Former Aggreko boss Louisa Burdett joins Optos

A FINANCE director who was one of the key figures during the merger of drugs giants Glaxo and SmithKline has been drafted in to help grow a Scottish medical device maker.

Louisa Burdett, who was finance integration director at GSK, will move to Dunfermline-based eye scanner maker Optos at the end of next month.

Burdett joins from FTSE 100 constituent Pearson, where she has been chief financial officer at the publisher’s Financial Times Group since 2008. She replaces Christine Soden, who is stepping down so that she can reduce the amount of time she spends travelling. Soden will remain with the company as a consultant.

Although Optos is based in Scotland, virtually all of its sales are overseas, particularly in the US and Australia.