Global Leadership Team

Geoffrey P. Purtill

Geoff Purtill was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company in November 2022. Prior to that, Geoff was interim President and CEO. He served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Company's European and Asia Pacific businesses since November 2021 and as Head of Global Strategy since September 2021. Geoff served as Vice President and General Manager of Asia Pacific since joining the Company in 2010.

Before joining Invacare, Geoff held various leadership roles in sales, category management and supply chain at Johnson & Johnson and Nestle. He served in the Australian Army for 14 years, where he started as an Electronics Technician and left as a Captain in the Intelligence Corps.

Geoff holds an MBA (Exec) from the Australian Graduate School of Management.

Kai Zhu

Kai Zhu has served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Company since July 2023. Prior to that, Kai served as Vice President Finance EMEA since joining the Company in April 2022.

Prior to Invacare, Kai served as CFO of the Fire Fighting Group at CNH Industrial N.V., a multinational agricultural machinery and transport vehicle company, since 2019. Prior to that Kai served in various financial leadership roles in Danaher KaVo Kerr Group, a dental equipment and consumables manufacturer, including Chief Financial Officer of its Emerging Markets Group, Vice President Finance Global FP&A and Vice President Finance Asia. Kai also previously held financial management positions at Britax Group and Avery Dennison. He has two decades of financial leadership experience.

Kai Zhu holds a Diploma in Business Informatics and Administration from the Technical University Ilmenau in Germany and had served as a Regent of the Board at the Institute of Management Accountants between 2012 and 2018.

Anthony C. LaPlaca

Anthony LaPlaca is responsible for all legal affairs of the company and handles corporate governance matters, serving as the corporate secretary. He oversees Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs, corporate communications, data privacy, corporate compliance, and litigation.

Before joining Invacare, Anthony was vice president and general counsel of Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, a member of the Knorr-Bremse Group from 2002 to 2008. Prior to that he served as vice president and general counsel of Honeywell Transportation & Power Systems. Prior to joining Honeywell’s predecessor, AlliedSignal Inc. in 1997, Anthony practiced law at a Cleveland-based national law firm for 13 years, the last 3 years of which serving as a partner in the firm.

He holds a B.S. in economics from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law.

Cintia Ferreira

Cintia Ferreira has served as Chief Human Resources Officer since December 2022. Prior to that, she served as Vice President, HR-EMEA since she joined the company in February 2021.

Before joining Invacare, Cintia held various Human Resources roles with increasing responsibilities at country, regional, and global levels in Latin America, US and Europe at global companies across several industries, including Telecommunications, IT, Financial Services and Agribusiness.

Cintia holds an MBA in Human Resources from FIA/USP of Sao Paulo, Brazil and an Executive CHRO certification from The Wharton School.

Cintia’s Life Motto: “Every day our people leave their families to come to work with their whole heart and energy to serve our end users by living our purpose of Making life’s experiences possible.

It is our duty and aspiration to get our group to excellence in our many contributions over time, and to work with our people and with our leaders to make it a great experience as we enjoy the ride!

I am a believer!”

Michael van der Breggen

Michael van der Breggen was appointed Chief Information and Technology Officer in December 2022. Before that, he was the Assistant Chief Information Officer.

Before joining Invacare in 2020, Michael spent over 25 years in the IT industry and held various leadership roles in consulting and IT practice management at Atos and Cognizant Technologies.

Michael holds an MBA from the Rijksuniversiteit in Groningen, Netherlands, a post graduate degree from the Glasgow Caledonian University and various ERP and Program Management certificates.

Régis Opfermann

Regis Opfermann was appointed as Vice President Commercial Operations EMEA & APAC in December 2022. Prior to that, Régis held several positions since he joined Invacare in 1998 as Product Manager, Marketing Manager, Sales & Marketing Director and the latest one as Managing Director South Europe & International Sales since 2005.

Before joining Invacare, Régis established a leading wheelchair family dealer business in northeast of France.

Régis is a French Pharmacist and graduated with an MBA (Exec) from Neoma Business School in 1998.

Paul Lavin

Paul Lavin was appointed as Vice President, North American Commercial Operations in October 2022. Prior to that, he served as Vice President of Sales for North America since September 2020. Previously, Paul served as Vice President and General Manager for Invacare Canada LP since 2013 and has held a variety of sales and marketing roles with Invacare since joining the company in 2008.

Before joining Invacare, Paul held a variety of progressive leadership roles in sales, customer service, project management, strategy and privacy at Dun & Bradstreet and Wolters Kluwer.

Favorite Quote: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” –Wayne Gretzky

Magda Stepniewicz

Magda Stepniewicz was appointed VP Global Categories in December 2022. Prior to this, Magda held the role of the Manual Mobility and Seating EMEA Head, where she managed the biggest product category and supported Invacare global company strategy development.

Before joining Invacare, Magda held numerous roles in Consumer Goods and Healthcare companies – Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson, and Bayer Consumer Health leading marketing, communication, commercial operations, and strategic design for local, regional, and global markets. Worked and lived in different countries.

Magda holds an MBA Marketing and Management from the Warsaw School of Economics in Poland.

Life Motto: “Never stop exploring” and her biggest passion is diving.

Eric Regis

Eric Régis has served as Vice President, Supply Chain and Operations (EMEA & APAC) since May 2022. Prior to that, he was Managing Director of France Operations (Fondettes facility) since September 2019.

Before joining Invacare, Eric spent 17 years at Air Liquide where he held roles in business development and corporate marketing before taking on roles with increasing responsibilities in Supply Chain and Operations.

Eric graduated with a MSc in Executive Engineering from Mines ParisTech in 2001.

Favorite Quote: “Vision without execution is hallucination.” –Thomas Edison

Fran Striker

Fran Striker was appointed VP of Supply Chain and Operations, North America since December 2022. Prior to that, he had served as Plant Manager of the Sanford, Florida facility since February 2022.

Before joining Invacare, Fran held various leadership roles in manufacturing and supply chain positions in both global, regional and plant levels with companies including Kalmar (Division of Cargotec OY), Smith Electric Vehicles and Simmons Beautyrest bedding. He is a seven-year veteran of the US Navy and served in-theater during the Desert Shield/Desert Storm campaign. As a Naval Officer, Fran had one duty tour as a Surface Warfare Officer and one duty tour as a Nuclear Engineer and he is a graduate of the US Navy Officers Nuclear Power School.

Fran received a B.Eng. in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  In addition, he received his MBA from the University of Kansas with an emphasis in Corporate Finance.

Favorite Quote: “Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe

Ramakant Rambhatla

Ramakant Rambhatla is responsible for global engineering strategic planning and execution. Ramakant has worked at Invacare for over seven years managing North American engineering functions.

Before joining Invacare, Ramakant spent 20 years in the automotive industry at TimkenSteel and Schaeffler, where he managed manufacturing, engineering, and product development teams. Ramakant has launched several products in the automotive and medical device industries using concurrent engineering principles and proactive risk management. In addition to fundamental engineering development principles, he has deep cross-functional expertise in machining, metal forming, capital equipment planning, equipment utilization, and capacity planning.

Ramakant received his MSc in Mechanical Engineering from California State University Northridge, MBA from Case Western Reserve University and BS in Mechanical Engineering from Regional Institute of Technology, India.

Favorite Quote: “Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.” – Ayn Rand.