Baxter’s Interim CFO Anita Zielinski Departs for Cardinal Health

Baxter’s interim chief financial officer (CFO) and senior VP, chief accounting officer and controller Anita Zielinski will resign on September 15 in order to become the chief accounting officer of Cardinal Health, according to SEC filings issued by both companies.

Zielinski spent under two years at Baxter, becoming interim CFO in March following Joel Grade’s departure from the company in order to prioritize family matters. Before joining Baxter, she worked at Sysco Corporation, where she was most recently senior VP and CFO of U.S. Foodservice Operations, the company’s largest business segment. Before Sysco, Zielinski spent over two decades at Ernst & Young, including as an audit partner.

She succeeds Mary Scherer, who will support Zielinski in her role as chief accounting officer through November 5. Zielinski will begin her work at Cardinal Health on September 16.

According to Cardinal Health’s SEC filing, Ms. Zielinski will receive a $750,000 signing bonus and $1 million in restricted stock units vesting over three years, primarily to offset compensation forfeited from her former employer.

This announcement follows Baxter’s recently released Q2 earnings report. The Deerfield, Illinois-based company pocketed $2.96 billion of sales in Q2, growing 5% on a reported and organic basis.

Baxter also updated its segment reporting structure beginning in Q2 to consist of businesses Medical Products & Therapies and Healthcare Systems & Technologies. The former rose 7% in Q2 with $2.1 billion of sales, and the latter grew 4% to $801 million.