Sequenom names Maier as interim CFO

Sequenom names Paul Maier as interim CFO, filling another top spot after mass exec firings

• On 7:09 am EDT, Tuesday October 27, 2009

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Genetic analysis test maker Sequenom Inc. has named Paul V. Maier as interim chief financial officer, filling another top position in the wake of multiple senior management firings earlier this fall.

Maier, who has been an independent financial consultant since February 2007, takes the job effective Nov. 10 from board member Ronald Lindsay, 61, who has been serving as interim CFO.

Maier will act as a consultant to the company over the next two weeks, and will report to interim CEO and Chairman Harry F. Hixson, Jr., 71.

The new interim CFO served for many years as CFO of Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. and also previously worked at ICN Pharmaceuticals.

The company in late September terminated its CEO and other senior leaders after a five-month internal investigation stemming from an April discovery that study data and results for its SEQureDx Down syndrome blood test could not be relied upon because of "employee mishandling." Sequenom fired President and CEO Harry Stylli, research chief Elizabeth Dragon and three lower-ranking employees. CFO Paul Hawran and one other executive resigned a week before the firings.

The company has been in contact with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nasdaq Stock Exchange and a U.S. attorney in California over the matter. The company has said no deliberate wrongdoing was discovered, but that some employees were not adequately supervised.

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