CLRT Clarient, Inc. (MM)

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., May 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Clarient, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLRT), a premier anatomic pathology and molecular testing services resource for pathologists, oncologists and the pharmaceutical industry, today announced that, effective June 5th, veteran financial executive Raymond J. Land, 63, will join Clarient as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Land has more than 15 years experience as a public company CFO in life sciences and related businesses and more than 30 years experience in financial and general management positions. Land, who spent the last year as CFO of Safeguard Scientifics, replaces James Agnello, who resigned the CFO position earlier this month. Commenting on Mr. Land's appointment, Clarient CEO Ron Andrews said, "I would like to welcome Ray to the Clarient team. Clearly, Ray has the experience and knowledge base to have an immediate impact on Clarient's financial processes as we continue to develop and improve the necessary finance and accounting systems to support our rapid growth. Ray's experience on Wall Street combined with his knowledge of SEC and Sarbanes Oxley reporting requirements make him an excellent addition to our leadership team. His experience in strategic planning and M&A in the genomics space brings an added opportunity for contribution as we assess a number of strategic opportunities to augment our current growth trajectory." Continuing, Andrews stated, "This is a natural transition given Safeguard's business model of hiring executives with operational experience to fill roles in partner companies as they become available. As CFO at Safeguard, Ray has been working with Clarient for almost a year now so he has a solid understanding of our business and therefore was an obvious candidate to fill our open CFO role." Mr. Land has more than 30 years of experience in financial positions where he had responsibility for the accounting, treasury, tax, investor relations, information technology and strategic planning functions. From 2006 to 2007, Mr. Land served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Medcenter Solutions, Inc., a global pharmaceutical marketing company specializing in online solutions. From 2005 until 2006, Mr. Land served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Orchid Cellmark Inc., a DNA testing service provider that generates genetic profile information by analyzing an organism's unique genetic identity. From 1997 until 2005, Mr. Land was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NASDAQ-traded Genencor International, Inc., a global diversified genomics and proteomics company that went public during his tenure and was acquired in a $1.2 billion transaction in 2005. From 1991 to 1996, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for publicly traded West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. Previously, Mr. Land was with Campbell Soup Company, Inc. where for nine years he held increasingly senior financial positions, including Vice President-Corporate Controller. Prior to joining Campbell Soup, he was with Coopers and Lybrand for nine years. Mr. Land is a Certified Public Accountant and has a BBA degree in accounting and finance from Temple University. Mr. Land serves on the board of Anika Therapeutics, Inc., as Chairperson of the Audit Committee. He is married and will relocate with his wife, Kathleen, to Southern California from his current home in the greater Philadelphia area. About Clarient Clarient combines innovative technologies with world class expertise to assess and characterize cancer. Clarient's mission is to provide the services, resources and critical information to improve the quality and reduce the cost of patient care as well as accelerating the drug development process. The Company's principal customers include pathologists, oncologists, hospitals and biopharmaceutical companies. The rise of individualized medicine as the new direction in oncology has created the need for a centralized resource providing leading diagnostic technologies such as flow cytometry and molecular testing. Clarient is that resource, having created a state-of-the-art commercial cancer laboratory providing the most advanced oncology testing and drug development services available both onsite and over the web. Clarient is a Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. partner company. http://www.clarientinc.com/ About Safeguard Founded in 1953 and based in Wayne, PA, Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE:SFE) provides growth capital for entrepreneurial and innovative technology and life sciences companies. Safeguard targets technology companies in Software as a Service (SaaS), Technology-Enabled Services and Internet-based Businesses, and life sciences companies in Molecular and Point-of-Care Diagnostics, Medical Devices and Specialty Pharmaceuticals with capital requirements between $5 and $50 million. Safeguard participates in expansion financings, corporate spin-outs, management buyouts, recapitalizations, industry consolidations and early-stage financings. http://www.safeguard.com/ Forward-Looking Statements The statements herein regarding Clarient, Inc. contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainty. Future events and the Company's actual results could differ materially from the results reflected in these forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to: the Company's ability to hire and transition to a new Chief Financial Officer, the Company's ability to continue to develop and expand its diagnostic services business, the Company's ability to expand and maintain a successful sales and marketing organization, the Company's ability to maintain compliance with financial and other covenants under its credit facilities, the effects of a going concern audit opinion on the Company's operations, the Company's ability to successfully transition its billing function in-house from a third party vendor, the Company's ability to successfully complete a joint development agreement with Zeiss for the development of novel diagnostic tests, whether the conditions to payment of all or any portion of the contingent consideration from the Company's sale of its instrument systems business to Zeiss are satisfied, the Company's ability to remediate the material weaknesses in the Company's internal control over financial reporting, the Company's ability to successfully transition its customer billings from a third party billing vendor to an in-house billing system, the continuation of favorable third party payer reimbursement for laboratory tests, the Company's ability to obtain additional financing on acceptable terms or at all, unanticipated expenses or liabilities or other adverse events affecting cash flow, uncertainty of success in identifying and developing new diagnostic tests or novel markers, the Company's ability to fund development of new diagnostic tests and novel markers and the amount of resources the Company determines to apply to novel marker development and commercialization, the Company's ability to obtain additional financing if required on favorable terms or at all, failure to obtain FDA clearance or approval for particular applications, the Company's ability to compete with other technologies and with emerging competitors in novel cancer diagnostics and dependence on third parties for collaboration in developing new tests, and risks detailed from time to time in the Company's SEC reports, including quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, reports on Form 8-K and annual reports on Form 10-K. Recent experience with respect to laboratory services, revenues and results of operations may not be indicative of future results for the reasons set forth above. In addition, the financial results described herein are preliminary and subject to adjustment as the Company finalizes its review of its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2008. The Company's financial statements for the quarter ended March 31, 2008 (including any such adjustments, if any) will be included in the Company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2008 to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements or other information contained in this document. Contact: Matt Clawson Allen & Caron Inc (949) 474-4300 DATASOURCE: Clarient, Inc. CONTACT: Matt Clawson of Allen & Caron Inc, +1-949-474-4300, , for Clarient, Inc. Web site: http://www.clarientinc.com/ http://www.safeguard.com/

Copyright