Is Healthe looking for a new CEO again?

When sanitization and circadian lighting provider Healthe Inc. recently announced a UV-C installation at a Tennessee senior home, someone was curiously absent from the press release — Healthe’s new CEO.

The release provided a perfect opportunity for words from Gerard Meyer, who joined the Florida company on June 1, filling the top spot which had remained vacant since former CEO Khim Lee left last October.

Meyer, a branding specialist who had staked out a mission to raise awareness of UV-C and to establish a favorable public perception for the technology, might well have seized the moment to say how the far UV-C fittings would provide a healthier living environment at The Capstone at Station Camp in Gallatin, TN.

Instead, those thoughts came from Healthe chief commercial officer Troy Temple, who also suggested that Healthe might deploy the technology at other care homes operated by Integral Senior Living and owned by Kansas City real-estate firm Hunt Midwest.

It’s not entirely unusual for the CEO to skip out on such announcements by any company. But on this occasion, given Meyer’s fresh arrival and his focus on UV-C uptake, it seemed to us as though his voice should have been there.

So we sent Meyer an e-mail last week at his Healthe address to ask how he’s settling in. It bounced back as undeliverable.

Hmmmm.

Double hmmmm, because we cannot find any mention of him on the Healthe website.

We’ve also sent several inquiries to three different individuals at Healthe, requesting clarification and an update on Meyer’s status at the company.

None of those people had responded to us by the time this article posted.

We don’t know for certain that Meyer’s stay was short lived. But the signs point in that direction. We can imagine reasons why that would be the case, but we will refrain from speculating out loud, except to ruminate that perhaps there was a difference over company direction in terms of sanitization versus circadian. But we don’t know. There are other possibilities.

The press release regarding the UV-C installation did mention Healthe founder and chief science officer Fred Maxik, who has a long history in circadian lighting. During the 8 months after Lee’s departure and before Meyer’s arrival, Maxik was part of a management committee that was running the company in lieu of a CEO.

Perhaps that committee is back in action.

The mystery of the CEO is unfolding amid legal action between privately-held, Orlando-based Healthe and Far-UV Sterilray of Somersworth, NH, over patent rights to far UV-C technology.

MARK HALPER is a contributing editor for LEDs Magazine, and an energy, technology, and business journalist ([email protected]).

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