Description
The Cooper Companies, Inc., branded as CooperCompanies, is a global medical device company, publicly traded on the NYSE (NYSE:COO). With its headquarters in San Ramon, California, it has a workforce of more than 12,000 employees and consists of two business units, CooperVision (CVI) which manufactures contact lenses, and CooperSurgical (CSI) which manufactures medical devices and fertility and genomic products for the women’s health care market.
History
CooperCompanies was founded in 1958 as Martin H. Smith Co. and later incorporated as Cooper Tinsley Laboratories Inc. in 1961. The company changed its name to Cooper Laboratories Inc. in 1967. It entered the contact lens business in 1972 when it acquired British lens maker GlobalVision.
In 1980, Cooper Laboratories reorganized into three business groups: CooperVision, CooperCare and CooperBiomedical, with Cooper Medical Devices Corp. added as a fourth group one year later.
The company was renamed The Cooper Companies in 1987. Three years later, it was further restructured into three business units: CooperVision, CooperSurgical and CooperVision Pharmaceuticals. The latter was dissolved in 2003.
Today, the firm operates as two business units: CooperVision and CooperSurgical, which have continued to grow through various acquisitions and expansions.
Albert G. White III was named President and CEO in May 2018.
Holly Sheffield was name President of CooperSurgical effective July 13, 2020.
