Michael Knaap has resigned as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Monash IVF, the fertility and reproductive health group which has announced two mix-ups with embryos in the last two months.
In a brief statement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), the company said Knaap had also resigned as a director. However, it did not refer to the incidents that have caused the share price to fall by about half this year.
Monash IVF said Group Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary Malik Jainudeen, who joined the company in 2014 and served in his current role since 2019, was appointed as Acting Chief Executive Officer.
“His deep understanding of the organisation's operations positions him as a steady and capable leader during this transitional period,” Monash IVF said in the announcement.
The company said the Board acknowledged and respected Knaap’s decision, and thanked him for his dedicated service, adding that he had led the organisation through a period of significant growth and transformation.
The announcement comes two days after Monash IVF revealed a patient's embryo was incorrectly transferred back to her rather than, as planned, to her partner at its Clayton facility in Melbourne on 5 June.
It is also two months since the company revealed that a woman had given birth to a stranger’s baby, after a patient’s embryo was incorrectly transferred to another patient at its Brisbane facility in 2023.
Monash IVF is conducting an internal investigation into the latest incident and has extended the scope of an independent review into the Brisbane incident.
Last month it lowered 2025 financial year guidance for underlying group net profit to about $27.5 million from between $30.0 million and $31.0 million, citing softer market and operating conditions.
At the time of writing the share price (ASX: MVF) had risen 4.7 cents (7.7%) to 65 cents, capitalising the company at $244.61 million.
But it has fallen 48% over this calendar year, with most of the value shed since the first incident was revealed to the market, which in turn was prompted by a newspaper article.
