• Donald Wood has been named VP of operations for Abaxis (Union City, California), a manufacturer of portable blood analysis systems. Wood most recently served as VP of operations at Cholestech.

• Wayne McDougall has been named VP and corporate controller of AngioDynamics (Queensbury, New York). McDougall previously spent 10 years in the finance organization of MapInfo. AngioDynamics makes devices used for the minimally invasive treatment of peripheral vascular disease and cancer.

• Scott Cramer has been named president/CEO of Bacchus Vascular (Santa Clara, California). Previously Cramer was senior VP of U.S. sales and account services for VNUS Medical Technologies. Additionally, Dennis Rosenberg was named VP of marketing at Bacchus. Most recently, Rosenberg was VP of marketing and international sales for VNUS. Bacchus makes devices used for the minimally invasive treatment of deep vein thrombosis and other peripheral vascular disease.

• Todd Wood has been named VP of operations and acting CFO for Biopure (Cambridge, Massachusetts). Wood has been a consultant to the company, serving as a director of business development. Bio-pure makes oxygen therapeutics.

• Michael West has been named CEO for BioTime (Emeryville, California). West has been on the BioTime board since 2002. Additionally, Robert Peabody was named senior VP and COO of the company. Peabody previously served as VP of grant administration for Advanced Cell Technology. BioTime makes blood plasma volume expanders, blood replacement solutions for hypothermic surgery, organ preservation solutions and technology for use in surgery, emergency trauma treatment and other applications.

• Scott Capps has been promoted to VP of clinical research of CryoLife (Atlanta). Capps has served as VP and general manager of CryoLife Europa since February 2005. David Hollinworth, PhD, will assume Capps' previous position at CryoLife Europa. Previously, Hollinworth was CEO of Chameleon Biosurfaces. CryoLife is a biomaterials, medical device and tissue processing company.

• Haemonetics (Braintree, Massachusetts) reported that Mikael Gordon has been named president of Haemonetics Europe with responsibility for European operations, including sales and marketing, services, finance and human resources. He will also join Haemonetics' global operating committee. Gordon will be based at the company's European headquarters in Signy, Switzerland. Most recently, Gordon was regional executive manager, North and West Europe for GE Healthcare Clinical Systems. Additionally, Keiko Hattori was named president of Haemonetics Japan (Tokyo). Hattori previously was president of Amersham Biosciences KK. Haemonetics makes blood management solutions.

• Sean McNerney has been named VP of sales for OmniSonics Medical Technologies (Wilmington, Massachusetts). McNerney most recently was VP of sales for the interventional products division of Datascope. OmniSonics makes products for used o treatment of vascular disease.

• Mike Gaul has been promoted to COO of SynCardia Systems (Tucson, Arizona). Gaul joined SynCardia as VP of operations in October. 2005. SynCardia makes the CardioWest temporary total artificial heart.

• Cindy Setum, PhD, has been named VP of clinical affairs for TopSpin Medical (Tel Aviv, Israel). Setum previously was VP of clinical and medical affairs at Possis Medical. TopSpin makes high-resolution MRI using an IntraVascular MRI catheter for the coronary arteries.

Ballester to head Sorin

André-Michel Ballester, president of the Cardiac Rhythm Management unit of the Sorin Group (Milan, Italy) since 2004, has been named CEO and a board member of the parent company.

Ballester was, from 2000 to 2004, corporate VP EMEA, Asia and Latin America, for Edwards Lifesciences. For more than 10 years prior to Edwards' spin-off from Baxter International, Ballester held several executive positions in Europe and the U.S. for that firm and was named president of the CardioVascular Group, Europe, in 1997.

Sorin Group Chairman Umberto Rosa, said," This internal choice recognizes unquestionable success. André-Michel will first focus on finalization of Sorin Group's new strategic plan, and actively start its implementation."

Fred Hrkac has been named president of the cardiac rhythm management (CRM) business unit of Sorin. Since 2005, Hrkac has been VP of global sales and marketing, of the Sorin Group's CRM business unit.

Sorin, a developer of medical technologies for cardiac surgery, has around 4,5axx0 public and private treatment centers in more than 80 countries.