Dr Benjamin Jansen has exited Cronos Australia, vacating both his director position and his role as chief medical officer with immediate effect.
The company disclosed this morning that Dr Jansen, a co-founder of CDA Health, stepped down from the board last night following the conclusion of his tenure as chief medical officer.
Earlier in June, Cronos had announced that Dr Jansen would leave his medical role on September 22 and transition into a non-independent, non-executive director position on the board.
That transition will no longer proceed, however, after Cronos sought and received legal advice on the matter.
In a statement lodged with the ASX, Cronos cited its own constitution, which states that "the office of a director is vacated if (among other things) the director is appointed as a director occupying a full-time, or substantially full-time, executive position in the company or a related body corporate and thereafter ceases to be an employee of the company or its related bodies corporate".
The company acknowledged that it had previously held the view that Dr Jansen "would be able to continue to be a director of the company as a non-executive and non-independent director".
Cronos Australia declined to provide any further comment on the matter.
The departure comes days after news emerged that Dr Jansen's cousin and fellow CDA Health co-founder Dr Matua Jansen intends to file a resolution seeking the removal of Cronos chief executive Rodney Cocks and director Guy Headley from the board.
Cronos has stated that Matua Jansen, acting in his capacity as trustee for the Whanau Family Trust — which holds a stake of nearly 10% in Cronos — believes there "should be complete separation of the board and the executive management".
