Dentsply Sirona (Nasdaq:XRAY) announced that it parted ways with its chief accounting officer and has named a replacement.
Charlotte, North Carolina–based Dentsply and Ranjit S. Chadha agreed upon a separation between the two parties last week. The separation will be made effective Sept. 2, while the company yesterday hired Richard M. Wagner to serve as chief accounting officer and as the principal accounting officer for purposes of SEC filings, effective Aug. 15.
Until the termination date, Chadha will be an inactive employee but is expected to remain available for executive transition requests. Until Wagner’s start date, interim CFO Barbara W. Bodem will serve in the additional role of principal accounting officer, according to a news release.
The latest move from Dentsply comes amid a series of changes at the company surrounding its board’s audit committee’s continued work with independent counsel and advisors to investigate potentially questionable financial practices.
A May 10 SEC filing — which first made the internal investigation public — said that the investigation is focused on the company’s use of incentives to sell products to distributors during the third and fourth quarters of 2021 and whether the incentives and sales impact were adequately accounted for and disclosed in SEC filings.
The board’s audit committee is also looking into whether present and former members of the senior management used the incentives and other actions to achieve executive compensation targets.
Dentsply’s investigation was made public only weeks after it removed CEO Don Casey from the corner office. Previous CFO Jorge Gomez, who had taken up the same role at Moderna, left his new position at his new company shortly after. John Groetelaars, who was CEO of Hillrom until its acquisition by Baxter late last year, is serving as interim CEO while a search is underway for a permanent replacement.
Wagner had served under Groetelaars at Hillrom as chief accounting officer, VP and corporate controller since 2018. He was previously VP and controller for lighting at Cree. He has history with Dentsply as well, having served as VP and corporate controller from 2011 through and following its merger with Sirona Dental Systems until 2017.
Bodem, the interim CFO, was also at Hillrom before the Baxter acquisition.