Cepheid Welcomes Executive Vice President Of North American Commercial Operations

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Cepheid (Nasdaq: CPHD) today announced that it has appointed Mr. James ('Jim') Post to the position of Executive Vice President of North American Commercial Operations, effective immediately.

Mr. Post joins Cepheid from Alere, Inc., where he most recently served as Global President of Acute Care, with overall responsibility for global sales of multiple hundreds of millions of dollars.  In this capacity, he was responsible for sales and marketing in North America, in addition to product development, marketing and finance for the global hospital business.  In total, Mr. Post spent ten years at Alere and its predecessor companies Inverness Medical and Biosite.  Prior to Alere, Mr. Post spent approximately ten years at the United States Surgical Corporation in a variety of sales and marketing positions, including Vice President of Sales.

"Jim brings almost 20 years of performance-oriented medical technology sales leadership to Cepheid, with a wealth of experience spanning hospital and point-of care diagnostics," said John Bishop, Cepheid's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.  "Given the largest installed base of any molecular platform in the US, and the unique potential to reach both the largest laboratories and the most disseminated testing locations, I am particularly pleased to welcome Jim to the Cepheid team.  I feel confident that Jim is the right leader to extend our placement lead and drive continued adoption of our rapidly growing Xpert® test menu."

In connection with his employment, the Compensation Committee of Cepheid's Board of Directors has granted Mr. Post an option to purchase 100,000 shares of Cepheid common stock at the closing price of Cepheid common stock on Mr. Post's commencement date and restricted stock units in respect of 8,333 shares of Cepheid common stock.  The option will become exercisable by Mr. Post over four years, with 25% vesting on the one-year anniversary of grant and ratably monthly thereafter, so long as Mr. Post continues to be employed or provide services to Cepheid, and will expire after seven years from the grant date.  The restricted stock units will vest over four years, with 25% vesting on the one-year anniversary of the grant and as to an additional 1/16^th of the restricted stock units at the end of each three-month period thereafter, so long as Mr. Post continues to be employed or provide services to Cepheid.  The option and restricted stock units were granted as inducement grants pursuant to Section 5635(c)(4) of the NASDAQ Stock Market Rules.

About Cepheid

Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., Cepheid (Nasdaq: CPHD) is a leading molecular diagnostics company that is dedicated to improving healthcare by developing, manufacturing, and marketing accurate yet easy to use molecular systems and tests. By automating highly complex and time-consuming manual procedures, the company's solutions deliver a better way for institutions of any size to access the full power of molecular diagnostics. The company's systems enable rapid, sophisticated testing solutions for infectious diseases, oncology, and genetic conditions by automating otherwise complex manual laboratory procedures. Through its strong molecular biology capabilities, the company is focusing on those applications where accurate, rapid, and actionable test results are needed most, such as managing infectious diseases and cancer. For more information, visit www.cepheid.com.

SOURCE Cepheid