The board of directors at Orthovita Inc., based in Malvern, Pa., has appointed William Tidmore as chairman, following the resignation of David Fitzgerald from that post.

Tidmore has served as a member of Orthovita’s board of directors since 2007 and has more than 20 years of experience in the spine and orthopedic industry.

He has served as president and chairman of orthopedic device manufacturer DePuy Acromed, which is based in Raynham, Mass., and is a division of Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy unit (acquired by J&J in 1999).

Tidmore, who later became presidnent of the entire DePuy unit, which is headquartered in Warsaw, Ind., also held other various senior management positions at the company during his more than 14-year tenure, including leadership roles for international businesses with operational responsibilities across Europe, Latin America, Japan and Canada. Prior to that, Tidmore held several management positions at Somerville, N.J.-based Ethicon Inc., another medical device company owned by Johnson & Johnson.

Fitzgerald, who had served as Orthovita’s board chairman since 2003, resigned after being named acting president and CEO of surgical instrument manufacturer ArthroCare Corp., based in Austin, Texas.

“Dave has been an outstanding chairman at Orthovita who has played an important role in the company’s success throughout the years,” said Antony Koblish, Orthovita’s president and CEO. “Under his guidance, Orthovita significantly increased sales, completed several key equity and debt financings, acquired marketing rights for two homeostasis products and made substantial progress in product development.”

Orthovita is an orthobiologics and biosurgery company that develops and markets medical implants.

Linares Medical Devices Adds Spine Surgeon

Linares Medical Devices, based in Auburn Hills, Mich., has added orthopedic spine surgeon Dr. Richard Easton to its research and development team.

Easton has served as chief of spine surgery at the Henry Ford Hospital Center for Athletic Medicine in Detroit, Mich., and most recently was director of the Div-ision of Spine Sur-gery at William Beaumont Hospit-al in Troy, Mich.

He was named to the Detroit Hour magazine list of “Top Docs” for 2008 and is board certified by the Amer-ican Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

Linares Medical Devices specializes in the development of lightweight and radiolucent plastic-based orthopedic hardware.