Bentley hires ex-StockerYale CFO

Bentley Pharmaceuticals has hired former StockerYale Chief Financial Officer Richard Lindsay as its new CFO, the company announced Monday.

Lindsay will be replacing Michael Price, who resigned to pursue other opportunities closer to his new home and family in Florida.

Lindsay arrived at StockerYale in August 2004 several months after the company issued misleading press releases that led to a Securities and Exchange Commission and a class action lawsuit was filed against the company and its chief executive officer, Mark Blodgett. Blodgett eventually paid $900,000 to settle the SEC investigation. The class action suit is still ongoing. It had originally named Lindsay, but dropped him as a defendant in the amended complaint.

But it was a challenging time at StockerYale for other reasons. During his tenure, the company was in the middle of a cash shortage and its stock price was so low that it received two delisting warnings from the Nasdaq, though the shortage has since eased and the stock price bounced back each time before the delisting process went any further.

A Bentley spokesperson says company officials were aware of the suit, but that Lindsey informed them that he was “named inappropriately” and dropped from the complaint.

“We are very excited to have Richard join our senior management team,” said John Sedor, president of Bentley in a prepared release. “He has a proven track record in public companies managing global financial functions, operations and international business development functions.”

While Bentley has yet to disclose Lindsey’s salary, on Monday Lindsey was granted some 50,000 shares of stock options worth approximately $600,000, according to an SEC filing. The options are exercisable over the next three years. – BOB SANDERS