Jeff Bleich M.D. is the Founder and CEO of Baxano Inc., an early stage medical device company developing tools that restore spine function and preserve healthy tissue. He has 20 years of clinical experience, with board certification in Pain Management, as well as in Anesthesiology. Dr. Bleich practices anesthesiology at Stanford Medical Center. Before Baxano, has worked with Prospect Venture Partners, a healthcare dedicated venture capital fund, and in medical device design at IDEO Product Development.

Dr. Bleich completed a Masters in Buisness as a Sloan Fellow at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a Pain Management fellowship at the University of Washington, an anesthesiology residency at UCLA, and a M.D. from the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School, and a B.S. in Biology from Stanford University.

Karen is a Co-Founder of Thomas, McNerney & Partners and has over 15 years of experience investing in health care companies. She is currently a board member of Leptos Biomedical, Inc., Ocera Therapeutics, Inc., and NaviMedix, Inc. Previous investments include Coulter Pharmaceutical, Inc. (CLTR sold to CRXA which was subsequently sold to GSK), Endocardial Solutions, Inc. (ECSI sold to STJ), Epicor Medical, Inc. (sold to SJT) and NeXagen, Inc. (NXGN/NXTR sold to GILD with spin-outs to EYET, Archemix and SomaLogic). Karen joined Coral Ventures in 1994 where she became a General Partner and Managed the firms west coast office. Previously Karen was a member of Warburg Pincus LLC's medical technology venture capital group. While at Warburg, she focused on seed stage investments in the life science industry and was the start up manager for two biotechnical companies including NeXagen, Inc. Prior to joining Warburg in 1990, Karen was an analyst in the health care corporate finance department at Alex, Brown & Sons, Inc. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Keren is currently a member of the Permanente Company LLC's Board of Directors and founded the West Coast Chapter of the Wharton Private Equity Network.

Kathryn joined De Novo Ventures as a Venture Associate in September 2005. Prior to De Novo. Kathryn worked for Merck & Co., Inc. from 1997-2003 in the US, Europe and Asia. Her experience includes process engineering, equipment and automation design, procurement, process validation, plant construction and operations. At Merck, she played a key role in design, construction, commisioning and start-up of a $400 MM grassroots bulk chemical manufacturing facility in Singapore, Merck's first new site in 40 years. On this project, Kathryn led the design of $30 MM of large scale automated manufacturing equipment from inception through start up production, while stationed in England and Singapore for five years. In this role she oversaw several multinational cross-functional teams to expedite project issues, resulting in the successful on-time start-up of the Singapore facility.

In addition, Kathryn worked at Genentech in strategic planning and operation strategy. Working closely with Marketing, Finance, R&D and Manufacturing, she performed capacity planning for E.coli product pipelines and identified potential spin-out candidates in light of operational, regulatory and investment risks.

Kathryn is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame with Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry. She holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Buisness School.

Rajiv Doshi, M.D. is currently Founder and CEO of Ventus Medical, a venture capital-backed pulmonary device start-up in Woodside, CA. Prior to founding Ventus, he was a principal at De Novo Ventures here he served as a board member or observer for Ovalis, Spinal Kinetics and Paracor. A lecturer in the Stanford University Department of Medicine, Rajiv also co-teaches two medical device design courses, in the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering. Rajiv eared a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, an M.S.E in Biomechanical Engineering, and an M.D., all from Stanford University. He also serves on the Medical Advisory Board of Lunar Design

In 1991, Rich became the CEO of Cardiovascular Imaging Systems. As CEO, he orchestrated a successful IPO and ultimately sold the company to Boston Scientific for $125 million. His most recent success, CardioThoracic Systems Inc. (CTSI), the market leader in disposable instruments and systems for beating heart bypass surgery, was acquired by Guidant for $313 million in November of 1999. Rich was a Co-Founder of CTSI, and as CEO, he led the company to an initial public offering in only 7 months, the fastest of any medical technology company in history.

Following De Novo’s investment in Cryovascular Systems in 2000, Rich joined the initial five-person team as the start-up CEO. He built the company to 22 employees, was instrumental in developing the clinical and product strategies, and hired the executive team. In 2002, Rich led Paracor Medical, another De Novo portfolio company. He grew Paracor from its initial 4 to 22 employees, refined the product strategy, raised its Series B round, and hired his replacement CEO.

In 1996 he founded Saratoga Ventures, a venture capital partnership that has provided seed financing to several successful companies, including Atrionix, Oratec, Enteric Medical, Trivascular, and Endotex. Oratec, a portfolio company of which Rich was Chairman, went public and was ultimately acquired by Smith & Nephew.

Rich was also the Co-Founder of Integrated Vascular Systems (which was recently purchased by Abbott) an early stage femoral artery closure company and Angiosense, a needle-free, jet injection, local drug delivery company. Early in his career, Rich held the position of Executive Vice President and General Manager of ADAC Laboratories.

Rich is the recipient of the Mallinckrodt Award for Excellence in Medicine and twice a finalist for the Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Tom Goff Co-Founded Kerberos Proximal Solutions. He has spent the last six years developing cardiovascular technologies for more effective and easier to perform minimally invasive procedures. Embracing the user-centered approach, Mr. Goff has been integral to the conceptualization, design, iteration and introduction of Kerberos’ products. Mr. Goff holds a B.S. in Product Design from Stanford University

Fred Khosravi is a Silicon Valley medical device entrepreneur who has Co-Founded seven medical companies and held senior management positions in both large and small enterprises. Fred is the Managing Director of Incept, LLC a health sciences and technology development company. Incept has to-date, started five companies: AccessClosure, Inc., Embolic Protection, Inc., Confluent Surgical, Inc., MarketRx, Inc., and SquareOne, Inc., Fred also serves on the Boards of: Sadra Medical, Inc., and Kerberos Proximal Solutions, Inc., Fred was also Founder, Chairman and Chief Technical Officer of EndoTex Interventional Systems, Inc., a company in the carotid stent market. Prior to his entrepreneurial career, Fred was Engineering Manager in the initial management team at Focal, Inc. (acquired by Genzyme Biosurg Nasdaq:GZBX), responsible for its cardiovascular products. He was also the Business Unit Manager of the Stent Business at Guidant/ACS where he led the initial design and development team of the highly successful Multilink stent. Prior to ACS (from 1986 through 1989) he held several management positions with Alcon Surgical Corp., developing pioneering small-incision intraocular lenses. Fred is either the author or co-author on over 40 issued or filed patent applications, involving unique and novel medical devices. Fred has a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering, and graduated summa cum laude obtaining a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tennessee.

John MacMahon is President and CEO of Mitralign, developing a catheter-based mitral valve repair system. He provides strategic commitment to successfully bridging clinical input and engineering talent. As a founder of Kerberos Proximal Solutions, John dedicated the past five years to designing solutions for interventional cardiologists and their patients by taking a thrombectomy device from the bench to commercialization. John's professional experience has focused on a range of high tech applications including high-energy physics as well as ocean acoustics. A proud graduate of the first Medical Device Design class at Stanford University, John received an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford and a B.S. in Physics from the University of California at Santa Cruz

J. Casey McGlynn is Chairman of the Life Sciences Group at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati (“WSGR”) and a nationally recognized leader in the representation of start-up and emerging growth companies in the life sciences field. The Life Sciences Group at WSGR offers focused resources and capabilities to meet the most critical needs of start-up and emerging growth companies including private and venture capital financings; public offerings; university licensing, strategic collaborations and strategic patent counseling. Mr. McGlynn is a frequent speaker and contributor to magazines and newsletters on issues relating to the life sciences industry.

David Miller
Consultant

David Miller recieved his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from Princeton University in 1997 and obtained an M.S. in Civil Engineering from Stanford in 1998 and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford in 2001. David was also on the design and engineering team for the tallest roller coaster in the world -- the Steel Dragon 2000 in Japan. After completing the fellowship he consulted at several medical device start-ups before Co-Founding InnoSpine, Inc., which was aquiresd by Kyphon in 2005. He has been named as an inventor on 6 medical device patent applications and was the Thomas J. Fogarty Biodesign Innovation Fellow in 2001/2002.

Sandra Miller began her healthcare career working in the cardiology practice of angioplasty pioneer and serial entrepreneur, John Simpson. In 1995 she was recruited to Stanford by Paul Yock, also renown in invention and entrepreneurship, where she supported cardiovascular research and developed educational programs for the interventional cardiology group. Sandra has been instrumental in the development and implementation of several medical technology courses, fellowships and programs at the interface of the medical device industry and academia. Her focus with the Biodesign Program is to develop educational programs and resources, particularly in the areas of technology transfer, innovation and entrepreneurship. She is a liaison for Biodesign to Stanford’s Office of Technology Licensing and is the Project Director for Stanford’s Translational Research Partnership Award from the Wallace Coulter Foundation.

Sandra is a founding member of the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network, whose mission is to support entrepreneurship education, research and collaboration campus-wide. She received her M.B.A degree from Pepperdine University.

Jan Pietzsch is Co-Founder, President and CEO of Wing Tech Inc., a technology consulting firm that focuses on early-stage technology assessment and descision-support for manufacturers and investors.

Before starting Wing Tech, Jan pioneered new approaches for the early evaluation of medical devices during his doctoral research at Stanford. During this period, he also worked as a research fellow with the FDA's Office of Device Education.

Jan is a Lecturer at Stanford University's Department of Management Science and Engineering. He has published in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, and is co-author of three medical device-related patent applications. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Management Engineering and a M.S. degree in Engineering-Economic Systems and Operations Research from Stanford University, as well as an Engineering degree from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany.

Carl Simpson is a Co-Founder of Coronis Medical, a newly formed incubator focusing on the development of therapeutic medical devices solving large unmet clinical needs. Carl has worked in the medical and medical device industry for more than 40 years, accruing 21 of those years at Guidant Corporation. Other positions held by Carl include X-ray technician, manager of El Camino Hospital's radiology division, and cardiovascular engineer. While attending graduate school, Carl was a cath lab technician and manager of cardiology at Stanford University Medical Center. Carl was one of the early founders and first employee of Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, which was acquired by Eli Lilly & Company in 1984 and eventually became part of Guidant Corporation. At Guidant, Carl was the Senior Vice President of Research and Development and General Manager of Devices for Molecular Cardiology. For the last 20 years, he has been active as a medical device executive and entrepreneur, and has served on the board of directors for more than 10 medical device start-up companies. Carl holds a Bachelor's Degree in Microbiology from San Jose State University; a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science and an M.B.A., both from the University of Santa Clara.

Jay was a Co-Founder of Origin Medsystems, a venture-funded medical technology start-up that was purchased by Eli Lilly & Company in 1992. When Eli Lilly split off its device businesses to form Guidant in 1995, he became president of the Minimally Invasive Surgery Group. Jay also served as president of Compass, Guidant Corporation’s corporate business development and new ventures group.

Prior to founding Origin, he served in management positions in several start-ups including Microgenics Corporation, and was a consultant with the international consulting firm of McKinsey & Company. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of several public companies, including Gynecare, Cardiogenesis, and Rita Medical. Jay also serves on the Stanford University School of Engineering Advisory Council.

Paul Yock is the Martha Meier Weiland Professor of Medicine and Mechanical Engineering (by courtesy) and Co-Chair of Stanford’s new Department of Bioengineering. Dr. Yock began his faculty career as an interventional cardiologist at UC San Francisco and then moved to Stanford in 1994.

Dr. Yock is known for his work in inventing, developing and testing new devices, including the Rapid Exchange™ balloon angioplasty system, which is now the primary system in use worldwide. He also invented a Doppler-guided access system known as the Smart Needle™ and PD-Access™. The main focus of Dr. Yock’s research program has been in the field of intravascular ultrasound. He authored the fundamental patents for intravascular ultrasound imaging and conducted the initial clinical trials. In 1986 he founded Cardiovascular Imaging Systems, which was acquired by Boston Scientific in 1994. Dr. Yock has authored over 40 US patents, 300 peer-reviewed publications, chapters and editorials, and a textbook.

Current research interests of Dr. Yock’s group include development and testing of catheter-based delivery systems for cardiac cell transplantation and new catheter and molecular imaging techniques for cardiology.

Dr. Yock also directs the Program in Biodesign, a unit of Stanford’s new Bio-X initiative that focuses on invention and technology transfer related to biomedical engineering.