Boston Scientific names new CEO

The change at the top could signal a new direction for Boston Scientific, which has seen its share price plunge more than 75 percent over the past five years and is widely viewed as having overpaid in its $28.4 billion takeover of defibrillator maker Guidant Corp. in 2006.

With news of Elliott’s appointment, the shares climbed 49 cents, or 5.15 percent, to $10 yesterday.

Elliott, 59, a former Boston Scientific board member who most recently led the orthopedics company Zimmer Holdings Inc. in Warsaw, Ind., will take the helm in Natick on July 13. Yesterday, he said his “first 100 days’’ would be spent reexamining the company’s business plan, building up its sales capabilities, and weighing new markets.

While the company is best known for its heart devices, such as stents and implantable defibrillators, Elliott said Boston Scientific has the potential to expand in areas such as urology, gynecology, and neuromodulation, which regulates activity levels in the brain.

Boston Scientific will be open to making small acquisitions, Elliott said, but there is significant technology in its own research and development labs. “There’s a lot of technology here and there’s a lot of opportunities here, not only in the cardiology area,’’ Elliott said in an interview.

Elliott, a Canadian-born businessman who has also worked in Europe and Japan, said he would also seek to further increase overseas sales. And he said he would work to lift a “corporate warning letter’’ issued by the Food and Drug Administration in 2006 because Boston Scientific failed to properly file medical device reports and fulfill other filing requirements with the agency. “That’s one problem that needs to go away and stay away,’’ he told company investors in a teleconference.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, Boston Scientific said Elliott would receive a sign-on bonus of $1.5 million, an annual base salary of $1.2 million, and a target bonus incentive amounting to 120 percent of his base salary. It also listed other compensation, including stock options to purchase 3.4 million shares of company stock as well as 1 million deferred stock units.

The filing said Tobin will remain at the company through Nov. 30 as a senior adviser, continuing to be paid at his current annual base salary of $994,000. He is also eligible to receive a 2009 prorated bonus of up to 120 percent of his salary. Tobin is entitled to receive $3.2 million in severance when he retires, including the prorated bonus, according to the company’s 2009 proxy statement.

Larry Biegelsen, senior medical supplies and devices analyst for Wachovia Capital Markets in New York, said Elliott had a strong track record at Zimmer. But in a note to investors, he cautioned that “Elliott does not have strong experience in the cardiovascular area where [Boston Scientific] derives a majority of its sales.’’ Biegelsen added, however, that he did not view that as a major issue for the company.

Tobin, who will turn 65 this summer, told investors he was proud of his tenure at Boston Scientific, insisting the Guidant acquisition had better positioned it for growth. He also cited moves to cut costs, improve quality, and strengthen Boston Scientific’s product pipeline in recent years.

“I ask myself, ‘So, whose pipeline would I trade for?’ ’’ Tobin said. “And I can’t find anybody’s pipeline I’d rather have.’’

A year ago, in a reshuffling of management, chief operating officer Paul LaViolette, who had been seen as heir apparent to Tobin, said he was leaving. At the time, Boston Scientific said Tobin would remain with the company “for the foreseeable future.’’

But yesterday Tobin said: “I’ve been here now for 10 years. That’s enough. I believe, and have always believed, that 10 years is sort of a natural limit on how long a CEO can expect to be effective.’’

Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.