J. Randall Nelson has been named corporate vice president and president of the North America region for Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine, California). Nelson previously was chairman of the board, president and CEO of Equidyne. Edwards Lifesciences develops treatments for late-stage cardiovascular disease, including tissue replacement heart valves and heart valve repair products.

John Hampilos has been appointed vice president of marketing for Kos Pharmaceuticals (Miami, Florida). Hampilos joins Kos following a 13-year career at Bristol-Myers Squibb in a variety of sales and marketing management positions, in which he had specific experience in launching products in the cholesterol area. Kos is a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in developing and commercializing prescription pharmaceutical products, primarily for the treatment of chronic cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

Metracor Technologies (San Diego, California) said it has appointed a new management team in preparation for the commercialization of RODA (Real-Time Oxygen Dynamics Analysis), a cardiovascular and oxygenation monitoring device for which a 510(k) marketing application has been submitted to the FDA. Harold DeLong has been named president and CEO, and L. John Wilkerson, PhD, a general partner at Galen Partners, has been elected chairman of the board of Metracor. DeLong formerly was responsible for business development and licensing functions at Alliance Pharmaceutical. Metracor distributes surgical and intensive care patient monitoring systems based on electrochemical sensor technology.

As part of a reorganization of its sales and international organizations, St. Jude Medical (SJM; St. Paul, Minnesota) has named Patrick Rousseau president of U.S. sales, Joseph McCullough president of St. Jude Medical International and George Fazio president of St. Jude Medical Europe. St. Jude previously has operated separate divisional sales organizations in the U.S. for its cardiac rhythm management, cardiac surgery, and cardiology and vascular access products, but the reorganization centralizes all domestic sales activities under Rousseau. He previously was president, U.S. sales, and senior vice president, global marketing, for the firm's Cardiac Rhythm Management Division. McCullough, who previously was senior vice president of Cardiac Rhythm Management Europe, now will have responsibility for all non-U.S. sales activities. Fazio, previously president, health care services at St. Jude, assumes responsibility for the sale of all SJM products in Europe, reporting to McCullough.