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Topline
After two years with the vaccine-maker, Moderna’s David Meline will step down as finance chief and retire from the company this summer, but he’ll stay on as a consultant for another two years in a move that will help him reap the full benefits of stock awards set to fully vest by 2024, the company disclosed Monday, also revealing it has enlisted another healthcare veteran as a replacement.
Though he’ll retire from the company this summer, Meline has agreed to offer up consulting services … [+] to Moderna for the next two years. SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Key Facts
On Monday, Moderna announced Meline would retire as the company’s chief financial officer on May 9 but remain on board as a consultant until July 2024.
Moderna said it has tapped longtime healthcare executive Jorge Gomez, an executive vice president at Nasdaq-listed dental equipment firm Dentsply Sirona, as a replacement; Gomez is set to start on May 9.
Meline retired from a five-year stint as the finance chief at biopharmaceutical firm Amgen at the end of 2019, but quickly exited retirement in the spring of 2020 to help Moderna prepare for the commercialization of its Covid-19 vaccine.
In a regulatory filing, Moderna, which did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment, disclosed Meline’s consulting services would allow more than 270,000 stock options awarded to him in July 2020 to fully vest; the options, vesting in quarterly installments, are set to expire in July 2024 and underpin about $42 million worth of stock on Monday, nearly triple their original value.
Gomez has also landed a hefty compensation package, picking up a $700,000 base salary (compared to Meline’s $621,000 last year), $4 million new hire stock package and future annual awards between $3 million and $4 million, Moderna said.
The c-level shakeup comes after a dismal stretch for Moderna stock, which has tumbled 67% from a record high in August despite record-breaking profits last quarter; shares were down 1% Monday to about $159.
Crucial Quote
“Moderna was an early stage, U.S.-focused company when David joined us,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel, who’s worth an estimated $5.2 billion, said in a Monday statement, thanking Meline and adding: “He goes back into retirement after having helped transform Moderna into a global commercial company.”
Big Number
$18.5 billion. That’s how much revenue Moderna reported for last year after delivering some 807 million vaccine doses worldwide, skyrocketing from $803 million in 2020.
Key Background
Founded in 2010, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna spent nearly a decade developing the technology for its messenger RNA vaccines, which trigger an immune response by telling the body to produce part of a pathogen (unlike traditional vaccines that instead use a piece of the pathogen). Once the pandemic hit, the company doubled down on the efforts and filed for an emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine in November 2020. The shots have proven to be a massive boon for businesses heading up their development, but Moderna shares have struggled amid waning infection rates, which have prompted critics to question whether or not sales of Covid-19 vaccines alone will prove a viable revenue stream in years to come.
Further Reading
Moderna Stock Plunges Despite ‘Vaccine Day’ Touting 31 New Shots And $21 Billion In Sales—Here’s Why (Forbes)
Financial Services
