Why HK?

I don't understand HK as COO. If not due to actual incompetence and misconduct, why invite the optics?

1) Corporate Pillar: be a top quartile performer.

Via LinkedIn, Heather was Baxter President of Global Business Units and Americas (2019-2023), EVP/Group President of Medical Products and Therapies (2023 - Feb 2025), then COO Feb - Oct 2025.

Baxter stock went from $85 to $20 since 2020.

Whether accurate or not, in big roles you are judged on results, not what you do/say. It doesn't matter how intricately you lay out your strategy, vision or "playbook." If you don't grow the company, you fail. Why bring in a failure to lead Solventum?

2) Win with Excellence. Paraphrase of Bryan: "We want to win, but ethically. If you or a family member wouldn't use our product due to safety concerns, we'll do the right thing and pull it."

Just a year ago, Heather was celebrating the Novum IQ launch:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/heather-knight-2620084_novumiq-patientswin-activity-7186818979544346625-TafM/

Heather was boasting Novum sales growth in May 2025, even though recalls were happening a month later. They left the pumps on the market and chose to publish workarounds for hospitals instead.
https://www.medtechdive.com/news/baxter-recalls-novum-pump-one-injury/750127/

Now the pumps are pulled and we have a class action lawsuit citing Heather and Jose (Bryan's brother-in-law), listing 2 deaths and 79 injuries from the Novum platform:
https://rosenlegal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Baxter-International-Complaint-Upload.pdf

This rundown by a legal firm also suggests issues may have been known via their Canadian launch, which preceded the US launch.
https://zlk.com/learn/baxter-international-inc-bax-securities-class-action-lawsuit

The latest date in the lawsuit text is "September 2025" and web search results covering it start popping up in Oct 2025, so it seems coincidental to hire her in October.

So, of all the possible COO choices... why Heather? I don't get it. Even if we blame all of Baxter's stock issues on the CEO instead of HK, and say she had nothing to do with the pumps... as a new company looking to establish confidence in our next-in-command, I wouldn't touch her with a 10 foot pole. What am I missing?

#COO #Leadership #Ethics #Lawsuit

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6 replies (most recent on top)

@OP Do you think meals at the NTM will be buffet style with the destroyer at the helm??

I was at Baxter for 15 years before being laid off due to the awful business practices of Jose Almedia . Heather coming here is a harbinger of doom.

My ~1,800 shares of Baxter stock was worth ~150k now it's 30k if that.

The next 4 years will be very hard at this company with much change and confusion. They will probably try to spin another business unit off and cut more positions.

I wouldn't buy any stock at all until we get a true picture of what is going to happen here.

If you were a long time 3M employee hang on as long as you can in hopes of a good severance or seeing if things will straighten out.

I think Bryan lost some bet with brother-in-law CEO friend and the loser got stuck with the destroyer of buffets. It will cost a fortune just to keep her appetite for power and all other things satisfied.

Meanwhile still zero dividend and no stock price growth. The old saying: bad can always go to worse.

At least DoorDash is hiring around Eagan. Gotta keep those execs well fed on the corporate dime.

@az She was at Medtronic before Baxter, and Covidien before that. Is that it? Chris Barry is out, so fill the shoes with some other "bro from the past"?

By now I get that hiring in---t is rampant, but there's no other cousin to pick from who didn't tank a stock or oversee the recall of a death causing product?

Man solventum is a joke! When your customers tell you the name is horrible you know it’s time to go…Just quiet quit and get another job. Thats what I did..That company is going no where…

But hey with Hair plugs and the buffet destroyer as your fearless leaders maybe there is a chance..

I thought she was a crony of Bryan's (?)

Thread regarding Solventum layoffs

Why HK?

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