Baxter Finance Leadership Change Takes Effect With Interim CFO Departure

Baxter International’s finance leadership handoff took effect Tuesday as Anita Zielinski left the medical-products company after serving as interim chief financial officer since March. President and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Hider is now carrying the CFO role as well, beginning a short bridge period before John Rogers is scheduled to become Baxter’s permanent finance chief on October 1.

The change also reaches Baxter’s accounting leadership. Bernie Heine, previously the company’s assistant controller, became associate vice president of finance, interim chief accounting officer and controller on September 15. Baxter is conducting a search for a permanent chief accounting officer, so the company enters the second half of September with temporary leadership in both the CFO and accounting posts.

Baxter laid out the handoff in an August 19 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said Hider would serve as interim CFO from September 15 until Rogers’ October 1 start date while continuing as president and CEO. Hider will receive no additional compensation for the temporary CFO assignment.

Hider takes the CFO seat for a two-week bridge

The interim arrangement closes one stage of a finance-leadership change that began earlier this year. Joel Grade left the CFO post in March to prioritize family matters, and Zielinski was named interim CFO on March 16 while retaining her existing responsibilities as chief accounting officer and controller. She had joined Baxter in February 2025 after holding senior finance and accounting roles at Sysco and spending more than two decades at Ernst & Young.

Zielinski told Baxter on July 31 that she planned to resign effective September 15 to join another company. Baxter said in an August 4 SEC filing that her departure was not the result of a disagreement with management or the board over operations, policies, practices, financial disclosures or accounting matters. The later filing establishing Hider’s temporary CFO assignment did not alter that explanation.

Heine’s appointment keeps an experienced Baxter finance executive in the accounting function during the search for a permanent chief accounting officer. The 40-year-old joined Baxter in 2023 as senior director of finance and assistant controller after 15 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he most recently served as an assurance director. For the period he serves as interim chief accounting officer and controller, Baxter approved an additional $15,000 monthly payment and a restricted-stock-unit award with a $250,000 grant-date value, according to the August 19 filing.

The structure leaves Hider responsible for the top finance post without giving up his chief executive duties. Baxter described the period as an anticipated two-week interval, making the arrangement a defined bridge rather than a reopened search for the CFO position. Rogers had already been selected when Baxter announced the temporary assignment.

Zielinski moves directly to Cardinal Health

Zielinski’s next role begins almost immediately after her Baxter departure. Cardinal Health disclosed in its own SEC filing that she will join the company as senior vice president of finance on September 16. She is then scheduled to become Cardinal Health’s chief accounting officer on November 5, succeeding Mary Scherer.

Cardinal’s filing identifies Zielinski as 52 and describes the same Baxter roles she is leaving: interim CFO, senior vice president, chief accounting officer and controller. It also says she will receive a $750,000 cash sign-on bonus and an initial restricted-share-unit award valued at $1 million, primarily to address compensation forfeited at her former employer. Those terms are part of Cardinal’s appointment rather than Baxter’s separation disclosure.

For Baxter, the accounting handoff is therefore distinct from the CFO succession. Heine is covering the chief accounting officer and controller duties while Baxter searches for a permanent replacement, while Rogers is already set to take over the CFO role. That separation matters because Zielinski had been performing all three functions during her interim-CFO tenure.

Rogers arrives as Baxter focuses on its balance sheet and execution

Rogers will join Baxter from Smith+Nephew, where he has served as CFO since 2024 after first joining as CFO-designate in 2023. Earlier in his career, he served as CFO of WPP and held senior roles at J Sainsbury, including CFO and chief executive of Sainsbury’s Argos. Baxter also cited his public-company board experience, including service as an independent director and audit committee chair at Grab Holdings.

In the company’s August 19 announcement of Rogers’ appointment, Hider tied the hiring to Baxter’s efforts to stabilize the business, strengthen the balance sheet and improve execution. That mandate is visible in the company’s recent financial actions as well as its operating results.

Baxter reported second-quarter sales of $2.96 billion, up 5% on both a reported and organic basis, and U.S. GAAP diluted earnings of $0.26 per share. Free cash flow was $181 million for the quarter and $257 million for the first half. The company raised its full-year outlook to reported sales growth of 3% to 4% and adjusted earnings from continuing operations of $1.95 to $2.15 per diluted share.

Balance-sheet work has continued alongside that operating push. In August, Baxter increased the cap on a cash tender offer for several series of senior notes to $600 million from $500 million and said it expected to accept notes for purchase up to the higher amount. The company has repeatedly identified balance-sheet strengthening as a management priority, giving the incoming CFO a role that extends beyond routine reporting and budgeting.

Rogers’ October 1 start will end Hider’s temporary CFO assignment, but not all of the finance-leadership work will be finished at that point. Baxter will still be searching for a permanent chief accounting officer while Heine serves in the interim post. For the next two weeks, the company’s finance organization will operate under Hider’s dual CEO-CFO responsibilities before the permanent CFO succession moves into place.