Zimmer Holdings Inc. today announced Ray Elliott has informed the board of directors that he plans to retire in the first half of 2007 from his positions as president and chief executive officer of the company, but will continue to serve in those roles until his official retirement.

Elliott, 57, will remain as chairman for at least one year following today's announcement.

The board said it hired Spencer Stuart, the global executive recruiting firm, to assist with the search for a successor, which will include both internal and external candidates. The transition is expected to occur during the first half of 2007.

Elliott said, "After serving nearly 25 years as a company president, it is time for others to take over the day-to-day leadership of Zimmer. My decision provides the opportunity to serve, in the future, on other corporate boards, and to advise both private equity firms and investment banks on medical device-related strategy and transactions."

John McGoldrick, chairman of the corporate governance committee of the board of directors, said, "We are grateful and indebted to Ray Elliott for his extraordinary service to Zimmer. He has guided the company exceptionally well through a period of unparalleled growth.

"Among his accomplishments include the original turnaround, the spin-off to a public company, the completion and integration of critical acquisitions and the development of many new products and services that have added substantially to shareholder value. The board is especially pleased that Ray will remain as chairman and that Zimmer will continue to benefit from his experience and knowledge of the global orthopaedics market."

Elliott said, "Our company continues to be in excellent shape. With a host of new products including the Zimmer¨ Gender Solutionsª Knee and our strongest pipeline to date, the future should be bright. Zimmer continues to lead the orthopedic sector and most of the major medical device makers in a number of performance metrics, yielding operating cash flow of more than $250 million each quarter. We have over the last three years met our milestones and created more than $100 million in annual synergies from our Centerpulse acquisition. Most importantly, our global management team is rich in talent and depth."

Elliott has served as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Zimmer from its inception as a public company in 2001, when Bristol-Myers Squibb spun it off. Prior to that, he served as president of Zimmer from 1997 to 2001.

On the Net: www.zimmer.com [[In-content Ad]]