Confirmed Investors & Strategics
(prelim sneak peek)
Marta-Gaia Zanchi
Founder & Managing Partner
Nina Capital
I support multidisciplinary teams at the intersection of high tech and health care. From 2006 to 2019, I've lived, learned and worked with entrepreneurs, investors, universities, and corporations in Silicon Valley. I am now back in Europe, as the founder and managing partner of Nina Capital, to invest in this sector alongside a stellar international team.
Sectors and Focus:
I am especially committed to innovation in information technology / digital health, and have broader expertise in health technology and medical devices with emphasis on needs and markets identification, product management, regulation (FDA Class I-II), fundraising and growth strategies of early-stage companies.
Personality:
I have a bias towards entrepreneurs and an appetite for continuous learning. Leveraging my technology and business domain expertise, I have the most fun while mentoring young professionals and contributing to the building of products and companies. I thrive in unstructured environments, where the risks are high and success hinges on creative people with high ethical standards to self-organize and work together towards solving a compelling health care need.
Philosophy and Goals:
I believe in a culture of collaboration and giving, and in the ripple effect in all aspects of life or business. Keeping my values close and my loved ones even closer, I am moved by a desire to make positive impact and serve a community of health tech innovators, so that their inspiring ideas become solutions that matter in the hands of those who need them the most.
Background:
I have held roles with vastly different organizations in Europe, Canada and the United States, and developed my operational and creative abilities by contributing to, establishing and growing businesses.
Diana Saraceni
Co-Founder & General Partner
Panakes Partners
Diana is General Partner and co-founder at Panakes Partners, an investment company focused on Innovative Early Stage Medical companies, all over Europe and more particularly in Italy (www.panakes.it).
Before, Diana was General Partner at 360 Capital Partners which she co-founded as well.
360 Capital is a Venture Capital Fund investing in Innovative early stage companies all over Europe and more particularly in Italy and France.
Before joining the Venture Capital industry almost 20 years ago, Diana was Senior Advisor at Lazard Investment Banking and primarily worked on M&A transactions and IPO in Telecom, Media & Technology .
Prior to Lazard, Diana spent over 4 years at ATKearney in Milan and London.
She graduated from the University of Rome with a degree in Engineering, and received an MBA from LUISS of Rome.
Specialties: Venture Capital financing, Scouting of new investment opportunities, Board member, M&A transactions, IPOs, companies strategic assessment.
Josep Ll. Sanfeliu
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Asabys
Managing partner, president and co-founder at Asabys. Josep currently serves on the board of directors of Anaconda, Cara Care, Inbrain Neuroelectronics, Medasense, Medlumics and Psious.
Formerly, Josep co-founded Ysios Capital (2008-2018) where he was the partner in charge of Health Technology investments, investing in a total of 9 companies in the areas of medtech and digital health in Europe and in the US. Previously, Josep held positions in the pharmaceutical and home-healthcare industries as Corporate Development Director at Almirall and General Manager of DomusVi. Josep started his career in Cuatrecasas, KPMG and Eurohold.
Josep has a Degree in Law by the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the University of Michigan Law School and also an MBA from IESE Business School.
Manish Kothari
Founding Managing Partner
First Spark Ventures
Prior to co-founding First Spark Ventures, Manish was President at SRI International, leading research institute in Silicon Valley and the birthplace of companies such as Intuitive Surgical, Nuance, and Siri. He incubated and invested in over 25 Deep Tech startups, in addition to advising translational programs with the US Government that include agencies such as NASA and Department of Education. Prior to that, he was serial entrepreneur in Medtech and software, including cofounding Mytrus, software startup focused on direct-to-participant clinical trials. It was the first company in the world to have FDA approved electronic informed consent. Manish has a postdoc from UCSF in Medical Physics, a PhD from Cornell in Bioengineering, and undergraduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai in Aerospace Engineering.
Ruben Osnabrugge
Director
EQT Life Sciences
Prior to joining LSP, Ruben led the Value-Based Care strategy for Philips where he also supported strategic deep dives and due diligence for Philips’s investments. Moreover, I represented the company at Medtech Europe and led a World Economic Forum project.
Before, Ruben underwent surgical training in cardio-thoracic surgery with a special interest in interventional cardiology at Erasmus University Medical Center. As part of this training, he also performed general and vascular surgery and worked at the intensive care.
Ruben is a recognized expert in cost-effectiveness and health outcomes research, especially in coronary revascularization and structural heart interventions. He received a Fulbright Scholarship which he spent at the Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City to work on pivotal cardiovascular clinical trials. He has (co-)authored >40 articles in top peer-reviewed medical journals including JAMA, European Heart Journal, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, two chapters in the ESC Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine and a European clinical guideline. Moreover, he was editorial board member at Eurointervention Journal and faculty at leading interventional cardiology and surgical societies EuroPCR and EACTS, from which he also received a young investigator award.
Ruben holds MD and PhD degrees from Erasmus Medical School in Rotterdam, a MSc in clinical research from NIHES and the Harvard School of Public Health, and a BSc in health economics from Erasmus School of Economics. Ruben lives in Amsterdam, in his spare time he is an avid cyclist and enjoys traveling, good food and photography.
Bommy Lee
Head Of Communications
Sofinnova Partners
Head of Communications at Sofinnova Partners, a leading European venture capital firm based in Paris, London, and Milan. Sofinnova manages €2.6 billion in assets across a platform of investments strategies that span multiple healthcare and sustainability domains (biotech, medtech, foodtech, greentech). I am responsible for the company's global communications strategy. If you are looking to pitch a project, please do so via our website: sofinnovapartners.com.
Shobha Parthasarathi
Advisor
Xontogeny
20+ years of research, business development, strategic partnerships and venture investing experience to development of new medicines and emerging healthcare technologies. Track record of advancing and investing in innovative technologies at public and private companies. Well established extensive global network across academia, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, foundations and investors. Career contributions include FDA drug approvals and marketed products, company acquisitions and IPOs.
Sascha Berger
Partner
TVM Capital
Dr. Sascha Berger is a Partner at TVM Capital, based in Munich, Germany. TVM Capital is one of the transatlantic Life Science Venture Capital pioneers, investing with teams in Europe and North America. Sascha joined TVM Capital in 2016, helped to raise the current $480M fund, and works closely with entrepreneurs and founders to advance promising pharmaceutical assets, medtech, diagnostic, and digital health technologies to the next value inflection points. Sascha is a passionate VC, a Boston Consulting Group alumnus, and has an academic background in chemistry and finance.
Kenneth Nelson
Angel Investor & Partner
MedTech Advantage Fund
Over the past 10 years, I have led commercial efforts for disruptive technologies in the digital health, wearables, and cardiac remote patient monitoring industries, playing a significant role in building the teams and cultures for 3 of the top 4 market share players, including #1 (BioTelemetry), #2 (iRhythm), and #4 (Bardy Diagnostics).
Overall, I’m a 20 year digital health, medical device, and remote monitoring innovator with successful senior leadership experience ranging from a Fortune 500 company (Boston Scientific) to a medium sized #1 market share (Biotelemetry, acquisition by Philips for $2.8 Billion in December '20) to 3 start-ups, 1 of which eventually led to an extremely successful IPO (iRhythm) and another which was acquired by HillRom (Bardy Diagnostics) in August '21 for what will end up being $400M+ after milestone payments.
Along the way I accomplished the following achievements most recently:
• Built the teams, culture, and infrastructure, as well as developed the strategies and executed on the business plans to help drive global commercialization efforts of a disruptive cardiac monitoring patch (CAM Patch), resulting in multiple rounds of venture capital, including a $35M+ round in April 2019.
• Raised significant shareholder value as well as a combined $100M+ in venture capital funding for iRhythm and Bardy Diagnostics, leading successful commercialization efforts for both by focusing on recruiting the right people, building the right culture, and developing strategic plans that led to explosive growth.
• Led Biotelemetry to profitability for the first time ever, and grew them to the #1 market share player, in part by developing a winning team and culture to successfully grow revenue for 18 consecutive quarters from $111M in revenue in 2012 to $208M in revenue in 2016, exceeding quota in all 18 quarters.
• Drove successful acquisitions of competitors and emerging technology, as well as developed impactful strategic partnerships, all of which added to the explosive growth of these companies.
Specialties: Sales and marketing leadership and management, building winning teams and cultures, commercialization and scaling of start-ups, venture capital fundraising, business planning, medical device sales, disruptive new product launches, Cardiology and Electrophysiology implantables and diagnostics, National Accounts, market development, marketing, recruiting and hiring sales talent, people development, contracting (negotiating and deal structuring), finance, strategic operations, strategic pricing, budgeting, and forecasting.
Sandrine Cailleteau
Managing Director, Healthcare
RBC Capital Markets
30 years experience in M&A, partnering, private and public fund raising and strategic planning in the industry and as an investment banker + Board directorships in France and Germany. Experience in big pharma, mid-pharma, biotech, medtech and CRO, and in investment banking in Europe, in the US and in emerging markets, with a large number of transactions closed.
Martin Chamberlin
Managing Director
RBC Capital Markets
Martin Chamberlin is a Managing Director in the European Healthcare Investment Banking team at RBC Capital Markets. Martin advises public and private clients on a broad range of investment banking products including debt, equity and M&A. He focuses upon the healthcare services and medtech sectors and works with clients across a wide range of sub-sectors including clinics and care facilities. The global RBC Capital Markets Healthcare team also has members in North America and Asia and Martin works closely with these colleagues.
Joël Jean-Mairet
Managing Partner & Co-Founder
Ysios Capital
Joël oversees all operations at Ysios Capital, including management, strategy and day-to-day operations.
Previously, in 2001, Joël co-founded Glycart Biotechnology and was its CEO until its sale to F. Hoffmann La-Roche four years later. Glycart Biotechnology was the originator of the anti-CD20 antibody – obinituzumab/Gazyva® – the first breakthrough designated drug approved by the FDA in 2013.
Joël was elected one of the 50 key players in biotechnology in Switzerland in 2003 and earned several innovation awards for Glycart Biotechnology, including the Wall Street Journal Europe Innovation Award in 2001.
Joël holds a MSc in Biotechnology and a PhD in the fields of Cell Biology and Immunotherapeutics, both from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich).
Hussein Kanji
Analyst
Hoxton Ventures
Early stage venture capitalist, investing in seed and pre-seed European tech companies.
Yassaman Salas
Partner, Global Head of Medical Device
Goldman Sachs
Yassaman is a partner in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group and runs the medical device coverage effort. She served as the group's business unit manager in 2008. Yassaman is co-head of the Georgetown University undergraduate and MBA recruiting efforts for the Investment Banking Division. She joined Goldman Sachs in 2005 as an associate and was named managing director in 2013 and partner in 2020.
Prior to joining the firm, Yassaman worked in the Investment Banking Division of Morgan Stanley and in the Corporate Development group at Avaya. Yassaman earned a BS in Foreign Service and an MBA, both from Georgetown University.
Pamela Putz
Events and Community Manager
Sofinnova Partners
Austin Sawyer
VC Investor, Health Tech
Nina Capital
Former startup founder and biomedical engineer turned VC. Absolute nerd for everything and anything health tech and medical devices. Love to meet new founders and people in the field.
Martin Gershon
Managing Partner
Endeavor
Dr. Martin Gershon is Managing Partner & CIO of Endeavor Venture Funds & Venture Studio.
Over the past 23 years Dr. Gershon raised over $1B, is a prominent Investor & entrepreneur, featured on CNBC, personally started & exited 6 startups, has expanded & developed an ecosystem of collaboration partners within Big Tech, Digital Healthcare, Pharma, Biotech, Medtech, world class accelerators Techstars, Plug&Play, MassChallenge, & prominent Ivy League universities & business schools Harvard, Columbia, NYU, leveraging core competencies of the partnerships.
Endeavor Venture Fund is an evergreen Swiss Healthcare and Life Sciences Fund, established in 2009. Endeavor’s companies possess disruptive technologies with strong scalable commercial potential, driven by great entrepreneur/founders who look for coaching & partnerships within our ecosystem to enhance and build their companies into the next great unicorn.
Endeavor Venture Fund I invested in groundbreaking biotech companies like Moderna & 69 life science companies with 55 exits.
Endeavor Venture Fund II & Endeavor Venture Studio-The Alternative to Accelerators-was established June 2022. Unlike an accelerator, the Venture Studio doesn’t fund existing startups. Instead it provides weekly “hands on” guidance & operational & strategic support in an ecosystem of seasoned entrepreneurs, subject matter experts & business leaders dedicated to help grow, scale & commercialize the company’s products over a 4 year period. The most famous venture studio alum Is Moderna.
Endeavor II & Venture Studio particularly target emerging Digital Healthcare Unicorns to develop partnerships to expand AI Healthcare use cases in collaboration with BigTech & Cloud Providers, providing companies with bespoke growth strategies that accelerate commercialization & generate new stand alone revenue streams.
As the Managing Director of Endeavor Dr. Gershon is the architect driving a team of 22 professionals to leverage Endeavor’s ecosystem of collaboration partnerships to provide CEO/Entrepreneurs with bespoke revenue generating Go-to-Market strategies, FDA regulatory services, clinical trial design, reimbursement & coding guidance, and the development of strategic & financial corporate partnerships to grow, scale, & commercialize disruptive new healthcare products & services stemming from technologies like AI and ML.
Dr. Gershon is a designated S&P Healthcare Industry Leader, contributing author Fast Company, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Mayday Fellow neuroscientist, oncologist/immunologist, former FDA attorney.
Maria Tell
Investment Director
Segulah Medical Acceleration
15+ years experience in investment, marketing, strategy, business development and entrepreneurship in the Life Science and Med Tech industry, in senior roles. Master of Science in Molecular Biology and a degree in Marketing and Business Administration from Entreprenörskolan, Uppsala University.
Danchen Zhao
Investment Director
MTIP AG
Investor with 11 years’ experience in HealthTech investments. Strong ability to identify promising HealthTech solutions and support ambitious teams in commercial scaling. Hands-on and results-driven with an expertise to perform at a high level with attention to detail.
Fluent in German, Chinese, Spanish, Dutch and English.
Patrick Malone
Principal
KdT Ventures
I am a physician-scientist turned investor at KdT Ventures, where we invest in early-stage life science and healthcare and founders building at the intersection of compute, biology, and chemistry. Prior to venture, I completed my MD and PhD degrees at Georgetown University, where my research focused on computational cognitive neuroscience and AI/ML applications in medicine. I'm active on twitter @patricksmalone.
Lacy Kolo
Investment Banking, Healthcare and Life Science Practice
Weild & Co.
Dr. Kolo has spent her career working at the intersection of finance and technology, previously as a Director at a global investment bank, a Partner in one of the world’s largest law firms, and as an entrepreneurial executive. Deep expertise in capital raises, mergers and acquisitions, investment in technology and intellectual property, and structuring transactions, with focus on medical device and cyber.
Filip Pintelon
Investment Director
Capricorn Partners
Inspiring Leader & Bridge Builder, combining innovation successes in Healthcare and Technology Business with a passion for transforming ideas into reality - in early-stage ventures and mature businesses.
Sayan Bhattacharya
Executive Director
J.P. Morgan
Sayan joined J.P. Morgan’s healthcare investment banking division in 2022 focusing on advising clients in the MedTech space across Europe.
Prior to this, he was a Vice President in the healthcare investment banking team at Goldman Sachs where he spent almost a decade, across two stints, advising clients in Europe, Middle East and Africa. In between his two stints at Goldman Sachs, he was helping create the healthcare private equity business for Ashmore focused on emerging markets.
Sayan has a masters degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and a bachelors degree with first class honours from Presidency College, Kolkata.
Ken Ho
Investment Associate - Digital Health
LifeArc Ventures
Chris Church
Principal
Kreos Capital
Kreos has committed more than €3 billion in over 600 portfolio company transactions across Europe and Israel.
Janke Dittmer
General Partner, Head of European HealthTech Investments
Gilde Healthcare
Entrepreneurial investor with experience in: Growth Capital, Venture Capital, Corporate Venturing, Entrepreneurship, General Management, Strategic Marketing, Strategy, Business Development, Innovation Management, Research & Development; in the following Industries: Medical Devices, MedTech, (In vivo, In vitro, Molecular, Companion) Diagnostics, Digital Health(care), Healthcare IT, Consumer Health, High Tech, CleanTech / Renewable Energy
Luc Marengere
Managing Partner, Montreal
TVM Capital
Dr. Marengère is responsible for TVM Capital Life Science’s overall investment strategy and global fund operations.
Dr. Marengère joined TVM in 2012 and has 23 years of venture capital experience. He was a key driver of the implementation of the TVM LSI I investment strategy which resulted in a number of investments. He is a Director on the Boards of Emovi Inc.; Acanthas Pharma; Occelaris Pharma; Ixchelsis; PRCL Pharma; Panthera Dental; FAAH Pharma; Kaneq Biosciences; Acer Therapeutics as well as Rapid Micro Biosciences. Luc was on the Board of Colucid Pharma Inc. and Aurka Pharma which were recently sold to Eli Lilly for US $960M and US $575M respectively.
Dr. Marengère brings a significant track record to TVM given his long standing experience as a Venture Capitalist. Very notable deals during Luc‘s previous tenure as Managing Partner at VG Partners include Cytochroma Inc. (sold to Opko for US$ 400M); VisualSonics (sold to Sonosite for US $75M) and CITA Neuropharma (sold to Vernalis Plc for US$ 85M). Prior to joining VG Partners, Luc focused on making venture investments in the life science sector while at La Caisse De Depot‘s venture capital group SOFINOV as well as MDS Capital and MedTech Partners.
Prior to his venture capital career, he conducted commercially-oriented research in the fields of immunology and oncology while at Amgen. Luc holds a Ph.D. from University of Toronto‘s department of Medical Biophysics and Molecular Genetics.
Adam Rosenwach
Chief Business Officer
Deerfield Catalyst
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.
Prior to my career in healthcare, I attended the Berklee College of Music and continued my journey producing music and developing 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.
Howard Levin
CEO & CMO
Deerfield Catalyst
Howard Levin, M.D., a heart failure transplant cardiologist by training, is an expert in creating novel therapies for cardiac, respiratory, neuro, and renal patients.
Scott Huennekens
Principal
Front Foot Ventures
Scott is a successful Medtech CEO, Chairperson, board member, entrepreneur, and investor, having been involved in one of those roles in 20+ startup, growth and public companies with market valuations that have totaled over $20b and more importantly over 20 million patients that have benefited from the therapies & diagnostics of these companies, including 8 IPOs. Current professional affiliations include Principal Front Foot Ventures, Executive Chairperson Hyperfine (HYPR) IPO 2021, Chairperson Acutus Medical (AFIB) IPO 2020, Chairperson Envista (NVST) IPO 2019, Board Member Nuvasive (NUVA), Exec Chairperson & Invester Elucid, Exec Chairperson & Investor Wondr Medical, Chairperson of the Board & Investor Kardion, Board member & Investor, Q’apel Medical, Board member & Investor Proximie, Board member & Investor Foldax, Board Member Veranex Solutions, Advisor & Investor Genesis Healthcare, Advisor & Investor Cortica, advisor Brightinsight, Board Member & past Chairperson Medical Device Manufacturer’s Association (MDMA), and advisor to Peloton Equity, 8VC, River Cities Capital and Accelmed Equity. He completed his role as Pres & CEO of Verb Surgical in early 2019. Verb was Google & J&J’s Surgical Robotics and Digital Surgery platform start-up to revolutionize the future of surgery which J&J acquired in 2019. Previously, Scott led Volcano Corp. (VOLC), a leader in minimally invasive therapy guidance in interventional cardiology, as its first & only Pres & CEO, from start-up in 2002 to its IPO in 2006 and sale to Philips in 2015. Volcano 2014 revenue was > $400 million and its market capitalization peaked at nearly $2B. Prior to this, he was at Digirad Corp, a coronary imaging solutions provider, from 1997 to 2002, as President & CEO. Digirad went public in 2004 (DRAD). He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Bus Admin from the Univ. of Southern California in 1986 and earned his MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1991. Past affiliations include 12 other public and or VC funded medtech and biotech company boards of which 9 have had significant exits, including Chairperson of Endochoice (GI, IPO 2015, acquired by Boston Scientific), Chairperson Sonendo (SONX IPO 2021), board member Vicarious Surgical (RBOT IPO 2021), board/CEO advisor Digital Surgery/Touch Surgery (Acquired by Medtronic). Scott has also been awarded E&Y’s entrepreneur of the year award in 2010 & was recognized by Goldman Sachs in 2016, 2017, & 2018 as one of the 100 most intriguing entrepreneurs at its annual Builders & Innovators conference.
Kevin Cheng
Partner
MVM Partners
Investor in growth-stage healthcare companies tackling large unmet medical needs.
Kwame Ulmer
Venture Partner
Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health
Kwame Ulmer is a venture partner at Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health - the leading Southern-California based, early stage venture capital firm (Seed and Series A) focused on the healthcare industry. He leads the medtech practice and participates in all aspects of fund management (e.g. deal sourcing, diligence, negotiation and advising portfolio company management teams).
Kwame brings twenty years of experience evaluating medical technologies in the government and private sector, and serving in senior operating roles at medical device companies. He has personally evaluated more than 1,000 medical technologies in his career. Kwame spent 12 years at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in progressive leadership roles, including Deputy Director and Branch Chief. He also served as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at Implant Direct, a Danaher Corporation operating company.
Kwame serves on the board of the University of Virginia Licensing and Ventures Group and the California Life Sciences. He is also a lecturer and researcher in MedTech Innovation at the University of California, Los Angeles. Kwame founded MedTech Color, a nonprofit with a mission to advance the representation of persons of color in the medical device industry. He earned his B.S. in Physics from Lincoln University, and has two Masters degrees from the University of Virginia, in Materials Engineering and Business Administration.
Tracy Dooley
Partner
Avestria Ventures
Raised in the melting pot of the Bay Area before attending USC to major in biomedical engineering, Tracy took to heart Theodore von Kármán’s famous quote: “Scientists discover the world that exists; engineers create the world that never was.” In pursuit of creating a better world, she headed to medical school at Stanford where she quickly experienced firsthand the challenges of getting innovative products into the hands of clinicians to ultimately improve patient care.
Pivoting to industry, Tracy spent several years in healthcare M&A, then moved to Novartis Diagnostics, where she worked with Linda. As Chief of Staff to the President, she led strategy and built out the innovation pipeline, then headed global operations. More recently Tracy has been focused in digital health, where she advised a range of organizations, from early-stage startups to the Novartis Digital Accelerator Lab and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, before joining Avestria. She is also a member of the Women’s Health Executive Committee at Springboard Enterprises.
A classically trained violinist, Tracy believes that art & creativity is a critical underpinning for “STEAM” education. She’s a fan of swimming, baking, and impromptu dance parties with her daughter.
Alessio Beverina
Co-Founder & General Partner
Panakes Partners
I co-founded and manage a new VC firm, Panakès Partners, a Venture Capital firm, based in Milan, which invests in the most ambitious companies and teams, developing revolutionary technologies and products, in the field of life sciences, aiming to improve the lives of people around the world. Panakès has 250 million under management, in two funds.
I have 9 years VC experience in Sofinnova, one of the largest European VCs, grown internally from Analyst to Partner positions, with European and American exposure, focused in energy, IoT, cleantech, hardware and semiconductor sectors.
I am a creative, dynamic and hard worker, able to create business opportunities for the invested companies with his strong network at executive level and for the firm with his strong network of entrepreneurs, VCs, labs, intermediaries.
Assaf Barnea
Managing Partner
Sanara Ventures
Mr. Assaf Barnea is a seasoned entrepreneur and venture professional, with extensive, multidisciplinary
experience in building innovation platforms and leading investments & commercialization processes in healthcare and life science related technologies. He leads, since its inception in 2014, Sanara Ventures, a healthcare innovation fund, backed by Phillips and Teva investing in digital health, medical devices & Bio-Convergence technologies. He is also the Founder & Managing Partner of Sanara Capital, a follow up fund of Sanara Ventures, that focuses on A&B rounds investments in healthcare related technologies.
Parallel to his role at Sanara, Mr. Barnea Chairs also the Life Science Advisory Board at the Israel Export Institute, on behalf of the Israeli government, promoting and advancing the export of Israeli technologies in the medical, biotech, pharma and digital fields in global markets. Previously, Mr. Barnea was also advising the World Bank’s IFC venture capital team and is a co-founder of the IFC’s Tech Emerge program; a unique acceleration platform that connects healthcare startups from around the world with leading corporations and hospitals in emerging economies. In 2018, Tech Emerge Health has won the world bank group president’s award for innovation.
For over a decade, Mr. Barnea was a BOD & co-founder of CardioSense, a medtech startup company.
Assaf served as CEO of Kinrot Ventures, spearheading its acquisition by Hutchison Water in 2012. Prior to this, he headed business development at Mekorot, Israel’s national water company, where he oversaw the establishment of WaTech, the Entrepreneurship & Partnership Center for Water Technologies. For his role and accomplishments in both Mekorot and Kinrot, he received the Cleantech Group’s Innovation Hero Award in 2013 (see video below).
Previously, Mr. Barnea served as a director of business development at Comverse, where he also co-chaired the Mobile Marketing Association.
A unique highlight in Assaf’s story is his former stint as a college basketball player at New Jersey’s Seton Hall University, where he won the Big East championship against Georgetown in 1991. Assaf holds LLB and Business degrees from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzelia, a BA in political science and psychology (with honor) from Tel-Aviv University.
Nicole J. Walker
Venture Investor
Venture Forward
Nicole is a Healthcare Innovator & Connector, Board Director, Family-Senior Care advocate, and a former Managing Partner with Arboretum Ventures, Baird Capital, Abbott Biotech Ventures.
Originally trained as an engineer at Stanford University, Nicole has a career evenly weighted between operating roles and venture investing. She started her career with ACS/Guidant as a process development intern and advanced through multiple R&D and management roles until her final position as Head of Marketing, Asia-Pac, based in Hong Kong. Then moving onto Abbott, Nicole led strategic market activities for Abbott’s OUS discrete glucose monitoring and continuous glucose monitoring brands, with a final role as the Founding Director of the Abbott Biotech Ventures team.
Nicole is passionate about healthtech investing and working with entrepreneurs to transform the delivery of healthcare by focusing on innovations at the intersection of biology & technology.
Imran Hamid
Senior Investment Principal
LifeArc Ventures
Imran is a biotech and healthtech venture capital investor at LifeArc Ventures. He is responsible for both leading new investments and managing existing portfolio companies.
Imran is a former surgeon, digital health entrepreneur, and corporate development professional. He has been integral to over $1.5bn venture, licensing, and M&A deals at digital health, med tech and biopharma companies.
Imran received his medical degree from Imperial College London, where he graduated with joint honours from the Imperial College Business School and is a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.
He is committed to using his experiences to advance innovation to support the delivery of higher quality care and improve clinical outcomes.
Lu Zhang
Founder & Managing Partner
Fusion Fund
Lu Zhang, Founder and Managing Partner of Fusion Fund, is a renowned Silicon Valley investor, a serial entrepreneur, and a Stanford Engineering alumna. Lu is a World Economic Forum - Young Global Leader. 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 was recently selected as the Best 25 Female early-stage Investor by Business Insider (2021). Prior to starting Fusion Fund, she was the Founder and CEO of a medical device company (acquired in 2013). Lu is a frequent speaker at tech events and conferences such as Davos World Economic Forum, Future Investment Initiative (FII), Forbes, Web Summit, SuperReturn, etc., and 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. Lu is also on the Jury Board of Cartier’s Young Leader Award. She received her M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University.
John Ryan
Managing Director
Wells Fargo Strategic Capital
William Jin
Partner
Mednovation (Shanghai)
William is currently an independent consultant specialized in healthcare industry general management, FCPA practice and commercial/distribution set up in Greater China market. His skillset and over 30 years of experience in pharma, biotech and medical device enable him to advice and consult multiple healthcare cross-function improvements/market entry. He looks forward to adding value to multi-national companies looking for opportunities in the unique Chinese market.
William holds an M.D. and an EMBA degree.
Andrew Pieprzyk
Vice President, Strategic Development - Diagnostics, International
Hologic
With over a decade of experience working in the medical device and diagnostics industry, I've worked across a range of organizations and geographies to achieve my position as the Vice President of Strategic Development for Diagnostics at Hologic.
From starting as a sales representative to becoming a VP, I've progressed in leading organizations across North & South America, EMEA and APAC by learning new skills from a range of colleagues and global experiences over my 17+ year career and by believing that I will never stop learning.
Christopher Campbell
Director, Software and Sensors - VELYS Digital Surgery (Global Strategic Marketing)
DePuy Synthes, Johnson & Johnson
Global strategic leadership within the health care and MedTech industries with a focus on delivering innovative business models, software and solutions that advance patient care & drive profitable growth.
Tim Rea
Head of Early Stage
BGF
Tim joined BGF in January 2018 after actively supporting BGF on a number of projects over the previous 18 months. He is based in London and Cambridge and his main role is to identify and execute investments with a particular focus on tech-oriented propositions.
He also takes a lead role in developing relationships with partners that can help BGF better support key industry sectors. Tim has been active in the venture capital and start-up ecosystem for over 20 years, initially as an entrepreneur and then as an investor with SoftBank, NEC and DFJ ePlanet Capital. He has been a party to more than 120 investments across a broad range of sectors, stages and geographies. He has recently joined the BGF Investment Committee.
Outside of work Tim spends as much of his time as possible on horseback and, in the interest of combining work with pleasure, keeps a horse specifically for long conference calls. Tim has a science background and began his career in BT’s research labs developing materials for optical switching and amplification. He has an MBA from London Business School.
David Hendren
Managing Director
Augmentum Advisors
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.
Venture Capital/Private Equity: Knowledge from all sides of the table: generating/evaluating deal-flow; investing; building/managing companies/portfolios; structuring, positioning, leading, and executing financing, strategic, and exit transactions.
Leadership: Strategic planning/implementation, financial management, organizational/team development, mentoring, creating/aligning incentives, IP strategy, regulatory strategy, reimbursement, compliance, risk management, partnering, and structuring/executing financing, strategic, and exit transactions.
Technologies/Services: Domain expertise identifying, developing, financing, and commercializing healthcare, biomedical, IT, and convergence technologies; developing, implementing, and managing concepts, structures, programs, and alliances for healthcare delivery, management, infrastructure, service, support, and payment, including population health, ACOs, global risk, and MSOs.
Board Experience: Healthcare, technology, and other areas. Lead/mentor management/boards to develop/implement structure, process, and culture for teamwork, transparency, accountability, and performance.
Richard Philpott
Partner
Level Eight Ventures
Richard has worked across the innovation-to-business spectrum from biotechnology research to product development, marketing and commerce including company formation and leadership in both large and small organizations. Trained at Imperial College, London, his Ph.D. in microbial biochemistry was sponsored by the UK health service, where Richard worked as a senior scientist before transitioning to industry. He progressed to business and company development while maintaining technical leadership. He was a key member of the executive team that transformed Whatman plc, the UK industrial filtration company, into a global healthcare business that became GE Healthcare. During the last ten years he has worked for investors in diligence and turn-around roles, mostly in the United States. Richard provides pro-bona support to exciting start-ups, judges the annual international Katerva Innovation Awards and candidates for the MedTech Innovator program, and supports Level Eight investments as a board member or advisor. Away from business he loves sailing and intends to cross an ocean or two.
Raf Roelands
Investment Director
Heran Partners
Raf has a decade of operational experience in the biotech sector and holds an M.Sc. in Biochemistry and Biotechnology and an MBA from Vlerick Business School. Subsequently, he spent more than 5 years at Korys, focusing on life science investments. He was involved with several young innovative companies and served as a strategic advisor for European and US-based investment funds.
Aneta Sottil
Director
Andera Partners
- Aneta Sottil joined the management company in January 2018. She is Director within the Andera Life Sciences team, the team dedicated to life sciences and medical technologies.
- Aneta has 14 years of experience in life sciences issues, acquired in the field of M&A (BAML from 2006 to 2008; Rothschild from 2008 to 2013) and Venture Capital (Norgine Ventures from 2013 to 2018) .
- She graduated from Warsaw School of Economics, Singapore Management University and Pierre Mendès France University, in the field of Finance.
- A native Polish speaker, Aneta also speaks English, French and Spanish.
Yaowen Yang
Vice President - Healthcare Investment Banking
Houlihan Lokey
Michele Perrino
Vice President Western Europe Enterprise Accounts & Services
Medtronic
JD Friedland
Managing Director, Ventures
Cleveland Clinic Ventures
Marc Subirats
General Partner
Nina Capital
Born in Barcelona, I was raised in an entrepreneurial and international environment. The son of a Swiss mother and a Catalan father, I grew up watching my family build a successful entrepreneurial venture in the textile industry and attending the Escuela Suiza, a local Swiss school and one of the oldest international schools in Barcelona, as a kid.
Speaking several languages and traveling was a gift that opened my eyes to the global world. After studying Economics in Barcelona and in The Netherlands, I pursued an MBA at IESE Business School. The entrepreneurship class awakened my entrepreneurial spirit and led me to co-found Advance Medical.
Starting and growing Advance Medical, which eventually became a pioneering and multinational telehealth company, was a fascinating life experience. For 20 years, my co-founder and I established operations in more than ten countries with a global workforce of over one thousand workers to help tens of thousands of patients every day around the world.
When Advance Medical was acquired by US-based TELADOC, I was ready to move forward to new challenges. One meeting with Marta during one of her first trips from California to Spain was enough to understand that Nina Capital was exactly the next thing I wanted to do: build a Venture Capital firm based in my city, Barcelona, and ready to support European need-driven founders building health tech companies with international ambitions.
That this remarkable concurrence of events--her first landing in Barcelona, my exiting Advance Medical after an adventure two decades long--occurred without apparent causal connection is yet more proof that so much of life is about timing, and is one the ingredients that makes Nina Capital’s origin story special.
Sebastian Anastassiou
Principle, Head of Investments
Nina Capital
I am a genetic cocktail of Norwegian and Cypriot DNA raised in an international environment, which precipitated into what some call a “third culture” identity; a blend of contradiction with Mediterranean and Nordic culture. Barcelona is my latest home and I could not have picked a better place to feed my insatiable appetite for the ocean, paddle boarding in the summers and surfing in the winters (yes, you can surf here on a weekly basis), and generally anything outdoors with some adrenaline sprinkled on top; a couple of hours drive to the Pyrenees for hiking in the summers and skiing in the winters.
I also love music, with a near-criminal collection of obscure instruments from all over the world. I do play on occasion; piano, guitar and trumpet are my forte, with a particular interest in playing jazz and funk. You are just as likely to find me at the Palau de la Música enjoying the works of Chopin, to a Black Keys concert, to a dingy jazz “hole-in-the-wall”, to a Joris Voorn event.
A fascination with what makes us tick led me to study neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh with a focus on the biological basis of cognition and memory. I loved Edinburgh so much I stayed to pursue a masters in innovation and management focused on the bioeconomy as a segway into the healthcare innovation space. I ended up, after a stumble or two, at UCL in London where I stayed for four years working out of their commercialization and technology transfer company, UCLB. My time there introduced me to the world of early stage healthcare commercialization; bridging the realm of lab research to the real world through intellectual property strategy, to negotiating licensing deals, to startup company creation.
A yearning for a smaller city and sunshine led me to Barcelona to pursue an MBA at IESE business school; a two-year life-changing rollercoaster that only those with a similar experience can comprehend. I joined Nina Capital as an MBA summer intern and was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to stay. I could not have found a better place to call home.
Yahel Halamish
Principle, Head of Investor Relations
Nina Capital
I was born in Israel, and here I grew up in a small place tucked away in the mostly empty land between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Life in Tel Aviv was better suited for my personality, and I called this cosmopolitan city home for eight years before the warmth of the weather and of the people of Barcelona caught my imagination.
I have a creative soul with an analytical mind—the very obvious result of growing up in a family made of artists on one branch of the tree, and accountants on the other. My appetite for testing new things led me very early to try any kind of medium in plastic art from oil painting to carving in marble. Growing up with a passion for art, I was certain to eventually become an Architect. This was not a passing phase: I carried this ambition for eight years. All it took was one lecture in the school of Architecture to change my mind, leading me to the resolution that what I really wanted to do is conquer the world. Just kidding.
Jokes aside, I really was increasingly intrigued by the powers that move the world. To study Law and Economics felt a natural choice to satisfy this curiosity. Before proceeding to world domination, however, I had to travel and learn more about it. With a 15kg bag on my back I hiked through the mountains of Chile and chilled at the beaches of Costa Rica, resulting in a new desire to engage in an international environment.
Having returned to Israel and fast forwarding to years later, I began working for a large investment house in Israel, investing in Alternative Assets. Specifically, I was sourcing, analyzing, and negotiating opportunities for investment in private companies, VC/PE funds, and Hedge funds. I love being challenged and creating challenges—and the investment world was filled to the brim with hard problems to solve, new strategies, and ideas predicated on weak assumptions.
However, the desire for an international experience had never truly left me. It eventually led me to pursue a two-year MBA program at IESE business school in Barcelona. My inner architect was also restless, constantly wanting to build. This is what led me to Nina Capital. One email led to an MBA summer internship and eventually to a very fortunate opportunity to stay and work.
When I am not working, I am probably working out in the gym, roaming the streets of Barcelona with my marvelous (and slightly spoiled) rescue dog, or simply enjoying a glass of wine in one of the many breathtaking terraces that Barcelona has to offer.
Ferran Marti Olivella
Senior Associate
Nina Capital
Born and raised in Barcelona, I am the youngest member of Nina Capital but also one of the first to join the firm a few months into its existence.
Like most of us here, my path to venture capital was non linear. My obsession for dinosaurs as a kid almost led me to study paleontology, until I came upon biotechnology—and if there is something better than studying dinosaurs, it is being able to create them! Unfortunately, only later did I learn that we were still a bit far from this scientific milestone. It turned out to be, however, just the right choice for me.
During my studies in biotechnology at one of the leading schools here in Barcelona, Institut Químic de Sarrià, I discovered the world-changing potential that life sciences will have in our lives in the years to come. In less than a decade, my feelings of disappointment about our limited ability to modify only the genome of living systems before they were born left way to the excitement of seeing that, today, we already have gene therapies that rewrite the code of life as it's unfolding. We are rewriting the pages of a book as it’s being read. What the future of life sciences holds for us, we can only find in science fiction books.
With so many possibilities, it did not feel right to go into research and commit to a single one. In the meantime and during my last years of university studies, I had developed a strong interest in finance. This newly discovered passion led me to start working in management consulting for the banking industry, where I learnt a great deal of finance—but missed the spirit of science.
A new mission started forming, to dedicate myself to help with access to working capital all the amazing technologies that will be born in the next decade go from idea to reality. Shortly after, I met Marta and resonated deeply with the idea of Nina Capital. The rest, as they say, is another funding round.
Sylvain Sachot
Partner
Asabys Partners
Partner at Asabys, Sylvain joined the firm in 2018 from Ysios Capital. At Asabys, Sylvain is involved in the sourcing, execution, and management of our investments in the biopharma and medtech segments. He currently serves on the board of directors of Anaconda and is an observer on the boards of Inbrain Neuroelectronics, SpliceBio and Medlumics.
Previously, Sylvain spent a decade in academic labs both in France and the US, working specifically in the fields of gene therapy and regenerative medicine. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York following the completion of his doctoral thesis at INSERM.
Sylvain obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine from University of Nantes, holds a master’s degree in biotechnology with honors from University Paris XII, and an MBA from Esade Business School in Barcelona.
Maite Malet
Associate
Asabys Partners
Maite joined Asabys in 2019 and she is primary focused in the analysis of relevant investment targets within the health-tech industry, carrying on due diligence processes and providing support to portfolio companies.
Prior to joining Asabys, Maite led the Business Development and Digital departments at Sphera Global Healthcare, telemedicine company with operations worldwide. Previously, she was a Business Development Analyst at Antai Venture Builder, conducting market analysis and incubating digital companies. Maite started her professional career at Deloitte Corporate Finance, unit responsible for M&A and debt restructuring operations in Spain.
Maite holds a bachelor’s degree in International Business from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) and the University of Florida (Warrington College of Business), and a master’s degree in Digital Marketing by ISDI.
Jordi Ferrer
Investment Director | Healthcare & Quality of Life
Ship2B Ventures
Arnaud Autret
Head of European Operations
Illumina Ventures
Arnaud joined Illumina Ventures in 2022 as a Principal and Head of European Operations. Based in Amsterdam, Arnaud brings 15 years of experience in life science R&D and venture investment in the biopharmaceutical industry.
Before joining Illumina Ventures, Arnaud was an investment director for the biotechnology team of M Ventures, the corporate investment arm of Merck KGaA, based in Amsterdam. There he was instrumental in the investment in Scipio Bioscience, Pictor Labs and Nanosyrinx, among other companies. Arnaud started his investment career in Paris at Seventure Partners, where he invested in life sciences companies including Microbiome and Digital Health. Before joining Seventure, Arnaud was a senior financial auditor at KPMG in the healthcare business unit based in Paris.
Arnaud earned his Ph.D. in Immunology from the Pasteur Institute in Paris and continued his scientific career with post-doctoral work in Oncology at the Trinity College, Dublin. He gained his MSc in Finance from ESCP Europe, Paris.
Clara Campas
Managing Partner and co-founder
Asabys Partners
Managing partner and co-founder of Asabys. Clara currently serves on the board of directors of Ona Therapeutics, Origo Biopharma, Sidekick Health and Nuage Therapeutics.
Formerly, Clara served as Strategy & Development Director at Kern Pharma and held several positions at Advancell, including being the managing director. Clara has served as a member of the Investment Committee of the venture capital firm HealthEquity (2015-2018), as well as vice-president of CataloniaBIO (2014-2017) and member of the Board of Directors of Biocat (2015-2017).
Clara received her Doctorate in Pharmacy in 2004 and a Master’s in Pharmacy from the University of Barcelona in 1999.
Antonio Limatola
Senior Associate
Asabys Partners
Antonio joined Asabys in 2022 as a Senior Associate. He is responsible for evaluating novel opportunities across multiple therapeutic areas in Biotech and HealthTech.
Antonio joined Asabys after working as Investment Analyst at Inkef Capital where he supported the Healthcare team with deal sourcing and the analysis of investment opportunities. Prior to Inkef, Antonio was an Innovation fellow at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Biomedical Design Programme in Copenhagen, where he co-founded a digital health start-up.
Antonio has 9 years of scientific research experience, working at the interface of drug discovery, biology and biophysics. He earned a Ph.D. in Drug Discovery from the University of Naples Federico II, and was a postdoc at FMP-Berlin and at Stanford University.
Isabel Jimenez
Investment Associate
Asabys Partners
Isabel started at Asabys in 2022 as an Associate. She is responsible for evaluating novel opportunities from a scientific and strategic perspective focused on the biotech sector.
Isabel joined Asabys after working at Ysios Capital where she screened and analyzed deal flow while conducting due diligence on companies developing novel therapeutic approaches. Previously, Isabel spent 7y+ as a researcher in immunology and oncology. She completed her doctoral thesis at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) in hemato-oncology.
Isabel earned a Ph.D. in Medicine from the University Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), a MSc in Advanced Immunology from the University of Barcelona (UB), and a BSc in Biochemistry. She also holds an Executive MBA from ESADE Business School.
Anna Bellmunt
Investment Associate
Asabys Partners
Associate at Asabys, Anna is responsible for sourcing and assessing opportunities from the scientific, development and business perspectives.
Previously, Anna was Investment Analyst at LSP where she was responsible for the initial deal flow screening and in-depth scientific and clinical due diligence on investment opportunities. Anna also served as Innovation Manager at the Knowledge and Technology Transfer Office at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and its Research Institute IDIBAPS where she advised entrepreneurs on intellectual property protection and commercialization strategies. Before, Anna was a researcher in the Growth Control and Cancer Metastasis group at the IRB Barcelona.
Anna was awarded a PhD in Biomedicine from the University of Barcelona (UB), a master’s degree in Biomedical Research from the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and two bachelor’s degrees, in Chemistry and Biochemistry, by the University of Barcelona (UB). Anna combined her studies with scientific research training in several research groups in Paris and Barcelona.
Confirmed Innovators
Margaret Kalmeta
CEO
Rapid Nexus
Dr. Margaret Kalmeta is a Doctor of Dental Surgery with extensive training in oral surgery. She built and successfully exited several startup practices, subsequently went on to develop and patent novel tissue and bone growth technologies. Learning that daily amputations measured in the hundreds because of poor technologies, Dr. Kalmeta transferred her oral surgery wound healing technology to the wound care industry and founded Rapid Nexus, Inc in order to address this critical unmet patient need.
Ilan Uchitel
CEO
CAPS Medical
Ilan, CEO of CAPS Medical, has nearly 20 years of experience in the medical device and defense industries, having held executive management positions in multiple biomedical device companies in the fields of electrophysiology, invasive cardiology, and minimally invasive implantable maxillofacial solutions. He has served in leadership positions at OSSIO, Maxillent and Perifect, contributing to these companies’ continuous growth through a deep understanding of the medical device market, strategic product development, regulatory road-map building and execution, including CE and FDA compliance and successful product rollout/launch in US and European markets. Earlier, Ilan held R&D and project management positions in Unit 81, Israeli military intelligence’s elite technology unit, where during his tenure, his teams delivered numerous technologically and operationally complex projects, playing an important role in winning the top Israeli defense prizes. Ilan holds a BSc degree in mechanical engineering, an MSc in biomedical engineering, and an MBA – all received from Tel Aviv University.
John von Benecke
CEO
Locate Bio
John has a strong track record as an executive in a range of Life Sciences and healthcare companies, covering both pre-revenue and commercial high growth companies. He has raised more than $130m of venture capital to date and taken two start-ups through to successful exit events, including the $330m acquisition of ApaTech Ltd by Baxter. John has gained strong operational experience across a range of business functions and organisations, including fulfilling combined CFO and COO roles for two private companies previously.
John holds a Bachelor’s degree in Organisational Psychology and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Jeff Amacker
CEO
TibaRay
Jeff is a successful general manager who retired from Varian Medical Systems after 28 years to start his own consulting and financial planning business. He blends 17 years of engineering experience and 16 years of successful business management to provide unique perspectives on strategy, business leadership, new product development, partnerships and financial planning.
Berk Tas
CEO
SentiAR
Mr. Tas will share the story of SentiAR at the Emerging Medtech Summit and will provide updates on strategic partnering and investment opportunities.
Berk serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of SentiAR. Berk has led development of emerging technologies and companies in Fortune 500, private equity, venture capital funded and privately held organizations. Prior to joining SentiAR he led the development of a novel Trans-aortic Valve Replacement technology into CE Mark studies at HLT Medical. In 2016, he played an integral role in the acquisition of Sensium, Oxford UK, a novel wireless monitoring technology. Prior to that he served in various leadership roles at Sunshine Heart developing a first of its kind, heart failure therapy and at Boston Scientific developing several novel therapies and technologies focused in Cardiac Rhythm Management. He holds an MBA from the Carlson School of Business at the University of Minnesota and a BS in Electrical Engineering and Physics from the School of Engineering at St Thomas University.
Lloyd Mencinger
President & CEO
Aqua Medical
High energy CEO, Sales, Marketing, & Business Development leader with over twelve years as an International expatriate.
Strong track record of delivering results in both blue chip and early-stage companies. Expert at developing new markets, driving growth, executing turnarounds, and creating winning cultures.
History of driving rapid market penetration for new medical device technology, through: 1) field sales effectiveness, 2) strong customer development, 3) clinical economic arguments, 4) targeted physician & referral pathway marketing
Specialties:
- Sales, Marketing, Strategy, New Business Development
- International Growth Execution, Europe, Asia, Americas
- Sales & Field Force Effectiveness
- Physician Adoption, New Market Development
- Marketing to Physicians & Direct-to-Patients
- General Management
- Early-Stage Company Growth, Turnarounds
- Global Product Commercialization
- R&D Product Development & Manufacturing
- Organization Design to Drive P&L Growth
Stuart Mitchell
Founder & CEO
Novuson
Dr. Mitchell will share the story of Novuson at the Emerging Medtech Summit and will discuss their financing objectives and strategic partnering plans.
Dr. Mitchell is a graduate of the University of Washington and he has been designing biomedical instrumentation and devices for approximately 20 years. Dr. Mitchell has extensive experience in biomechanics (soft tissue and orthopedic), tissue engineering, instrumentation, electronics, and mechanical design.
While at the university, Dr. Mitchell managed and conducted research in multimillion dollar DARPA projects where he developed relationships with medical industry leaders. He has conducted research in biomechanics, tissue engineering, acoustic hemostasis and high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for tumor treatment. Dr. Mitchell has been involved in helping HIFU gain recognition in the clinical setting and has led research teams in conducting application studies.
Amit Vohra
President & CEO
Promaxo
Promaxo is led by Dr. Amit Vohra who is a serial entrepreneur, business strategist and advisor to several healthcare and technology startups. Amit serves as a board member at Navaux and an advisor to Fanisko, Triocula and UnityDx.
David Kuraguntla
CEO
Alio
Dave is the co-founder and CEO of Alio, a wearable medical device company dedicated to improving the lives of those living with dialysis and other chronic conditions. After serving in the Air Force, Dave was selected for a fellowship which allowed him to attend medical school. He received his medical degree in osteopathic medicine (D.O.) and was preparing for a surgical residency when he experienced first hand the need for better technological solutions for those with chronic conditions. Drawing on his experience as a former NIH researcher, Dave began to explore the potential of noninvasive wearables for conditions like End Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD). Since then, Alio has secured $53 million in funding to-date and formed key strategic partnerships with organizations like the NHS in the UK and US Renal Care. For more information visit www.alio.ai or follow us on Linkedin.
Bob Cathcart
CEO
AiM Medical Robotics
Mr. Cathcart will share the story of AiM Medical Robotics at the Emerging Medtech Summit and will discuss strategic partnering and investment status.
Experienced Medical Device executive with a focus on commercial activities for both small and large companies.
Dynamic Sales leader with a strong track record of growth. Start-ups, organizational restructuring, product launches, Capital equipment and Disposables. Excellent relationships in Surgery, Interventional Cardiology and Interventional Radiology.
Lloyd Diamond
CEO
Pixium Vision
Lloyd Diamond, a US citizen, is a seasoned medtech executive and CEO with 25 years of disruptive technology commercialization experience in the life science industry. He most recently served as the CEO of Precise Light Surgical, a commercially ready medical device company in Silicon Valley. Prior to that, he was the CEO of Bonesupport AB, a European orthobiologic company, where he drove rapid market penetration in Europe and the US which led to a successful IPO on the NASDAQ OMX in Stockholm. Lloyd has first-hand experience in the ophthalmology segment as he was responsible for managing Lumenis’ global surgical and vision franchises. He has commercialized many other disruptive technology platforms including at Kyphon and Laserscope. Lloyd received a dual degree in Biochemistry and Marketing from Florida Atlantic University and an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University.
Laurence Marsteller
CEO
Radiance Therapeutics
Dr. Marsteller is a serial medical device entrepreneur and co-innovator of the RadianceTx technology. He previously founded Salutaris Medical Devices, Inc. – invested in by ophthalmic market leader HOYA (7741:Tokyo, Market Cap $21B, $4.5B in annual sales). He is a Medical Doctor (University of Arizona College of Medicine), and physicist (Yale University Graduate School). Dr. Marsteller has Investment Banking experience as an Analyst at Lehman Brothers, and subsequently Morgan Stanley.
Richard Vincent
Founder & CEO
FundamentalVR
Richard has 20+ years’ experience of building international businesses and has throughout his career sought opportunities for positive market disruption through technological application.
It was this desire that led him to co-found FundamentalVR to help address an age-old problem for the medical market; how to create safe, realistic, measurable spaces to learn and develop skills.
In his role as CEO Richard is responsible for building a world class team of medical, learning and technologist who together can realise the company’s ambition of creating the world’s first global, haptically enabled, low cost ‘flight simulator for surgeons’.
Marc Zemel
CEO
Retia Medical
A serial entrepreneur and experienced leader at Fortune 500 companies and startups in the medical device, imaging, and capital equipment markets, Mr. Zemel has a long track record of raising capital and building high-performing teams to develop, launch and sell innovative new products. Prior to founding Retia, Mr. Zemel had several leadership roles in engineering, marketing and sales at a capital equipment startup and Becton Dickinson. He also authored 23 approved or pending patents. Mr. Zemel received his MS in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his MBA from the Yale School of Management.
Jeffery Alvarez
Chief Strategy Officer
Moon Surgical
My expertise is in identifying, defining, and creating significant clinical value through a holistic design thinking approach that delivers high impact products.
I am intrinsically curious, passionately creative, and sometimes, stubbornly obsessive. This combination helps me solve complex problems at the right level, where solutions have the greatest impact.
Over the past 22 years, I've been an operator in building companies from pre-formation through commercial activities, including coordinating financing activities. Across that timeframe, I have helped define, design, manufacture, or launch over 24 different medical devices.
This includes leading early product development Auris Health as employee #1 and Hansen Medical. I have led teams through need-finding, definition, development, human clinical trials, and full commercialization.
I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute & and MBA from Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.
Amir Danino
Founder & CEO
INNOVENTRIC
The founder and CEO of Innoventric and the inventor of the company’s technology. Amir has 15 years of experience in the medical device field, mainly in structural interventional cardiology, bringing aortic, mitral and tricuspid valve projects from concept to clinical application. Amir served in some of the most exciting structural heart projects and has a broad experience in R&D, clinical affairs, regulatory affairs and business development.
Amir holds a B.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from Ben-Gurion University and a M.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from Tel-Aviv University.
David Thompson
CEO
Osteal Therapeutics
Business leader and healthcare entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in organizations of all sizes developing new technology and new markets in the U.S. and internationally with a particular focus on medical devices, digital health and diagnostics.
Particularly passionate about early stage ventures and intrapreneurial opportunities that require market analysis, needs assessment, product and business model discovery and definition, corporate strategic planning, and go-to-market execution.
Christian Haller
CEO & Co-Founder
CorIT Medical
Mr. Haller is a Serial Entrepreneur and Angel Investor who has spent the past 35+ years building startups, as a founder, investor, and inventor.
Lawrence Obstfeld
CEO
Image Navigation
Lawrence is responsible for setting objectives, building the organization, monitoring performance and designing the long-range strategic plan. He studies expert performance learning methodology and presents findings to Dental Educators.
Christopher Bullock
CEO & Co-Founder
QV Bioelectronics
CHristopher is a biomedical engineer with expertise in medical device design, biomaterial, and bioelectronics. In 2018 he completed a PhD in regenerative medicine at The University of Manchester where his research focused on the development of novel graphene bioelectric devices and the use of electrical stmuli to control cell behaviour. A passionate entrepreneur, Chistropher now acts as the CEO of OV Bioelectronics and oversees the business and technical development aims of the business. He is an associate member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Mike Karim
CEO
Oxford Endovascular
Over 30 years of international experience in medical devices including endovascular products. Leadership roles in general management, sales & marketing and mentoring. Success in fund raising, driving business growth in large corporations, SMEs and start ups, developing and bringing new products to market.
Hamed Hanafi
President & CEO
NovaResp Technologies
PhD in Biomedical Engineering, currently involved in research, development and commercialization of medical devices, with focus on monitoring of lung health specifically on anesthesia/ventilation circuits with application in diagnosis and treatment of disease.
Rafael J. Veraza
CEO & President
Vascular Perfusion Solutions
I am a Translational Scientist with over 15 years of research experience. I have worked with universities and organizations all over the world translating lab research into life-changing products and therapies for patients.
I am the CEO & President at Vascular Perfusion Solutions. There, I lead our company in commercializing organ preservation devices for transplantation such as the VP.S Encore® device – a new technology that will increase the life of organs for transplant and has been recently granted FDA’s Breakthrough Device Designation.
I am passionate about using translational science and business to help people where they are, and I truly believe that the technologies our research at Vascular Perfusion Solutions is perfecting will change the world for the better.
Steven Mickelsen
CEO
Field Medical
Dedicated to finding new and better treatment options for patients that have challenging cardiovascular problems. My efforts have focused on developing medical devices and technologies that impact treatment of heart rhythm and other important health problems. My inclination is to work on projects where new therapeutic technologies are evolving from the preclinical into the clinical phase while maintaining a presence on the front line of clinical cardiology.
James Lancaster
CEO
Solenic Medical
James Y. Lancaster, Chief Executive Officer, is a seasoned entrepreneur and business development executive with 30 years of experience across multiple industries. He was most recently the Founder and Managing Director of the Innovate Family of Companies with client technologies including a variety of software, innovative materials, internet-of-things, robotics, autonomous vehicles, drone technologies, medical device, biological control, and waste recycling technologies. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, he worked for Deloitte Consulting in Dallas with Fortune 500 and held other executive positions in business software and services, medical technologies, and IT solutions.
Almog Aley-Raz
CEO & VP R&D
CorNeat Vision
Almog Aley-Raz has over 25 years of experience managing complex, multi-disciplinary projects. He has spearheaded the development of several business ventures, including their foundation, growth and expansion, fruition and ultimate success. Aley-Raz is CorNeat Vision co-founder and has been the CEO and VP R&D since its inception in 2016.
Mr. Aley-Raz has hands-on technological and managerial experience at several startup companies, as well as established corporations. He has handled diversified aspects such as engineering, professional services, product management, marketing, finance, legal, compliance, mergers and acquisitions. Previously, Mr. Aley-Raz served as GM and VP Biometrics and Security Solutions at Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN), directing an international team, which consisted of dozens of members. During his tenure at Nuance, he was able to grow its biometrics business line from several million USD to over $80 million/year. Nuance was recently acquired by Microsoft for ~20Bn. Mr. Aley-Raz joined Nuance in 2010 through the acquisition of PerSay, where he served as CEO. He joined PerSay in 1999 as a system engineer when the company was still a part of Verint Systems Inc. – formerly Comverse Infosys. As part of his work, he successfully raised over $11 million from the Israeli Venture Capital industry.
Before joining Verint in 1999, Mr. Aley-Raz served as a project manager – managing a strategic mission-critical 150 man-year government software project, including software and network infrastructure deployment in multiple physical sites. The project met its targets in all aspects (budget, timeline, performance) and is operational since 1999. Previous assignments included managing 35 engineers and field engineers who handled complex airborne communication and optical systems.
Almog Aley-Raz holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering and Digital Signal Processing from Ben-Gurion University and is an MBA graduate of the Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration at Tel Aviv University. He completed a continued education course at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) in managing the development and regulation of medical devices.
Nicolas Gausserand
Co-Founder & CEO
Medinbox
After more than 10 years managing medical events at Europa Organisation (PCO) and medical film production at Next Media Factory, Nicolas Gausserand decided to create Medinbox. His goal was to facilitate the transmission of medical knowledge, technological innovation and the human approach. Keen on medical and educational technologies, he joined forces with the Clinique Pasteur in Toulouse. Together they designed a turnkey solution for medical video collaboration to record and broadcast procedures for live education, remote proctoring and support.
Benjamin Merewitz
CEO
Agile Devices
• Experience launching products and businesses in renewable energy, aviation technology, biopharma and medtech
• Executive management, product management, and corporate development expertise
• MBA, MIT Sloan
Joseph McGinley
Founder & CEO
McGinley Orthopedics
Dr. McGinley is a board-certified diagnostic radiologist. He holds a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Physiology from Temple University. He completed his residency and fellowship at Stanford University. Dr. McGinley is the founder and CEO of McGinley Orthopedic Innovations, LLC., as well as President and CEO of McGinley Manufacturing. He is also founder and CEO of McGinley Education, a company focusing on physician education of the latest techniques in interventional sports medicine. He currently holds over 100 patents.
Manny Villafaña, PhD, Sc
Founder of St. Jude Medical, ATS, Cardiac Pacemakers
Currently CEO of Medical 21
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.
Kambiz Behzadi
President
BMD
Dr. Kambiz Behzadi is an orthopedic surgeon in Pleasanton California. His practice is primarily focused on adult joint reconstruction and sports related injuries. He has particular interest in physical sciences. His research interests include efforts to improve surgical techniques and to produce novel medical devices to enhance reliability and safety of orthopedic procedures for the ultimate goal of improving outcomes.
Jeff Cambra
CEO
SpinaFX Medical
As a veteran medical device and therapeutics industry executive, I have expertise in interventional spine procedures, biologics and devices including kyphoplasty, vertebroplasty and bone ablation. Throughout my career, I have managed product development, commercialization, product portfolios, mergers and acquisitions with a strong focus on interventional spine technologies and biologics.
I am honored to lead SpinaFX Medical in bringing a novel medical treatment for back pain to market. With my passion for the interventional space, I constantly assess and monitor multiple promising technologies, and I recognized the breakthrough potential of SpinaFX’s technology over a decade ago. With SpinaFX, I am leveraging my experience in the medical device field to deliver value for our patients, customers, and shareholders.
James Biggins
CEO
Access Vascular
Mr. Biggins will represent Access Vascular at the Emerging Medtech Summit and will be available to discuss investment and strategic partnering objectives.
After shadowing physicians at a Boston Hospital and witnessing complications first-hand, James was compelled to design a better venous catheter. Before founding Access Vascular, James held product development, engineering, and clinical affairs roles at Ocular Therapeutix, Boston Scientific, and Medtronic, bringing over a dozen products from concept to commercialization.
Ana Maiques
CEO
Neuroelectrics
Ms. Maiques will share the story of Neuroelectrics at the Emerging Medtech Summit and discuss strategic partnering and investment opportunities.
Ana is the CEO of Neuroelectrics, a company aiming to change the way we interact with the brain; developing innovative technologies to monitor and stimulate the brain. She was nominated by IESE as one of the most influential entrepreneurs under 40 in Spain in 2010, she was the only woman on that list. She received the EU Prize for Women Innovators from the European Commission EC in 2014. Also in 2014, she was an award recipient of the International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge. In 2015 & 2016, she was named one of most inspiring women on the Inspiring Fifty list in Europe of women technological leaders and innovators. As a company, Neuroelectrics received the Best Start-up in Health Award in 2015 by Wired UK magazine and in 2016 was recognized as one of the “Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America” by Entrepreneur Magazine’s Entrepreneur 360™ List, the most comprehensive analysis of private companies in America. Ana continues to break the barriers for women and entrepreneurs bringing together science and technology in an impactful way.
Richard Simmonds
CEO
OrthoSon
Rich brings more than 25 years of Med Tech experience ranging from start-ups to large corporate organisations. Since graduating with a BSc in Physics, he has held commercial leadership and General Management positions, leading teams and commercialising complex medical devices. Notably he has launched a novel device into the US orthopaedics market, taking annual revenue to $30M. He has established then led a new team of 12 based in Shanghai China. Before joining OrthoSon, Rich led the EMEA business for Terumo’s Pharmaceutical Solutions Division based in Leuven, Belgium.
Michael Ebner
CEO & Co-Founder
Hypervision Surgical
Michael is an entrepreneur and a scientist focusing on the development and commercialisation of computational hyperspectral imaging for real-time surgical guidance.
He is a Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellow and CEO & Co-Founder of Hypervision Surgical Ltd where he develops an AI-powered imaging system to equip surgeons with intelligent vision to improve surgical precision and patient safety during surgery.
He received his PhD degree in medical image computing from University College London, UK, for his work on volumetric MRI reconstruction from 2D slices in the presence of motion. His developed framework NiftyMIC is used as a clinical research tool at numerous hospitals and leading academic institutions in various countries including the UK, US, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Spain, and China. Prior to this, he was at the Advanced Development group at Medtronic, Louisville, Colorado, where he worked on image fusion techniques for improved interventional navigation in spine surgery.
Nicolas Foin
Founder & Managing Director
DHENIN
Passionate about HealthTech & SaaS Ventures. My mission is to bring to market and grow disruptive SaaS/ AI value propositions. Currently focusing on solutions reducing costs and addressing large pain points in healthcare.
Founder & Managing Director @Dhenin Management
Deputy Managing Director @Medinbox
Board Member @CoreAalst
Shahram Sharif
CEO
Liva Healthcare
Passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, health & well-being.
Venturing and innovating at the intersection of technology and health.
On a mission to create and lead ventures and innovative products to help people and organizations improve health and well-being.
20+ years of professional and entrepreneurial management experience.
Driven by a purpose: "Doing well, by doing good".
Phil Marron
COO
Sharpview Ophthalmology
30 years of pharmaceutical, med device and healthcare sales, marketing and commercial experience at local and national management level.
Extensive experience in launching products into the market in pharma, med device and nutraceuticals.
Strong commercial focus, coupled with a compliance background enables risk mitigation in a complex marketplace.
Experience out of the pharmaceutical sector has broadened my skill set and equipped me for more complex challenges.
A strong focus on return on investment ensures full and profitable utilisation of resources.
Specialist market experience has exposed me to market access challenges which have been overcome by strong networking and leadership skills.
Organised and focused, my background in compliance is extensive giving me structure, focus and measurable outcomes.
Claude Cohen-Bacrie
Founder & CEO
e-Scopics
Mr. Cohen-Bacrie will share the story of e-Scopics at the Emerging Medtech Summit and will discuss capital needs and strategic partnering opportunities.
Claude is an entrepreneur in Medtech and founded two companies in the field of innovative ultrasound imaging. He was co-founder of SuperSonic imagine in 2005, and acted as executive vice president, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer. In that role he brought the company through 4 rounds of funding and IPOed the company in 2014. The company has recently received a binding offer from Hologic.
In 2018, Claude founded e-scopics, a point of care ultrasound company, which aims at democratizing the role of ultrasound to ultimately all healthcare professionals. The company owns and develops proprietary technologies to allow dematerialization of ultrasound imaging architectures in order to put on the market, innovative devices with strong differentiation in the point of care market.
Claude was previously managing ultrasound research within Philips Research in charge of the collaboration with Philips Medical Systems. He is also former board member of Eye Tech Care, which develops High Intensity Focussed Ultrasound technology for glaucoma treatment and act as coach for several entrepreneur within M2Care.
Claude is a scientist by training, who further specialized in Signal and image processing and a thesis in Medical Imaging. His qualifications also includes an MBA from HEC, NYU Stern and the London School of Economics.
Claartje Ypma
CEO
Augmedit
Experienced Managing Director with a demonstrated history of working in the medical device industry. Skilled in Clinical Research, Medical Devices, Business Development, Clinical Trials, and Strategy. Strong business development professional graduated from Universiteit van Amsterdam.
David Neale
CEO & Co-Founder
Arga Medtech
Over 25 years experience in managing and shaping businesses in the medical field, covering general commodities, services and medical devices in the fields of cardiology, renal therapies, neuromodulation and orthopedics. Head of AF Solutions for Medtronic in Europe/ Asia, with responsibility to integrate Cryocath Laboratories and Ablation Frontiers acquisitions into the Medtronic AF portfolio.
Proven experience in establishing new businesses. Entrepreneurial and strategic attitude towards identifying and exploiting opportunities and strong leadership in implementing value driven plans. Good track record in the development and launch of new products, exploring new businesses, business models and setting up multiple channels of distribution. Experienced in negotiating with high ranked government officials, c-suite and negotiating mergers and acquisitions.
Strong and effective leader in coordinating projects across all functions, including engineering, R&D, clinical, regulatory and finance.
Start up, small/medium (PME) enterprise coach and mentor.
B.S. degree in Pharmacy-Biochemistry and Masters in Industrial Administration and MBA from the University of Sao Paulo Brazil
Maysa Mustafa
CEO
Ceretrieve
With over 15 years of experience, I specialize in developing innovative medical device technologies, taking them to market and leading the entire product life cycle from ideation through design verification to product commercialization. Harnessing my technical background and product management expertise, I have managed multidisciplinary teams in startups and global companies developing cardiovascular and neurovascular devices, drug delivery systems, and vital signs monitoring systems. Well versed in quality management system, regulatory requirements and submissions.
Thomas Brichart
CEO
MEXBRAIN
I have focused my research on nanomaterials synthesis as well as on coordination chemistry. I am currently the general manager of MexBrain since its creation in 2017. Before that I was chief technical officer of another startup (Glincs) for 3 years, a company specialized in the research, development and production of fluorescent tracers based on chelates and their associated detectors. I have co-authored 14 papers and 12 patents.
Upma Sharma
President & CEO
Arsenal Medical
I have dedicated my career to study of the intersection of materials science and medicine with the goal of creating products to improve patients’ lives. At Arsenal Medical, I have led the development of our in situ forming foam platform. This exciting technology platform has commercial application in treating severely injured patients with abdominal hemorrhage through our ResQFoam product. I have managed ResQFoam from concept through development, securing $25M from the DOD (through DARPA and ARO). I was also the PI and inventor of an Arsenal technology that has enabled the scale up of electrospinning fibers, supported by $2.3M from NIST.
At 480 Biomedical, I was on the team that developed a novel bioresorbable scaffold technology to treat peripheral arterial disease. Through this novel composite design, we were able to achieve properties similar to metal stents, with a stent that is fully absorbable. I drove initial materials selection and oversaw preliminary drug delivery formulations. I also spearheaded the submission of a Fast-Track SBIR, resulting in a $1.7M award and initiating the development of our stent for pediatric pulmonary artery stenosis. Additionally, I oversaw our application for funding from Broadview Ventures, resulting in an additional $1.2M for the pediatric stent program.
My key areas of expertise:
--Grant Writing: Directed ideation and led the submission of government proposals resulting in over $27M of funding from DARPA and NIH
--Product Development: Led development and execution of our ResQFoam product including regulatory strategy and submissions, design control process and contract manufacturing, project timeline and budget, and establishment of a world-class advisory board
--Technical Management: Managed R&D group of up to 10 engineers & technicians
--Intellectual Property: Inventor on more than 25 pending or issued patents
--Publications: Authored 18 peer-reviewed scientific publications and 30+ presentations
Pete O'Heeron
Chairman, CEO, & Founder
FibroBiologics
Pete O'Heeron is one of the preeminent Biopharma inventors of his generation with over 300+ patents issued/pending in biologics, cell therapy and medical devices. As the Founder and CEO of FibroBiologics, he brings 25 years of entrepreneurial experience in developing therapeutics to treat chronic diseases and regenerative medicine using fibroblasts. With a history of working in the biotechnology industry, Pete is skilled in Business Start-ups, Intellectual Property, Focused Product Development, Biologics, Medical Devices and Patient Centered Healthcare Delivery. He is a strong business development professional.
Manisha Shah-Bugaj
CEO
Activ Surgical
I have a long-standing career track record as a successful global medtech executive, key influencer and transformational leader, both globally and domestically. I’m proud to be an accomplished leader, specializing in the advancement of life-changing medical technologies. Currently, I am the CEO of Activ Surgical, a company with a vision to transform the collective surgical experience by leveraging emerging technologies and data into insights that make world-class surgery accessible for all.
At Activ Surgical, we are focused on the commercialization of the ActivSight™ enhanced visualization imaging module and the implementation of the surgical visualization technology at established pilot hospital sites.
Prior to joining Activ Surgical, I architected the gynecology unit at Olympus from the ground up in the U.S., ultimately serving as General Manager and Global Vice President for the company and played an integral role in expanding the gynecology business internationally. I have more than two decades of medtech experience, including building and implementing corporate business plans, directing regional and global businesses aligned to financial and operational targets, hiring and establishing new teams, and managing product portfolios.
As a leader, I feel strongly that the team comes first, and an empowered, well-supported team is crucial for success. I'm dedicated to the growth, development and well-being of our team in the service of our mission.
Evelina Mikaelson
CEO
Biomedical Bonding AB
Evelina Mikaelson has an M.Sc. from Uppsala University in business, economics, and law and she has extensive experience and excellent track record regarding management, business development, sales and profit improvements from previous positions as Head of Business for various companies and business units within the Adlibris group. Most recently she holds an executive position within explorative digital development and innovation at The Agency for digital Government.
Katarina Hedbeck
CEO & Co-Founder
Tada Medical
Katarina is an engineer with an MBA. She has previous work experience from product, organization and business development, personnel responsibility for 150 employees as well as experience of international work from Europe.
Sanjay Shrivastava
CEO
Innova Vascular
Dr. Sanjay Shrivastava is the founder and CEO of Innova Vascular. Sanjay has been involved in developing, commercializing, evaluating, and acquiring medical devices for over 20 years. During his career, Sanjay has held leadership positions at leading medical device companies including senior director, business development at Johnson & Johnson, vice president, upstream marketing and strategy at BTG, plc. (acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation), director global marketing at Medtronic, and director, research & development at Covidien/ev3 (merged with Medtronic). Sanjay cofounded BlackSwan Vascular–a clinical stage medical device startup company, where he serves on the board of directors. In 2020, BlackSwan Vascular, Inc. entered in a strategic alliance with Sirtex Medical. Additionally, Sanjay serves as a member of the board of directors at enVVeno Medical Corporation (Nasdaq: NVNO).
Sanjay holds over 30 issued US patents and numerous international patents in medical devices and has edited two books including one titled “Medical Device Materials” published by ASM International. He was named among 100 Notable People in Medical Device Industry by the prestigious MD&DI (Medical Devices and Diagnostics Industry) magazine. He has been an invited speaker at clinical, business, and engineering conferences to speak about medical device innovation and commercialization. Sanjay holds a doctorate in materials science and engineering from the University of Florida and a bachelor’s from the Indian Institute of Technology.
Fabrice Paublant
CEO & Co-Founder
Orixha
Fabrice Paublant holds a B.A. from ESSEC Business School in Paris and a M.B.A. from MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, USA. Mr Paublant has been Export Director at Ipsen group for Eastern Europe. He has been consultant at Boston Consulting Group at Boston. During his 3 years at BCG, he mostly worked with pharmaceutical and biotech companies on strategic and operationnal aspects. En 2004, he founded Narval Laboratories for developping medical innovatives solutions for respiratory and sleep disorders.
Rich Linder
CEO & Chairman
Xenter
Prior to founding Xenter, Mr. Linder served as the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of CoNextions Medical, a company he founded to specialize in the development and manufacture of medical devices for Orthopaedic Surgery in tendon re-construction and tendon to bone anchoring. Prior to CoNextions, Mr. Linder served as President of the Cardiovascular Division of Remedy Informatics, a company providing medical registries of Electronic Health Record (EHR) data. Before Remedy, Mr. Linder served as President/CEO of Coherex Medical, Inc., a Salt Lake City, UT based medical device company specializing in the development of Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) closure devices and Left Atrial Appendage (LAA) occlusion devices for use in patients with Atrial Fibrillation (AF) and Stroke. Mr. Linder negotiated and entered into agreements with Johnson & Johnson/Biosense Webster to invest in and acquire Coherex Medical.
Prior to Coherex, Mr. Linder served as Vice President of Vascular Protection for Boston Scientific/Rubicon Medical, and he served as President/CEO of Rubicon Medical, a company he Co-Founded. Mr. Linder Co-Founded Rubicon Medical in 1996, took the company public in 2000, and invented the underlying medical devices for the Rubicon Vascular Protection Filter for patients undergoing Carotid artery and Saphenous Vein Graft stenting.
Mr. Linder began his career at Merit Medical Systems, Inc., a South Jordan, UT publicly traded (Nasdaq) global medical device company. Mr. Linder is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of BioUtah, Utah’s independent life science association representing Utah’s medical device companies, drug development and drug discovery companies, and diagnostic companies. Mr. Linder was appointed by the Utah Speaker of the House of Representatives to the Governing Authority of the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative (USTAR), and Mr. Linder participated in the oversight of The James L. Sorenson Molecular Biotechnology Building A USTAR Innovation Center which houses the Nano Institute of Utah, many Utah Technology Commercialization Grants, and other activities. USTAR’s Governing Authority oversaw $430M in Utah taxpayer money and assisted the University of Utah and Utah State University in recruiting world class research programs to the State of Utah’s major public universities.
Mr. Linder has served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Boy Scouts of America (Salt Lake City, UT) and was the Executive Vice President of Finance. He has served on the Board of Directors for many private and public companies including Rubicon Medical, Coherex Medical, CoNextions Medical, Juneau BioScience, Vital Access Corp., and Dynatronics. He has been an invited speaker, meeting faculty, panelist, and Keynote speaker at Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT), American College of Cardiology (ACC), Dartmouth 3D, BioUtah Life Science Summit, and many other conferences and meetings. Mr. Linder attended both Brigham Young University and the University of Utah where he studied Business Management and Organizational Behavior. Mr. Linder is the inventor of many medical devices in Interventional Cardiology, Interventional Radiology, Neuro-Interventional Radiology, Orthopedic Surgery, Female Reproductive Medicine, and a Percutaneous Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD). He holds more than 100 patents and patent applications in the United States for medical devices, and many more international patents. Mr. Linder has been in many countries around the world and has overseen several multi-center clinical research trials for medical devices. Mr. Linder is the recipient of the Utah Governor’s Medal for Science & Technology.
Michel Moravia
CEO
Quality Means Business
Michel E. Moravia, CEO, WBJ Top 40 Under 40: Product Executive and Quality Leader with 15+ years of experience working for Fortune 100 companies (AbbVie/Amgen/Novartis) in the pharmaceutical/medical device industry, where he successfully brought multiple prominent drugs/devices/combination products to market. At QMB, he is responsible for overall business strategy and operations. Michel is an ISO 13485:2016 Certified Lead Auditor and has instituted lean programs as a Master Black Belt that have realized savings of $6.5 million+ for Danaher Corporation. Michel fundamentally believes quality makes the human experience better. Michel holds a Master of Science in Product Design Engineering and an MBA in Health Sector Management from Boston University.
Eric Berreklouw
Founder & CMO
AnchorValve
Eric Berreklouw (Chief Medical Officer) is the inventor of the AnchorValve technology. Dr Berreklouw practised as a cardiac surgeon for 40 years, holds several patents related to heart valve prostheses, and has extensive experience with research into sutureless heart valve prostheses.
Brian Hess
CEO & Founder
RevBio
Brian is currently the CEO and Founder of RevBio, which is a clinical stage medical device company. RevBio (formally know as LaunchPad Medical) was founded in 2014 to commercialize Tetranite™, a revolutionary bone adhesive technology that is poised to transform bone repair. Mr. Hess is focused on advancing company operations and building the product pipeline as they raise additional rounds of investment capital. Past achievements include RevBio (formerly known as LaunchPad Medical) competing and winning the "Gold Prize" in 2015 at MassChallenge, which is a global start-up accelerator program in Boston. Prior to this, Brian gained executive leadership experience serving as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for a start-up medical device company while graduating in June 2014 with an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management. As CTO, Brian developed an R&D organization with science and engineering capabilities to develop a Neural-Scaffold device from concept through FDA regulatory approval to start a First-in-Human clinical trial to treat patients with a devastating spinal cord injury. Brian's previous ten years of experience at Stryker led him to numerous corporate innovation awards as he developed novel medical technologies and products while leading global, cross-functional teams. Brian's passion is to lead innovation at the cutting edge of the healthcare space and to create organizations as they develop products to treat patients with unmet needs. His leadership style is to promote collaboration and distribute responsibilities across multi-disciplinary teams. He does so by building environments where people are highly engaged, aligned, and motivated to come to work everyday and to share in their discoveries. Outside of work, he enjoys outdoor activities such as running and playing sports while spending time traveling with his friends and family.
John Wong
CEO
Fluid Biomed
Dr. John H. Wong is an associate professor in the Departments of Clinical Neurosciences and Radiology at the Cumming School of Medicine. He serves as Director of Cerebrovascular and Endovascular Neurosurgery and maintains a busy clinical practice almost exclusively dedicated to treating brain aneurysms and stroke. Dr. Wong received his medical education and neurosurgical training at the University of Alberta. After a one-year fellowship in neurovascular surgery at Yale University and further two-year specialization in interventional neuroradiology in New York City, he was recruited to Calgary in 2001. Since then, he has helped develop one of the most collaborative and productive neurovascular and stroke units in North America with colleagues in neurology, radiology, and neurosurgery.
Dr. Wong has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts and has served on several grant review panels including for the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. He has held numerous local and national leadership roles including the provincial past president of the Alberta Neurosurgical Society for over a decade, previous Division Head of Neurosurgery at the University of Calgary, and is the current Vice President of the Canadian Neurosurgical Society. Dr. Wong received his MBA from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a double major in Finance and Entrepreneurship & Innovation and was conferred the Dean’s Leadership Award.
Featured Speakers From Last Event
Atul Butte, MD, PhD
Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Distinguished Professor & Inaugural Director of the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, UCSF
Chief Data Scientist, University of California Health System
Atul Butte, MD, PhD is the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Distinguished Professor and inaugural Director of the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute (bchsi.ucsf.edu) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Butte is also the Chief Data Scientist for the entire University of California Health System, the tenth largest by revenue in the United States, with 20 health professional schools, 6 medical schools, 6 academic health centers, 10 hospitals, and over 1000 care delivery sites. Dr. Butte has been continually funded by NIH for 20 years, is an inventor on 24 patents, and has authored nearly 300 publications, with research repeatedly featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Wired Magazine. Dr. Butte was elected into the National Academy of Medicine in 2015, and in 2013, he was recognized by the Obama Administration as a White House Champion of Change in Open Science for promoting science through publicly available data. Dr. Butte is also a co-founder of three investor-backed data-driven companies: Personalis (IPO, 2019), providing medical genome sequencing services, Carmenta (acquired by Progenity, 2015), discovering diagnostics for pregnancy complications, and NuMedii, finding new uses for drugs through open molecular data. Dr. Butte trained in Computer Science at Brown University, worked as a software engineer at Apple and Microsoft, received his MD at Brown University, trained in Pediatrics and Pediatric Endocrinology at Children's Hospital Boston, then received his PhD from Harvard Medical School and MIT.
Gwen Watanabe
Managing Director
H.I.G Capital
29 years of extensive global experience as a MedDevice and MedTech Executive and Investor. Adept at Investment, General Management, Mergers & Acquisitions, Finance and Corporate Strategy. Passionate about transforming businesses through growth and innovation, developing talent, optimizing resources, creating enterprise value for shareholders, developing new products and executing strategic initiatives to deliver top line growth and increase profitability.
Antoine Papiernik
Chairman & Managing Partner
Sofinnova Partners
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.
Elisabeth Staudinger
Managing Board Member
Siemens Healthineers
As a member of the Managing Board of a global innovation leader in healthcare, I have the honor, responsibility, and pleasure to drive better access to high-quality care for more people around the world. Thanks to our unique capabilities in patient twinning, precision therapy, digital data, and AI, we’re strategically positioned to help healthcare systems achieve better patient outcomes.
Fred Moll
Chief Development Officer
Johnson & Johnson Robotics
Fred Moll is a visionary in the healthcare industry and has been called “the father of robotic surgery” – his inventions have helped pave the way for improved surgical procedures for decades. Fred is currently the Chief Development Officer of Johnson and Johnson Medical Devices Companies. A serial entrepreneur, Fred co-founded Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG), Hansen Medical (NASDAQ:HNSN), Restoration Robotics (NASDAQ:HAIR), and most recently was the founder and CEO of Auris Health (acquired by J&J April ’19 for $5.75B).
His innovation career began during medical training when he invented the safety trocar, which helped create the field of modern laparoscopic surgery.
Fred is a distinguished speaker and lecturer, a prolific inventor and is the author of numerous scientific articles. He currently serves on the boards of several healthcare companies, including Procept BioRobotics, ShockWave Medical, GI Windows, and RefleXion.
Karen Long
Medical Device Investor/Managing Director
KCK Group
Executive leader with strong experience and success in early stage as well as Fortune 500 health companies. Most recent operating role was President and CEO of Nuelle, Inc., a women's consumer health company (acquired). Currently Managing Director at KCK Medical Technologies Investment Group. Director/Board Chair/Exec Chair of Aerin Medical, Sonex Health, Revelle Aesthetics, Candesant Biomedical and Barologics within KCK portfolio. Independent Board Director outside of KCK in consumer health. Interests: Women's health, Consume
Jay Watkins
Managing Partner
Sonder Capital
Jay Watkins has over 30 years experience founding and funding healthcare companies. Jay’s career in healthcare began when he co-founded Origin Medsystems, a venture funded medical technology start-up that was acquired by Eli Lilly & Company and later spun out as part of Guidant Corporation (NYSE: GDT).
He served as president of several Guidant divisions, led its global business development activities, and later served as a managing director at DeNovo Ventures. Jay lectures at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign.
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.
Ye Bu
Business Development & Strategy Executive
GE Healthcare
Nicole J. Walker
Healthcare Innovator, Board Director, Venture Investor & Advisor
Multiple Companies
Jon Salveson
Vice Chairman
Piper / Sandler
Scott Pantel
CEO
LSI
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.
Daniel Hawkins
CEO
Avail Medsystems
Daniel Hawkins is the founder and CEO of Avail Medsystems, a medical technology company creating a network where medical expertise sharing can occur between healthcare professionals and experts to and from the operating room anytime, anywhere.
Over the past 25 years in the medical technology field, Daniel’s mission has been to identify and close gaps that prevent patients from getting the best possible healthcare. He is an inventor on over 140 patents and applications, and has held roles in both large and emerging companies, including Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc., Endologix, Restore Medical, EnteroMedics, and Intuitive Surgical. Daniel is a co-founder of Calibra Medical, acquired by Johnson & Johnson, and founder of Shockwave Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ: SWAV).
Daniel has an MBA from Stanford University and a BS in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In 2017, Daniel was honored by Goldman Sachs as one of its Top 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.
Josh DeFonzo
Co-Founder and CEO
Mendaera
Health technology executive with extensive experience developing disruptive technology and creating new markets. Passionate about early stage ventures, entrepreneurship, and intrapreneurial efforts that require market analysis, needs assessment, product and business model discovery and definition, corporate strategic planning, and go-to-market execution.
Brent Vaughan
CEO
Cognito Therapeutics
As a leader and builder of innovative healthcare companies like Cognito Therapeutics, Cognoa, and WellnessFx as well as being a part of the healthcare venture investment team at Morningside, I have worked with teams to build therapeutic and device companies that develop novel medicines or Digital Therapeutics (DTx) to address unmet medical needs. I am most interested in companies who I feel can leverage novel approaches to address unmet medical needs and underserved patient populations.
Dennis McWilliams
Partner
SANTÉ
Serial life science entrepreneur and innovator dedicated to globally commercializing world changing medical technologies. Leadership experience from early idea stages through global product launches in both private and public companies, with significant domestic and international management experience.
Confirmed Investors & Strategics
(prelim sneak peek)
Lu Zhang
Founder & Managing Partner
Fusion Fund
Lu Zhang, Founder and Managing Partner of Fusion Fund, is a renowned Silicon Valley investor, a serial entrepreneur, and a Stanford Engineering alumna. Lu is a World Economic Forum - Young Global Leader. 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 was recently selected as the Best 25 Female early-stage Investor by Business Insider (2021). Prior to starting Fusion Fund, she was the Founder and CEO of a medical device company (acquired in 2013). Lu is a frequent speaker at tech events and conferences such as Davos World Economic Forum, Future Investment Initiative (FII), Forbes, Web Summit, SuperReturn, etc., and 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. Lu is also on the Jury Board of Cartier’s Young Leader Award. She received her M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University.
Jonathan Norris
Managing Director, Business Development
Silicon Valley Bank
Former litigation attorney - have been involved in Healthcare since 1999. Focused on debt and equity strategy for BioPharma, Device, Dx/Tools and Digital Health. Have written numerous thought pieces detailing the flow of capital into venture healthcare (investment and fundraising) as well as M&A and IPO activity.
I am a Managing Director in the Healthcare Practice at SVB, where I run Business Development on the West Coast, and mange Venture Capital relationships. I help investors understand and analyze historical and current market trends around investments and returns, and assist CEOs and C-level management with equity and debt strategy, business plans, exit comps and access to capital.
Allan May
Chairman of the Board
FundamentalVR
Scott Huennekens
Principal
Front Foot Ventures
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.
Paula Rutledge
Founder, Member Board Of Directors, Central and North Florida Chapter, Alzheimer's Association®
Legacy MedSearch
Chris Eso
Vice President, Business Development & Strategy
Medtronic
Chris Eso currently has dual responsibility as Vice President of Business Development & Strategy for both the Structural Heart & Aortic operating unit and the Cardiovascular Portfolio, which includes eight cardiovascular operating units across Medtronic. Chris joined Medtronic in 2011 and has held numerous business development, M&A and strategy positions of increasing responsibility and scope over his tenure at Medtronic in both the businesses and corporate functions.
Previous Roles:
Chris brings more than 25 years of successful professional business and general management experience within the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries, in addition to Medtronic, including Allergan, Watson Pharmaceuticals, Agilent Technologies, and Peregrine Pharmaceuticals. Most of his experience is in a business/corporate development and strategy capacity where he has led more than 50 transactions with consideration of approximately $15 billion, as well as general management capacity running a $50 million revenue-generating wholly-owned subsidiary of a publicly-traded company
College Background:
Chris holds an MBA from Concordia University and BA in Public Relations, Communications from California State University, Fullerton.
Kolaleh Eskandanian
Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer
Children's National Health System
Colin Morrison
Director, Business Development, Venture Capital Investments
Boston Scientific
Business Development, Venture Capital Investment, Mergers & Acquisitions, Sales Management, and Marketing in Medical Device
Specialties: Venture Capital Investment, Mergers and Acquisitions, Market analysis and business plan development for emerging technologies; upstream market strategy, sales management and team leadership; sales team training and development.
Lisa Carmel
EVP Strategic Partnerships
Veranex
As Executive Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, Lisa leverages her global product commercialization experience to help forge long-term collaborations with a core focus on Veranex’s 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. Lisa serves on the Board of Directors for MarinHealth system, a partner of UCSF and is Co-Chair of MedtechWomen’s Annual MedTech Vision Conference in 2021-22. 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.
Antonio Sanchez-Cordero
Vice President, Strategy & Business Development
Thermo Fisher Scientific
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.
Kevin Chu
Principal
F-Prime Capital
Kevin Chu is a Principal on the healthcare team at F-Prime Capital. Prior to F-Prime Capital, Kevin was an Associate Consultant with IMS Consulting Group in New York, where he advised biopharmaceutical clients on development and commercial strategy across multiple therapeutic areas.
Kevin is currently based in the San Francisco office, and works across the healthcare sub-sectors including Therapeutics, MedTech, and Healthcare IT and Services, and also works closely with Eight Roads Ventures China healthcare team to manage F-Prime’s existing and new investment efforts in China.
Josh Makower
Director, Stanford Biodesign and Special Partner
NEA
Josh is a Special Partner on NEA's healthcare team and has worked closely with NEA since his time as an EIR back in 1995, stepping up as a General Partner to lead our medtech/healthtech practice from 2015 to 2021. In addition to his continuing role at NEA, Josh serves on the faculty of the Stanford University Medical and Engineering Schools as a Professor of Medicine and Bioengineering and is Director and Co-Founder of The Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign. Josh is also the Founder and Executive Chairman of ExploraMed, a medical device incubator that has created 9 companies over the past 25 years. Notable transactions from the ExploraMed portfolio include Acclarent, acquired by J&J in 2009, EndoMatrix, acquired by C.R. Bard in 1997, TransVascular, acquired by Medtronic in 2003, Nuelle, acquired by AyTu Biosciences in 2014, and Neotract acquired by Teleflex in 2017. On-going ExploraMed/NEA ventures include Moximed, Willow Innovations, Revelle Aesthetics, and ExploraMed V. Josh currently serves on the boards of Eargo (NASDAQ: EAR), Allay Therapeutics, Lungpacer, Revelle Aesthetics, Magenta Medical, DOTS Technology Corp., ExploraMed, Intrinsic Therapeutics, Moximed, SetPoint Medical, Willow and Coravin. Josh holds over 300 patents and patent applications for various medical devices in the fields of cardiology, ENT, general surgery, drug delivery, obesity, orthopedics, women’s health, aesthetics, and urology. He received an MBA from Columbia University, an MD from the NYU School of Medicine, and a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Biomedical Engineering and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Maxwell Bikoff
Principal
Longitude Capital
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, Limflow, 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) and PROCEPT BioRobotics (PRCT). Mr. Bikoff began his career in Deloitte Consulting’s Life Sciences Strategy practice and holds a BSE in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University.
Dave Greenwald
Vice President, Business Development
Deerfield Management
David Greenwald, Ph.D., is a Vice President, Business Development on the Therapeutics team and joined the Firm in 2018. In this role, Dr. Greenwald is responsible for searching for new investment opportunities, supporting business development of Deerfield private portfolio companies, and providing his expertise to Deerfield’s research collaborations and venture creation efforts. Prior to joining Deerfield, Dr. Greenwald was the Director of Business Development at Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures. He was a co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Relay Technology Management, Inc. and a co-inventor of the Relay Innovation Engine software platform. After Relay was acquired by Decision Resources Group, Dr. Greenwald served as the Director of Client Solutions at Decision Resources Group. Before that, he was an Associate Investigator at the Naval Medical Research Center in Silver Spring, MD, where he worked on developing diagnostic devices for dengue fever. Dr. Greenwald was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute research fellow while earning a B.S. in Cellular Biology and Molecular Genetics from the University of Maryland, College Park and earned his Ph.D. in Genetics from Tufts University. Dr. Greenwald currently serves on the Boards of Jaguar Gene Therapy, Axovia Therapeutics, and Apertura Gene Therapy.
Todd Brinton
Chief Scientific Officer & Corporate Vice President
Edwards Lifesciences
Todd J. Brinton, M.D., has been corporate vice president, advanced technology, and chief
scientific officer, since 2019. Dr. Brinton has significant experience as a champion of
cardiovascular innovation and has a strong patient focus as a tenured practicing clinical
cardiologist. He has deep ties to the medical technology community as a founder, board
member and advisor to several start-up companies, including his role as physician founder,
board member, and chief medical officer of ShockWave Medical, Inc. Dr. Brinton began his
career as an engineer in the medical technology industry, ultimately becoming a director of
clinical research and development, prior to entering medical school. Before joining Edwards, he
was a clinical professor of medicine (cardiology) and adjunct professor of bioengineering at the
Stanford University School of Medicine. He was an attending interventional cardiologist at both
the Stanford University Medical Center and the Palo Alto VA Medical Center. Dr. Brinton also
served as the fellowship director at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign from 2006 to 2019,
where he mentored and directed numerous teams on the development of new technologies. In
addition, he served as the co-director for both the graduate and executive education programs
at the center during a similar time period. He is extremely active in the American Heart
Association serving as the Chair of the 2022 Bay Area Research Roundtable and the 2022
Orange County Heart & Stroke Ball. In addition, he currently serves on the AHA national
research committee and strategic outcomes subcommittee. He has served on the advisory
board for the Edwards Lifesciences Foundation Cardiovascular Innovation and Research Center
at UC Irvine since 2020. Dr. Brinton received his bachelor’s degree from the University of
California, San Diego in biomedical engineering, and his medical degree from the Chicago
Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University. He completed his internship, residency, and
fellowships in cardiology and interventional cardiology at Stanford.
Fouad Azzam, Ph.D.
Partner
EQT Life Sciences
Fouad Azzam is a Partner in the EQT Life Sciences team. Fouad worked for LSP from 2007 until 2022, when LSP joined forces with EQT and was renamed EQT Life Sciences.
Prior to joining LSP, Fouad worked as a Managing Director Eastman Ventures and Director at Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport TN, USA. Prior to Eastman Chemical Company, Fouad was part of the Research & Business Development group at Occidental Chemical Company in Grand Island NY, USA.
Fouad holds an Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Akron, USA and an M.B.A. from SUNY Buffalo, USA.
John Ryan
Managing Director
Wells Fargo Strategic Capital
Milen Todorov
Managing Director
HealthpointCapital
Prior to joining HealthpointCapital, Milen Todorov was a Director in the global healthcare team at UBS Investment Bank, focusing on the musculoskeletal sector. While at UBS, Milen executed over 25 M&A and capital raising transactions with aggregate value in excess of $35 billion. He began his career in economic litigation consulting at Charles River Associates. Mr. Todorov received a B.A. in Economics from Middlebury College and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
Azin Parhizgar
Senior Venture Partner
415 Capital
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.
Debbie Lin
Executive Director
Boehringer Ingelheim
Frederik Groenewegen
General Partner
415 Capital
Frederik is a Co-Founder and General Partner of 415 CAPITAL. He has been an investor in more than a dozen of innovative medical technology companies and led 415’s investments in Supira Medical, CorFlow Therapeutics, Cardiac Success, Aktiia, Distalmotion and R3 Vascular. He currently serves as a Board Director at Cardiac Success and R3 Vascular. Prior to co-founding 415 CAPITAL, Frederik served as Business Development Manager at Regis Medical, a Germany based medical device distributor where he helped source and evaluate new partnerships and investment opportunities. Previously, Frederik worked in HSBC’s Leveraged & Acquisition Finance group in New York City where he structured financings for private equity-backed buyouts and corporate M&A transactions including several large-cap Healthcare transactions. 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.
Frank Groenewegen
General Partner
415 Capital
Frank has almost 40 years of investing, management, sales & marketing experience in the MedTech space, the last 30 years as serial investor and entrepreneur. As an investor, he has funded over 40 MedTech companies. As an entrepreneur, he has founded, built, and exited several successful European MedTech distribution companies, including Regis Medical GmbH, Ovum Ventures GmbH (sold to Medtronic in 2009) and Cardiologic GmbH (sold to Boston Scientific in 2002). His companies have commercialized over 20 novel medical device technologies in Europe and helped establish new clinical standards of care, including cerebral embolic protection, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), ultrasound renal denervation, and the world’s first pre-mounted coronary stents (Arterial Vascular Engineering). Following Boston Scientific’s acquisition of Cardiologic GmbH, Frank served as the General Manager of Boston Scientific’s Interventional Cardiology Division Germany. Previously, he held several management positions at St. Jude Medical (now part of Abbott), Inc., W. L. Gore & Associates, and AHSC American Hospital Supply Corp. (now part of Baxter).
Sascha Berger
Partner
TVM Capital Life Science
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.
Matt Ahearn
Director & Chief Operating Officer
Genesis Innovation Group
Matt is an entrepreneurial business leader with 15 years of experience in building and managing dynamic technology companies.
He has a proven track record of successfully bringing innovative products and services to market.
Prior to Genesis Innovation Group, he was COO of Conpoto, and VP of Finance, COO and President of LeanLogistics.
Ramin Mousavi
President & CEO
CathWorks
Ramin Mousavi is a dynamic executive with an outstanding history of building high-performing teams and achieving exceptional results in the medical device and high-tech industries — from developing to launching and commercializing breakthrough and transformational products. He is currently the President & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CathWorks, an innovative global medical device company focused on transforming the diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery diseases. CathWorks is dedicated to improving the care of patients suffering from coronary artery disease by providing clinicians the most comprehensive and objective data through CathWorks digital health platform, a combination of advanced algorithms, artificial intelligence, machine learning and cutting-edge user interface. A rising star of the medical device industry, Ramin has executive leadership and operational experience in general management, marketing, strategy, product development, and commercialization across multiple market segments. Prior to CathWorks, Ramin led the patient monitoring and digital health portfolio at Baxter International. Previously, he held various leadership assignments at Edwards Lifesciences, Panasonic, and Rockwell Collins.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/raminmousavi
https://www.twitter.com/RaminMousaviMBA
Jeff LaConte
Lead, Digital Surgery, Robotics, DePuy Synthes
Johnson & Johnson
Tyler Stowater
Partner
Bluestem Capital
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.
Andre Kobelt
Board of Managing Directors
Heraeus Holding GmbH
Luc Marengere
Managing Partner
TVM Capital Life Science
Dr. Marengère is responsible for TVM Capital Life Science’s overall investment strategy and global fund operations.
Dr. Marengère joined TVM in 2012 and has 23 years of venture capital experience. He was a key driver of the implementation of the TVM LSI I investment strategy which resulted in a number of investments. He is a Director on the Boards of Emovi Inc.; Acanthas Pharma; Occelaris Pharma; Ixchelsis; PRCL Pharma; Panthera Dental; FAAH Pharma; Kaneq Biosciences; Acer Therapeutics as well as Rapid Micro Biosciences. Luc was on the Board of Colucid Pharma Inc. and Aurka Pharma which were recently sold to Eli Lilly for US $960M and US $575M respectively.
Dr. Marengère brings a significant track record to TVM given his long standing experience as a Venture Capitalist. Very notable deals during Luc‘s previous tenure as Managing Partner at VG Partners include Cytochroma Inc. (sold to Opko for US$ 400M); VisualSonics (sold to Sonosite for US $75M) and CITA Neuropharma (sold to Vernalis Plc for US$ 85M). Prior to joining VG Partners, Luc focused on making venture investments in the life science sector while at La Caisse De Depot‘s venture capital group SOFINOV as well as MDS Capital and MedTech Partners.
Prior to his venture capital career, he conducted commercially-oriented research in the fields of immunology and oncology while at Amgen. Luc holds a Ph.D. from University of Toronto‘s department of Medical Biophysics and Molecular Genetics.
David Sym-Smith
Venture Partner
Mobility Ventures
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.
Simon Turner
Partner
Sofinnova Partners
Simon joined Sofinnova in 2021 after consulting for Corporates seeking to develop partnership with Digital Health companies. He worked closely with business development functions to identify, assess, and structure strategic investments. Prior to that, Simon was at Baxter International, where he was part of the External Innovation Department. At Baxter, Simon coordinated scouting activities and technical due diligence that assessed M&A opportunities.
He is a Board member at Gradientech AB, a privately held Swedish company developing ultra-rapid treatment decision tools for antibiotic susceptibility testing. He is also a Steering Committee member of the MedFIT conference, an international event that brings together key innovators in the MedTech, diagnostic and digital health sectors.
Simon enjoys constant exposure to novel technologies, curious and motivated people, and supporting the development of companies that are striving to improve medicine. He decided to join Sofinnova because of the strong team spirit and collective drive.
He has a B.Sc. in Biomedical Science from King’s College London and an M.Sc. in International Business from SKEMA Business School.
Christian Snyder
Analyst
Solas BioVentures
Christian Snyder earned his BA in Finance and Investing from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga while playing middle linebacker. Using two more years of eligibility, he now pursues an MBA with a concentration in data analytics, with plans to study for the CFA. Since joining Solas, Christian has provided expertise about the SPAC markets and financial analytics of current portfolio companies.
James Leech
VP of Strategy & Corporate Development
Palette Life Sciences
Joshua Eckelberry
Principal
Solas BioVentures
Joshua Eckelberry graduated with honors from East Tennessee State University with a BS in Biochemistry as a Mayme Frazier Scholar and then attended Quillen College of Medicine for two years on the nationally ranked rural health track before diverting to pursue an MBA in Healthcare Administration. While in school he pioneered Quillen's anatomy lab internship where he helped create the school's first digital dissector, served as president of the local American Medical School Association, helped negotiated a hospital staffing contract worth over $1M, and raised over $200K for area non-profit clinics. With his understanding of both the science and business sides of the life science industry, Josh helps translate and negotiate the optimal outcome for patients and the companies. Josh has a lifelong commitment to drive positive impact on the community and the world through leveraged change.
Dave Adair
Co-Founder & Managing Director
Solas BioVentures
Dave has worked with the partners of Solas BioVentures since 2004 and was a founding member of the firm in 2014. He currently focuses on investments in medical device and therapeutic companies. Board certified in Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Hypertension, with special expertise in Critical Care, Dave is a long-time physician, educator, administrator, innovator, and biotech/med-tech investor with nearly 20 years of experience in angel and venture investing. Dave recently retired from his position as Professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. Dave also retired from clinical practice after a 30 year career. Dave received a BS in Biology from Morehead State University, where he is Hall of Fame member, is a recent graduate from University Tennessee Chattanooga with his Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Healthcare and earned his medical degree from the Joan C. Edwards College of Medicine at Marshall University in 1990. He completed residency at the University of Florida Health Science Center and Fellowship training at Wake Forest University.
Christopher Campbell
Director, Software and Sensors - VELYS Digital Surgery (Global Strategic Marketing)
Johnson & Johnson
David Thompson
General Partner
415 Capital
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).
Ryan McGuinness
Global Head, In Vitro Technologies/Commercial GM
Triple Ring Technologies
Ryan was trained in genetics and cell biology at the University of California at Davis. Since 1988 he has worked in several biotechnology companies and as an independent biotech consultant focused on adding value to early stage therapeutic and technology efforts. Early in his career Ryan worked in teams that applied cutting edge genetic engineering technologies to advance the development of gene therapy and cellular therapeutics.
In 2002 Ryan transitioned to research and product development for biopharmaceutical instrumentation, where he held customer-facing positions related to the introduction of novel technologies. In this role, Ryan grew to be a recognized expert in label-free biosensors, presented at numerous international scientific conferences, and was invited to chair several scientific symposia. Ryan is co-inventor of five US patents, has published multiple scientific communications, developed many applications for the drug discovery market, and lead collaborations worldwide with well-known pharmaceutical research teams from companies like Merck, Amgen, J&J, Novartis and AstraZeneca.
Ken Toda
Sr. Director, Business Development, Medical Device Unit, Kaneka US Innovation Center
Kaneka Americas
Nick Pachuda
Innovation & New Ventures
Pure Medtech Advisors
Rob Abrams
General Manager - Global Business Development
Kaneka
Brian Hakim
Director of International Business Development
MedTecX
Rob Barmann
Partner
Endeavour Vision
Rob is a Partner at Endeavour Vision focused on investments in medical technology, digital health and diagnostics. Rob represents Endeavour Vision on the boards of Kestra Medical Technologies, Virtual Incision Corporation, InBrace, Willow and Nalu Medical. He serves as a board observer for IntelyCare, and was on the deal team for the investment in Rapid Micro Biosystems.
Rob joined Endeavour Vision after 15 years at Boston Scientific, which has been one of the most active acquirers in medical technology in recent years. In his role as Vice President, Corporate Business Development, Rob was responsible for leading the identification, assessment and execution of Business Development transactions for Boston Scientific’s Interventional Cardiology, Peripheral Intervention and Rhythm Management divisions. This included acquisitions, divestitures, minority investments and joint ventures.
Prior to his Business Development role, Rob held leadership positions in commercial strategy and marketing at Boston Scientific. Rob also previously worked at The 3M Company where he was an Engineering Project Leader.
Rob holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University and an MBA and a Masters in Engineering Management from The Kellogg School of Management.
Ann Gaddy
Managing Director
BioPacific Investors
John Genova
Senior Vice President
Cambridge Consultants
Robert Greenberg
Chairman and CEO
Alfred Mann Foundation
Robert J. Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., is the Chairman and CEO of the Alfred Mann Foundation. He was a co-founder and former CEO and Chairman of the Board of Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ: EYES) in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Greenberg is a leader in the field of neural prosthetics – having developed and brought to market the world’s most advanced implantable neural stimulator, the Argus II visual prostheses, to treat retinitis pigmentosa, a form of blindness. Dr. Greenberg was also a medical reviewer at the FDA’s Office of Device Evaluation. Dr. Greenberg is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, has over 260 issued US patents and over 100 international patents, and has published over 60 articles. He received MD and PhD degrees from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Greenberg joined AMF in 2004 as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Finn Haley
Senior Vice President, Corporate Development
Edwards Lifesciences
Edward Hanlon
Senior Associate
Gilde Healthcare
Edward Hanlon joined Gilde Healthcare in 2020 in the Cambridge office and focuses on Healthtech.
Prior to joining Gilde, Edward worked in advisory for Health Advances, a consulting firm operating across healthcare sectors in medical devices, biopharma, health technology, and diagnostics. He has broad experience in commercial strategy and M&A due diligence, advising a range of clients including late-stage start-ups, multinational corporations, and financial investors. Since joining the Gilde Healthcare, Eddie has contributed to several investments, including Eargo, Spire Health, and Nalu Medical.
He has a B.S. in biology from Duke University. During his undergraduate years, he worked as a research assistant at the Duke University Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and the Liberty Mutual Research Institute Center for Behavioral Sciences. Edward is a US citizen.
Kristin Havranek
Partner
Goodwin Procter LLP
Kristin Havranek has worked extensively with and in the MedTech industry for the last 25 years. A trusted advisor to investors and companies alike, Ms. Havranek regularly helps startup and emerging MedTech companies build their IP portfolios in a strategic, thoughtful manner with their business goals and needs in mind. She evaluates freedom-to-operate, patentability, investor due diligence and financing IP, and conducts patent validity analyses. She advises on strategic alliances and prepares and prosecutes patent applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Ms. Havranek’s ties in the industry run deep and is currently on the leadership team of MedtechWomen.
Ms. Havranek’s background as a Biomedical engineer in industry, most recently as a Senior Engineer at Guidant Corporation, and as a MedTech attorney advising companies in a wide variety of technological areas makes her uniquely qualified to find the path to successful IP protection and value creation for your MedTech company.
James Huie
Corporate Attorney
Wilson Sonsini
James Huie is a corporate and securities partner in Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's San Francisco office, where he has one of the most active practices in the country representing venture-backed companies. He advises life sciences and technology companies on general corporate matters, mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, strategic partnerships, and private equity and debt financings. He also has extensive experience in representing venture capital firms and other investors in private equity and debt financings.
James also serves on the investment committee for the firm's affiliated fund, the WS Investment Company.
Ross Julian
Associate Director
InnovaHealth Partners
Mr. Julian’s role involves supporting investment decisions, portfolio company management and investment outcomes. He evaluates potential new portfolio company targets with emphasis on bottom-up valuation analysis and deal structure. In addition to these responsibilities, Mr. Julian is a member of the Firm’s research team, participates in its Investment Committee meetings and is regularly evaluating thematic industry opportunities.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Julian was an analyst at the hedge fund Round Table Investment Management, LLC where he was the youngest member of the firm’s investment committee. His duties included security analysis, industry assessments and derivatives trading. Prior to joining Round Table, Mr. Julian played on the Men’s Varsity baseball team at Brown University.
Oliver Keown
Managing Director
Intuitive Ventures
As founder and head of Intuitive Ventures, I'm passionate about accelerating the future of minimally invasive care by investing globally in transformative early-stage startups across digital health, medtech, therapeutic and diagnostic domains.
Sabing Lee
Partner
Knobbe Martens
Sabing H. Lee's practice includes strategic patent procurement, patent portfolio management, intellectual property due diligence and general counseling on infringement, licensing, international IP protection and post-grant proceedings. Sabing currently represents clients in a wide range of technologies, with an emphasis on medical devices and procedures and materials science.
Sabing co-chairs the firm’s Medical Devices and Procedures group. In the medical device field, Sabing has worked extensively with cardiovascular, orthopedic, wound care and healthcare AI technologies. He has been involved in the intellectual property strategy and acquisitions of PercuSurge, Inc. (acquired by Medtronic, Inc.), Flex-Foot, Inc. (acquired by Össur hf.), Endius, Inc. (acquired by Zimmer Holdings, Inc.), ev3 Inc. (acquired by Covidien), CardiAQ Valve Technologies (acquired by Edwards Lifesciences), and Tornier/Wright Medical (acquired by Stryker).
Sabing currently serves on the Board of Directors for Octane, an organization that drives technology industry growth and innovation in Orange County by connecting ideas and people with resources and capital.
Sabing has been recognized as a Patent Star in Managing IP's "IP STARS" guide for his outstanding intellectual property legal work in 2018-2021. He has received "Star" recognition in the "Life Sciences Survey" published by Legal Media Group (LMG) Life Sciences from 2012-2017. He was noted as being among the top patent strategists in the country for his patent prosecution, patent advisory, strategy and management practice. Sabing was selected for inclusion in the "Southern California Super Lawyers" list for his work in intellectual property law from 2013-2018 by Super Lawyers magazine, and was named to the Daily Journal's list of the "Top Intellectual Property Attorneys of 2014", where he was recognized among the Top 25 Portfolio Managers & Patent Prosecutors of Intellectual Property.
Sabing joined the firm in 1997 and became a partner in 2003.
Steve Pacelli
Executive Vice President and Managing Director
Dexcom
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.
Alexander Schmitz
Partner
Endeavour Vision
Alexander is a Partner at Endeavour Vision, investing in medical technology, digital health and diagnostics companies across multiple therapeutic areas.
Alexander brings more than two decades of business and strategy experience in both medical device and high-technology companies. He currently represents Endeavour Vision on the boards of Kenbi, Relievant MedSystems, Lumeon, Rapid Micro Biosystems (NASDAQ:RPID) and VentureMed, and led the firm’s investments in Gynesonics, Nuvaira and V-Wave. He previously served on the boards of VertiFlex (acquired by Boston Scientific in 2019) and EndoStim. He is a member of the steering committee for PCR Innovators’ Day and serves as both a jury member and expert panelist for the Healthtech Summit.
Prior to joining the Endeavour Vision team, Alexander spent nine years with Biosensors International Group, an interventional cardiology company, where he served as vice president of business development. He previously worked with LogiSpring Ventures, MicroStrategy and McKinsey & Co.
Alexander holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BSFS, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University
Matthew Schopp
Senior Director Business Development
Zimmer Biomet
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
Matt Wetzel
Partner
Goodwin
Matt Wetzel is an experienced health care fraud and abuse and compliance lawyer. He provides strategic advice to life sciences companies on complex health care laws and regulations, including federal and state fraud and abuse laws, billing and reimbursement regulations, and transparency requirements, among other areas. Mr. Wetzel also establishes and aids clients in operating effective compliance programs.
Mr. Wetzel brings a unique, 360-degree perspective of the legal and compliance issues affecting life sciences companies. As a veteran of the medtech industry, he brings a pragmatic approach to counseling his clients. Prior to joining Goodwin, Mr. Wetzel served as Chief Compliance Officer of a Silicon Valley biotech start-up; was the Vice President & Deputy General Counsel of the world’s largest medical technology trade association in Washington, DC; and held an executive legal role at a multinational medical device maker.
Nick Pliam
Partner
Decheng Capital
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 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.
Anthony Williams
Partner
HealthQuest Capital
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.
Chris Baker, MD
Clinical Partner
Aphelion Capital
Dr. Baker began his med-tech career as a physician and has worked for over 18 years as an emergency physician at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. He is board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Emergency Medicine and has special research interests in brain injury and pulmonary disease. He founded his first company over nine years ago in the ENT therapeutic and diagnostic space and has since been also consulting for other start up medical device firms. He joins Aphelion Capital as a Clinical Partner and continues to do clinical work as well.
Dr. Baker sits on the board at Aardvark Medical and Colabs Medical.
David Beylik
Vice President
Ajax Health
Prior to Ajax, David was an associate at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he advised emerging companies and VC and PE firms on corporate governance issues, equity financings, and M&A transactions. Before Latham, David served as a judicial law clerk to Chief Justice John Roberts (U.S. Supreme Court), Judge Brett Kavanaugh (U.S. Court of Appeals), and Judge Dabney Friedrich (U.S. District Court), and as a judicial extern to Judge Mark Wallace (U.S. Bankruptcy Court).
David received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he served as editor of the Harvard Law Review and graduated first in his class, summa cum laude. He received his B.S., summa cum laude, from the University of Southern California. Before law school, David led business development for The Drop Box, a documentary film that has raised over $10 million for children with disabilities through strategic partnerships and worldwide distribution.
Ronnie Wang
Partner
Mednovation
Ronnie has more than 10 years of medical device project management and R&D management experience in both Chinese and American medical device industry. Now serving as the Partner of Mednovation, Co-founder of ONE investment club and Access technology. Recent deal includes Innovheart, Xeltis, Merion etc. Before investment banking, Ronnie was focus on R&D project and program management in both US and China Medtech companies. He had been engaged in several innovative projects including: Heart Valve stent, Drug eluting stent, inferior vena cava filter, Stent retriever and Flow diverter.
Ronnie owns more than 10 patents in biomedical engineering. He holds California professional engineer license. He has a MSc. In Bioengineering specializing in medical device from San Diego State University.
Cason Kynes
Director of Business Development
Ajax Health
Prior to Ajax, Cason received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he served as editor and Business Chair of the Harvard Law Review, participated in the Harvard Innovation Lab venture incubation program, and graduated magna cum laude. Prior to law school, he was an account manager at Oracle, covering data security solutions.
He received his B.A. from Stanford University.
Jeff Peters
President & CEO
OrbiMed Advisors
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.
David Hendren
Managing Director
Augmentum Ventures
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.
Venture Capital/Private Equity: Knowledge from all sides of the table: generating/evaluating deal-flow; investing; building/managing companies/portfolios; structuring, positioning, leading, and executing financing, strategic, and exit transactions.
Leadership: Strategic planning/implementation, financial management, organizational/team development, mentoring, creating/aligning incentives, IP strategy, regulatory strategy, reimbursement, compliance, risk management, partnering, and structuring/executing financing, strategic, and exit transactions.
Technologies/Services: Domain expertise identifying, developing, financing, and commercializing healthcare, biomedical, IT, and convergence technologies; developing, implementing, and managing concepts, structures, programs, and alliances for healthcare delivery, management, infrastructure, service, support, and payment, including population health, ACOs, global risk, and MSOs.
Board Experience: Healthcare, technology, and other areas. Lead/mentor management/boards to develop/implement structure, process, and culture for teamwork, transparency, accountability, and performance.
Monica Jain
Venture Partner
Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health
Dr. Monica Jain is a practicing General/Endocrine Surgeon, a Biomedical Engineer, and a leader in Healthcare Innovation. She advises healthcare startup companies, leads numerous innovation collaboration efforts across Southern California, and is an active researcher and educator in Surgery, Healthcare Innovation, Human Factors/Ergonomics, Quality Improvement, and Leadership.
◉ Chair/Member of multiple Surgical and Innovation Society committees
◉ Surgery training, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and UCSF
◉ MD, Boston University School of Medicine
◉ BS, Biomedical Engineering, Boston University
Kwame Ulmer
Venture Partner
Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health
Kwame served at the FDA (in progressive leadership roles including Deputy Director) and was formerly the Vice President at a Danaher Corporation operating company. He is a lecturer and co-leads research on med-tech innovation at the University of California, Los Angeles Anderson School of Management.
◉ Managing Partner at MedTech Impact Partners
◉ Founder - MedTech Color
◉ Evaluated over 1,000 FDA applications
◉ MBA, University of Virginia
◉ MS Materials Science & Engineering, University of Virginia
◉ BS Physics, Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)
Suraj Mudichintala
Senior Associate
Action Potential Venture Capital
Suraj Mudichintala is a senior associate at APVC in Palo Alto, CA. He represents APVC on the Boards of Alpheus Medical and Axon Therapies. He was previously an investor at Arboretum Ventures, where he served as a Board observer at Allay Therapeutics, Avation Medical, Francis Medical, Health Scholars, Koya Medical, and RareCyte. Prior to investing, Suraj was an associate with L.E.K. Consulting, a global strategy consulting firm. While at L.E.K., Suraj completed ~20 engagements predominantly for life sciences and private equity clients.
Suraj graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Finance and Analytics from Boston College. Suraj previously served on the Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) Oversight Committee for Medical Devices, where he provided guidance to Michigan higher education researchers on transitioning their early stage products to the private sector for commercialization.
William Cohn
Executive Director, J&J Center for Device Innovation
Johnson & Johnson
Bruce Berman
Senior Director, Ethicon and SCG Commercial Operations
Johnson & Johnson Services
Business leader with a proven track record in growth organizations. Experienced in creating and leading high performing teams, designing go to market plans and delivering exceptional results
Recruit, motivate, and lead highly effective sales teams. Quickly assess organizational needs, identify and recruit skilled teams to execute and exceed plan.
Experienced in large multinational companies, post launch start up as well as pre launch start up organizations.
Work cross functionally with all areas of an organization, finance, product development, engineering, marketing, etc. to ensure alignment and exceed revenue and profit goals.
James Welch
Partner/Principal
Ernst & Young
Mark Ginestro
Partner/Principal
Ernst & Young
Over 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry focusing on focusing on advising companies in all facets of corporate development. Mark’s experience spans major areas of life sciences including large molecule, small molecule, drug delivery, diagnostics, medical device firms, digital health, and healthcare distribution. Mark’s has led client engagements in North American, Europe, and Asia.
John Heinbigner
Partner/Principal
Ernst & Young
M&A professional providing financial due diligence services in the med tech and life sciences sectors. My primary fields of expertise include (i) buy-side transaction advisory for strategic and private equity clients, and (ii) full enterprise sales for private equity clients and carve-out / spin transactions for strategics.
Jason Yao
COO
Grand Pharma
Jimmy Jin
VP of Business Development & Strategic Innovation
Becton Dickinson
Tom Daulton
CEO
Veranex
Tom Daulton brings over 30 years of healthcare leadership experience to Veranex, joining from National Dentex Labs (NDX), where he served as chairman and CEO for the past seven years and built one of the largest dental lab networks in North America. His additional experience includes key roles at medical device and healthcare services organizations with global scale, including 20 years at Baxter, Allegiance Healthcare, and Cardinal Health. Daulton was also founder and CEO of Devicor Medical Products, which acquired Mammotome’s breast care business from Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon Endo-Surgery. The addition of Daulton will further expand extensive device experience across the Veranex executive suite.
Sapna Jain
Senior Manager
Edwards Lifesciences
Strategy and business development leader with scientific training and demonstrated success in working with multi-disciplinary teams to source, evaluate and develop innovative biomedical technologies that satisfy unmet clinical needs. Passionate about mentoring entrepreneurs motivated to make an impact in the healthcare space.
Experienced in technology and business development, project management, due diligence, primary market research, financial analysis and mapping out regulatory and reimbursement strategies for biomedical products.
Dr. Chris Stout
Founding Director
Center for Global Initiatives
Dr. Stout’s career includes business, government, and nonprofits, as well as the UN and academia. He’s traveled the world, published 38 books, won a wide range of accolades, including four additional doctorates (honoris causa), and invitations to TEDs, Davos, Renaissance Weekends…
He’s is a licensed clinical psychologist and Founding Director of the Center for Global Initiatives, a Top Rated Healthcare Nonprofit. His entrepreneurial experience is demonstrated in multiple start-ups and serving as an advisory board member, and early-money-in investor. He's been faculty in the University of Illinois' College of Medicine and Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine. He served at the UN and was appointed to the World Economic Forum's Global Leaders of Tomorrow and an Invited Faculty at Davos. He is the founder of GordianKnot, LLC, and is Emeritus VP of Clinical Research and Data Analytics at ATI.
Dr. Stout is a Fellow in the APA, past-President of the IPA, and is member in the National Academies of Practice. He is a best selling nonfiction author whose works have been translated into 8 languages. He has been awarded with 4 Humanitarian Awards and is in 3 Halls of Fame.
He has served as C/E/O/I/Officer. He has traveled to over 100 countries and founded a kindergarten in Tanzania. He is listed in TED-Founder Richard Saul Wurman’s “Who’s Really Who 1000: The Most Creative Individuals in America.” Purdue has named a scholarship in his honor.
Dr. Stout was educated at Purdue, University of Chicago, and Forest Institute, gaining over 24 awards and 4 scholarships and was Valedictorian of his doctoral class. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School. He has been awarded over 40 other postdoctoral awards. He has been interviewed on CNBC, CNN, NBC, PBS, NPR, Oprah, Time, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, and others. He's an amateur alpinist, ultra runner, and diver. Full bio and portfolio: https://linktr.ee/drchrisstout Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Stout_(psychologist)
Amanda DePalma
Vice President, Marketing
Fujifilm Sonosite
Amanda DePalma joined FUJIFILM Sonosite, Inc. in December 2019 as Vice President of Marketing. In her role, Amanda has global responsibility for all marketing aspects of our business. Amanda brings over 25 years of experience in marketing, strategy, and sales at companies including Guidant, Abbott Vascular, Kimberly-Clark Healthcare, and Edwards Lifesciences. She has led high-performing teams in the development and launch of over 30 products and solutions. Amanda's healthcare experience spans multiple clinical areas with an emphasis on cardiology, vascular, surgical, anesthesiology and critical care. Amanda is passionate about fostering diversity in the workplace, and is actively involved in MedtechWomen and the AdvaMed Women's Executive Network. She received her BS in Marketing and MBA from the University of Florida.
Satoshi Iwata
Manager of Healthcare Business Development
Mitsubishi
Matt Tomkin
Vice President, Corporate Development
Teleflex
In this role, Matt oversees all phases of the M&A process, from deal sourcing to execution.
Matt joined the Corporate Development team in 2015 and has managed numerous global M&A scale transactions, various tuck-in acquisitions, late-stage technology deals, and distributor-to-direct conversions.
Prior to joining Teleflex, Matt worked in the Audit and Enterprise Risk Services and M&A Transaction Services groups at Deloitte & Touche.
Matt is a CPA and has a Bachelors' degree in Business Administration from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.
He is based in Wayne, PA, USA.
Daniel Krausz
Managing Member
Level Eight Ventures
Dan has served as a principal, director, and advisor to early-stage and mature companies in the real estate, applied technology, and energy sectors. His areas of focus include green energy and resilient development. With a background in structured finance and complex transactions, Dan works directly with our portfolio companies and prospects to evaluate business opportunities and structure fund investments. A licensed attorney who formerly practiced at the global law firm DLA Piper, Dan received his BA in Economics from Swarthmore College and JD from the University of California Hastings College of the Law. Dan’s professional affiliations include the US Green Building Council and Urban Land Institute. Outside of work, while not spending time with his wife and four children, Dan can be found attempting stupidly uncomfortable and physically demanding challenges in inhospitable parts of the world.
Scott Joslyn
Chief Information and Innovation Officer
UCI Health
Daniel Teo
Managing Partner
Hunniwell Lake Ventures
Glenn Snyder
Principal, Medtech Practice Leader
Deloitte
A partner (principal) since 1998, Glenn is living his "dream job" leading Deloitte's MedTech practice (devices, diagnostics, supplies and clinical/research tools) as it combines his roots as a mechanical engineer with his early consulting experience leading hospital clinical transformation programs. The med tech sector is positioned to be a substantial transformational force for the healthcare industry, harnessing the power of exponentials through sensor technology and augmented intelligence. However, it must adapt to new buying processes, higher "value" expectations, and a changing global regulatory and reimbursement environment.
A selection of Glenn's articles and whitepapers can be found at http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/Industries/1d4083c4abefd110VgnVCM100000ba42f00aRCRD.htm
Sean Cheng
Managing Director
Ascension Ventures
Investment professional with 15+ years experience executing in business, technology, and regulatory sides of organizations ranging from Fortune 500s to start-ups to government agencies.
Currently focused on early-stage investments in medical devices, diagnostics and life sciences on behalf of 13 health systems and 462 acute care facilities across the U.S.
Vera Liebenthal
Senior Director
First Republic Bank
Commercial loan portfolio and relationship manager; structuring, underwriting and monitoring of credit facilities; Advanced quantitative, analytical and market research skills; Comprehensive financial data and business structure analysis; Extensive project management; marketing and investor relations; Fluent in English, Russian and Hebrew.
Lisa Augustus
Executive Director, Life Sciences
JP Morgan
Lisa is a senior relationship manager and strategic business partner with outstanding financial awareness and relationship management capabilities honed through extensive experience in the banking industry.
Chris Kelly
Global Editorial Marketing, Payments
JP Morgan
Kate Levan
Vice President, Life Sciences Relationship Manager
JP Morgan
Builds partnerships with biotech, diagnostic and medical device companies throughout Southern California as part of the national Commercial Banking team dedicated to the Life Sciences industry.
https://www.jpmorgan.com/commercial-banking/industries/life-sciences
Irma Darmail
Director, Corporate Development
Edwards Lifesciences
Experienced Investment Banking Associate with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. Skilled in Corporate Finance, Financial Modeling, Securities, Equities, Mutual Funds, and Asset Allocation. Strong professional with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) focused in Accounting, Finance, and Strategic Management from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Robin Eckert
Vice President Program Management, Advanced Technology
Edwards Lifesciences
Bennet Blau
Managing Director
Goldman Sachs
Alpesh Amin
Chair, Department of Medicine
University California Irvine
Joshua Stein
Growth Officer
Google
Accomplished healthcare executive with over two decades of sales and business development experience. Proven track record of providing executive leadership and generating financial results. Established and managed high performing teams via a cross functional, data driven approach. A diverse background that spans business development, client management, sales, consultant relations, organizational development, sales operations, data analytics and healthcare management consulting. Primary focus is to help companies achieve profitable growth and mutual value creation.
Joshua currently serves as Growth Officer within Fitbit Health Solutions where has oversight of enterprise initiatives and strategy across health plans, health systems, partners, government and research entities.
Prior to joining Fitbit, Joshua held leadership positions at Progyny and WebMD Health Services where he helped drive double-digit revenue growth. Joshua has a degree in Behavioral Science and Law from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and completed executive courses at Columbia Business School.
Lori Huss
Head of Strategic Partnerships
Google
Health and wellness expert, speaker, author and leader who created, implemented, directed, managed and evaluated a broad range of health programs over the past 18 years. Experience with a diverse number of organizations including manufactures, universities, service industries, school corporations, health systems, and health plans. Specialize in consumer experience and well-being solutions that allow for strong strategic qualities that drive business results and brings forth a unique consumer centric experience. Skilled in market analysis and research within healthcare and well-being industry that drives new solutions and consumer experiences with higher engagement, increased total sales, and execution towards organizational goals.
My dedication, passion and enthusiasm for health and wellness, drives me daily to bring forth consumer experiences that allow each individual to be at their best.
• Specialize in multi-channel solutions for consumers and clients that provide choice and personalized options in improving overall health and well-being, leading to higher engagement rates and health outcomes.
• Developed, launched, implemented and operated total population management and stand-alone wellness offerings for employers and health plans, launching 12 unique platform solutions for health plans and wellness organizations.
• Over 6 years of experience in Agile development processes and over 15 years of experience in traditional development processes.
• Leading diverse teams to align to core organization goals and driving the team to exceed goals to support organization growth.
Dennis Sheehan
MD
Simpson Interventions
Susan Posner
Partner and MedTech Practice Leader
Health Advances
Susan is a Partner at Health Advances, LLC, a strategy consulting firm focused on the healthcare industry where she co-leads the Medtech Practice Group. During her 20 years at Health Advances, Susan has worked on over 250 project engagements, with a wide variety of clients ranging from small start-ups to some of the largest public companies in the industry. Susan’s work with these companies has helped to optimize the value of products and technologies through extensive market evaluations, due diligence of M&A opportunities, and the development of strategies for sales and marketing efforts. Susan has extensive experience in the device sector, including minimally invasive and interventional products. Susan’s expertise includes women's health, urology, critical care and other hospital-based and physician office technologies. Susan has published articles in a number of industry journals including a Medtech Insight article focusing on the value proposition for medtech products and is a previous MassMEDIC board member.
Prior to joining Health Advances in 2000, Susan worked at Interneuron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in the areas of business development, marketing, and product management. Susan’s high technology experience also includes Molten Metal Technology, Inc. Susan earned her BA in General Science with a minor in Business and Managerial Economics from Brandeis University.
Tracy Walters
Partner
Health Advances
Tracy Walters is a Partner in the Medtech Practice Group at Health Advances where she has worked on over 250 project engagements with a wide variety of clients ranging from small start-ups to some of the largest public companies in the industry. She partners with clients to develop growth strategies for medtech products across sites of care including hospital and physician office, and has extensive experience in many therapeutic areas including neurology, ophthalmology, and cardiology.
In 2019, Tracy summited Mount Everest, a feat accomplished by fewer than than 650 women in the world at the time.
Henry Bryson
VP, Voice of Client
Syprosoft Engineering
Accomplished business development professional accustomed to building contacts and relationships in completely new areas. Provides client a 'Voice' during process to insure their needs are addressed and met. Helped develop client retention strategies to improve satisfaction and assure repeat business opportunities.
Rakesh J. Mehta
Partner
Centerview Partners
Rak Mehta is a founding member of the Medtech practice at Centerview Partners. He has over 25 years of experience as a strategic advisor to life sciences management teams and boards across medical device, diagnostics, and tools, and biopharma companies. Over the course of his career, Rak has engaged with clients on a broad range of complex strategic transactions, buy-side and sell-side mergers and acquistions, divestitures, debt and equity financings and partnerships.
Jayon Wang
Director, MedTech
General Inception || CEO, X-COR Therapeutics
Experienced founder CEO with a demonstrated history of working in the medical device industry. Skilled in Management, Start-ups, Financing and Leadership. Strong business development professional with a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from Harvard Business School and B.S./M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. 2021 Forbes Next 1000.
Luke Duster
Chief Investment Officer
CRG LP
I serve as Partner for CRG, a premier healthcare investment firm that has raised and committed more than $3 billion of institutional capital across three funds to date. As a student of healthcare, I believe in developing smart financing solutions for improving patient outcomes, reducing costs and creating more personalized medicine. In my current role, I lead CRG’s investment process from sourcing and due diligence through realization and am responsible for portfolio management and portfolio company exits.
Eric Shmidt
Med Device
UX/UI/HFE
24+ years of design experience developing medical and consumer products.
Strategic leadership, management, and creative development of numerous products in a variety of industries and markets.
Kurt Haggstrom
Chief Commercial Officer
Synchron
Marketing and business development executive with extensive experience in strategic marketing, sales leadership, business development and R&D engineering within organizations ranging from mid-tier private equity owned to $30B matrixed global organizations. Proven track record for developing and launching products that drive top line revenue while improving bottom line profitability.
Nicolas Foin
Founder & Managing Director
DHENIN Management
Passionate about accelerating new ventures, Nic brings 15 years of experience in leadership and advisory board roles. He has worked with companies including Medtronic, Abbott, and Philips on Product and Business Development strategy and Venture investment.
He has also advised and supported several startups in their growth, development and financing preparation.
Nic graduated with a MSc and PhD in Engineering from Imperial College London. He started his career working with Healthcare organisations including Imperial College and then NHCS Singapore as PI for Medtech Innovation. He has authored multiple patents and over 150 publications, receiving several awards for his contribution in cardiovascular innovation. He is also adjunct Associate Professor at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.
He is currently Deputy Managing Director at Medinbox, a leader in connectivity solution for medical education and remote support. He serves on the executive board of CoreAalst, a clinical research incubation company, and with DHENIN, his mission is to bring to market and accelerate disruptive value propositions that reduce costs and inefficiencies.
Karthik Bolisetty
Senior Associate
Gilde Healthcare
Investor in medical devices, life science tools, diagnostics, and digital health. Feel free to drop a line if you’re an entrepreneur or investor in any of these spaces.
Hank Kucheman
Managing Director
BioStar Capital
Hank Kucheman serves as a Senior Advisor or Board Member to various public and private medical device and health care companies. Kucheman previously served as Chief Executive Officer for Boston Scientific, focused on leading global markets for less-invasive medical devices.
Before being named CEO in October 2011, Kucheman was Executive Vice President and President of the Cardiology, Rhythm and Vascular (CRV) Group and was responsible for the Company’s Interventional Cardiology and Cardiac Rhythm Management businesses and its Endovascular Unit, which includes the Peripheral Interventions, Neurovascular, Imaging and Electrophysiology businesses.
Before joining Boston Scientific, Kucheman held a variety of management positions in sales and marketing for SCIMED, Charter Medical Corporation and Control Data Corporation. He began his career at the United States Air Force Academy Hospital and later was Healthcare Planner, Office of the Surgeon General, for the United States Air Force Medical Service.
Kucheman earned a B.S. and M.B.A. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He has served on several industry boards, including the board of directors of the Global Health Exchange.
Hugues Gervais
Divisional Vice President
Abbott
I have more than 20 years of experience in the medical technology industry. My expertise is in sales and marketing and particularly in bringing innovative products and life changing technologies to market. I am passionate with new technologies and I love making a difference. I am highly result oriented and I believe that building high performing teams and developing people is essential to success.
My other passion is sailing for the challenges, the team spirit and to recharge.