- Push-out Score determined
- After around eight years in the position
- Praise and thanks for Coe
- Kim Popovits taking over temporarily
- Search for a successor
(exechange) — Menlo Park, California, August 31, 2021 — Brian Coe, chief executive of Talis, leaves. As announced by Talis Biomedical Corp. in a news release published on Monday, August 30, 2021, and in a regulatory filing published on Tuesday, August 31, 2021, Brian Coe leaves his post as chief executive officer at the developer of a molecular diagnostic platform, after around eight years in the role, effective immediately.
Talis will undertake a search for a successor.
Brian Coe’s duties as CEO will be taken over temporarily by Kimberly J. (Kim) Popovits, a former Chief Executive Officer at Genomic Health, as Interim Chief Executive Officer.
Already a director
Popovits is already a director of Talis. Generally speaking, most director-turned-CEO appointments occur following a sudden resignation of the outgoing CEO and signal a lack of preparedness on the company’s part to groom internal talent. Directors-turned-executives represent a blend of outsider and insider.
They don’t have the constraints of a pure insider when it comes to leading painful changes or making unpopular decisions, and they have more company knowledge than a pure outsider.
Having been a director, Popovits understands the expectations and dynamics of the board and has knowledge of Talis’s organization, risk-management practices and strategy.
“Expertise in building and scaling global organizations for growth”
Talis did not give an explicit reason for Brian Coe’s departure from the CEO post. Felix Baker, chairman of the board of Talis, said: “Kim’s operational leadership and expertise in building and scaling global organizations for growth is ideally suited to lead Talis through this important period.”
Precise information regarding Brian Coe’s future plans was not immediately available.
“Stepped down/resigned”
Talis said: “[E]ffective immediately Brian Coe has stepped down as President, CEO and Director and will continue to work with the company as an advisor.”
Talis further said: “On August 30, 2021 (the “Effective Date”), Talis Biomedical Corporation (the “Company”) announced that, effective as of the Effective Date, Brian Coe resigned from his position as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Company.”
Share price decline since March 2021
The announcement follows a decline in Talis Biomedical Corp.’s share price of 51% since March 2021.
In the position of CEO since 2013
Brian Coe became CEO of the Company in 2013.
Brian Coe is one of the Company’s co-founders and has served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Company’s board of directors since the Company’s reorganization into a corporate entity in June 2013.
From July 1995 until its acquisition by The Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp) in November 2006, Coe was the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Litholink Corporation, a CLIA laboratory focused on kidney stone disease.
From November 2006 to August 2012, Coe was employed by LabCorp, most recently as Senior Vice President.
Coe received a B.A. in Neuroscience and Psychology from Brandeis University and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.
Push-out Score determined
The Push-out Score™ determined by exechange gauges the pressure surrounding Brian Coe’s move on a scale of 0 to 10.
exechange reached out to Talis and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 36.2021 ($).