By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
BOSTON (Reuters) – NextGen Healthcare Inc said on Monday it has hired healthcare information technology veteran David Sides as its chief executive officer, three months after his predecessor left.
Sides joins the Atlanta-headquartered developer and marketer of healthcare information systems from Teladoc Health Inc, a telemedicine and virtual healthcare company, where he was chief operating officer and has worked since 2019. He will start this week and will also hold the title of president.
The appointment comes as NextGen, valued at $1 billion, is in the late stages of a bitter proxy contest where the board is facing off against the company’s founder.
Earlier in his career, Sides spent 17 years at health information technology services supplier Cerner where he was senior vice president for worldwide consulting.
NextGen’s board chairman Jeffrey Margolis said in a statement that Sides was an “ideal” candidate and the company now has a “powerhouse management team that defines what leadership should look like: continuing stability in operations and customer delivery, upgraded strategic industry knowledge, and a seasoned and experienced leader as CEO.”
Sides replaces Rusty Frantz, who left in late June after six years as NextGen’s CEO and president.
Sides will run for a seat on the company’s board, joining NextGen’s slate of nine candidates.
Shareholders will vote on Oct. 13, electing either the company’s nominees or company founder Sheldon Razin’s four nominees. Razin, who has been a director since 1974, is not on the company’s slate of nominees.
Razin has criticized NextGen’s poor financial returns. Since January, NextGen’s stock price has dropped 16.17% to close trading at $15.29 on Friday. The NASDAQ Composite Index has gained 16.73% during the same time.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Karishma Singh)
