IlluminOss taps Kuyper as president and CEO

INDUSTRY VETERAN DIRK M. Kuyper took over the helm at IlluminOss Medical Inc. on Monday, the company announced Tuesday.
INDUSTRY VETERAN DIRK M. Kuyper took over the helm at IlluminOss Medical Inc. on Monday, the company announced Tuesday.

EAST PROVIDENCE – IlluminOss Medical Inc. has named Dirk M. Kuyper its new president and CEO effective Monday. Kuyper is taking over for Scott Rader, whose position with the company ended in late October, the company announced Tuesday.

IlluminOss Founder Robert Rabiner, who started the company in 2007 to develop new technology for healing fractures, has been acting as the company’s interim chief since Rader’s dismissal.

In October, Rader told Providence Business News that the board wanted to bring in a CEO with more sales and marketing experience as the company transitions from a purely clinical phase towards the commercial rollout of medical devices.

According to an IlluminOss release, Kuyper has had a “long and successful career in medical device companies.” Most recently, he served as president and CEO of Alphatec Spine. Prior to that, he spent 17 years at Aesculap Inc., a subsidiary of B. Braun Medical Inc., where he rose from a regional sales manager to president.

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“Dirk Kuyper is the ideal person to move the company into the commercialization phase of our life cycle,” Rabiner said in prepared remarks. “I look forward to working closely with him to implement market acceptance and distribution of our innovative products while I focus on further development of our technology.”

Kuyper is expected to initiate IlluminOss’ commercial activities in Europe for the company’s bone stabilization system and to lead the company’s system through regulatory approval in the U.S. market.

“The technology Bob Rabiner and his team have developed has the potential to change the standard of care in fracture management,” said Kuyper in a statement. “I am excited about being part of the team and leveraging my global commercialization background to help build IlluminOss into a leading company in the fracture fixation marketplace.”

IlluminOss’ system creates internal bone support and alignment systems and use expandable balloon catheters and photodynamic polymer systems to provide stabilization, cosmesis and flexible surgical approaches.

IlluminOss raised $28 million in a Series C financing round in the fall that included the Slater Technology Fund. The financing round was led by two new investors in IlluminOss, Tekla Capital Management (formerly Hambrecht and Quist Capital Management) of Boston and Life Sciences Partners of Boston.

Before this latest investment, IlluminOss had raised $22 million in venture capital funding.

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