Health and Healthcare

Valeant Gains Momentum With New CFO Appointment

Chris Lange

Published: August 22, 2016 10:25 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 4:23 am

Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (NYSE: VRX) saw a handy gain in Monday’s session after the company announced that it has appointed a new chief financial officer (CFO). Considering the recent history of Valeant, it seems that most people would stay away from the job of overseeing the books of this company. However with the strides that it has made recently, the situation might not be as bad as once thought.

The company announced that Paul S. Herendeen has been appointed Executive Vice President, Finance and will take over the role of CFO from Robert L. Rosiello effective immediately. Rosiello will remain at Valeant as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy.

According to Valeant, Herendeen has over 30 years of broad financial experience and leadership, including 16 years as CFO of Warner Chilcott and MedPointe. He is joining Valeant from Zoetis, where he served as executive vice president and CFO for the past two years. As Valeant’s CFO, he will oversee all the company’s finance functions, including controllership, tax and treasury, reporting directly to CEO Joe Papa.

Papa commented on the appointment:

Paul is an accomplished and well respected financial executive, and we are delighted to welcome him to Valeant. His prior experience as a public company CFO, strong operational focus and disciplined approach to financial management make him the ideal choice to lead our finance function as we execute on our plans to stabilize and transform the company. As we move forward, Paul and the other members of the executive management team will play vital roles in shaping the new Valeant.

Herendeen added:

I am pleased to bring my experience and financial expertise to Valeant at this important point in its transformation, and I look forward to working with the leadership team and my finance colleagues to contribute to the company’s future success.

Valeant has vastly underperformed the broad markets in 2016, with the stock down about 70% year to date, and even down over 85% in the past 52 weeks. It seems a turnaround is taking place though, with the stock up about 17% in just the past month.

Shares of Valeant were up 5.6% at $30.35 Monday morning, with a consensus analyst price target of $44.39 and a 52-week trading range of $18.55 to $245.82.