Introducing our dynamic team of experienced entrepreneurs, seasoned venture capitalists, innovative university faculty, and corporate leaders who are ready to delve into ‘what you don’t know you don’t know’ about venturing new businesses.
Evan Anderson received his BS in Biomedical Engineering with a concentration in Material Science and a minor in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University in 1998. As an undergraduate, he did research for the Food and Drug Administration on the physiological conditions of implantable devices and assessed orthopedic bone screw designs for knee surgery at Union Memorial Hospital. During the summer of 1998, Evan worked as product development intern at Johnson and Johnson and evaluated new materials for an Internal Sanitary Protection product. While pursuing his MS degree in Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, Evan performed research on the mechanics of heart valves at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. For his graduate thesis he designed a patent pending fatigue tester for bioprosthetic heart valve tissue. As an R&D engineer at Guidant Corporation since 2001 and now Boston Scientific, Evan has worked on development of a next generation implant for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms with catheter based delivery and development of a first generation proximal anastomosis clip for off-pump cardiac bypass surgery. In December of 2001, Evan organized and chaired a three-day conference on medical device innovation in which 4th year medical students and Bay Area design professionals collaborated on identifying targeted needs for medical device development. While at Guidant Corporation, Evan completed classes at Stanford University towards a Certificate in Product Creation and Innovative Manufacturing. After finishing the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Program Evan spent three months at the FDA in the Medical Device Fellowship Program working as a Biomedical Engineer. Most recently he has returned to Guidant as an R&D Engineer in Cardiac Surgery.
Aimee
Angel is the Product Marketing Manager
for Abbott Vascular's Drug Eluting Stent
in the Asia Pacific region. Before moving
to Hong Kong for this role, Aimee was in
the Strategic Marketing and New Product
Planning group at Abbott, where she is
responsible for their next generation drug-eluting
stent. Prior to joining Abbott, Aimee was
a Venture Associate at De Novo Ventures
assessing medical device investment opportunities,
negotiating deal structures, and assisting
portfolio companies after investment. Aimee
completed her BS and MS degrees in Mechanical
Engineering at MIT, and was named the John
B. Simpson, PhD, MD Fellow in the Biodesign
Innovation Program at Stanford University,
where she worked to develop medical devices
to treat cardiovascular disease. Her work
has resulted in a number of patent applications
that are currently under development.
Roger Anderson Managing Partner BioQuest, LLC
As co-founder and managing partner of BioQuest, LLC, Roger Anderson sets the highest standards for client service for the firm. His vision and commitment to excellence provide the platform for the BioQuest service model, which, over the last 20 years, has helped grow the firm into one of the leading specialty executive search firms in the United States. Roger’s practice is focused on the medical device sector, conducting searches at the CEO and VP levels. Prior to entering the executive search field in 1981, Roger had ten years of successful medical device sales with, IVAC Corporation (now Alaris Medical) and American Hospital Supply (McGaw Laboratories Div). He received his BS in Biological Sciences from the University of Wisconsin, followed by four years as a US Naval Officer.
Amir Belson CTO, Co-Founder NeoGuide Systems
Amir Belson, M.D., is the chief technology officer, co-founder, and member of the board of directors of NeoGuide Systems, a company delivering platform technology that transforms the way endoscopic procedures are conducted. The company's technology is based on Dr. Belson's intellectual property. Dr. Belson graduated cum laude from the Technion School of Medicine, Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. He did his pediatric residency at Dana Children's Hospital in Tel Aviv and his pediatric nephrology fellowship at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. Dr. Belson also spent one year as a research fellow with the Biomedical Technology Innovation Program at Stanford. He is the author of 34 medical papers and abstracts and has 70 issued and pending patents. Dr. Belson is also the founder of Vascular Pathways, a vascular intervention company; and Thermocure, a therapeutic hypothermia technology company.
Jeffery Bleich Founder, CEO Baxano Inc.
Dr. Jeffery Bleich is the founder and CEO of Baxano Inc., an early stage medical device company developing minimally invasive 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 currently practices anesthesiology at Stanford University Medical Center. Before Baxano, he was an executive in residence with Prospect Venture Partners, a healthcare dedicated venture capital fund. Prior to Prospect, he worked in medical device design at IDEO.
Dr. Bleich completed a Masters Degree 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, an M.D. from the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School, and a B.S. in biology from Stanford University.
Daniel Bloch Professor, Health Research & Policy Stanford University
Daniel A. Bloch, PhD is Professor of Health Research and Policy at Stanford University in the Division of Biostatistics. He has more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and is a Member of the Editorial Board for scientific journals Osteoarthritis and Cartilage and the Journal of Endovascular Therapy. Dr. Bloch is a Consultant to the VA Cooperative Studies Coordinating Center. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Statistics from Stanford University and his Doctorate in Statistics from John’s Hopkins University.
Leslie Bottorff
General Partner,
Medical Technology
Onset Ventures
Leslie Bottorff joined ONSET Ventures in 1998 after 19 years in the medical industry. At ONSET Ventures, Leslie specializes in medical technology investment opportunities. She has worked closely with several portfolio company entrepreneurs at the seed stage to formulate and validate their companies' business plans, including Curon Medical, Novasys Medical and Embolic Protection, where she was interim VP of Marketing and Business Development at inception. Leslie has served in board or advisory roles for several portfolio companies including Spinal Concepts, Novasys Medical, VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies, Neuronetics, Sadra Medical and CardioMind.
Prior to joining ONSET, Leslie was VP of Sales and Marketing of Medtronic’s CardioRhythm division. She has also served in various marketing and sales management positions at both venture backed start-up companies and in large companies, including Nellcor, Ventritex, Menlo Care and General Electric's Medical Systems division.
Leslie has a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She serves on advisory boards or as program faculty at several universities, including Stanford University and Purdue University.
Todd Brinton Instructor, Medicine, Bioengineering Stanford University
Dr. Todd Brinton is an instructor in medicine and bioengineering at Stanford University. He is an attending interventional cardiologist at both the Palo Alto VA Medical Center and Stanford University Medical Center. He is also the fellowship director for the program in biodesign innovation and co-director of the graduate class in biodesign innovation. His responsibilities include coaching and mentorship of the innovation fellows and direction of the graduate course in biodesign innovation. Dr. Brintons academic research focuses on the development and evaluation of techniques for cardiac stem cell transplantation and imaging techniques for assessment of cell viability after transplant in pre-clinical models. He is also active in clinical trials of interventional-based therapies for chronic ischemia and heart failure.
He received his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from University of California, San Diego in 1992. From 1991-1993 he worked as an R&D engineer for an early-stage medical device company focused on non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring. From 1994-1996 he directed clinical research and development for the same company and authored patents and peer-reviewed publications related to the non-invasive assessment of vessel compliance, left ventricle contractility, and aortic insufficiency. He completed his doctorate in medicine at The Chicago Medical School and graduated with Alpha Omega Alpha honors in 2000. He completed his internal medicine training at Stanford and in 2002 was accepted into the cardiology fellowship program at Stanford under the clinical investigator pathway. He completed his clinical cardiology fellowship in 2004. He served as chief fellow in cardiology at Stanford from 2004-2005 and completed a specialty fellowship in Biodesign in 2005. He completed an interventional cardiology fellowship at Stanford in 2006.
Brook
Byers has been a venture capital investor since
1972. He has been closely involved with more
than forty new technology based ventures, over
half of which have already become public companies.
He formed the first Life Sciences practice
group in the venture capital profession in
1984 and led KPCB to become a premier venture
capital firm in the medical, healthcare, and
biotechnology sectors. KPCB has invested in
and helped build over 90 Life Sciences companies
which are developing hundreds of products to
treat major underserved medical needs representing
huge markets in the nearly two trillion dollar
healthcare sector.
Brook was the founding President, and then
Chairman, of four biotechnology companies which
were incubated in KPCB's offices and went on
to become public companies with an aggregate
market value over $8 billion. He is currently
on the Board of Directors of eight companies,
most recently joining CardioDX, Genomic Health
Incorporated, Five Prime Therapeutics, Pacific
Biosciences, Inc. and XDx, Inc. He was formerly
a Director of Idec Pharmaceuticals (Chairman),
Athena Neurosciences (Chairman), Signal Pharmaceuticals,
Arris Pharmaceuticals, Pharmacopeia, Ligand
Pharmaceuticals (Chairman), Hybritech (Chairman),
Genprobe, Nanogen, and others. These companies
have pioneered the medical uses of molecular
biology, monoclonal antibodies, molecular diagnostics
and genomics.
Brook was President and a Director of the
Western Association of Venture Capitalists
and is a contributing author of the book “Guide
to Venture Capital”. He is currently
a Board member of the University of California
at San Francisco Medical Foundation, the California
Healthcare Institute, the New Schools Foundation,
Stanford’s Bio-X Advisory Council, the
Stanford Eye Council and TechNet. He is Co-Chair
of the current five year, $1.4 billion, UCSF
Capital Campaign. He was formerly a Director
of the Entrepreneurs Foundation, the Asian
Art Museum in San Francisco, the Stanford Graduate
School of Business Advisory Council, That Man
May See (UCSF) Vision Research Foundation (Chairman)
and the Georgia Tech Advisory Board. Raised
in Atlanta, Georgia, Brook graduated in Electrical
Engineering from Georgia Tech and received
an MBA from Stanford.
Colin Cahill
Colin Cahill received a B.S. in Biological Sciences and a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University in 1998. As an undergraduate, Colin interned at Cor Therapeutics (laboratory assistant) and Sangamo BioSciences (corporate development). After graduating, Colin joined the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he helped develop solutions to strategic and operational problems for pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. and Europe. In addition to client service projects, Colin worked with a small team on behalf of BCG to launch an internet marketplace for life science intellectual property. Following BCG, Colin became Director of Business Development and Co-Founder of Cellicon Biotechnologies, a Boston-based drug discovery company aiming to develop new antibiotics using a technology platform that can rapidly map complex biological networks. Colin also led several business development projects for Israeli medical technology companies while working for PureTech Development. Colin completed an M.S. in Biological Sciences at Stanford University and an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business. He is currently involved in a medical device start-up.
Michael
Carusi
General Partner
Advanced Technology Ventures
Mike
joined ATV in 1998, and focuses on investments
in the life sciences and medical device sectors.
His representative investments include Emphasys
Medical, EndoGastric Solutions, GI Dynamics,
GluMetrics, NeuroVista, Plexxikon, TranS1,
Xtent (NASDAQ: XTNT), and MicroVention (acquired
by Terumo).
Mike brings over a decade of operational and
management consulting experience to ATV. Prior
to joining ATV, Mike served as the Director
of Business Development for Inhale Therapeutic
Systems (now Nektar Therapeutics NASDAQ: NKTR),
a venture-backed pulmonary drug delivery company
that went public in 1994. At Inhale, Mike led
partnering activities with a number of well-established
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies
in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Mike was also
a Principal at The Wilkerson Group, a strategic
ATV partner and leading management consulting
firm focused exclusively on healthcare. At
The Wilkerson Group, Mike helped establish
the firm’s offices in London and San
Francisco.
Mike holds an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School
of Business Administration at Dartmouth College
and a B.S. from Lehigh University.
Kathryn
Cavanaugh
DeNovo Ventures
Kathryn joined De Novo Ventures 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 the design, construction, commissioning 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 operations 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 Business School.
Tom
Ciotti
Morrison & Foerster
Thomas
E. Ciotti is a partner and co-founder of the
Venture Intellectual Property group, and founder
of the biotechnology/chemistry, medical device,
and greentech patent groups at Morrison & Foerster LLP.
Mr. Ciotti has over 40 years of experience
in life sciences intellectual property law
and is regularly acknowledged by his peers
as one of the top life sciences intellectual
property lawyers in the United States. Mr.
Ciotti is one of a distinguished group of attorneys
who have been listed in The Best Lawyers in
America for ten years. He was one of the first
biotechnology patent attorneys and represented,
and continues to represent, universities and
corporations that pioneered the field of biotechnology.
For many years Mr. Ciotti’s practice
revolved around counseling emerging life science
companies, not only in the chemistry/biotech
field, but also in the medical device field.
In the course of doing so, he has served as
principal intellectual property counsel to
numerous biotechnology and medical device companies.
Due diligence counseling from both the investor
and company sides has always been a significant
part of his practice. In recent years venture
side due diligence has become the mainstay
of Mr. Ciotti’s practice and a critical
and important part of Morrison & Foerster’s
intellectual property practice. With the recent
interest in renewable energy/cleantech by the
venture capital community, Mr. Ciotti's practice
has grown to include those technologies. Mr.
Ciotti holds chemical engineering and law degrees
from the University of Michigan. He was president
of the San Francisco Intellectual Property
Law Association and has served as chairman
of the Intellectual Property Section of the
State Bar of California.
Craig Coombs Head Coombs Medical Device Consulting
Craig Coombs has been the head of Coombs Medical Device Consulting since 1998. His group specializes in hands-on, innovative, US and European regulatory strategies for start-ups and companies that need to change their business strategies. Their skills also include cost-effective first-in-man or VC milestone clinical trial design, management and analysis. Mr. Coombs received his BS in Biology from Stanford University. He is a former Vice President of Medtronic in the areas of Regulatory Affairs, Quality Assurance and Clinical Studies. Mr. Coombs is an instructor in Medical Devices for the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Jack Costello Russell Reynolds Associates’ Medical Technology, Devices and Diagnostics Practice
Jack Costello leads Russell Reynolds Associates’ Medical Technology, Devices and Diagnostics Practice in the Americas. Based in Chicago, he has completed numerous searches for chief executive officers, board directors and functional executives for device clients.
Jack has more than five years of executive search experience. Formerly, Jack served for 18 years as an executive at multinational medical device companies, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic and Baxter. Earlier he was a senior officer at the start-up companies Cardiovascular Imaging Systems (acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation) and Urologix.
Jack is the co-founder of The Leaders Forum for high-potential executives who are charting the future course of innovation in the medical device industry. The group was co-founded with Versant Ventures, a leading life science venture firm, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a high-technology law firm.
Jack received his B.A. in biology from St. Joseph’s College.
Karen
Daitch
K-Squared Events
Rajiv Doshi Founder, CEO Venus Medical
Rajiv Doshi, MD is the Executive Director of the new (2007) Stanford-India Biodesign Initiative. He is also Founder and CEO of Ventus Medical, a venture capital-backed pulmonary device startup in Woodside, CA. Prior to founding Ventus, he was a Principal at De Novo Ventures where 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. The first, “Medical Device Design” is a prototyping-intensive, graduate level course within the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The second, “Medical Device Innovation” is an undergraduate course within the Department of Bioengineering that teaches the fundamentals of medical device entrepreneurship. Rajiv earned a BS in chemical engineering, an MSE in biomechanical engineering, and an MD, all from Stanford University. He also serves on the Medical Advisory Board of Lunar Design. Rajiv has roughly twenty US patents issued or pending.
David L. Douglass
General Partner
Delphi Ventures
Since 1979, David has been actively involved in managing and investing in over 50 high growth venture capital backed companies, primarily in the medical device industry. He joined Delphi Ventures in 1990. Prior to joining Delphi, David was a General Partner at Matrix Partners focusing on medical device investments.
From 1984 to 1986, David served as Chief Operating Officer at Paladin Software Corporation, responsible for operations, R&D, finance and administration. From 1979 to 1983, David served as Vice President of Finance and Administration at Collagen Corporation. He was responsible for several private equity financings, as well as Collagen's initial public offering. Before joining Collagen, David was a consultant with McKinsey & Company.
David has served as a Director of the Western Association of Venture Capital and presently serves as a director of the Stanford University Athletic Board and as a member of the Stanford University School of Education Advisory Board. Additionally, in 2005, David was named to Forbes Midas List identifying the top 100 dealmakers in the venture capital industry.
Erik Engelson
Cierra
Erik Engelson joined Cierra from Fluidigm Corporation where he was the Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Fluidigm, Mr. Engelson was a Venture Partner at Versant Ventures, and had previously been an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Institutional Venture Partners. Previously, Mr. Engelson spent 13 years in various operating roles at Target Therapeutics where he led the early start-up into the field of Interventional Neuroradiology and eventually became its General Manager. He is the inventor of many medical device patents, and is the recipient of the 1998 Inventor of the Year Award from the Silicon Valley Intellectual Property Law Association. Mr. Engelson currently serves on the Board of Directors of Concentric Medical and Primaeva Medical, and is a co-founder of FlowCardia. Mr. Engelson holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Microbiology and Bioengineering, respectively, from the University of California, San Diego, and has completed the Stanford Executive Program. Mr. Engelson is a Trustee of the U.C. San Diego Foundation.
Rich Ferrari Managing Director De Novo Ventures
Rich Ferrari is a Managing Director at De Novo Ventures. Rich has been a successful CEO of several medical technology companies, both prior to and after co-founding De Novo in 2000. Following De Novo’s investment in Cryovascular Systems, Rich became CEO, growing the initial 5 person start up team to a company of 20 employees. He was instrumental in developing the clinical and product strategies and hiring the executive team. In 2002, Rich led Paracor Medical, another De Novo portfolio company. He grew the company from 4 to 22 employees, refined the product strategy, raised its Series B financing and hired his replacement CEO. Prior to co-founding De Novo Ventures, he was the co-founder and CEO of CardioThoracic Systems (“CTSI”), a company he led to an initial public offering in only 7 months in 1996. CTSI, the market leader in disposable instruments and systems for performing minimally invasive beating heart bypass surgery, was ultimately acquired by Guidant Corporation in November 1999. Before that, Rich was the CEO of Cardiovascular Imaging Systems (“CVIS”). As CEO, he orchestrated a successful IPO and ultimately sold the company to Boston Scientific Corporation in 1995. In addition, he founded Saratoga Ventures in 1996, a venture capital partnership that has provided seed financing to startup medical technology companies, including Atrionix, Oratec, Enteric Medical, Trivascular, and Endotex. At Saratoga, Rich was Chairman of Oratec, which was sold in 2001 to Smith & Nephew PLC. Mr. Ferrari also co-founded The Medical Technology Group, which spun out Integrated Vascular Systems, an early stage femoral artery closure company which was sold to Abbott 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 holds a BS degree from Ashland University and an MBA from the University of South Florida.
Frank Fischer CEO NeuroPace
Frank Fischer has more than 25 years of senior management experience in the medical device industry. He has served on the NeuroPace Board of Directors since 1998 and joined the Company as its Chief Executive Officer in January 2000. Prior to joining NeuroPace, Mr. Fischer was President and Chief Executive Officer of Heartport, Inc., a cardiac surgery company, from May 1998 until September 1999 and served on Heartport’s Board of Directors. Mr. Fischer was President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of Ventritex, Inc., a company that pioneered implantable cardiac defibrillators, from 1987 until the sale of the company to St. Jude Medical, Inc. in 1997. Before joining Ventritex, he spent ten years in various management positions at Cordis Corporation in the cardiac and neurosurgical device areas, serving most recently as President of the Implantable Products Division. Prior to that, he spent seven years with General Electric Company in a variety of operating positions. Mr. Fischer holds B.S.M.E. and M.S. in Management degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Currently, he also serves on the boards of a number of privately held medical device companies.
Thomas Fogarty Fogarty Engineering
Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty is an internationally recognized cardiovascular surgeon, inventor, entrepreneur, and vintner. He has been involved with a wide spectrum of innovations in business and technology, serving as founder/co-founder, and Chairman/Board Member of over 33 various business and research companies, based on devices designed and developed by Fogarty Engineering, Inc. During the past 40 years, he has acquired over 100 surgical patents, including the “industry standard” Fogarty balloon embolectomy catheter and the widely used Aneurx Stent Graft that replaces open-heart abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) surgery. Dr. Fogarty is the recipient of countless awards and honors; most significantly, he is the recipient of the Jacobson Innovation Award of the American College of Surgeons, the 2000 Lemelson-MIT prize for Invention and Innovation and was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame in December 2001.
Dr. Fogarty was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and received his undergraduate education at Xavier University and his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati. He completed his residency at the University of Oregon and later served as Medical Staff President at Stanford Medical Center from 1973-1975. After thirteen years directing the Cardiovascular Surgery Program at Sequoia Hospital, Redwood City, California, he returned to academic life at Stanford University School of Medicine in July 1993, as Professor of Surgery. Dr. Fogarty resigned from Stanford in 2001 and now spends a majority of his time creating new medical devices with Fogarty Engineering.
David Forster President, CEO AorTx Inc.
David C. Forster has over 25 years of dedicated medical device experience in both large cap public companies as well as privately financed companies. Mr. Forster is the founder of AorTx, a percutaneous Aortic heart valve company and the primary inventor of the AorTx technology. Mr. Forster has served as the President and CEO of AorTx Inc. since October 2003. Prior to that Mr. Forster has served in technical management positions with Pacific Consultants, a medical device consulting firm with over 100 highly trained and educated technical consultants, Guidant, Eli Lilly, Origin Medsystems, and Varian Medical Imaging. Mr. Forster is listed on approximately 25 patents, and is a licensed Professional Mechanical Engineer in the state of California. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of AorTx, Mr. Forster has served on the boards of Kings Grove and the Cabrillo Unified School District.
Michael Gertner President, CEO Oraya Therapeutics
Dr. Micheal Gertner is currently the President and CEO of Oraya Therapeutics, a venture backed company which he founded in 2006. He is a consultant to the Biodesign Program, to the Department of Surgery at Stanford, and to the Department of Surgery at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
Dr. Gertner completed a BS and an MS in mechanical engineering from Columbia and MIT and attended medical school at Cornell. He then attended UCSF through a chief residency in General Surgery. He is currently board certified in general surgery. In addition to Oraya, Dr. Gertner is the founder or co-founder of Medlogics Device Corporation, Allux Medical, Minimus Surgical Systems, Hydrocardia, and Gem Biosystems. He also serves on the board of directors of Stratagent Lifesciences and Nellix Medical.
Paul Goeld President, CEO Intuity Medical
Paul Goeld is currently President and CEO of Intuity Medical, a private, venture-backed company that is developing a new blood glucose meter for the diabetes market. Paul was previously President and CEO of Adiana, Inc., a women’s health care company that was acquired by Cytyc Corporation in March 2007. Prior to Adiana, Paul held executive or board positions with LocalMed, Pilot Cardiovascular Systems, Camino Laboratories, General Surgical Innovations and InnerDyne. Paul is Chairman of Gynesonics and Aegea Medical and is a director of BAROnova and Bioventrix.
Jeff Gold Venture Partner Longitude Capital
Jeff Gold is a Venture Partner of Longitude Capital. He focuses on investments in medical devices. Prior to Longitude, Mr. Gold was Chief Executive Officer of CryoVascular Systems, a medical device company developing treatments for peripheral vascular disease, from 2001 to 2005. CryoVascular Systems was acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation in 2005. Mr. Gold and Ms. Tammenoms Bakker worked together on the CryoVascular Systems board of directors between 2000 and 2005. Between 1997 and 2000, Mr. Gold was COO and Executive Vice President of CardioThoracic Systems (NASDAQ: CTSI), a medical device company focused on developing products to enable off-pump open-heart surgery. CTSI completed an IPO in 1996 and was subsequently acquired by Guidant Corporation. Prior to CTSI, Mr. Gold spent 18 years with Cordis Corporation, now the primary cardiovascular subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. He currently sits on the boards of Access Closure, AngioDynamics (NASDAQ: ANGO), Voyage Medical, and Niagara Gorge Medical Devices. He also is a member of the Executive Committee of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the University of Florida and a member of the Device Screening Committee for the Life Science Angels. Mr. Gold holds an M.B.A. from the University of Florida and a B.S. in Engineering from Northeastern University, and is a graduate of GE’s Manufacturing Management Program.
Linda Grais InterWest Partners
Linda Grais, M.D., brings to InterWest Partners a wide array of experience as a physician, attorney and biotechnology entrepreneur.
Previously, Dr. Grais was a founder and executive vice president of SGX Pharmaceuticals (SGXP), a drug discovery company focusing on new treatments for cancer. Prior to that, she was a corporate attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she represented biotechnology and medical device companies in venture financings, public offerings and strategic partnerships.
Before practicing law, Dr. Grais worked as an assistant clinical professor of Internal Medicine and Critical Care at the University of California, San Francisco. She has also served as a consultant to the Institute of Medicine, and is a member of the Stanford Law School Board of Visitors.
Dr. Grais received a B.A. from Yale University, magna cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa, an M.D. from Yale Medical School, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Jessica
Grossman, M.D.
Founder, CEO
Gynesonics
Jessica
Grossman M.D. is Founder and CEO of Gynesonics, a
silicon valley based medical device company
focused on the women’s health care market. Dr.
Grossman had worked at a number of Bay Area
medical technology companies and has several
publications in numerous scientific journals.
Dr. Grossman graduated from Brandeis University
in 1994 and then received her graduate degree
in medicine from Thomas Jefferson Medical College
in 1999. She completed her internship
in obstetrics and gynecology at Pennsylvania
Hospital in 2000 and then moved to San Francisco
to pursue a career in the medical device industry.
Ken Haas Venture Partner Abignworth
Ken Haas, Venture Partner, has spent 25 years in the management of both early-stage and public high technology and biotechnology companies. He was part of the founding management team at IntelliGenetics, one of the world’s first bioinformatics companies and, from 1992 to 2001, was CEO of IntelliCorp, a publicly-traded enterprise software company. At the beginning of his career he practiced as an attorney in the business and technology group of Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe. He is currently Co-Chair of the Advisory Council to the Neuroscience Institute at Stanford. Ken received his BA from Harvard College, an MA from the University of Sussex, a JD from Harvard Law School and attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He has been with Abingworth since October 2004 and is based in Menlo Park.
John Harris President, CEO NeuroVista
John F. Harris, President and CEO of NeuroVista, has over 20 years of experience successfully developing and commercializing innovative medical device technologies. Prior to joining NeuroVista in December of 2004, John was an Executive in Residence (EIR) at Versant Ventures, a healthcare-dedicated venture capital firm, providing consulting on early stage medical device opportunities.
Prior to his work with Versant Ventures, John was a founder and the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Northstar Neuroscience, a Seattle-based medical device company seeking to improve neurological recovery following stroke through targeted electrical stimulation of the brain.
Prior to co-founding Northstar, John was a founder of Heartstream, a Seattle-based company that revolutionized the treatment of sudden cardiac arrest with uniquely designed defibrillators that make the deployment of these devices practical in a variety of settings. In addition to his founding role, John was a member of the executive team responsible for guiding the company through formation, product development, venture financing, FDA clearance, product launch, manufacturing scale-up, an initial public offering, worldwide sales and distribution, and the sale of the company to Hewlett-Packard. The company is now owned by Philips Medical Systems.
John received a BS in industrial engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
Jim
Heslin
Townsend & Townsend
Jim Heslin founded the firm's Medical Device Patent Group which recently placed first in a national ranking of medical device practices. He has extensive experience advising clients on how to best obtain, protect and enforce their United States and foreign intellectual property rights. He has practiced for over twenty years in this area and in that time has represented many clients in varied technological fields. His clients have developed technologies including atherectomy, angioplasty, stent delivery, arthroscopic treatments, suturing devices, ultrasound imaging, therapeutic ultrasound, gynecological devices, minimally invasive surgical equipment, implantable hearing aids, drug delivery systems, orthodontics, orthopedics, and diagnostics.
In addition to obtaining patents for clients, Mr. Heslin has extensive experience in investor due diligence and portfolio evaluation, licensing matters, preparation of patent validity and infringement opinions. He also advises clients regarding initiating in-house intellectual property protection programs.
Mr. Heslin has overseen the patent portfolios and strategies of more than twenty-five pre-public companies that have had IPO's or been acquired by public companies over the past five years.
Russell
Hirsch, M.D.
Prospect Venture Partners
Russell
is a Managing Director of Prospect Venture
Partners. Russell co-founded Prospect Venture
Partners II and III, as dedicated life science
funds with over $1 billion in capital under
management. Prior to establishing Prospect
Venture Partners II and III, Russell was a
member of the Health Care Technology Group
at Mayfield. He joined Mayfield in 1992, served
as a Venture Partner from 1993 to 1994 and
as a General Partner from 1995-2000. Russell
played a key role in Mayfield's investment
activities in the biotechnology and medical
device sectors. As an Associate, he participated
actively in the incubation of Millennium Pharmaceuticals
and as a General Partner he was responsible
for the incubation of Intuitive Surgical Devices
both of which are now publicly traded. (NASDAQ:
MLNM), (NASDAQ:ISRG).
Prior to Mayfield, Russell was at the University
of California San Francisco from 1984-1992 where
he was engaged in biomedical research. His work,
published in a variety of respected journals,
focused on important aspects of hepatitis B viral
replication. His descriptions of the reverse
transcription and packaging functions of polymerase
gene products merited publication in Nature.
Russell serves or has served on the Board of
Directors of Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG),
Hansen Medical (NASDAQ: HNSN), Opus Medical (NASDAQ:
ARTC), Orquest (NASDAQ: JNJ), Visiogen, Baxano,
Dfine, Allux Medical, SentreHEART, Portola Pharmaceuticals
and several other privately-held companies. Russell
serves as the Vice Chairman of the BOD of Interplast
and on the Genetics Advisory Council of the Harvard
Medical School-Partners Healthcare Center for
Genetics and Genomics.
Russell holds an M.D. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry
from the University of California, San Francisco
and a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of
Chicago.
Phil Hopper President, CEO M2 Medical
Mr. Hopper was named President and CEO of M2 Medical which is developing a drug delivery pump device in March, 2007. Previously, he served as President and CEO of LuMend, Inc., a vascular catheter product company which was acquired by Cordis Endovascular, a Johnson & Johnson Company, in September of 2005. Prior to that Mr. Hopper served as Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Radiant Medical, Vice President of Sales for Guidant Sales Corporation (spinout of Lilly MDD), Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Origin Medsystems (acquired by Eli Lilly), Vice President of NBD and Marketing for Ioptex, (acquired by Smith and Nephew), and Vice President Sales and Marketing and Commercial Operations of Lukens Medical. He started his medical device career in various marketing and sales positions with Iolab and Ethicon, both Johnson & Johnson Companies. He is a named co-inventor on fourteen medical device patents and was graduated with honors from Emporia State University. He also currently serves as Chairman of the Board of FlowMedica, a device company focused on intra-renal drug delivery to treat and prevent kidney disease.
Wende
Hutton
General Partner
Canaan Partners
Wende
Hutton joined Canaan Partners in 2004 as a
Venture Partner in the healthcare sector focusing
on medical devices and biotechnology. While
at Canaan, Wende has played an instrumental
role in the sales and marketing and recruiting
strategies for many healthcare clients including
Alsius, Northstar Neuroscience and ReVision
Optics.
Prior to Canaan Partners, Wende was a General
Partner of Spring Ridge Ventures from 2001 to
2003, where her investments included Northstar
Neuroscience and Spine Wave. Her venture career
began at Mayfield Fund in 1993 in the Health
Care Technology Group. She served as a General
Partner at Mayfield from 1995 to 2001. During
her tenure at Mayfield, Wende incubated Heartstream,
Inc. (NASDAQ: HPQ) and Northstar Neuroscience,
working closely with those founding teams. Prior
to Mayfield, Wende held management positions
at Nellcor, Inc. and GenPharm International in
business development and marketing.
Wende sits on the boards of Alsius Corp., Apieron
Inc., BiPar Sciences, Inc., Northstar Neuroscience,
Inc. (NASDAQ: NSTR), Oculir Inc., ReVision
Optics, Inc., and Spaltudaq Corp. Her previous
board seats include Heartstream, Inc. (acquired
by Hewlett Packard), Micro Therapeutics, Inc.
(acquired by ev3, Inc.), Orquest, Inc. (acquired
by Johnson & Johnson), and SenoRx, Inc. (NASDAQ:
SENO)
Mir Imran Founder InCube
Mir Imran founded InCube Laboratories in 1995 to focus on his passion: creating medical device solutions that change the standard of care in critical healthcare markets. Mir began his career as a med-tech entrepreneur in the late 1970’s, and has founded over 20 companies since those early days. Over the decades, he has become one of the world’s most successful inventors, entrepreneurs and investors in healthcare.
Mir now holds more than 200 issued patents – and is perhaps most well known for his pioneering contributions to the first FDA-approved Automatic Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator. However Mir has invented a number of breakthrough devices that set new standards of care for their industries. Highlights include the world’s first EEG monitors, Trans-Urethral Needle Ablation (TUNA) procedures, embolic protection devices, ultrasound imaging and a host of other innovations that he commercialized through successful business ventures.
As an entrepreneur, Mir has founded over 20 medical device companies, including: Vidamed (acquired by Medtronic), Physiometrix (IPO 1996), Cardiac Pathways (IPO 1996), Advanced Cytomextrix (acquired by Oncotech 1997), Percusurge (acquired by Medtronic 2001), Reflow, Inc. (acquired 1999), Safeview (acquired by L3 2006) Intrapace ( founded 2001), Spinal Modulation (founded 2005) and Zonare (founded 1999).
As an investor, Mir serves as the Life Science Venture Partner for DFJ ePlanet, where he has led 9 investments in a range of promising ventures around the globe. In addition to his venture capital activities, Mir is an active angel investor, with a portfolio based around both medical and pharmaceutical ventures. Mir currently holds board seats with Bodymedia, Cardiovasc, Intrapace, Egeen International, Spinal Modulation, ZARS and Zonare.
Mir holds an MS in Bio-Engineering and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers, where he spent three years as a Research Specialist.
