One of Rochester’s oldest and best-known companies is getting a new leader. And it’s a familiar name for Bausch + Lomb.
The company which has its corporate owner based in Canada, and still has key manufacturing operations on North Goodman St. in Rochester, has named Brent Saunders as the next CEO and Chairman, succeeding Joseph Papa, who announced last summer that he would step down from his roles as CEO and a member of the Board of Directors.
Saunders returns to B + L after having served as CEO from 2010 to 2013, and the company said on Wednesday that he has more than 25 years of leadership in health care companies.
Saunders assumes the new roles on March 6, but a statement from B + L said that to facilitate an orderly transition, Saunders will start work on Feb. 16 in an advisory capacity, where he will work closely with Papa.
Saunders said in a statement that he is confident in the company’s future and looks forward “to once again working alongside the more than 12,000 employees who live by and aspire to achieve the Bausch + Lomb mission of helping people see better to live better.”
The Wall St. Journal noted that Saunders rejoins B + L as that company is in the process of being spun out of a larger healthcare firm, Bausch Health Companies.
B + L has one of its main contact lens manufacturing operations in Rochester, where it employs about 1,200 people.
The company got its start in Rochester in 1853. While it is headquartered in Vaughn, Ontario Canada, it also has corporate offices in New Jersey.
