Breg, Inc., a provider of sports medicine and nonsurgical orthopedic products, has named Stuart M. Essig, 50, former chief executive of Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corporation, to the position of chairman of the board. Essig retired from Integra earlier this year. The appointment of Essig is Breg’s first outside board appointment since Water Street Healthcare Partners, a strategic private equity firm focused exclusively on the health care industry, invested in Breg last month.
“We are thrilled to have an executive of Stuart’s caliber and experiences join our board, ” said Breg’s President Brad Lee. “Together with Water Street, we plan to expand Breg to play a greater role in advancing the growing area of nonsurgical orthopedic care. Stuart’s expertise in the medical products sector and his experience growing Integra into a global leader will be extremely beneficial to our management team as we embark on a strategy to broaden Breg’s portfolio of products and value-added services.”
During his 14-year tenure as Integra’s CEO, Essig transformed the company from a single-technology organization with $15 million in annual revenues to a global surgical products company with more than $780 million revenues in 2011. Prior to Integra, Essig served as managing director of health care for Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions for medical device, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. He currently serves as non-executive chairman of Integra LifeSciences and is a board member of St. Jude Medical Corporation. He previously was a director of Zimmer Holdings, Inc., and a member of the executive committee and treasurer of the Advanced Medical Technology Association.
Breg, founded in 1989, is based in Carlsbad, California, and is a company of Water Street Healthcare Partners, a strategic private equity firm focused exclusively on health care.
