Vicarious Surgical COO plans to retire

Vicarious Surgical (NYSE:RBOT) announced today that John Mazzola, its chief operating officer (COO), plans to retire.

Mazzola’s retirement goes into effect on April 1, 2025. He plans to continue to serve as COO until that date, at which time he hands his responsibilities over to company president Randy Clark.

In May 2023, Mazzola received a promotion to the post of COO at the Waltham, Massachusetts-based surgical robot developer. He originally joined the company in March 2022 as SVP of operations. Mazzola spent nearly 40 years in the medical device industry. That included involvement in more than 25 medical device product launches.

Before joining Vicarious, Mazzola spent 13 years in senior executive roles and product development leadership positions at BD. That included serving as VP of operations for BD’s surgery business.

“On behalf of the entire organization, I want to express our sincere gratitude to John for his exceptional leadership and dedication over the past few years,” said Adam Sachs, co-founder and CEO. “John has been instrumental in developing and streamlining our corporate manufacturing processes, enhancing our product quality control, and strengthening our supply chain resilience; as a result, Vicarious Surgical is well-positioned for its next chapter as we prepare for our upcoming first clinical use cases and pivotal trial. We are deeply grateful for his contributions and wish him a happy and fulfilling retirement.”

Mazzola’s retirement announcement makes him the second member of the Vicarious C-suite to depart the company in recent months. In December, the company announced that CFO William Kelly planned to leave to pursue other career opportunities.

Analysts at the time questioned the departure, asking why the CFO would leave “at this point.” The company develops its Version 1.0 (V1.0) surgical robot aimed at increasing the efficiency of surgical procedures, but has hit some snags over the past couple of years.

Vicarious previously eyed first-in-human trials midway through this year, but it pushed V1.0’s timeline back in November 2023. In March, the company maintained its timeline to have V1.0 ready for an FDA submission by early- to mid-fiscal 2026, which remains unchanged even with movement atop the company.