FH Orthopedics Names New U.S. Operations Head

FH Orthopedics Inc. has appointed a new managing director of U.S. operations.

Jim Hook of Garner, N.C., has four decades of experience in the medical supply, instrument and device industry. He joined the company from Small Bone Innovations Inc., where he served as senior vice president of North American sales.

Prior to that, Hook served as general manager of French extremity specialist Tornier Inc., (he was based in Stafford, Texas). While at Tornier, Hook helped increase sales more than eight-fold while margins increased 5 percent, FHOrthopedics said. In 2006, the French owner sold the global operations to a U.S. group of investors who added additional companies to the Tornier-based business. Hook was directly responsible for leading the integration of the sales, marketing, finance, and operations of two acquisitions over a six-month period in 2007.

“Jim is a great addition to our expanding team and he will be able to bring FH Orthopedics to the next level,” Eric Hermann, for whom Hook will take over, said in a company news release. “It’s an honor to pass the torch to such an accomplished professional.”

Hook has a bachelor’s degree in environmental biology from Furman University in Greenville, S.C., and a master’s degree in vertebrate zoology from the University of Denver in Colorado. He also completed the Graduate Management Program at Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

While FH is not as well-known as some of its more established competitors, Hook said the company has a unique line of products in the sports medicine field, such as the Arrow Universal Shoulder System and the CoLS Knee Ligament Repair, which he expects will become competitive once surgeons learn more about them.

“The keys to our success at FH will be to improve our sales and distribution strategy to ensure we have a high-caliber, high-service staff with in-depth product knowledge and that can present the product and support it in surgery while also educating the surgeon about advancements in techniques,” Hook said in the company news release. “I’m excited to be working with a company with existing and established surgical products like the FH Arrow product.”