Tony Fitzgerald has resigned as executive chairman of Nedlands-based opthalmic specialty company Advanced Ocular Systems, as a part of further restructuring to the company board and operating procedures.
Mr Fitzgerald, who is also managing director of Resonance Health and a non-executive director of RiTract Ltd, will continue as a consultant to the company until January 31 next year, and as interim chairman until a replacement is appointed.
In his place, the company has appointed Simon Carroll as managing director and chief executive. Having previously served as the company's chief scientific officer, Dr Carrol is a former senior executive of the CSIRO and director of the Western Australian Biomedical Research Insitiute. He is also the current chairman of Ausbiotech Ltd.
Fellow board members Steve Newman and Finian MacCana will remain on the board as independent directors, with Mr MacCana indicating his intention to resign following successful implementation of the restructuring process.
In an announcement to the stock exchange, the company said it had been working to reduce its cash flow expenditure without compromising research and development activities and development of intellectual property.
Earlier this month AOS placed $1.25 million worth of convertible notes on the ASX to secure further working capital, buoyed by the success of a previous $2.75 million notes issue which had been in strong demand.
The restructure comes after AOS was forced to close its corporate headquarters near Boston, announced on June 30, and one year after the merger of Regenera and AOS, which was designed to create an international business specialising in opthalmic devices.
