Ex-STAAR Surgical CEO David Bailey Rejoins as Chief Commercial Officer

STAAR Surgical has appointed David Bailey, who served as the company’s CEO from 2001 to 2008, as its next chief commercial officer.

In addition to the chief executive role, Bailey served as the Lake Forest, Calif.-based phakic IOL company’s president of International Operations from 2008 to 2011.

When he assumed the role, STAAR had a broad portfolio but limited commercial reach. Over the next decade, he raised over $60 million, shifted the business toward phakic IOL-based refractive surgery, secured FDA approval for the ICL in 2005, and led launches across China, South Korea, and Asia.

Bailey also helped acquire STAAR’s longtime Canon joint venture in Japan, gaining exclusive global control of its patents and proprietary technology. By the end of his tenure in 2021, international revenue accounted for 74% of STAAR’s total, while ICL revenue reached about $32 million. Today, that figure has grown more than tenfold.

After STAAR, he was CEO of Sensimed and Medicem’s U.S. women’s health business. He founded and leads Swiss strategic advisory firm DB Consulting. Earlier, he held senior roles at CIBA Vision, Bausch & Lomb, Chiron Vision, and Johnson & Johnson’s IOLAB division.

Last week, the company announced it had hired Align Technology executive Dr. Ben Park as its new chief technology officer.

Comments from STAAR Surgical execs

CEO Warren Foust: “David Bailey doesn’t just know STAAR, he helped change the trajectory of the entire phakic IOL category. As our former President and CEO, he launched commercialization of the ICL across Asia and championed development of the central port, the innovation that eliminated the need for a peripheral iridotomy and removed the single greatest barrier to phakic IOL adoption. These decisions helped set in motion what we are seeing today: EVO ICL gaining share from laser procedures, which are now stagnating or declining globally. David understands better than almost anyone what STAAR’s technology is capable of, and what it will take to realize its full commercial potential. His return significantly strengthens our ability to execute on one of our three core strategic pillars—Revenue Growth—and to accelerate the innovation roadmap that will further widen our advantages over laser-based alternatives.”

Bailey: “The opportunity in front of STAAR is as compelling as any I’ve seen in this industry. EVO ICL offers something laser procedures simply cannot, providing a removable, reversible solution that preserves the natural cornea, addresses a broad spectrum of myopia and astigmatism, and sets the standard for outstanding outcomes. Laser refractive volumes are declining in every major market, and lens-based surgery is gaining ground wherever surgeons and patients understand the alternative.

What makes this opportunity durable is the material at its core. Collamer is a one-of-a-kind biocompatible platform that competitors have spent decades attempting to replicate. No one has succeeded. That proprietary foundation gives EVO ICL barriers to competition that are rare in this industry, and it is precisely why the value creation opportunity ahead remains as significant as it does. 

The growth runway ahead is remarkable, not only in established markets like China, Japan, and the U.S., but across the large and largely untapped populations of South and Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa. And we are not standing still; our innovation roadmap has two clear objectives: first, to further expand our clinical and technical advantages over laser technologies that are, by comparison, largely static; and second, to open entirely new markets and patient populations that ICL has not yet fully reached. Both are sizeable growth drivers, and both are well underway. I’m coming back to STAAR because I believe we are at an inflection point, and that EVO ICL, powered by Collamer, is positioned to become the undisputed standard of care in refractive surgery.”