Investors, Strategics & Innovators

Scott will join his team of exclusive sponsors to host the Emerging Medtech Summit. Scott's mission at the meeting will be to connect the investors, innovators and strategics that are driving the future of medtech.

Scott is the President, CEO and Founder of Life Science Intelligence.  He has been in the medtech market intelligence business for over 20 years supporting venture funded startups, major strategics, and life science investors as they navigate the ever-changing medtech marketplace.  Prior to founding LSI, he held senior executive roles with renowned life science data providers including Medical Data International, Medtech Insight and Windhover Information.  He has held leadership roles as a strategic partner for Elsevier Business Intelligence, Health Research Intelligence, and Informa Business Intelligence.  Scott and his team at LSI have conducted numerous market research projects for top medical device manufacturers including Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Abbott, Becton Dickinson, Teleflex, Cardinal Health, GE Healthcare, and Stryker, among others.   

David Weild IV is a stock market expert best known for his position as Vice Chairman of NASDAQ. He is currently the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Weild & Co. Inc., parent company of the investment banking firm Weild Capital, LLC (dba Weild & Co.)[1] Weild is also known as the "father" of the JOBS Act, and has been involved in drafting legislation for the US Congress.

Antoine Papiernik is Chairman and Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners, which he joined in 1997.

“Life Sciences investing is not just about recognizing good science,” Papiernik says, “it’s about people — learning how to interact with co-investors, limited partners, and entrepreneurs. Listening, discerning, negotiating, and finding common interests.”

When you find the right people to invest in, he adds, “you can bank on them more often than you can predict how the science is going to turn out.” He looks for entrepreneurs with the nimbleness to adapt, “even if that means a making a major shift from where one starts out on the journey.”

Antoine actively invests for our Capital Funds. He has been an initial investor and active board member in a number of public companies, including Actelion, ProQR, Shockwave Medical, NovusPharma (sold to CTI), Movetis (sold to Shire), and Pixium Vision. Trade sale success stories include CoreValve (sold to Medtronic), Fovea (sold to Sanofi Aventis), Ethical Oncology Science (EOS, sold to Clovis Oncology) and Recor Medical (sold to Otsuka).

He has also invested in and is a board member of private companies Reflexion Medical, Tissium, Pi-Cardia, SafeHeal, Noema Therapeutics, Ablacare, Highlife and Inspirna (formerly Rgenix).

Antoine has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. He has been selected twice for the Forbes Midas List, an annual ranking recognizing the world’s top venture capital investors. Antoine is one of the few European and life science investors to have appeared on the prestigious list.

At the Emerging Medtech Summit Dr. Villafaña will share the story of Medical 21 (his latest venture) and discuss fundraising goals and strategic partner interests.

Co-inventor of the first lithium powered pacemaker and founder of Cardiac Pacemakers, Inc./Guidant.  All pacemakers now incorporate this technology.

Co-developer of the St. Jude heart valve and founder of St. Jude Medical, Inc.  This is the most commonly used prosthesis in the world.

Co-inventor of the ATS heart valve and founder of ATS Medical, Inc. (now part of Medtronic)

Co-inventor of the nitinol support and founder of Kips Bay Medical and Medical 21, Inc.

Manny Villafaña is the Founder, Chairman, & CEO of Medical 21, Inc.  Dr. Villafaña is globally recognized as a “Living Legend of Medicine.”  He is an award-winning USA Master Entrepreneur, a member of the Halls of Fame of Minnesota Business and Science & Technology.  He is the past founder of medical device companies that  have transformed the industry of cardiac surgery and improved the lives of millions.  Manny is also the recipient of an honorary Doctorate of Sciences degree from the University of Iowa.

David Joyce was born and raised in the Twin Cities, where his father was a cardiac surgeon at the Minneapolis Heart Institute. He graduated from the United States Air Force Academy and Harvard Medical School and then went on to complete his residency at Johns Hopkins and fellowship at Stanford. During that period, he also spent two years in the lab of Michael E. DeBakey in Houston where he had the opportunity to be involved in some of the first scientific work that was being done with continuous flow left ventricular assist devices. After completing his training David went back to Minnesota where he worked briefly in the Twin Cities before joining his father in practice at the Mayo Clinic. He was recruited to the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2017 as the Surgical Director of Heart and Lung Transplantation, where he has been involved in research and implementation of a wide range of medical device technologies.  He is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, co-edited the textbook “Mechanical Circulatory Support: Principles and Applications,” and has published over 100 peer reviewed scientific papers. David completed an Executive MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2020 and is a two-time finalist in the Global New Venture Challenge Entrepreneurship Program. David met his wife, Joyce Sanchez (also known as “Joyce Joyce”) during his surgical residency. They have two children, Lyle and Lucia, ages 8 and 6.

John is a Life Sciences Partner at EY with almost 30 years of experience, all in the life science and healthcare industry.

John advises both strategic and private equity life science clients on various projects including M&A, Supply Chain, IT, Financial/Accounting and Tax considerations. John has extensive experience across all sectors of life sciences with a focus on medical technology.

John has also served as a CFO of a publicly traded medical technology company.

Coming soon.

Oliver joined Intuitive Ventures in 2019 and leads investment efforts with a focus on identifying future leaders of minimally invasive care, including early stage startups across digital, medical device, therapeutic, and diagnostic domains.

Prior to Intuitive Ventures, Oliver was a healthcare investor with GE Ventures, driving international-startup deal flow and supporting numerous portfolio companies operationally and at the board level. He also spent a number of years advising an array of UK, US, and global healthcare innovation projects across technology, government, commercial, and academic fields. He started his career as a junior doctor and policy advisor in the UK National Health Service and remains dedicated to bringing new technologies, diverse partnerships, and investment to address healthcare‘s biggest unmet needs.

Oliver holds an MD and BSc in pharmacology from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is a widely published author in the fields of healthcare and surgical innovation, and is an advisory board member of the Newsom administration‘s California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine.

Bio coming soon.

In her role as Executive Vice President, Global Strategic Partnerships, Lisa leverages her experience in global product commercialization to help forge long-term collaboration with a core focus on Veranex’s critical, strategic partners and their portfolio management.

Lisa has 25+ years of healthcare product commercialization with companies in the U.S., Europe, and China, with a special emphasis on MedTech innovation. As an active member of the MedTech and investor communities, Lisa is an advisor to many startups and accelerators including CLSI’s FAST program, MedTech Innovator, and UCSF Health Hub. She also serves as an advisor to the Cleveland Clinic MedTech Advisory Board, the Mayo Clinic’s Executive Steering Committee for the Surgical Innovation Summit, UCLA Biodesign, UCLA’s Technology Ventures Group Advisory Board, and RedCrow Angel Investor platform. She also serves on the Board of Directors for MarinHealth system, a partner of UCSF. In 2021-22 Lisa serves as Co-Chair of MedtechWomen’s Annual MedTech Vision Conference. Lisa has a keen interest in the latest MedTech innovation trends and authors Veranex’s MedTech Pioneers blog, which spotlights MedTech leadership and their groundbreaking work.

Lu Zhang, Founder and Managing Partner of Fusion Fund, is a renowned Silicon Valley based investor, a serial entrepreneur, and a Stanford Engineering alumna. Lu is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (Class of 2018) and was recently selected as a Best 25 Female Investor by Business Insider. She has also garnered other accolades including the Featured Honoree in VC of Forbes 30 Under 30, Silicon Valley Women of Influence, Town & Country 50 Modern Swans – Entrepreneurship Influencer, and Top 10 All America Chinese Youth. Lu is also on the Jury Board of Cartier Young Leader Award. Prior to starting Fusion Fund, she was the Founder and CEO of a medical device company focused on non-invasive technology for the early diagnosis of Type II diabetes (acq. 2012). Lu is a frequent speaker at tech events and conferences such as Davos Economic Forum, Future Investment Initiative (FII), Forbes, Web Summit, SuperReturn, etc. and also serves as a mentor and advisor to several tech innovation programs in Silicon Valley. Lu is the board member of the Youth Council of Future Forum and Future Science Award. She received her M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

David will attend the Emerging Medtech Summit to represent Alira Health's extensive advisory services and to network and meet with other industry insiders.  

David joined Alira Health with over 25 years of management experience in the medical device, products and clinical diagnostics field. He has lead strategy development, strategic planning and business development activities in these fields for mid and large cap public companies. David has directed business development deals ranging from M&A, licensing, distribution and co-development for companies such as Medtronic (legacy Covidien) in their respiratory and medical products business, as well as Hologic and Boston Scientific. He has held management roles at Integra Lifesciences and Abbott Labs. David has a BA from Clark University, Worcester, MA and an MBA from Thunderbird, School of Global Management, Glendale, AZ.

David Uffer joined Alira Health with over 25 years of management experience in the medical device, products and clinical diagnostics field. He has lead strategy development, strategic planning and business development activities in these fields for mid and large cap public companies. David has directed business development deals ranging from M&A, licensing, distribution and co-development for companies such as Medtronic (legacy Covidien) in their respiratory and medical products business, as well as Hologic and Boston Scientific. He has held management roles at Integra Lifesciences and Abbott Labs. David has a BA from Clark University, Worcester, MA and an MBA from Thunderbird, School of Global Management, Glendale, AZ.

As Head of JLABS @ TMC, Fiona is responsible for external engagement, innovation sourcing, company onboarding, portfolio management, operational excellence, educational programming and P&L. In this role, she catalyzes and supports the translation of science and technology into valuable solutions for patients and consumers across the pharmaceutical, medical device, consumer, and healthtech sectors.

Prior to joining JLABS, Fiona was Senior Director of External Innovation at Ipsen, supporting the expansion of the Rare Disease and Neuroscience portfolios. Before joining Ipsen, Fiona was a Director of External Innovation Oncology Discovery at Roche. While at Roche, she led cross-functional teams to identify and evaluate opportunities based on their scientific merit and strategic alignment with oncology/immuno-oncology early discovery and clinical development pipelines. Notable activities include the acquisition of Tensha Therapeutics, Tusk Therapeutics and Ignyta, in addition to early discovery academic collaborations.

Fiona began her career in industry as a Senior Research Scientist at Wyeth Oncology and eventually took on a senior leadership role when the company was acquired by Pfizer. Fiona was able to complement internal early drug discovery expertise with external innovation as a program leader for pipeline projects. She also led external collaborations to support IND-enabling studies for anti-sense therapeutics, bi-specific immunotherapies and antibody drug conjugates. 

Fiona earned her Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania and her undergraduate degree in Biology from Cornell University. Her innovative work has been published in high impact journals and she also has several granted patents.

Lana leads external innovation and business development for Philips Ventures in North America. She has over 15 years of experience at both start-ups and large tech companies, and has an established record of launching successful new ventures, raising capital and expanding business into new markets. She brings a combination of commercialization, product innovation, strategic partnership, venture investing and mergers and acquisitions experience to the team across digital/health IT, consumer health and medical devices. 

Lana is passionate about transforming the future of healthcare and delivering breakthroughs that will improve people’s lives with meaningful innovation and doing so at scale. She helps new companies tap into the power of open innovation to turn new ideas into great businesses. 

Mr. Ramin Mousavi has executive leadership and operational experience in general management, marketing, strategy, product development, and commercialization across multiple market segments. Most recently, Mr. Mousavi led the patient monitoring and digital health portfolio at Baxter International. Prior to Baxter, he held various leadership assignments at Edwards Lifesciences. Mr. Mousavi served as CathWorks Vice President of Global Marketing & Strategy and the Chief Marketing Officer from 2019 to 2020. Ramin holds B.S. degrees in Computer and Electrical Engineering from University of California, Irvine. He also earned an M.B.A. from Paul Merage School of Business at UC, Irvine, and received a Healthcare Executive Leadership certificate for Business Innovation in Global Healthcare from Harvard Business School. 

Bio coming soon.

Benjamin Glenn is nationally recognized innovation strategist, speaker and coach based in the Silicon Valley. His work is keenly focused on helping entrepreneurs and innovators in enterprises big and small in our regulated industries identify, develop and maintain competitive advantages. Particularly with regard to our rapidly evolving health care sector, Benjamin's work is highlighted in Biodesign: The Process of Innovating Medical Technologies, a program he has served for over a decade.

Mr. Akhavan is attending the Emerging Medtech Summit to identify new investments.

Omid is currently a Managing Director at Anthro Ventures, investing across medical devices, diagnostics, digital health and healthcare services. Previously, he worked as an Investment Principal at MVM Life Science Partners LLP and Becton Dickinson as Director of Strategy and Business Development. Prior to that, Omid was a management consultant at Monitor Deloitte in the Life Sciences and Healthcare team. Omid holds a Masters in Bioengineering from the Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelors in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia. He also received a Fulbright Award to conduct research on access to healthcare in the Middle East.

Versatile Global Product Marketing and Strategy Leader with over 15 years of experience in mentorship, management, and the creation and execution of corporate and business strategy. Specific areas of expertise include: Product Development and Marketing, Product Lifecycle Management, Strategy Creation, New Market/White Space Landscaping, Customer and KOL Relationship Management, Team Development, Change Management, Integration Management, Project Management, and Executive Communication.

Paul built and ran medical device businesses for 29 years before joining SV Health Investors. Most recently he was Chief Operating Officer at Boston Scientific (BSC), an $8 billion medical device leader. During his 15 years at BSC, Paul served as Chief Operating Officer; Group President, Cardiovascular; President, Cardiology; Group President, Endosurgery; and President, International. During his tenure, the company grew revenue over 20 times. Paul integrated two dozen acquisitions and led extensive product development, manufacturing and worldwide commercial organizations. Previously, Paul held marketing and general management positions at CR Bard and various marketing roles at Kendall (Medtronic).

Bio coming soon.

Andrew is a seasoned executive with over 30 years’ experience in the medical device industry. During this time, he has held key leadership positions in organizations ranging from early stage start-ups to large multinationals. In joining Fogarty Innovation he further broadens this range of experience to include managing a non-profit. The versatility required to be effective across such diverse groups is rare and is a testament to Andrew’s strong leadership skills.

After completing his undergraduate degree, Andrew began his MedTech career working for the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration. This provided an invaluable introduction to the industry along with an appreciation for the challenges regulators face when balancing innovation with protecting public health. Several years into this role, serendipity presented him with a unique opportunity to work for a company based in the United States. Although he had never lived outside Australia, he saw it as a great opportunity and moved sight unseen to Denver, Colorado to work for Telectronics. He probably didn’t realize it at the time, but this move exemplifies a classic element of Andrew’s personal and professional mindset: think big, set audacious goals, and act boldly. At the time, Andrew expected this to be a two-year position. Thirty years later, he’s still in the US, setting and achieving big goals.

Amy Belt Raimundo is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Convey Capital.

Previously, Amy led Kaiser Permanente Ventures as a managing director in 2016. Amy brings over 20 years of experience in healthcare investing, start-up and corporate operations and hospital system consulting.

Amy has spent a dozen years in venture capital including Covidien Ventures and Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV). Immediately prior to joining KPV, Amy was the Chief Business Officer of digital health start-up Evidation Health. Amy has spent close to a decade in venture capital at Covidien Ventures and Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV). Prior to KP Ventures, she led investments in Medina Medical (acquired by Medtronic) and Nevro Corporation (NYSE: NVRO) among others. Earlier in her career, Amy held operating roles at Guidant Corporation and began her career as a management consultant for hospitals at APM/CSC Healthcare.

Amy is a Kauffman Venture Fellow as well as founder and president of MedtechWomen. She holds a BA in Economics from Yale University and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.

Bob D’Acquisto joined Trinity as Managing Director on their Origination team. His role is to source and evaluate qualified investment opportunities. He has 20 years of tech and finance experience. He is a trusted partner to VC’s, PE’s, Tech Banks, Service Providers and Entrepreneurs.

D’Acquisto has held successful roles in tech banking with Western Alliance/Bridge Bank and Avidbank, along with founding and managing Snowbird Capital. D’Acquisto holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Santa Clara University

Tal Wenderow serves as a Venture Partner at Genesis MedTech. Tal joined Genesis MedTech in Sep 2021 focusing on expanding Genesis’ portfolio through M&As and investments.

Previously, Mr. Wenderow was the President & CEO of Vocalis Health, a global technology leader in vocal biomarkers developing voice-enabled AI solutions. Prior to Vocalis Health, he co-founded Corindus Vascular Robotics, which was acquired by Siemens Healthineers in 2019 for $1.1B. He served as the Executive Vice President of International & Business Development responsible for global sales and business partnerships.

Mr. Wenderow is also a member of the Board of Directors of Microbot Medical Inc. [NASDAQ: MBOT].

Mr. Wenderow holds a Bachelor of Science, Summa Cum Laude, in Mechanical Engineering from Technion in Israel and completed the Executive Program for Life Sciences at the Merage Foundation, Merage Business School, University of California, Irvine, United States, and has numerous issued patents based on his inventions.

Mike Mogul is President and Managing Director of HealthpointCapital. Prior to Healthpoint, Mike was last President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of DJO Global, a $1 billion firm in the Orthopedic sector owned by Blackstone, and market leading in non-operative segments including Bracing and Physical Therapy equipment. DJO was also the fastest growing firm in Total Joint implants and Consumer Sports Medicine under his leadership. Prior to joining DJO, Mike served as Group President, Orthopaedics for Stryker Corp. managing Stryker’s global orthopaedic businesses, which represented approximately $3 billion in revenue. Additionally, in his 22 years in the musculoskeletal space at Stryker, Mike served as Managing Director of all of Stryker’s divisional segments in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Mike is Chairman of the Board of Crossroads Extremity Systems and a Board Member of ProSomnus Sleep Technologies. Mike received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Colorado and has attended the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School.

Leslie has served as our Chief Executive Officer since November 2014 and was elected Chair in 2022. She joined the Company from Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm, where she was an Executive in Residence from March 2012 to March 2014. Prior to that, she served in several roles at Lutonix (acquired by CR Bard), a medical device company, from January 2010 to February 2012, most recently as Executive Vice President, and as Chief Business Officer of AccessClosure (acquired by Cardinal Health), a medical device company, from September 2006 to June 2009. She also previously held positions with FoxHollow Technologies (acquired by ev3/Covidien), a manufacturer of devices to treat peripheral artery disease, Cytyc, a diagnostic and medical device company, Pro-Duct Health (acquired by Cytyc), a medical device company, and Guidant, a cardiovascular medical device company. Ms. Trigg serves on the board of directors of Adaptive Biotechnologies (NASDAQ: ADPT) and on the board of directors of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association. Ms. Trigg holds a B.S. degree from Northwestern University and an M.B.A. from The Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.

Mr. Nikolchev will attend the event to scout for new strategic partnerships and network with other strategics, investors and innovators.

Julian Nikolchev is Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategy at Intuitive. He joined the company in 2019, bringing more than 25 years of experience in the development and commercialization of therapeutic medical devices, including start up formation, fundraising, team building, R&D management, clinical and pre-clinical strategies, operations, and general management.

He is the developer of several novel technologies and products in the field of arthroscopy, orthopedics, women’s health, interventional cardiology, neuroradiology, and minimally invasive access and delivery of devices and drugs. He is named inventor or co-inventor on more than 35 issued or pending patents. Nikolchev founded and co-founded several medical device companies, including Pivot Medical, a hip arthroscopy and sports medicine company; CardioMind, an interventional cardiology and neuroradiology company; and Pro*Duct Health, a medical device company developing technology for the early detection and treatment of breast cancer. He also served on the Board of Directors for Neocis, Neptune Medical Devices, and Escala Medical.

He received B.S. and M.S. Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and a M.S. Degree in Technology Management from M.I.T.

Mr. Krantz will participate on a panel and will attend Emerging Medtech Summit to scout for new opportunities and network with other strategics, investors and innovators.

Bringing nearly 20 years of experience in mergers, acquisitions and investing in healthcare and technology, Noam is building a portfolio of best-in-class medical technologies investments to compliment the strategic goals of the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices sector.    

Noam earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from University of California Santa Barbara and a Masters in Business Administration from Columbia Business School. He began his career in investment banking, specializing in technology and healthcare companies. He has held various business development roles at Inamed Corporation, Mentor Corporation and Johnson & Johnson.

Noam is driven to help companies by bridging strategy and financial considerations to facilitate mergers and acquisitions, equity investment and collaborations. 

Bio coming soon.

Chris Cleary has led Corporate Development for Medtronic since 2014. During this period, he has led more than 40 acquisitions with consideration of $64 billion, including notable deals like Covidien, NGC, Twelve, Smith & Nephew TruClear, HeartWare, Mazor Robotics and Epix. Chris also led the sale of portions of Medtronic’s non-strategic medical supplies business to Cardinal for $6 billion.

Chris also has responsibility for Medtronic’s venture investing business. In 2018, Ventures sold approximately half of its non-strategic investments to Sightline Partners, resetting Ventures to invest more aggressively in the future through its Boston based team of 7 professionals. Investments have risen past $100M annually since the reset. Most recently, Chris jointly leads Portfolio Management and Business Development, bringing together all facets of new business development origination and execution.

Prior to Medtronic, Chris worked at GE Capital, leading M&A teams that closed acquisitions worth $60 billion of financial assets across more than 200 transactions in the United States, Canada, Chile, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Australia, Thailand and China. Chris also led numerous dispositions while at GE

Capital, including the sale of GE Access to Avnet; HNS Banco to Rabobank; Cantrex and Corbeil to Sears Canada; and the sale of GE Capital’s CLEC businesses to Eschelon Telecom.

Chris graduated from The Colorado College with a degree in Biology. He received the GE Capital Chairman’s Award for M&A excellence and was a member of the General Electric Business Development senior leadership council.

Jeff Peters is a Venture Partner with OrbiMed. Mr. Peters has over 25 years of medical device experience and currently serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Cardialen. From 2014 to 2017, Mr. Peters had several financial and operating consulting roles in public and private companies.  Previously, Mr. Peters was the Chief Executive Officer of Anulex Technologies, a company developing minimally invasive spine therapies; he also served as the Chief Technology Officer of ev3 (now Medtronic) from 2001 2007.  Mr. Peters’ prior financial roles include Portfolio Manager at Black River Asset Management, Entrepreneur in Residence at Foundation Medical, and Stock Analyst at Dain Rauscher Wessels. Mr. Peters received his B.S. and M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota.

Eric Schantz is a Vice President of Corporate Development at Medtronic, currently focused on mergers and acquisitions in the cardiovascular portfolio, along with other strategic corporate transactions. Eric joined Medtronic in 2008 following several years as a sell-side equity research analyst covering numerous segments in medical technology including cardiovascular, orthopedics, ophthalmology, aesthetics, neuromodulation, and the insurance providers. Eric received a BS and MS in engineering from the University of Cincinnati, and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Seasoned M&A and commercial lawyer with 24+ years experience leading legal teams in transactional and business settings (in both private practice and in-house positions). Wide-ranging experience includes large transformational M&A (e.g., sale of part of Medtronic Patient Care business to Cardinal Health for $6.2B, Medtronic-Covidien merger, which was the largest completed inversion transaction in history), public company acquisitions (in the US and abroad), transactions supporting med tech “white space” strategy (value-based healthcare, new business models, etc.), 100's of venture capital transactions (for both issuers and investors), leveraged buyouts, fund formation (including formation of onshore and offshore China focused funds), innovative transaction structures (e.g., acquisition option agreements, incubator/outsourcing of R&D, and external funding of internal R&D, etc.), and commercial transactions (e.g., customer contracting, government contracting, distribution and agency agreements, joint ventures, etc.).

Deep and extensive experience in cross-border transactions and operating in global setting, having closed transactions across the world.

Leadership roles include: managing legal work and legal teams (in-house and outside legal counsel) in support of Medtronic world-wide M&A and strategic investment activities (averaging dozens of closed transactions per year); past role as Covidien attorney with enterprise-wide responsibility for customer contracting organization; and past role as General Counsel for Covidien's Sustainable Technologies business unit.

Tamir is tasked with leading supporting the investment process in Israel and Europe, working closely with JJDC and J&J stakeholders on developing and executing investment transactions across J&J’s sectors. Tamir's main focus is Medical Devices, Digital Technologies and Consumer products.

Tamir has a B.Sc in Chemistry from Tel-Aviv University and has extensive background in Bio-Medical engineering and entrepreneurship, as well as an MBA with focus on Finance, from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.

Ali Farahanchi is Managing Director at DHVC, an early-stage tech and life science fund in Palo Alto. With more than $650M assets under management and 100+ companies in its portfolio, DHVC invests in variety of areas in healthcare including therapeutics, diagnostics and tools, and digital health, with strong emphasis on novel mechanisms and data-driven platforms. Previously Ali has worked in research and in consulting roles in semiconductor and healthcare industries, and has obtained graduate degrees in engineering and management from MIT and University of Chicago.

Collaborative leader known for results-driven, hands-on business partnership and problem solving. Strategic thinker with a passion for utilizing strong analytical skills to challenge and improve the status quo, and a track record of delivering results with integrity and an attention to detail. Highly accomplished professional with experience in driving strategic top-line growth and profitability.

Matthew's professional experiences include work in business development and M&A, corporate finance, valuation and modeling, market strategy, tax strategy and planning, and equity research.

Specialties: M&A Experience; M&A Due Diligence; Strategic Planning; Business Strategy; Financial Modeling; Capital IQ; Microsoft Office: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Visio, Access; Cognos; SAP; Corptax; Accounting; Financial Analysis

Andy McGibbon has worked in the management consulting and life science industries, accelerating innovation across a wide range of company sizes. In 2017, he formed a consulting practice to support large and small medtech companies with defining business processes for identifying impactful unmet needs in healthcare and lead the subsequent efforts to identify, filter, and develop the associated innovations.

Prior to forming his consulting practice, Andy worked with medtech firms across the fields of cardiology, GI, ophthalmology, and pulmonology and worked as a life science strategy consultant with Capgemini Consulting.

Andy is a graduate of the Stanford University Biodesign Fellowship.

Finn Haley joined Edwards Lifesciences as Vice President of Corporate Development in January of 2020.  In his role, he is responsible for the corporate development team and the identification and vetting of strategic partnerships and/or acquisitions to continually optimize the company’s ability to provide innovative solutions with maximum patient benefit. 

Prior to joining the company, Finn worked for 3M Company in Saint Paul, MN, where he served as the Senior Strategy & Business Development Director of the Medical Division.  Also at 3M, Finn held positions of increasing responsibility, including Project Leader for Corporate M&A, Global Business Line Manager for Wound Care, and Strategy and Business Development in the Healthcare Business as well as the Critical & Chronic Care Division. Prior to 3M,

Finn worked in investment banking with Duff and Phelps Corp. and Piper Jaffray & Co, including coverage on the healthcare team before joining industry.  He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration with Distinction from University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, and an MBA with Honors from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Founder of Priveterra Capital, focusing on LifeSciences and FinTech investments, and a Sponsor of Priveterra Acquisition Corp. I (NASDAQ: PMGMU), where he also serves as COO & CFO & Secretary.

Prior to launching Priveterra in 2020, Mr. Grodnensky spent over 20 years working in corporate finance, strategic advisory, business development and operations, buy-side and investments within the life sciences industry.  Mr. Grodnensky started his career on Wall Street and spent over 10 years at various Healthcare Investment Banking groups, including UBS, ING Barings Furman Selz, Banc of America Securities, and before transitioning to leading operations and later principal investment roles.  Most recently, Mr. Grodnensky was a Partner at physician-owned cooperative growth equity firm, Senior Advisor to a leading European generic pharmaceutical company, Founder/ Managing Director of cross-border healthcare advisory and principal investment firm.

He received a Bachelor of Science in Economics/Mathematics degree from Duke University.

Ms. Burke will attend the Emerging Medtech Summit to scout for new investment opportunities and to network with fellow investors, strategics and innovators.  

Terri is a Venture Partner with Epidarex Capital, where she leads the MedTech investment strategy. She is also co-founder and CEO of Protaryx Medical. Previously, Terri was a member of the Senior Leadership Team at Edwards Lifesciences and held multiple Vice President positions in the heart valve business, including managing a cross-functional technical development program, leading Global Marketing, and overseeing Business Development for several strategic acquisitions and partnerships. Terri has prior experience in health economics and reimbursement as a consultant with Covance and inproduct marketing with Guidant Corporation.

Terri holds a Board Director role with Raydiant Oximetry, is an active member of MedtechWOMEN and is a founding member of the Duke University Women’s Impact Network Athletics Leadership Council. Terri also acts as an Advisor for the Ignite Fire Pitch Competition. Terri holds a B.S. in Biology from Duke University and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

Kyle joined MVM in 2017. Prior to joining, he was a consultant at Bain & Company, working mainly in the healthcare practice to support medical device and healthcare provider clients. During his undergraduate and graduate education, Kyle was a prolific researcher and writer, publishing a half-dozen peer-reviewed papers on topics ranging from homologous chromosome pairing genetics to orthopaedic surgery outcomes. Kyle completed MD studies at Harvard  Medical School and MBA studies at Harvard Business School. He also holds an AB in biochemistry from Bowdoin College.

Andy is a Managing Partner of Section 32, a venture capital fund investing at the frontiers of technology and healthcare.

Prior to Section 32, Andy was in leadership roles at Verily Life Sciences (previously Google Life Sciences) and X (previously GoogleX). Andy was the Global Head of Business and Corporate Development and a member of the executive leadership team at Verily. His team executed global go-to-market campaigns for a wide range of next-generation healthcare technologies building creative and pioneering partnerships, collaborations and joint ventures  with some of the world’s top companies. Andy’s efforts directly contributed to Verily’s rapid scale, multi-billion dollar financing rounds and Verily’s efforts to address the opioid and Covid-19 epidemics.

Andy also co-founded the Verily Ventures program to make early-stage investments at the nexus of advanced technologies and healthcare. Under his stewardship, the program generated top-tier venture returns.

At GoogleX, Andy worked with a variety of projects across automation, quantum computing, life sciences, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other technology disciplines. He continues to serve as an advisor to various teams at X.

Prior to Google, Andy helped build and scale two businesses. One firm was seeded by Stanford University’s Endowment, which was successfully acquired while the second — a health-care oriented private equity and credit firm — is still active in San Francisco. He started his career at RBC Ventures at a fund which was a part of the DFJ Global Network.

Andy is a patented inventor with an Undergraduate Degree in Biochemical Engineering from McGill University and a Master in Biomedical Engineering from Cornell University. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Janelle is attending the Emerging Medtech Summit to identify new investment opportunities.

Janelle Goulard is the Director of Health Investment at Pangaea Ventures, a world leader in advanced materials venture capital. Janelle has over 12 years of healthcare experience working in private investments, scaling ventures and management consulting. She has spent a large part of her career at GE Healthcare in the US and Europe working with both private and public health organizations. Janelle’s entrepreneurial endeavours include launching a population health technology platform that became a joint venture between GE and Microsoft. Janelle has a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelors of Commerce from McGill University. 

Pangaea Ventures is the world leader in advanced materials venture capital. Established in 2001, Pangaea has an outstanding portfolio addressing multi-billion-dollar markets in energy, electronics, health, and sustainability. Pangaea’s funds include twenty-four world-leading multinationals as strategic limited partners, including Asahi Glass, Asahi Kasei, BASF, Bekaert, Castrol/BP, CoorsTek, Doosan, Evonik, Henkel, JSR Corporation, Lam Research, Mitsubishi Chemical, Murata, Nitto Denko, PTT Global Chemical, SABIC, Samsung, Sekisui Chemical, Severstal, Solvay, TOSOH, Toyota Tsusho, and Umicore.

Dr. Levin will attend the Emerging Medtech Summit to identify new investment and partnering opportunities. 

A veteran in the field of biomedical engineering and cardiology, with a specialty in heart failure and transplantation, Dr. Levin brings more than 35 years of clinical and commercial healthcare experience to his role.

In 2003, with Mark Gelfand, Dr. Levin co-founded Coridea. His inventions and co-inventions have successfully launched or their patents helped launch companies including Ardian (Medtronic), CHF Solutions (Gambro), Respicardia (formerly, Cardiac Concepts), eValve (Abbott) and RenalGuard/Reprieve Cardiovascular (PLC Medical), Cibiem and Soffio Medical. He has held a number of positions in these companies including President, Chief Scientific Officer, Chief Medical Officer and VP of R&D.

Dr. Levin received his M.D. from the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and his training in cardiology at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He also has a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering.

Joining KPV in 2019, Tiffany brings over 7 years of experience working with stakeholders across the healthcare spectrum, including pharma, medtech, provider, and payer. She has conducted research on genomics in precision medicine and synthetic biology, and is particularly interested in the use of AI and technology to improve patient care.

Tiffany began her career as a Senior Life Sciences Consultant at L.E.K. Consulting, where she helped life sciences and healthcare clients tackle major strategic decisions including R&D/pipeline optimization, M&A, pricing strategies, and international expansion. During this period, Tiffany also spent time working in London and was on externship to Amgen working on Customer Experience and Innovation. Before joining KPV, she also obtained venture capital experience at GE Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners in the healthcare and life sciences sectors.

Tiffany holds a B.A. in Business and Economics from UCLA, with a minor in Film and Television Criticism, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Cheung will attend Emerging Medtech Summit to scout for new investment opportunities and network with fellow investors, strategics and industry.

Tak joined NEA in 2018 as a Principal on the healthcare team. He focuses on medical device investments.

Prior to NEA, Tak was a Venture Partner at Merieux Development Venture Fund where he led all phases of investment for healthcare startups, including sourcing, diligence and investment approvals. Tak also co-founded Lexington Medical, a commercial-stage medical device startup in the gastrointestinal surgery space. Prior to Merieux and Lexington, Tak was VP of Business Development for the Global Surgical Division at Bausch & Lomb, and was responsible for all business development efforts in the ophthalmic surgical division. Tak has held various corporate and business development leadership roles at Edwards Lifesciences in the Heart Valve Therapy Division and Advanced Medical Optics (acquired by Johnson & Johnson).

Tak received a BS with Honors in Engineering and Applied Science from the California Institute of Technology, an MD from the University of California, Irvine, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Debbie Lin is Executive Director at Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund in the US and leads the Fund’s North American efforts in Digital Healthcare. She joined Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals in 2008.  Within Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma, she worked across various regions and divisions.  She has worked in Medical Affairs in the area of women’s health and later in Health Economics and Outcomes supporting all commercial product sales with large payers and providers accounts on the West Coast. She also led the US organization’s social entrepreneurship program in Boehringer Ingelheim’s Making More Health collaboration with Ashoka.

In 2013, she transitioned to Corporate Headquarters in Germany in Corporate Strategy and Development as Director of Corporate Development.  There she was responsible for BI’s global development strategy, leading BI’s global venture into stroke rehabilitation. She led multi-country teams to set up the company’s first stroke rehabilitation centers in Shanghai, China and in Lisbon, Portugal.

Prior to Boehringer Ingelheim, she worked as a Public Policy Consultant for Pacific Health Policy Group supporting Medicaid Policy implementation in various states such as Vermont and West Virginia during the Clinton Administration. Her doctorate is in Pharmacogenomics and Bioinformatics from UCSF, she also has a Masters in Engineering from Stanford University and a Masters in Public Policy from UCLA.

Chuck Bush founded Great Road Capital, Inc. in 2004 and is a Managing Director at the firm. Chuck has over 25 years of experience as an investment banker, consultant, and Chief Financial Officer with a track record of originating complex financial transactions, including senior and mezzanine debt, equity, and M&A transactions. He has originated and participated in over $7 billion of transactions.

Prior to founding Great Road Capital, Chuck worked in JPMorgan’s Entertainment Industries Group, where he advised leading media companies in private and public placements of securities, M&A, and other transactions. 

Chuck began his career at consultancy Monitor Group, where he advised Fortune 100 CEOs on strategy, M&A and LBO transactions. 

Chuck received a BA in Economics from Harvard College and an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Megan M. Preiner is a managing director at Thomas H. Lee Partners.  Prior to joining THL, Ms. Preiner worked in the Media & Telecommunications Group at Credit Suisse in New York.

Ms. Preiner is currently a director of Adare Pharma Solutions, Agiliti Health, Inc., Autism Home Care Holdings, Inc., Healthcare Staffing Services, Hospice Care and Senior Home Care Holdings, Inc. Her prior directorships include CSafe Global, Intermedix Corporation and Phillips Pet Food & Supplies.

Ms. Preiner holds a B.A. in Political Economy, cum laude, from Georgetown University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Ms. Preiner serves as Treasurer on the Board of Directors of Friends of Excel Academy, a network of charter schools serving the greater Boston area.

Frederik has over ten years of experience in investment banking and portfolio management (both equity and debt). He currently serves as a board member at R3 Vascular Inc. Prior to co-founding 415 CAPITAL, Frederik led new business development efforts at Regis Medical GmbH, where he sourced and evaluated new MedTech investment opportunities, leading the due diligence process for several early-stage MedTech deals. Prior to joining Regis Medical in 2016, Frederik worked in HSBC’s Leveraged & Acquisition Finance group in New York City where he structured leveraged loans and high-yield bonds for private equity-backed buyouts and corporate M&A transactions including several mid- and large-cap Healthcare deals. Previously, he was in charge of the day-to-day monitoring of HSBC’s US private equity-backed credit portfolio. Before moving to New York City, he was an Analyst at HSBC in London where he advised clients on cross-border M&A transactions and IPOs. Frederik holds an Hon. B.A. in Economics magna cum laude from the University of Toronto (University College), Canada.v

Passionate Medtech executive specialized in building high performing teams and applying rigorous business principals to identify, develop, and commercialize innovative technologies in high growth markets. Success encompasses diverse environments ranging from venture backed medical technology to Fortune 500 companies with significant board level experience. Well spoken, confident, energetic and personable individual with strong leadership, business acumen and strategic marketing skills.

Expertise in multiple medical device market segments including: cardiovascular, peripheral vascular, electrophysiology, gastroenterology, general surgery, robotics, oncology, and neurology

Specialties: 
Market Analysis
Strategic and Tactical Business Planning
Upstream and Downstream Marketing
New Product Development
Business development, M&A
Post merger integrations
Recruiting and Developing Talent
P&L Management
Product Lifecycle Management
Channel Management
Budgeting/Forecasting
Project Management
KOL Development
Cross-Functional Team Leadership

Bio coming soon.

Mr. McWilliams will attend the Emerging Medtech Summit to identify new investment opportunities for Sante Ventures and network with industry executives.

Dennis has dedicated his career to bringing innovative life science ideas to the market. He is the Founder of SparkMed Advisors, a boutique advisory focusing on bringing creative solutions to medical device commercialization. Dennis previously was the Founder of Apollo Endosurgery [NASDAQ: APEN] and served as CEO for nine years from the company’s inception until 2014, where he assumed the role of President and Chief Commercial Officer. Prior to Apollo, he co-founded Chrysalis BioTechnology‚ a development stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel drug therapies for tissue regeneration‚ including bone‚ cartilage‚ and dermal soft tissue. He started his career at the IC2 Institute, a think-tank based in Austin, Texas focused on applied research in entrepreneurship and commercialization. Dennis received a Bachelor of Science with honors from the University of Texas in Aerospace Engineering and a Master of Science in Engineering Management from Stanford University.

He has served on the Board for the Texas Exes and the University of Texas Men’s Athletics Council. In 2007, he was given the Outstanding Young Texas Ex Award by the University of Texas, in 2016 was named a Distinguished Engineering Graduate from the University, and in 2019 was named to the Academy of Distinguished Alumni for the Aerospace Engineering school. He is a frequent speaker and lecturer on entrepreneurship and innovation in medicine and serves as faculty for the B.E.S.T. Innovations Courses taught at the prestigious IHU Institut de Chirurgie Guidée Par L’Image in Strasbourg France, Taiwan, and Brazil.

Rik brings over 17 years of healthcare experience to River Cities, including deep private

and public healthcare company investment experience. Rik focuses primarily on medical

device and healthcare IT investments. He is actively engaged alongside management in the

financing, marketing, product development, operations and identification of bolt on

acquisitions.

Prior to RCC, Rik worked with venture backed companies in the strategy of group of Scient,

an eBusiness consulting firm. Before Scient he worked at Andersen Consulting (Accenture),

first in the healthcare services group and then at the Internet Center of Excellence where he

helped launch several venture-backed companies as well as worked on the team that

developed the online music platform for BestBuy.

Rik serves on the board of Bardy Diagnostics, was on the board at EndoChoice (IPO and

then sale to Boston Scientific) and was an observer at Veran Medical (sold to Olympus) and

Pioneer Surgical (sold to RTI Surgical).

Academic credentials

BE Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University; MBA, Duke

Outside of RCC

Rik enjoys spending time with his wife and three daughters, going to North Carolina

beaches and tinkering on his track car. He is a Boston native but escaped the cold to live in

the Research Triangle Park in NC.

Sean is a Partner at Philips Ventures and leads North American investment activities. He is interested in both digital health and medical device investments relevant to the Philips strategic roadmap sitting on boards of early stage companies in virtual care/RPM, cathlab, patient monitoring, and SaaS solutions for providers. Sean has more than 15 years' experience working in healthcare, previously holding positions with Philips corporate strategy, The Boston Consulting Group, U.S. FDA CDRH, and NASA. He earned his PhD from the University of Cambridge, where he developed algorithms and simulations for medical device applications. He enjoys mentoring the next generation of inventor-founders and sits on the Advisory Council at his alma mater The Johns Hopkins University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Stephen K. Ralph, MSc is an award-wining Executive Influencer and Marketer with passion for crafting and delivering strategic solutions that catalyze revenue growth, accelerate sales, and disrupt markets with innovative technology. Stephen brings a wealth of hands-on expertise in exceeding expectations and “moving the needle” within the medical device space in acute care, physician’s office, and day surgery center environments. By leveraging strong clinical insight, Stephen has evangelized cardiovascular, cardiac surgery, heart failure, and digital health device innovations from conception to global commercialization.

Through a series of rapid promotions, Stephen’s career has evolved within the medical device and healthcare industry, focused on innovation and commercialization. Stephen is currently the Divisional Marketing Leader Product Innovation with W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. within the Product Incubator, Medical Products Division. Providing a solid platform for success, Stephen graduated from the University of South Wales with a Master in Science. Through continuous professional education, he has also earned the distinction of having Chartered Marketer status. Stephen has actively participated and excelled in the Executive Education Stanford School of Business in the Biodesign Managing Innovation program as well as Alere’s Executive Leadership Edge Development Program. Rounding out Stephen’s education, he holds a Six Sigma Certification.

Through his evolving and progressive career, Stephen started out as a Cardiac Physiologist where he gained first-hand insight and clinical expertise working at both Brook General Hospital and St. May’s University Hospital, both in the United Kingdom. After leaving the clinical side, Stephen enhanced his skill-sets by taking on sales and marketing roles, first with Baxter Healthcare, then joining Medtronic as European Product Marketing Manager, Corporate Ventures and inevitably as European Business Unit Manager, Heart Failure Management where he drove Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) from clinical through to commercialization within Europe. Following his success, he was recruited to the United Stated to define, develop, and lead integration efforts for GE Healthcare during their launch of world’s 1st integrated electronic patient anesthesia system with patient monitoring and connectivity into Electronic Medical Records into the US and international markets. Stephen catalyzed double-digit growth and solidified GE as an advanced market leader.

Following GE Healthcare, Stephen joined CardioMEMS, now Abbott Laboratories, as first a Director, then Vice President and Program Director, Heart Failure Management. Stephen crafted and executed strategic and tactical business plans to establish the Heart Failure Management and Remote Patient Monitoring program from the ground up. He was instrumental in ascertaining FDA approvals to spike unprecedented growth in net worth representing 90% of the company value, leading to the $425M acquisition by St. Jude Medical.

Stephen then began a tenured career with Alere, Inc., now Abbott Laboratories, in which his career escalated, with rapid promotions based on outstanding success, from Director of Market Development to President of Veterinary Diagnostics. Stephen was instrumental in developing 9 innovative products, driving double-digit growth and global expansion across the US, Japan, Germany, and China. Stephen is currently the Divisional Marketing Leader Product Innovation with W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. working collaboratively and leading cross-functional teams in identifying multimillion dollar market opportunities for sustainable, differentiated solutions. Stephen also regularly attends major accredited scientific conferences and symposiums and strives to continually stay up to date on the latest technologies and innovative advancements.

Balancing out his successful, professional career with over 2500 professional LinkedIn contacts is accomplished with the steadfast support from his wife Sandra. Stephen and Sandra have been married for 16 years, and counting, and together, they enjoy sailing in Pacific coastal waters and dining out at new restaurants, with varied cuisines, especially within the “Gas Lamp” district in San Diego, CA. Stephen enjoys vacationing in coastal Mediterranean countries and has travelled to multiple continents where he immerses himself within the culture, history, and the hospitable people native to the regions.

Daniel is a career CFO/COO who has directly led 29 investments, totaling more than $500 million. He has also orchestrated divestments of a similar scale and arranged hundreds of millions of dollars of debt financing for various companies in the US, Asia, South America, and the Middle-East. He was an early innovator in several private asset-backed investment trusts between 2007 and 2011, and the driver behind the establishment of a small $10M in-house venture fund for a Fortune Global 50 company. He has consulted for a number of Silicon Valley venture funds that are focused on commercializing leading-edge US technologies in China.

Daniel has been a CFO for both private and publicly-listed companies, start-ups as well as Divisional CFO for Fortune 500 companies. He has been involved in the medical devices space since 2007 and was most recently, the CFO of Reach Surgical, where he was also responsible for the international business and all its international joint ventures.

He has a Bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences with an emphasis on medical physics from Cambridge University, a Master’s degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, as well as, finance and accounting qualifications from the ACCA in London. While at Cambridge and at Stanford, he was respectively, a Cambridge Commonwealth Fellow and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is the world's largest healthcare company, and its group of Innovation Centers is a unique vehicle to accelerate early innovation and enhance opportunities for collaboration and investment across J&J's healthcare businesses. Nick’s role within the New Ventures group at the CA Innovation Center (IC) focuses on medical device innovation in support of the general surgery, orthopedics, and cardiology businesses. His charge is to identify licensing, collaboration, and investment opportunities highly aligned with J&J business strategies by building relationships with entrepreneurs, venture investors, and key opinion leaders. The New Ventures team employs a broad array of deal structures in order to best fit the specific needs of the innovation opportunity, often in collaboration with JJDC [equity investments] and JLABS [incubator]. Website: http://www.jnjinnovation.com

Chris is a prolific entrepreneur and venture capitalist who has pioneered some of the most innovative medical technologies brought to market in the last decades. As Founder and Executive Chairman of Miraki  Innovation, Chris forecasts imminent global health and medical challenges, uncovers technologies  at leading research institutions and assembles teams of industry experts to solve these global problems.  Chris not only offers investments guidance and critical research and industry connections, but also  helps guide each portfolio company along the fund's proven, proprietary process that reduces new  venture risk and enhances returns.

Companies developed by Chris have created considerable value. Investments, returns and valuations from seven companies founded, developed and/or brought to exit by Chris have benefited from more than $5.77 billion in returns realized to all investors through exits. A recent example is Auris Health which was recognized by CNBC as one of the 50 most disruptive companies in the world. The Auris transaction was proceeded by a number of ventures by Chris that set gold standard for motion preservation, regeneration of cartilage and soft tissue through the use of novel peptides and regenerative medicine. Throughout his 27-year career, Chris has represented more than 150 medical device companies in a variety of business transactions including licensing agreements, joint venture partnerships and M&A.

Mr. Pachuda will attend the Emerging Medtech Summit to identify new investment opportunties.

Nick was the leader and Worldwide Vice President of Orthopedic Innovation for the J&J Medical Device Group.  He was responsible for making J&J the partner of choice for Orthopedic Innovators around the world.  He works to find the best external sources of science, technology and talent to bring transformational and clinically translatable orthopedic solutions to patients. He has worked in all segments of Orthopedics including sports, extremities, trauma, joints, spine, digital surgery and tissue regeneration.

Nick was in clinical practice for 10 years specializing in Foot & Ankle Surgery after completing his fellowship in Orthopedic Trauma. 

Kevin joined MVM in 2016. Prior to MVM, he worked across the life science and healthcare sector as a consultant at Bain & Company. Kevin completed his PhD in Oncology at the University of Cambridge, where he conducted translational research in the field of neural development.

Kevin is a member of the board of Zipline Medical, Inc.

Mr. Wiegman will attend Emerging Medtech Summit to network and identify new investment and strategic partnering opportunities.  

With over 20 years of experience in venture capital, I have a profound understanding of how challenging it is for entrepreneurs to create and build successful companies, and how vital it is to choose the right partners and investors to successfully navigate the journey.

During my tenure, I have generated a successful track record across the technology and healthcare sectors. I have directly participated in 35+ early-stage venture investments in software, healthcare IT, medical devices and healthcare services. A hands-on board member and an achievement-oriented investor, I am passionate about investment and value-creation processes combined with a unique blend of strategic and operational expertise. I am adept at actively assisting portfolio companies to formulate corporate strategies to facilitate growth, financings and exit opportunities.

Mr. O'Neill is an active early stage medtech investor and is Managing Director of Venture Capital Investments for Connecticut Innovations.

BD, commercialization and marketing executive with 10+ years of operating experience in medical device industry and proven track record of organizational growth management and strategic market development in Greater China and South Korea. Educational background includes MBA from Harvard and Biomechanical Engineering degrees from Stanford. Bilingual leader well-versed in corporate cultures in the healthcare industries of both Greater China and the United States. 

Mr. Sym-Smith is attending the Emerging Medtech Summit to identify new investment opportunities and scout the future of medtech.

David Sym-Smith, is a Partner at Mobility Ventures who is a 25 year mobile industry veteran with a solid record of building multi-million dollar operations from scratch along with profitable exits.  Most recently, David served as Interim CEO at IndoTraq, the developer the fastest and most precise wireless indoor 3-D tracking system.

David has served as senior executive of global corporations as well as at multiple startups. He has a proven record of success in launching new markets, turnarounds, starting new business groups, building sales channels, introducing new products and services, winning market share and exceeding revenue and sales goals. 

Prior to joining Mobility Ventures, David served as the Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer of Tele Atlas. David managed global marketing, strategic planning, and product development for this leading global provider of digital maps and location content. Company doubled in size and was sold to TomTom for over $3 Billion.  Previously David served as the SVP of Global Business Development and Marketing at InnoPath, where he managed global marketing, product development and business development for InnoPath the industry leader in over-the-air (OTA) software updates and mobile device management (MDM) solutions. He Increased market share to 70% and revenue by more than 100%. David also helped launch Command Audio Corporation as Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, successfully leading the company from beta to launch to spin-off,  growing the company from 20 to over 100 people with over $80M in funding from Tier 1 VC’s and strategic investors (partially acquired by iBiquity).

David was a member of the founding core management team of Aerial Communications, serving as Regional President; he helped grow the organization from a mobile telecom start-up from early pre-launch phase, to a large entity with a $1.1B market cap within one year and was sold thereafter for more than $3.0B to T-Mobile (VoiceStream). At Sprint Spectrum he led Marketing and Product Development in launching the first PCS network in the country and first GSM network in the Americas.  Helping build a startup into an 800-employee, $150M revenue business in only the second year of service, and exiting with Sprint PCS’s purchase of operating control

David has also held senior management positions at CellularOne, AT&T, GTE, Saint-Gobain (France) and The Hay Group. He holds an M.B.A. from Pennsylvania State University – Smeal College of Business.

Bio coming soon.

Bio coming soon.

Jeremy works in Business Strategy at Tribeca Companies.  With more than 20 years of strategic and marketing medical device experience focusing upon early stage MedTech.  Jeremy has worked for companies with combined exits of over $8 billion.  Prior to joining Tribeca Companies, he was Head of Clinical Development at Mainstay Medical, a pioneering neuromodulation company.  He has also worked at Advanced Bionics Corp., Boston Scientific, MiniMed Inc., Bioness Inc., and Alfred Mann Foundation, among others.  

Jeremy holds a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College, a Master’s of Public Affairs from Indiana University, and an MBA from UCLA. He is an active classically trained musician, supporter of the arts, and is a former board member of the Guitar Center Music Foundation and Fender Music Foundation.

Peter is attending Emerging Medtech as a panelist at pre-conference summit focused on Family Offices and is looking forward to brainstorming with conference attendees about his portfolio of companies and his insights from 30 years at J&J

Peter is a Bus Dev and Operating executive well-established in the medtech ecosystem. After a distinguished run at J&J where he led in diverse roles across the Ethicon (surgical) and Depuy Synthes/Codman (ortho/neuro) markets and evaluated, bought, built, sold, and nurtured companies, Peter has recently begun his next phase. 

He is now Executive Chairman of Nurami Medical, a late clinical stage sealant/bio-scaffold company as well as a strategic advisor to AcuityMD, a Benchmark-funded SaaS targeting platform for med device companies, OnPoint Surgical, a founder funded Augmented Reality company and Voluware, a bootstrapped and profitable cloud and API-based system that has solved for the complexity of Prior Authorizations.  He is a Chemical Engineer from Princeton and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Richard is the former CEO at Reach Surgical, a surgical instruments company, where he spent 15 years growing the company into an industry-leading, international brand with presence on six continents. His tenure there culminated in the recent sale of the company to private equity. During his time at Reach Surgical, he was the architect in a series of investments in the US, South America, China and Korea. These investments totaled more than $40 million and doubled the company’s revenues over three years. He also managed the construction and transition to a new 215,000 sq ft manufacturing facility. 

Prior to Reach Surgical, he led a variety of R&D projects at J&J in the US. Richard holds a degree in Electrical Engineering, has an MBA from the University of Cincinnati as well as a Ph.D. in Medical Imaging from Purdue University. 

He is now the Founding Partner and Managing director of Hunniwell Lake Ventures, where he is using his experience to launch a new fund that will invest in overlooked segments of the medical device space.

Huennekens has more than 25 years of experience in the medical device industry, specializing in clinical advancement through innovative R&D and technology-based initiatives. He currently serves as Executive Chairman of the Board for Acutus Medical (IPO in 2020).  He has held a number of executive leadership roles within the healthcare industry, accelerating the next generation of digital surgery for Verb Surgical and leading Volcano Corporation, an image guided therapy device company, to its IPO in 2006. He holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BS in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. Huennekens currently sits on the boards of public companies Viewray and NuVasive.

Allan brings over 30 years of early stage medical device investing to the Medtech Convergence Fund (MCF) and he is also Co-Founder of Life Science Angels.

The Medtech Convergence Fund is a $90M (2020) fund focused on early stage medtech deals.

Life Science Angels is a Bay Area early stage investment group focused on supporting innovative biotech, medical device, diagnostic and mobile health companies. Allan was also co-founder of Emergent Medical Partners, a $70M venture fund focused on early-stage medical device and diagnostic companies. Allan has been Chairman or CEO to 10 start-up medical device and diagnostic companies, and an investor in over 65 medtech, biotech, and diagnostic start-ups since 1995. In addition, Allan co-founded Nanostim, developer of the first Leadless Cardiac Pacemaker, and Hyalex Surgical, developer of synthetic cartilage for total joints.

Robert Davis's passion is to capitalize on unique market opportunities in the medical, real estate, energy, food and biotech markets. Robert worked to provide capital resources for the technology under development at ACTUS Biotechnologies. Robert Davis and his family invest their own money in transactions and/or team up with family offices, private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, pension funds, endowments and wealth advisors. His deep institutional relationships allow him to provide substantial investment resources to nascent technologies. Robert has arranged over $1B of capital.

Robert Davis received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan with a minor in Creative Writing. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with High Honors, 3rd in his class and was a James B. Angel Scholar and member of the University of Michigan President's Advisory Committee, a seat he held for over one year. Medical school training was at University of Miami. Internal Medicine Residency training was at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Robert Davis is Board Eligible in Emergency Medicine.

Bio coming soon.

David joined Providence Ventures as a Partner in 2018 where he has helped lead the formulation of the firm’s medical device investment strategy. David also helps support investment strategy and decision processes in software and service focused businesses.

Prior to joining PV, David worked for River Cities Capital Fund (“RCCF”), one of the most active and experienced growth equity funds in healthcare and information technology. David most recently was a Principal on the healthcare team having served on deal teams across all healthcare verticals.

Additionally, David served as President and Board Member of Mid-America Health Investors Network (MHIN), where he represented over 60 active healthcare funds with offices spread throughout Middle America.

David currently or previously served as a Board Director, Board Observer, or co-led financings for TailorMed, MacroHealth, OrthAlign Inc., Bolder Surgical, AVIA Health, Veran Medical (sold), NICO Corp., TissueTech (sold), and Advanced Practice Strategies (sold).

Earlier in his career, David served as a principal, sales associate, and investment advisor with American Financial Group and completed extensive financial, consumer branding, and sales and marketing training programs with Merrill Lynch and Procter & Gamble.

David graduated from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and received his MBA with a concentration in finance from Xavier University’s Williams College of Business.

David and his family remain active in the Seattle and Cincinnati communities supporting various initiatives targeting behavioral health, education and youth programs, veteran affairs, and medical research programs.

J.C. (Jeffrey Charles) Ruffalo recently joined Cove Fund as a Venture Partner. Prior to joining Cove Fund, J.C. was the Director of LaunchPad and Investor Relations at Octane OC, a top 5 of over 900 SBA funded incubators in the US. During his Octane tenure, J.C. advised and assisted over 300 companies in a wide range of innovative technology industries successfully attain strategic goals. These companies raised over $2 billion in capital and realized over $2.6 billion in M&A. Of the more than 10,000 high paying technology jobs created, 85% were in Southern California. These companies include Hyperice, Bonti, EV Connect, AtaCor Medical and Enevate.

J.C. believes that nurturing and maintaining strong relationships between entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors is key in successful venture partnerships. J.C. received a BS in in Entrepreneurship and Finance, and a minor in Economics from Chapman University Argyros School of Business.

Seasoned, results-driven leader experienced in identifying, launching, spinning-out, funding, building, scaling, and turning-around opportunities in healthcare and technology; strategy; operations; partnering; commercialization; and exits. Experience from roles including founder, VC, CEO, Board Chair, counsel, and advisor. Specialized in start-ups; enterprise incubation/creation; venture finance; developing/supporting early-stage and growth-stage ventures; turnarounds; and special opportunities.

Jon Soberg is Managing Partner at MS&AD Ventures, where he and his team invest in early stage investments in companies with great teams who are changing the world. Jon is ranked #13 on Business Insider's Seed 100 list of top seed investors.

Jon is especially interested in companies that are helping to secure a better future, including financial inclusion, risk analysis and mitigation, climate change, and security. Jon has been investing heavily in Fintech throughout his career and especially focuses on finance companies and business models that are helping people.

Jon has been an early stage venture investor for over a decade and has made over 120 investments across 5 continents and has held more than 40 board positions. Many of Jon's investments are worth billions including Addepar, Biocatch, Braze, Clubhouse, DoubleVerify (DV), Fundbox, Hippo, Next Insurance, Nutanix, REEF Technology (ParkJockey), Rubrik, STEM (STEM), Trulioo, and Yotpo.

Jon is a Senior Fellow at Wharton Customer Analytics, and as a Lecturer at Wharton, Jon has advised and lectured on go-to-market and growth marketing strategies, pricing optimization, financial analysis, operations management.

Prior to becoming an investor, Jon was a serial entrepreneur and operator, with an IPO exit at Adforce. He also managed technology and operations for a $70B lending operation at Ditech.com/GMAC Mortgage, leading directly to his expertise in lending investments.

Jon is a Palmer Scholar at Wharton, and holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

Bradley Murray is a Senior Associate at Xontogeny where he leverages his diverse skillset to engage biotechnology companies seeking financing and partnership. 

Most recently, Brad spent 5 years as a computational biologist and managing the build out of T-cell therapeutics platform capabilities at Intellia Therapeutics. While at Intellia, Brad applied his expertise in genomics, gene editing, and machine learning to enable both in-vivo and ex-vivo CRISPR/CAS9 therapeutics to enter the clinic for the first time.

Prior to Intellia, Brad was a computational associate at The Broad Institute where he developed algorithms for the analysis of cancer genome sequencing data. His work at the Broad Institute led to novel drug targets, clinical trials in new indications, and publications cited over 10,000 times.

Brad holds a BS in Biology and Economics from Georgetown University and an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship from Boston College.

Anthony Williams joined HealthQuest in 2019. Before joining HealthQuest, Anthony spent eight years at Globus Medical, Inc. (NYSE: GMED), a multinational medical device company focused on developing products that promote healing in patients suffering from musculoskeletal disorders. He served in a variety of leadership roles during his tenure at Globus and ultimately spent the last 3½ years as President of the company. He currently serves as a board member on portfolio companies ENT Specialty Partners and 83bar, and as an observer for Magnolia, TigerConnect and Trice.

Prior to joining Globus Medical, Anthony was a partner with Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP, a law firm based in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he specialized in corporate and transactional work for high growth life sciences companies and their investors, including public and private financings, mergers, acquisitions and other strategic transactions, and corporate governance matters. 

Throughout his career, Anthony has been a frequent speaker to entrepreneurial groups, such as the Durham, NC-based Council for Entrepreneurial Development. He previously served on the board of directors of SEBIO and is currently a mentor to entrepreneurs through the Philadelphia-based Mentor Connect, a program sponsored by Ben Franklin Technology Partners and the Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies (PACT), and Austin-based Texas Health Catalyst, a collaborative initiative of Dell Medical School and the University of Texas at Austin,  both of which provide much-needed mentoring to inventors and entrepreneurs.

Anthony holds a B.A. degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Wake Forest University. 

Anthony lives in Austin with his wife and two sons, with whom he enjoys hiking and traveling.

A senior principal investor and healthcare innovation, corporate finance, business development and commercial strategy executive with over 23 years of multinational experience in Venture Capital, large pharma, early to mid-market stage bio/med tech companies, and investment banking. Over his career Andrew has established himself as a proven relationship builder and deal maker across all facets of the healthcare innovation continuum, from product concept development to launching best in class treatment modalities. During this time, Andrew cultivated a successful track record for building blue chip investor syndicates, growing businesses, and originating, negotiating, and executing pharmaceutical licensing, alliances/partnerships, and acquisitions that generated significant shareholder value and tangible financial returns.

His success as a healthcare venture capitalist and senior healthcare operating executive results from a unique ability to combine a strong clinical foundation in the underlying epidemiology of several therapeutic areas and tenured experience in clinical and program management with a successful track record in business development, new product creation, and commercializing innovation. This established track record is in no small part the result of Andrew’s ability to bridge the divide that often exists between these disciplines to create and achieve shareholder value that yields significant Net Cash on Cash exit multiples.

Bio coming soon.

Mr. Bikoff is a Principal at Longitude Capital.  Prior to joining Longitude Capital in 2016, Mr. Bikoff held a series of strategy, finance, and operating roles at Cardinal Health.  While at Cardinal Health, he worked to deploy over $6 billion of capital through M&A and minority investments. Most recently, Mr. Bikoff was the Director of North America Marketing for the Cordis cardiovascular franchise. Mr. Bikoff currently serves on the board of Polares Medical and is a board observer at Ceribell, Endogenex (formerly known as DyaMX), and Nalu. He previously served as a board observer at Amphora (acquired), Eargo (EAR), and RxSight (RXST), and was also actively involved in Longitude Capital’s investment in Axonics Modulation Technologies (AXNX).  Mr. Bikoff began his career in Deloitte Consulting’s Life Sciences Strategy practice and holds a BSE in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University.

Mr. Gupta is a Vice President at Longitude Capital. Prior to joining Longitude Capital in 2020, Mr. Gupta was a Consultant in the MedTech practice at L.E.K. Consulting, where he focused on growth strategy and M&A for corporate and private equity clients in the medical device industry. He holds a BS and MS in Biomedical Engineering from the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University.

Eliott is the Managing Partner of Nodes Advisors and the Head of Corporate Finance Group. In his role, he oversees the company’s advisory functions globally, and leads the Corporate Finance activities across Europe, Switzerland and China.

Eliott has been an advisor for dozens of clients on early-stage investments since he first joined the Venture Capital industry. Prior to founding Nodes Advisors, he was an Investment Manager at Polytech Ventures, where he oversaw early-stage investments of ~USD 50M across Switzerland.

Before transitioning to Venture Capital, Eliott worked as a Strategy Consultant advising large healthcare and pharma companies on growth strategies, and helping Private Equity firms conduct Due Diligence on companies in the Gulf region.

As the founder and president of New Harbor Venture Partners (NHVP), Mark brings over 28 years of experience in raising capital for and investing in healthcare and life science companies. Mark founded and successfully managed Rockport Venture Partners (RVP), an exclusive placement agent operating in that space, from 2001 to 2017. As one of the first and only agents to introduce the new European venture capital community to US life science companies, the firm successfully closed 15 transactions and raised more than $170 million in its first five years. From 2005 to 2014, Mark was also a founder of and general partner at the Rockport Venture Fund, investing exclusively within the life science industry.

Before founding RVP, Mark was a director at Quan Ventures, a Swiss-based technology crossover venture fund, and worked on Wall Street raising capital for both private and public companies from European investors.

Mark holds a BS in Economics from Rutgers University, is a steadfast Scarlet Knights fan and loves to return to Block Island, Rhode Island as often as he can. His lifelong interest in the ocean and connection to New Harbor on the island was the inspiration for the name of his new venture.

Rob joined Runway Growth Capital in 2020 as Managing Director and Head of Life Sciences.

Prior to Runway, Rob was Managing Director, Life Sciences with Bridge Bank (a division of Western Alliance Bank), a commercial bank that provides venture debt, where he founded and built the life sciences practice. Prior to Bridge Bank, Rob served as Executive Director, credit and portfolio management for Oxford Finance, LLC, a venture debt lender, where he helped build out the west coast practice. Previously, he has held leadership positions with Silicon Valley Bank, Fifth Third Bank, FINOVA Capital Corporation, and the American Medical Association. In the past decade, Rob has deployed over $1.5 billion of debt to life sciences and health care companies.

Rob graduated with a bachelor’s in business administration from Aurora University.

J. Christopher Mizer founded Vivaris in June of 1998. Vivaris (formerly Lake Erie Capital) invests in and acquires middle-market businesses in a broad range of industries that are leaders in their market niches. Mr. Mizer serves as the chairman of each of the portfolio companies and guides key strategic decisions and their execution. He also serves as the operating president on an interim basis when companies are going through periods of ownership succession and new management team members are being assembled. 

Mr. Mizer is a former Vice President and Officer of the investment banking division of Key Capital Markets, where he focused on merger, acquisition, and financing projects for Fortune 500 clients, private companies, and successful entrepreneurs. Prior to joining Key Corp., he was Consultant in the Capital Markets practice with Ernst & Young. 

He began his career as a Research Assistant with The Center for Economic Issues, a think-tank focused on economic development. He earned the B.S. (biology, applied math), B.A. (economics), M.S. degrees (biology - neurogenetics), and MBA (finance, accounting) degrees from Case Western Reserve University. 

Christopher has taught business strategy, finance and entrepreneurship at the graduate level at Case Western Reserve University, John Carroll University, and the University of California, San Diego and at the undergraduate at San Diego State University.

David emphasizes the efficient pursuit of non-dilutive funding to support technology, product and business development. He specializes in helping companies work with the US government, particularly the US military/ DOD medical community.

Sean Freeman serves as senior vice president, strategy and corporate development. In this capacity, he oversees global corporate and geographic strategy, leads inorganic and venture initiatives, and manages the integration function.

Prior to joining NuVasive, Mr. Freeman held the same role at the Cole-Parmer Instrument Company and led corporate development at Life Technologies, a global life sciences tools company acquired by ThermoFisher in 2015. Prior to Life Technologies, he was an investment banker in the M&A group at Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York. Mr. Freeman is a CFA charterholder, holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of the Witwatersrand, and earned a master’s degree in business administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Bio coming soon.

Bio coming soon.

Bio coming soon.

David has over 35 years of experience in corporate management, audit and finance, the last 25 years in the MedTech sector. He is an experienced MedTech investor and entrepreneur. He has invested in over 20 MedTech companies and co-founded and managed several European MedTech distribution companies over the past 23 years, including Regis Medical GmbH, Ovum Ventures GmbH (sold to Medtronic 2009), and Cardiologic GmbH (sold to Boston Scientific in 2002). Following Boston Scientific’s acquisition of Cardiologic GmbH, he served as Finance Controller for Boston Scientific in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Prior to joining Cardiologic GmbH as Co-General Manager in 1996, David was the CFO of Chiron Adatomed GmbH, a German subsidiary of Chiron Corporation (NASDAQ: CHIR). Prior to that, he worked in Ernst & Young’s Munich office, advising on corporate M&A transactions. David holds a degree in Accountancy from the University of Birmingham, UK and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ACA, ICAEW).

Kazuki is a Senior Planner of Healthcare Business in Teijin’s Strategic Planning Department and has been developing its healthcare business since 2007. His diverse roles in the healthcare field include engineering for a medical device factory, business development for the CPAP business, and M&A activities to acquire a core orthopedic implant business in Japan. Kazuki relocated to the United States in 2019 to support growth initiatives in the Home Healthcare division through investments in early-stage Medtech.

Academic credentials
BE and ME in Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University in Japan.

In 2014, Neal founded Zoic to address the systematic underfunding of early-stage medical technology startups.  He supervises Zoic’s operations as well as providing strategic and operational guidance to Zoic’s portfolio companies.

Neal has over a decade of successful experience in the tech startup space.  In 2007, Neal co-founded Ambature, a company which has made meaningful scientific strides towards marketable, large-scale production of room-temperature superconductor material. Neal served as Ambature’s initial CEO and maintained an active managerial role until 2013. To date, Ambature has raised over $20 million and holds over half of the room-temperature superconductor patents in the world.

Neal’s accomplishments at Ambature have made him a valuable and trusted source of advice for other CEOs. He has served on the Board of Directors of seven other startups and has offered guidance to over a dozen more through his mentoring role at Creative Destruction Labs.

Neal is co-host of the Market Meditations Podcast.

Jim Walker is President and Co-founder of Access Strategy Partners Inc, a key accounts management firm providing proven commercialization capabilities for leading-edge MedTech companies. A visionary leader and healthcare executive, Jim has more than 30 years of global professional experience in Sales, Marketing, Sales Operations and National Accounts management with Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson. 

Kevin Donovan is a highly trained sales professional with 20+ years’ experience building new markets within IDNs, ACOs and hospital systems, driving revenue growth and improved competitive market position.  As Director, Strategic Partnerships for ASPI, Kevin leads Commercial Team support and New Business Development activities including client engagement on progress toward business plan goals plus global customer/client analytics.

Prior to ASPI, Kevin spent 15 years in positions of increasing responsibility with Johnson & Johnson, most recently with the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of J&J. 

Bob Phelps is a business growth and transformation expert with experience in medical device, life science, and high-tech businesses. In his role as co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of ASPI, Bob is responsible for guiding the team to achieve the company’s growth plan, treasury and finance, HR, IT, and quality and risk management while engaging our team members to embrace the company’s culture and values. Bob has a unique background, having led sales, marketing, finance, business development and collaboratively managed investor relations and operations. He is an expert with commercial operations and scaling companies.

In his 20 years with Johnson & Johnson, Bob led both the finance and sales functions for the orthopedic business, where revenues tripled to $300M during that time.  He built the revenue platforms for two start-ups - BioSphere Medical (embolic device) to $50M+ revenue and ConforMIS (patient specific knee) to $40M revenue.  He has led the Commercial teams for robotic surgery and complex software engineering firms.

Nancy Kerbs is Vice President of Marketing for ASPI. In this role, she is responsible for the development and execution of marketing strategies and plans to strengthen the value proposition of ASPI clients’ commercialization efforts. Nancy also leads the creation and management of ASPI brand messaging, strategic communications, sales enablement, and public relations activity to accelerate adoption of solutions ASPI offers both medical device companies and healthcare providers.

Nancy’s career spans more than 25 years working with organizations ranging from start-up companies to global brands including Procter & Gamble and Hasbro, as well as Imagitas (now a division of RV) and Linkwell Health.

Global executive with more than 15 years of experience in the healthcare industry, leading mid-to-large size multinationals in the areas of business development, strategy and M&A. Experienced at leveraging inorganic growth to build sustainable businesses while further developing the organizational capabilities and the innovation pipeline of the organization. Team player used to leading in international multi-decision level environments through a focus on addressing change management, collaboration, and efficient decision-making.

Dr. Saklecha is the Managing Director of Cleveland Clinic Ventures where he leads investments into startup companies for one of the world’s top healthcare systems. He currently sits on the boards of Cardionomic, Cell-X Technologies, Centerline Biomedical, Cleveland Diagnostics, Method AI, Neurotherapia, XII Medical, and Zehna Therapeutics.

Jason is the co-founder of Dexcom Ventures where he leads technology scouting and strategic pipeline development.  He is a seasoned innovator in the medical device field and a key contributor in Dexcom product development over the past decade.  

Committed to Dexcom’s mission of ”Empowering people to take control of diabetes” he has advanced the simplicity, reliability, and comfort of Dexcom’s continuous glucose monitoring systems.  Jason has been a prolific inventor and is named on well over 100 worldwide patents and patent applications.

With Dexcom Ventures, Jason is chartered with building a portfolio as value-added strategic investors by leveraging access to Dexcom’s unique industry expertise and technology leadership.

Prior to Dexcom, Jason held a variety of engineering and leadership roles as a consultant and with Black and Decker.  He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from San Diego State University.

Steve Pacelli is Executive Vice President and Managing Director, Dexcom Ventures.

In this role, Steve is focused on investment opportunities in sensing technology, data analytics, remote patient monitoring and population health, broadening Dexcom’s commitment to advancing better outcomes in healthcare.

Prior to this role, Steve was Executive Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development from 2012 to 2021. Since joining Dexcom in April 2006, Steve has served in roles of increasing responsibility, including Chief Operating Officer, Chief Administrative Officer, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Vice President of Legal Affairs.

Prior to Dexcom, Steve served as a corporate attorney specializing in finance, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate matters, and in an executive role as general counsel of several privately held companies.

Steve currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Biocom California, the largest and most experienced leader and advocate for California’s life science sector. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Connect, a community nonprofit supporting innovators and entrepreneurs in Southern California by providing access to investors, mentors, and education, and as a member of the Board of Directors of EvoNexus, California’s leading non-profit startup technology incubator.

Steve is also a dedicated philanthropist, choosing to focus his efforts as a member of the Board of Directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of San Diego, an organization dedicated to creating and supporting one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth. He also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Pacific Ridge School, a group of dedicated and informed community leaders who are passionate about the value of education and are committed to building and strengthening the school.

Steve earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a JD from the University of Virginia. He is a member of the State Bar of California.

Bio coming soon.

Tyler J. Stowater is Partner and Vice President of Bluestem. He graduated from South Dakota State University with a BS Degree in Agriculture Economics (1984) and a MS Degree in Economics (1986). Tyler spent eleven years with the State of South Dakota's Bureau of Finance and Management. During his tenure, Tyler held the position of budget analyst, state economist, and deputy commissioner. In 1997, Tyler left the State to become an Assistant Vice President at Citibank South Dakota with business analysis responsibilities in the North American Cards Customer Service Unit. Tyler joined Bluestem in 2000 and is currently in charge of portfolio management with responsibilities including the evaluation of prospective companies, structuring, negotiating, and performing due diligence for various investments made by Bluestem. He monitors and provides assistance to existing portfolio companies and holds multiple Board of Director positions. In the spring of 2016, Tyler was given the Distinguished Alumnus award at the 62nd Annual Celebration of Excellence in Economics at South Dakota State University. Tyler is married to Joni (Klosterman) and they have two children, McKenzie (Otterberg) and McCord.

Global strategic leadership experience within the health care and biomedical industries with a focus on delivering innovative products and systems that advances patient care.

Sascha Berger, PhD, joined the TVM Capital Life Science team in Munich in 2016. He is active in deal flow generation, investment due diligence, deal and exit transactions, investor communication as well as corporate finance aspects of the fund.

Sascha has a strong financial background with almost ten years of professional transaction and strategy experience. He has a track-record of concluding 20 M&A transactions, five of those he led as responsible project manager in his previous role as Senior M&A Manager in a PE backed global corporation. He was a core team member in a successful EUR 2.5bn revenue cross-border merger and successfully coordinated global merger clearance procedures (USA, China, EU, Korea).

Prior to this recent role, Sascha successfully advised multiple renowned clients in corporate finance and strategy projects working as (senior) consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Boston Consulting Group. He was selected for the global leadership development program in his previous role and was named a global high-potential in PwC.

Sascha studied technology management in Munich, Singapore and Boston and  holds a Master from Munich University of Technology with majors in entrepreneurial finance and chemistry, magna cum laude. In his master thesis he analyzed the specific challenges of biotech VC financing rounds. Later he completed his PhD studies in banking and finance while already working for PwC. He is a regular speaker on corporate finance topics for German universities and business schools.

During his studies he already supported TVM Capital Life Science part-time; he supported the IPO of a German technology company at Deutsche Bank and advised Private Equity funds at Deloitte in summer internships. He lived in Singapore and New York, co-founded a student initiative on Entrepreneurship in Munich and in his spare time enjoys triathlon and world travelling.

Catello Somma, MBA, joined the TVM Capital Life Science team in January 2020. He is active in deal flow generation, investment due diligence, deal and exit transactions, investor communication as well as fundraising support.

Catello is biotech start-up founder with more than ten years of clinical development and corporate development experience. Prior to this role, Catello worked for a mid-cap biotech where he supported the development of immuno-oncology assets, both internal and in partnership with big pharma, and the preparatory work for a successful licensing in opportunity.

Catello holds an MSc in Molecular biology and an MBA with major in finance.

Ryan Kaeding joined Raymond James in 2021 as a managing director focusing on medical technology. Mr. Kaeding brings more than 15 years of health care transaction experience, including the last nine years at Piper Sandler focused on med tech clients. At Piper Sandler, Mr. Kaeding completed over 65 med tech transactions, spanning sell-side and buy-side M&A, IPOs, public and private financings, structured financings, divestitures, spin-offs, converts and debt financings. He previously worked at St. Jude Medical in business development for the cardiovascular division and began his career in audit at Deloitte. Mr. Kaeding has an MBA with honors from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Business and degrees in accounting and finance from the University of North Dakota.

Bio coming soon.

Bio coming soon.

Mr. Gilbert is an executive advisor to Thomas H. Lee Partners.  He brings forty years of experience in strategic and operations value creation for life sciences and healthcare companies as an investor, executive, board member and advisor.

In addition to his role at Thomas H. Lee Partners, Mr. Gilbert works at Flagship Pioneering where he supports the firm’s strategic development, value growth, nutritional health and health security activities.  Prior to Flagship, Mr. Gilbert served as a senior advisor to the investment firm General Atlantic and as a senior operating executive at Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.  Prior to those roles, Mr. Gilbert served as group president of the Global Cardiovascular Group and executive vice president of corporate strategy, business development, marketing and health economics and reimbursement at Boston Scientific. Prior to that, Mr. Gilbert worked at Bain & Company for over twenty-four years serving as chairman on the management committee, and the managing director of Bain’s Global Healthcare Practice with a focus on serving medical technology, biopharmaceuticals and life science tools clients. As a leading member of Global Strategy Practice at Bain, Mr. Gilbert was a published author and speaker, sharing insights on medical technology and pharmaceutical industry strategic trends and issues as well as “profit pool-based” and “strategic principled-based” strategy implementation.

Mr. Gilbert holds a B.S. in industrial engineering and operations research with high distinction from Cornell University School of Engineering and an M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School.

Bob has over 25 years of experience as a buy-side analyst, portfolio manager, private equity investor and investment banker. He has extensive experience with health care companies, especially in the medtech, diagnostics and biopharma sectors. Bob focuses on providing CEOs and CFOs with strategic advice on key investor issues in order to enhance stock valuation through effective and compelling messaging and clear, consistent communications with institutional investors. Bob’s experience and perspective as an investor in public and private health care companies informs his strategic investor relations work for companies with market capitalizations from $50 million to over $5 billion. He has worked with medtech, diagnostic and biopharma areas in providing ongoing investor relations advice as well as working on IPOs, follow-on offerings and equity-linked securities. In addition, Bob has advised companies in M&A transactions, dual track processes, and C-suite executive transitions. Before joining LifeSci, Bob was a Managing Director at ICR in Healthcare IR. Prior to ICR, Bob was a Portfolio Manager and Senior Research Analyst at Principled Capital, a fund with $1.5 billion of AUM, for 10 years with responsibility for all health care investing. Prior to Principled, he was a Vice President at Warburg Pincus, one of the world’s largest private equity and growth capital firms, investing in health care. Bob was a member of the Board of Directors of The Medicines Company (MDCO) and Eurand international, which was acquired by Forest Labs. He spent 15 years in investment banking, including serving as Managing Director in Health Care Finance Group at Bear Stearns & Co. (now JP Morgan), having worked on capital markets and M&A transactions in excess of $5.0 billion. Bob earned a BA in Economics from Yale University and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Bio coming soon.

Bio coming soon.

Bio coming soon.

Ryan operates in the frontlines of health innovation at the intersection of biomedical research, innovation, commercialization, and transformation. His work spans the entire landscape of product and service innovation, from translating unmet needs into products in market, to helping hospital systems foster a culture of innovation. Ryan brings nearly 20 years of experience in research, innovation and commercialization to his role at Innovation Institute’s incubator, the Innovation Lab. At the Lab, he leads a talented team of professionals across the country, and together they manage partnerships with seven major hospital systems and alliances with organizations including the Cleveland Clinic, Boston Scientific, Dell, and Deloitte. They collaborate with 200,000 medical professionals affiliated across those seven systems to develop, commercialize, and bring new products and solutions to patients and the market at scale.

Ryan has amassed a long list of accolades including closed deals, strategic partnerships (industry, academia, venture), grants and fellowships, guest speaker at national and regional industry groups, and published nine peer-reviewed articles. Ryan blends his health, tech, and business mindsets to not only translate unmet needs into implemented solutions at scale, but also advise organizations and their leaders on innovation and transformation. He enjoys the opportunity to guide and empower "frontline" medical professionals to create innovative products and services that will improve the quality of healthcare for all.

When Ryan isn’t working to improve healthcare across the US, he can be found enjoying the sun and surf with his wife and children in Orange County, CA.

I am an Angel investor in MedTech as well as an advisor/investor/consultant with a number of startups in the medtech area. I am a Life Science Advisor and Director of Deal Flow for Kyto Technology and Life Science, and act as a scout for innovative early stage companies in medtech, biotech and tech. I have technical expertise along with business development and executive experience in startups as well as in medium size and large companies. I have helped companies raise capital as well as setting a vision for growth, develop a plan to get there, and helping them execute their plan to achieve success. I have demonstrated these capabilities in growing revenues and delivering cutting edge products particularly in sensors and systems for medical, commercial, consumer, industrial, scientific, and defense applications.

Pierre is board member in various medtech and digital health start-ups both in USA and Europe.

He was in charge the acquisition of Medicrea by Medtronic in 2020 for more than $200M

Medicrea has pioneered the creation of artificial intelligence surgical planning combined with personalized implants in spinal surgeries.

Anthony Natale, M.D. has over 20 years of experience in healthcare venture capital and entrepreneurship as a physician, inventor, founder, operator, and investor. He blends his extensive investment and start-up experience with a background in clinical medicine. Dr. Natale has been active across a variety of areas in medical technology, life sciences and services. A committed board member, he works alongside management teams to devise optimal clinical and commercial strategies, bring operational discipline to rapidly evolving enterprises and effectively access capital markets.

Dr. Natale has worked closely with his portfolio to drive over $20 billion of highly profitable exits, via both IPO and strategic acquisitions. He has been a founder, investor and/or director of many companies, including Mako Surgical, Inspire Medical, XLumena, Spirox, Devoro, Otonomy, Entrigue Surgical, Channel Medsystems, Neuros Medical, Entellus, Cortica, Avedro, XII Medical and ENT Specialty Partners.

Prior to joining Aperture, Dr. Natale started his career by building MDS Capital’s Medtech practice in Boston and subsequently was a partner with Prism Ventures in Boston and California. He trained in General Surgery and Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Connecticut and Hartford Hospital before transitioning into entrepreneurial activities. He received a B.A., Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Virginia, an M.D. from the University of Florida and an M.B.A. from Yale.

Bio coming soon.

Mr. Akinseye is an Associate at Longitude Capital. Prior to joining Longitude Capital in 2020, Mr. Akinseye was an Investment Banking Analyst at Goldman Sachs, where he covered financial technology companies. Mr. Akinseye holds a BA in Health and Human Biology, and Economics from Brown University, where he graduated magna cum laude.

Nirav Dalal leads the Global Data Science and Analytics function at Abbott medical devices. Nirav is interested in methods and tools to improve healthcare and create value using “Big Data” and machine learning. He has published more than fifty peer-reviewed journal articles, conference abstracts and US patents.

Dr. Azin Parhizgar served as Chief Executive Officer, President and Board Member at Claret Medical. She is an experienced and successful medical device industry executive and entrepreneur. Prior to Claret Medical, she served as the Chief Operating Officer of Conor Medsystems which led to the acquisition of the company by Johnson & Johnson, Inc. in 2007. She spent one year post-merger with Johnson & Johnson for full integration of the companies. Between 1996-2000 she held the position of Executive Vice President for Arterial Vascular Engineering, which was acquired by Medtronic. She spent two years at Medtronic post-merger in increasing roles of responsibility leading to her role as Executive Vice President of Emerging Ventures and New Technologies. Dr. Parhizgar has served as an advisor to emerging medical device technology companies including several Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board positions. Dr. Parhizgar received both her Ph.D. in Cell, Gene and Tissue Engineering and her M.Sc. in Biomechanical Engineering and Artificial Organ Design from Brown University.

Dan is a Partner at Providence Ventures (PV) where he focuses on investments in the healthcare information technology, healthcare services, and medical device sectors. Dan joined PV in 2015 and leads the team’s investments in: Gauss Surgical, Lyra Health, Omada Health, One Medical, Press Ganey, and Twistle.

Dan has been investing in and partnering with management teams of early and growth-stage companies in the healthcare industry for over 20 years.  Prior to joining PV, Dan was a partner at HLM Venture Partners where he led or co-led investments in 14 companies including: Confluent Surgical, Redbrick Health, ClearData, Silverlink Communications, and CBR Systems. Prior to HLM, Dan was an associate at venture capital firm J.H. Whitney and Company and an Analyst in the healthcare investment banking group at Alex. Brown & Sons.

Dan has an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University and a BS in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dan lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where he and his wife enjoy spending much of their time following the athletic pursuits of their three teenage children. Dan is an avid sports fan and enjoys playing golf and pick-up basketball with his friends and family.

Bio coming soon.

Bio coming soon.

Since 2016, I have led fundraising and closing on over $100M of seed/early stage Medtech deals resulting in the formation and development of seven new companies.

I joined the Coridea team in 2014 and currently function as the Chief Business Officer of Deerfield Catalyst, an incubator partnership between Coridea and Deerfield Management. My current responsibilities include innovation management, managing all financial aspects of the incubator and its portfolio companies, and business development.

I am a member of Wharton's 46th Executive MBA class. Prior to my career in healthcare, I attended the Berklee College of Music and continued my career producing music and managing artists through my production company that I began at age 16. During this period of time I also pioneered music technology programs in public schools throughout New York City and founded a travel consulting company to assist clients in acquiring and maximizing credit card points and miles. I am a board member of the Bronx Arts Ensemble, where I sit on the education committee.

He is widely sought after for his strategic insight and knowledge of structuring M&A transactions and currently serves on the boards of several healthcare companies, including Shockwave Medical (NASDAQ: SWAV), Avail Medsystems, RefleXion Medical, Tissium and Neptune Medical.

Bio coming soon.

With over 30 years experience in medical sales, marketing and product  development, John leads the Medtech Innovation and Business Development at Cambridge Consultants. John has led various projects involving leading edge medical devices, creating solutions for our client’s needs. John is also the commercial lead for Cambridge’s Smart Implant Development team.

Prior to this, John was the OEM Director for Baxter and Cardinal Healthcare, creating new business ventures that included three manufacturing facilities, various outsource allegiances (domestic and international) and developing intellectual property.

Dr. Nick Pliam joined Decheng Capital at its inception in 2011 and is based in its Menlo Park office. Trained as an orthopedic surgeon and endocrine physiologist, he leverages a combination of scientific, clinical, entrepreneurial and investment experience to build and support life science companies. He currently serves on the boards of CardiMED, Centricity Vision, Ketai Medical, Nalu Medical, and Polares Medical.

Dr. Pliam was previously a venture partner at Bay City Capital, serving on the board of Nevro (NYSE: NVRO), which was incubated at Bay City to become a global leader in neuromodulation for chronic pain management. He was also a board member of Aragon Surgical (acquired by Aesculap) and IDev Technologies (acquired by Abbott). Dr. Pliam has served as an advisor to several pharmaceutical and medical technology companies, and as managing director of a New York-based boutique investment banking firm. He co-founded of Pharmagenesis, which focused on drug discovery from natural products, and Guided Delivery Systems (now Ancora Heart).

Dr. Pliam earned his undergraduate degree in German Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, completing year-long studies at Georg August Universität in Göttingen, Germany. He received his MD from Dartmouth Medical School and PhD in Endocrine Physiology from the University of California, San Francisco. Following general surgery residency at UCSF, he completed orthopedic surgical residency at the Stanford University Medical Center. He was a staff physician in orthopedic surgery at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Stanford Medical Center.

Justin Norden is a Partner at GSR Ventures, where he focuses on early-stage investments in digital health. Prior to GSR Ventures, he was CEO and co-founder of Trustworthy AI which was acquired by Waymo (Google self-driving). He worked on the healthcare team at Apple, co-founded Indicator (an NLP based platform for biopharma decision making), and helped start the Stanford Center for Digital Health. As an academic he is an award winning machine learning and bioinformatics researcher with 20+ publications. Finally, Justin is a former professional athlete and 3x world champion in ultimate frisbee. Justin received his MD from Stanford University School of Medicine, MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, M.Phil in Computational Biology from the University of Cambridge, and BA in Computer Science from Carleton College.

Bio coming soon.

A dynamic and results oriented executive with a unique combination of marketing, P&L management, and business development experience. An entrepreneurial leader with a proven record of building successful biopharmaceutical and medical device businesses in both developed and emerging markets.

Specialties: Business Development,Marketing,International Business,Sales,Medical Devices,Healthcare Services,Negotiation, P&L Management

Founder of Panakes, Diana has over 20 years of international experience in managing Venture Capital investment funds, through which she invested in over 60 start-ups across Europe. After several years of experience in the strategic consultancy sector at A.T. Kearney, Diana worked as Senior Advisor in the Investment Banking division of Lazard. In 2001 she co-founded 360 Capital Partners, a leading pan-European Venture Capital firm. She is a member of several national and international committees (EU and US) for the selection and promotion of innovative start-ups. She has also co-founded and chaired the International Venture Club, an association that brings together the main European venture capital firms. She is frequently involved as Scientific Advisor to Life Sciences conferences and acting in or chairing juries for the allocation of public funds at Italian, European and US level (i.e. Premio Marzotto, Life Star Awards, EIC H2020 and National Cancer Institute-SBIR initiative).

Eyal Lifschitz, General Partner and Co-Founder of Peregrine Ventures. On behalf of the Fund, Eyal serves on the Boards of many of the portfolio companies, including Valtech Cardio, NLT Spine, and CardioNova. Prior to founding Peregrine Ventures, Eyal co-founded and led the business development efforts of a number of medical technology companies including PharmaSys (acquired by Elan Corp. NYSE:ELN), ECR (acquired by AVX Corp. NYSE:AVX), Visioncare Ophthalmic Technologies, and BioControl Ltd. From 2003-2007 Eyal also served as a Director of Given Imaging (NASDAQ: GIVN).

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Casey Tansey joined USVP as a general partner in April 2005. A veteran of the medical device industry, Casey brings over 25 years of entrepreneurial, early-stage medical device and seasoned operating experience to USVP.

Casey’s extensive operations experience brings more to the table than strategic counsel — he adds empathy to that mix.

“As a CEO, it was important to me when board members really shared our passion and understood organization-building focused on improving healthcare for patients. CEOs need venture capitalists that leverage their network of contacts, help identify the best partners, and share the company’s vision. USVP takes this approach.”

Casey’s investment strategy is a lot like his strategy as a CEO: identify unmet clinical needs where patients are in need of new and improved products and services. At USVP, Casey focuses on the trend toward the miniaturization of devices and the development of minimally-invasive technologies that promise innovations in the delivery of medical products and services, especially in cardiovascular products, orthopedics, spinal care and neurology.

Casey’s passion is to strive for delivery of medical services with fewer traumas to the patient and improved quality of life. Innovations shaping this trend include minimally invasive technologies. During his tenure as CEO, President and board member of Epicor Medical from 2001 to 2004, Casey, along with a dedicated team, pioneered a minimally invasive treatment for atrial fibrillation and transformed the Company into a recognized market leader, and he led Epicor’s acquisition by St. Jude Medical.

Prior to Epicor, Casey was CEO, President and board member of Heartport, a public company that helped pioneer minimally invasive cardiac surgery, which is now a Johnson & Johnson company. Before that, he was with Baxter Edward’s Cardiovascular Division for nearly ten years, holding various sales and marketing positions. During his tenure at Baxter, Casey was involved in launching innovative heart valve products that have grown to be the market leaders.

Casey’s recent board activities have included Inspire Medical (IPO), IntersectENT (IPO), AtheroMed (sold to Volcano), Nanostim (sold to St. Jude Medical) and SentreHeart (sold to AtriCure).  Currently, he serves on the Board of Directors for Dstillery, HeartFlow, Highlife Medical, Inspire Medical, Intuity Medical, Neochord, Neuros Medical, PlaceIQ, Shiratronics, Shoulder Innovations and Standard Bariatrics. In addition, Casey served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the World Heart Foundation, an organization dedicated to advancing humanitarian efforts in heart surgery worldwide through education and collaboration.

Casey holds a B.S. and M.B.A. from the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, CA.

Jake Goble earned both his MS and PhD degrees in bioengineering from Arizona State University. After graduating in 2007, Jake moved to Flagstaff, Arizona to work as a Product Specialist within the Medical Division at W.L. Gore & Associates. As a Product Specialist, Jake demonstrated his versatility while contributing at a high caliber across a vast array of areas including clinical trial design, FDA regulatory submissions, product launches, marketing strategy, sales support, litigation depositions, product design, quality control, etc. His leadership role allowed him to influence engineering and business teams toward the development of new medical devices for the treatment of congenital heart defects. After seven years in this position, Jake transitioned to a role within Gore to focus on upstream strategic marketing within Gore’s Aortic business unit. Here, Jake was responsible for the development and execution of brand strategy for the GORE® EXCLUDER® Aortic Abdominal Aneurysm product line while helping to pave the road for market access of developing product iterations. During his two years in this role, Jake completed his MBA with a focus in International Business. Subsequently, Jake accepted a business leadership role in Gore’s Structural Heart followed by Gore's Cardiac Business. Currently, Jake leads Gore's Medical Products Division's Innovation Business where he seeks to define a portfolio of growth opportunities that will contribute to our efforts to improve the lives of patients. Over the years, Jake’s vast experience has yielded multiple peer reviewed publications and patent applications, and various speaking engagements at international interventional cardiology congresses. 

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Tiffany brings more than 18 years of leadership transitioning innovative medical technologies from benchtop to bedside, building partnerships across academia, industry and economic development organizations.

Susan Windham-Bannister, Ph.D. has been a director at Histogen since March 2021. Dr. Windham-Bannister is an internationally recognized expert in innovation, market access and market optimization strategies. She has been recognized by Biosphere as one of the “10 Most Prominent African American Science Leaders,” the Boston Globe as one of the “10 Most Influential Women in Biotech,” by Boston Magazine as one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Boston” and is the President of the National Board of Directors of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS). Dr. Windham-Bannister currently serves as the President and CEO of Biomedical Growth Strategies, LLC and as immediate past President and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC), a state-funded investment organization charged with administering a $1-billion Life Sciences investment fund created by Governor Deval Patrick in June 2008. These advisory firms and other organizations leverage Dr. Windham-Bannister’s experience as a business strategist.

Before assuming her role at the MLSC, Dr. Windham-Bannister was a co-founder and Managing Partner of Abt Bio-Pharma Solutions (ABS), a boutique consulting firm of 300 experts serving life sciences companies. She also led the firm’s Commercial Strategy Group, which formulated market access and competitive business strategies for global clients. In her 35-year consulting career, she has been instrumental in the successful launch of numerous well-known therapeutics, medical devices and novel biomarkers, and has supported several high-profile M&A transactions. Her client base has included Fortune 50 life sciences companies (Pfizer, Merck, Novartis, Roche), technology (IBM, GE), large healthcare delivery systems and health plans (Partners, Humana, BlueCross and BlueShield), and financial services companies (CIGNA, Prudential, The Hartford, CitiGroup).

Dr. Windham-Bannister received a B.A. from Wellesley College, a Doctorate in Health Policy and Management from the Florence Heller School at Brandeis University, and a Doctor of Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (honoris causa). She completed her doctoral work at the Heller School under a fellowship from the Ford Foundation and was also a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School. Dr. Windham-Bannister also served as a Fellow in the Center for Science and Policy (CSAP) at Cambridge University, Cambridge, England.

Jennifer McCaney, PhD, is the Executive Director of UCLA Biodesign, an early-stage innovation program for healthcare technology and Associate Director of the UCLA CTSI.  Jennifer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and a Lecturer at the Anderson School of Management where she leads courses on disruptive technology and entrepreneurship in healthcare.  A co-founder of Hourglass Technologies, a Stanford Biodesign company, Jennifer led early product development and also launched the MedTech Innovator Accelerator, which grew from an initial cohort of 20 companies to over 150 alumni with a combined $700M in funding.  Jennifer has worked extensively with start-up companies in medtech, digital health and diagnostics, as well as business development executives from leading manufacturers, including J&J, Amgen, Baxter, BD, Olympus, and others in her role as the Director of MedTech Innovator.  A Fulbright Scholar, Jennifer completed her PhD in mechanical engineering at Stanford and MS in biomedical engineering from the University of New South Wales. Jennifer holds an MS and BS in mechanical engineering from MIT where she was a Draper Fellow and a BS in management science from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

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Founder and Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of developing businesses, markets and ideas in the medical device and aesthetics industry. Strong business development professional skilled in medical device start ups, new market development, international business, biotechnology, capital equipment, skin care, biomedical engineering, and optics.

I am an energetic and fast-paced healthcare professional, with experience in medical device alliance management, product development, strategic marketing, and commercial strategy. I have a multi-disciplinary understanding of the healthcare industry, with prior experience as a litigation attorney in the life sciences sector.

My recent accomplishments include:
• Establishing strategic corporate alliances and partnerships which produce innovative new products, technologies and business models to best serve patient needs.
• Identifying, assessing and executing business development opportunities for the purposes of inorganic growth, including co-marketing opportunities, licensing, mergers or acquisitions.
• Influencing, communicating and negotiating with multiple stakeholders across functional and business unit boundaries, under sensitive deadlines.
• Receiving the Johnson & Johnson Leadership Award for exemplifying cross-functional leadership and delivering business results during two international product recalls.
• Serving as guest speaker, “Breaking down silos to align product portfolio management”, Q1 Productions.

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James "Jim" Corbett has more than 30 years of leadership experience in the medical device field. Over the course of his career, Mr. Corbett has held the positions of Chief Executive Officer, Alphatec Spine (ATEC.nasdaq) Vertos Medical, ev3 Inc (evvv.nasdaq) Chairman and CEO Microtherapeutics (MTIX. nasdaq) Home Diagnostics Inc.; President, Boston Scientific International; and General Manager Baxter, Japan, as well as a number of executive roles in his 11 years at Baxter Healthcare.

CEO and Director of Lux Health Tech Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: LUXA), a $345M Special Purpose Acquisition Corp focusing on generational companies innovating at the intersection of healthcare and technology.

Dr. Nehmé co-founded Digital Surgery in 2011 while training in plastic surgery in London and has continued to serve in his role after Digital Surgery was acquired by Medtronic in February 2020 to be integrated into the MITG Robotics division. Dr. Nehmé earned multiple awards for his research in innovation and application of surgical technology and simulation. He has presented at multiple international conferences and won the Founders Forum Singapore Rising Star award and the London Business School Deloitte Digital Health Award in 2015. Dr. Nehmé completed his masters in surgical technology at Imperial College London.

Greg brings over 15 years of healthcare transaction experience to SV, including deep private and public healthcare company investment experience. He joined SV in 2002 as an Analyst and later transitioned to the role of Portfolio Manager with both portfolio and lead fundraising responsibilities. Greg was promoted to Partner in 2019 and focuses on medical device and healthcare services investments. He is actively engaged in the financing, strategy, operations and acquisitions of portfolio companies.

Prior to SV, Greg worked at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, in the Business Practice, Emerging Technology and Private Equity groups, supporting both venture capital funds and venture backed companies in business formations and financings, mergers and acquisitions, and venture capital fundraising.

Academic credentials
BA, Honors, Colby College; MBA, Honors, Boston University (graduating Beta Gamma Sigma).

Outside of SV
Greg enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters, and playing golf (they are learning to enjoy it too). He is a Boston native and a graduate of St. Sebastian’s School.

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R&D leader with 15+ years of experience in signal processing (DSP) and analysis of biomedical signals, systems, and devices. My mission, motivation and passion is to improve health outcomes through the use of advanced analytics, algorithm design, and system modeling on biomedical data.

Experienced in Population Health and Communications with a demonstrated history of helping leaders in health care, education, business, nonprofits, and government understand and address socio-economic drivers of health and well-being. Skilled in Philanthropy, Alliance-Building, Nonprofit Capacity-Building, Corporate Communications, Writing/Editing, Public Speaking, and Media Relations. Bachelor of Arts (BA) focused in Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services from Cleveland State University.

Yury Rozenman is the Senior Vice President of Business Development at Propeller Health. In this role, he leads the company's strategy, vision and oversees execution of all global business development activities. Prior to joining Propeller, Yury was the head of healthcare and life sciences industry partnerships at AWS where he was responsible for the development of life sciences vertical solutions, marketing programs, joint GTM strategy and execution on the global basis. Yury has over 25 years of experience within the industry in pharmaceutical research and development both as a team leader and group research manager. He has worked in diagnostics and medical devices, and has been involved in the development and launch of world-class drugs and diagnostic tests.

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Sean Lavin M.D. began his career as an equity research analyst at Oppenheimer and Co in 2006. He then transitioned to Lazard Capital Markets, before helping build the healthcare group at BTIG. Sean left BTIG at the end of 2019 to form his own advisory firm. Over the past 14 years, Sean supplied some of the most sought after research advice on medical devices and diagnostics to approximately 1000 institutional investment funds. He covered approximately fifty public companies during this time period and helped BTIG be involved in raising ~$25B in new capital for healthcare companies over the past five years. ~$14B went to device and diagnostic companies, which were Sean's lead areas of focus.

John Strong is co-founder and Chief Consulting Officer for ASPI. In this role, John consults with medical device manufacturers and medical products and technology companies on strategic planning, sales, marketing, national accounts strategy, pricing strategy and more.

John is a 40-year veteran of the healthcare industry with leadership experience in healthcare providers, suppliers and service providers, and group purchasing organizations. In 2011 the Bellwether League (Health Care Supply Chain Hall of Fame) inducted John for “his outstanding contributions over the years to healthcare supply chain management, development, innovation and leadership.” His experience and expertise include healthcare administration, entrepreneurship, national accounts contracting, group purchasing, the roles of President, CEO and board member, and healthcare industry consultant. 

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