SI-Bone has announced the expansion of its European operations with the formation of a GmbH and the appointment of Eric Schaber as general manager, Germany. Schaber will join former Kyphon colleague Andrea Mercanti, currently vice president of Europe, Middle East and Asia operations at SI-Bone to expand the sales organisation in Germany. The new GmbH will be headquartered in Mannheim, Germany and will strengthen the company’s presence in Europe by adding a second European office in addition to SI-Bone current European headquarters in Gallarate, Italy.
Schaber will lead the German strategy and build a significant German sales team to support SI-Bone’s customers. He brings to SI-Bone more than 23 years of international sales and marketing experience in the medical device, trauma and orthopaedic spine markets. Most recently, he served as vice president of European operations and managing director for Dfine where, in 2008, he started and led its European and international operations for nearly six years and grew the German operation to 43 people. During his tenure at Dfine, he introduced and established its minimally invasive spinal therapies business in Germany and expanded their international presence throughout Europe, Latin America and Asia.
Before joining Dfine Schaber held several sales management positions at Kyphon including vice president of international commercial operations, where he was responsible for establishing Kyphon’s balloon kyphoplasty business in Germany, which grew to more than $83M in annual revenue.
“We are extremely excited to have Eric join our European team and I am looking forward to the opportunity to work with Eric again to grow our business in Germany. Eric’s knowledge of the spine business and his experience developing new markets and delivering cutting edge minimally invasive surgery technologies in Germany and Europe will be a significant addition to our team,” said Andrea Mercanti, vice president of Europe, Middle East and Africa at SI-Bone.
