equipment route.
Investors liked the timing. Tandem’s shares rose after the company reported higher sales alongside the CEO news, MarketWatch reported.
A big San Diego employer
Tandem is one of the larger homegrown names in San Diego’s medical device industry, which sits alongside the region’s biotech cluster. It has kept its headquarters here as it grew from a startup into a company selling pumps around the world. A leadership change there matters to the local workforce, the suppliers that serve it and the investors who’ve ridden its swings over the past few years.
Bankes hasn’t said much publicly beyond the announcement. Her first earnings call as CEO, likely early next year, will be the first real look at how she plans to run the company.
