Dental Asia January/February 2024

DENTAL UPDATES
Pearl appoints new COO and VP in
expansion of leadership team
Provider of dental AI solutions Pearl
recently announced the appointment of
Ben Plomion to chief operating officer
(COO) and Dr Mike Barniv, DDS, to vicepresident
of clinical affairs. In their roles,
Plomion and Dr Barniv will help drive
the company’s next phase of growth and
innovation while further strengthening
Pearl’s leadership team.
As new COO, Plomion will oversee
cross-departmental operations with
a comprehensive focus on scaling the
company’s growth. Prior to joining Pearl,
Plomion served as the chief tokenisation
officer at Dibbs, a tokenisation-asservice
platform, and chief growth and
marketing officer at GumGum, an AI
advertising company. With over two
decades of experience driving successful
commercialisation efforts in the field
of AI, Plomion will play a key role in the
advancement of Pearl’s development and
commercial operations.
Dr Barniv joins Pearl as the company’s
vice-president of clinical affairs after
spending 20 years as a full-time, private
practice dentist. Most recently, he
served as vice-president at Delta Dental
of Idaho, overseeing claims, customer
service, utilisation management and AI
implementation. As a former assistant
professor at the University of the Pacific
School of Dentistry in San Francisco,
California, and the director of their AEGD
residency clinic for over four years, Barniv
will apply his extensive multidisciplinary
dental experience towards advancing
the company’s commercial, clinical, and
institutional impact, according to Pearl.
“Ben and Mike each bring uniquely relevant
and valuable experience to Pearl’s growing
leadership team, and we are privileged to
welcome their support as we expand our
capabilities and reach across the global
dental market,” said founder and CEO
of Pearl, Ophir Tanz. “Ben’s world-class
Pearl’s CEO and founder Ophir Tanz speaking at
the Global Symposium on Artificial Intelligence in
Dentistry (Image: Pearl)
growth and organisational leadership
and Mike’s extraordinary clinical and
commercial versatility prime Pearl to
further expand its efforts to redefine the
AI-powered future of dentistry.”
Since receiving its second patent from
the United States Patent and Trademark
Office in June 2023 for its chairside AI
disease dection software, Second Opinion,
the company has been quick to expand
its reach. It received clearance from the
Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices
Agency (TMMDA) as a Class IIa medical
device, and partnered with Gamma Tech,
a provider of radiographic services for
the Australia and New Zealand dental
community, to distribute Pearl’s AI
software in the region. DA
Kevin Boyle appointed
chief technology officer
for Dentsply Sirona
Dentsply Sirona announced that Kevin
Boyle has been appointed as senior
vice-president, chief technology (CTO)
officer and member of the management
committee, effective 4 Dec 2023. In this
new role, Boyle reports to the CEO, Simon
Campion.
“Kevin brings a results-oriented, innovative,
and strategic leadership approach and
has deep expertise collaborating crossfunctionally
to maximise business success.
His strong commitment to the continued
advancement of healthcare by solving
unmet clinical and process needs through
deep customer intimacy, coupled with
his focus on developing diverse teams,
provides an excellent fit with our values,”
said president and CEO of Dentsply
Sirona, Simon Campion. “Innovation is and
will continue to be a cornerstone of our
strategy and Kevin’s appointment ensures
our advances in that area are meaningful.”
Boyle has over 20 years of leadership
experience in research and development
at MedTech companies. He joins Dentsply
Sirona from Becton Dickinson and
Company (BD), where he most recently
served as senior vice-president of research
and development, Interventional Segment.
He was previously vice-president of
(Image:
Dentsply
Sirona)
research and development, Peripheral
Intervention, at BD and worked at
Medtronic in various R&D roles.
Boyle also holds a Master’s Degree in
engineering in biomedical engineering from
Texas A&M as well as a Master’s Degree in
management information systems from the
Michael Smurfit Business School, UCD, in
Ireland.
“I am very proud to join Dentsply Sirona
with its long history of groundbreaking
innovation in all areas of dentistry and
continence care,” said Boyle, senior
vice-president, CTO of Dentsply Sirona.
“My goal is to drive major advancements
to our innovation strategy, increasing
Dentsply Sirona’s competitive advantage
and bringing value to our customers and
their patients. I am excited to support the
company’s mission to transform dentistry
and continence care through innovation and
improve people’s lives.” DA
6 DENTAL ASIA JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024