Cook Medical has announced the leaders of its two new business divisions. Mark Breedlove has been named vice president of Cook’s Vascular division and DJ Sirota (below) has been named vice president of Cook’s MedSurg division.
The new organisational structure that was announced last week impacts more than one-third of the company’s workforce and realigns the former 10 business units into two business divisions.
Breedlove will now lead the new Vascular division, which brings together the former aortic intervention, peripheral intervention, interventional radiology, and lead management business units. He is a 24-year Cook veteran, whose passion is helping physicians treat their patients with innovative technologies while helping healthcare systems manage their supply chain in an efficient manner.
“Having started my career as a sales rep, I understand the importance of empowering your sales teams to make decisions based on the specific needs of their customers,” said Breedlove. “The organisational changes we have made will streamline the way they develop and manage customer contracts. These changes also allow the sales team to be more responsive and have the ability to support a customer more holistically across our entire vascular portfolio.”
He has previously held positions as a regional sales manager, national sales manager, director of marketing and product management and, most recently, vice president and global business unit leader for the peripheral intervention business unit.
Sirota will now lead the new MedSurg division, which comprises the six businesses that serve surgery, urology, reproductive health, critical care, endoscopy, and otolaryngology/ head and neck surgery specialties.
“Working together across these six specialties of medicine will allow us to share technologies more efficiently and develop new, innovative products that will continue to make a difference in the lives of patients,” said Sirota. “That is the reason I have been with Cook for over 30 years, because our goal is to do what is best for our customers and ultimately their patients.”
Sirota came to Cook out of college as part of an initiative by Bill Cook to place Indiana University students at the company. He, along with four others from that group who started on the same day in 1987, remain with the company. Sirota spent his first 12 years as a district manager in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Since then, he has served as a marketing manager, product manager, senior global product manager, division leader and, most recently, as vice president and global business unit leader for critical care and interventional radiology.
“Mark and DJ both started their careers at Cook in the field working directly with physicians. Their wide-ranging experience at Cook has prepared them for these positions,” said Pete Yonkman, president of Cook Group and Cook Medical. “They are the right people to lead the divisions because they have the passion, experience and drive to serve physicians and their patients.”
