Michael Anselmo

Vice President, RHEMA
MCRA, an IQVIA business

Michael brings extensive reimbursement, health economics, market access and commercialization experience to MCRA’s RHEMA department where he leads a team dedicated to ensuring successful coverage, payment, coding, and economic messaging of client technologies. He makes certain that clients have access to experts and resources needed to manage the reimbursement, and commercialization of their products at all stages of the product lifecycle. Michael brings more than 15-years of experience supporting a variety of stakeholders in the healthcare world including United Healthcare, Abbott and Amwell.

Charlie Attlan

Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development
Boston Scientific Corporation

Charlie Attlan is our senior vice president, Strategy and Business Development, a position he has held since March 2010. In this role, he has oversight for corporate strategy, business development activity, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures licensing and distribution agreements, venture capital and minority investments. Prior to joining Boston Scientific, Charlie served as senior vice president, Credit Suisse (and its predecessor firm, Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette), and in other roles of increasing responsibility, from 1999 until 2009, and an associate, and in other roles of increasing responsibility, at BT Alex Brown from 1993 until 1999. Charlie graduated magna cum laude, with a B.A. in Economics and Math, from Princeton University.   

Quentin Blackford

CEO
iRhythm

Quentin Blackford is President and CEO of iRhythm Technologies, a leading digital health company focused on creating trusted solutions that detect, predict, and prevent disease. Recognized by TIME and Newsweek among the world’s top HealthTech and Digital Health companies, iRhythm combines its Zio® wearable biosensors, cloud-based analytics, and FDA-cleared AI with more than 2 billion hours of curated heartbeat data to deliver actionable clinical insights. With over 20 years of MedTech leadership, Quentin is a recognized voice on how AI supports improved clinical outcomes, healthcare resource utilization, and the shift from reactive to proactive care.

Perry Bridger

Senior Advisor, Public Affairs
Edwards Lifesciences

Perry Bridger is Senior Advisor to Edwards Lifesciences where he provides strategic commercialization, market access, and public affairs guidance to the company’s executive leadership team. He established the company’s integrated global market access functions in 2011.

Previously, Perry served as Senior Vice President and Director of the Product Commercialization Practice at Avalere Health in Washington, DC. He also served as Senior Health Policy Analyst in the Coverage and Analysis Group at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), where he led national coverage reviews for cardiology, neurologic, and orthopedic technologies.

He holds an undergraduate degree in history from Brandeis University and a master’s degree in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Evan Caplan

Principal
OrbiMed Advisors

Evan joined OrbiMed in 2018 and is a Principal focused on venture investments in medical devices, therapeutics, and other areas within healthcare. Prior to joining OrbiMed, he advised private and public medtech and biotech companies as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan. Evan received a B.A. in Economics from Middlebury College, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

David Cassak

Co-Editor-in-Chief
MedTech Strategist

David Cassak has more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Cassak co-founded Windhover Information Inc., along with his partner, Roger Longman, in which they spun out exceptional publications such as IN VIVO, START-UP, Medtech Insight, Emerging Medical Ventures and The RPM Report. Cassak also served as Vice President, Content, and Managing Director, Medical Devices for Elsevier Business Intelligence, a Reed Elsevier Company, including the publications The Gray Sheet and The Pink Sheet.  He is a frequent speaker before various companies and trade groups within the medical device industry and is widely known for his vast knowledge and reporting in MedTech.

Sean Cheng

Managing Director
Ascension Ventures

Sean is interested in investing at the intersection of devices, life sciences, and software. He combines more than 15 years of strategic, technical, policy, and M&A experience to create value for companies, drawing from past roles at Philips, U.S. FDA CDRH, Boston Consulting Group, and operating at several health tech startups. Previously as a Partner at Philips Ventures, his investments covered interventional neurovascular and cardiology, patient monitoring, wearables, post-acute rehab, prenatal care, COPD, emergency care, imaging, digital pathology diagnostics, enterprise SaaS, and patient engagement.

Sean received a PhD in Engineering from the University of Cambridge, where he focused on medical device design, specifically the study of fluid dynamics in blood flow and pulmonary drug delivery, and graduated from the Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering undergraduate program, where he now serves as an Advisory Board member. Beyond healthcare, Sean is passionate about supporting the development of education access for all.

Andrew Cleeland

CEO
Fogarty Innovation

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

A native Australian who grew up in a suburb of Melbourne, Andrew’s leadership capabilities became evident at an early age. Raised by a single parent, Andrew was forced to grow up quickly and play a supportive role for his mother and brother. These early experiences were formative in shaping the person Andrew would become and the things he would inevitably accomplish.

Andrew’s values and life philosophy were also greatly influenced by sport. His natural athleticism and leadership propelled him into many team captain roles and ultimately competing in Australian Rules Football at a semi-professional level. If you’ve never seen this sport played, do so. It won’t take long to recognize the toughness, teamwork and grit the sport demands, all traits which Andrew continues to bring to every position he holds.

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

Andrew’s rapid career advancement during this timeframe has been impressive. After Telectronics, he accepted a management role at Baxter Healthcare’s Novacor division, and later as vice president of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs at Bay Area startup company Radiant Medical. Following this, he was CEO of Ardian, which pioneered the use of renal denervation to treat hypertension. Ardian was acquired by Medtronic in 2011 in a transaction valued at over $1.3B which, at the time, was the largest medical device acquisition ever for a pre-revenue medical device company.

Whenever a first time CEO has such a wildly successful exit, the market often wonders: Is the person really that good or were they just lucky? Andrew quickly answered that question by taking the role of CEO at Twelve, a startup in the transcatheter mitral valve space. Several years after his joining, this company was also acquired by Medtronic in a transaction valued at $458M. Back to back successes at such large valuations answered the question – it wasn’t just luck.

Propelled by these successes, Andrew has become a key figure in the medical device community. His leadership, experience and insights have led many organizations to seek his involvement. He currently serves on the board of three venture-funded companies — Saluda Medical, Zenflow, Inc. (chairman) and MMI S.p.A. (chairman). He also holds advisory positions at two top-tier venture capital firms: Longitude Capital and Arboretum Ventures. At a global industry level, he has been invited to serve on multiple initiatives including the UCSF-Stanford Pediatric Device Consortium; the Medical Device Innovation Consortium; and the Singapore government’s Biomedical Research Council (BMRC).

Passionate about healthcare, Andrew is a champion of innovators and innovation in the medtech field. His commitment to mentoring and education is rooted in his passion for helping patients and being a catalyst for positive change. This purpose and drive is captured in one of his favorite quotes, by Mahatma Gandhi: “A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”

“Working at Fogarty Innovation gives me the ability to positively influence the medtech ecosystem and give back in a meaningful and effective way,” summarizes Andrew. “To have worked with such amazing teammates on such impactful programs has allowed me to do something BOTH meaningful and enjoyable…I love the challenge.”

Andrew has received numerous awards and honors and is a frequent invited lecturer at major industry conferences and leading academic institutions. Andrew holds a BS in biophysics from the Swinburne Institute of Technology.

Jed Cohen

Managing Director, Medical Technology Investment Banking, Raymond James

Jed Cohen has been in healthcare investment banking for 30 years, with an exclusive focus on the medical technology sector since 1999. He joined Raymond James in July 2023 as a managing director covering the medical technology sector. Mr. Cohen made this most recent career move after spending the prior 14 years at SVB Securities / Leerink Partners as senior managing director focused on the MedTech sector. Prior to Leerink, he spent 12 years at Citi and three years at UBS. Within MedTech, Mr. Cohen disproportionately spends his time on companies with innovative, breakthrough technologies that are looking to disrupt existing markets or create new markets. He splits his time between strategic advisory and financing transactions. Mr. Cohen received his Bachelor of Science in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Raymond W. Cohen

Retired CEO and Venture Partner
Axonics

Raymond W. Cohen is an accredited public company director. From inception in 2013 until late November 2024, Cohen served as CEO of Nasdaq-listed Axonics, Inc., a medical device company he co-founded with implantable neurostimulation technologies to treat bladder and bowel disorders. Axonics was acquired by Boston Scientific Corp in November 2024 for $3.7 billion.

In early March 2025, as chairman of the board for SoniVie, Ltd., a venture backed Israeli-based company developing a device treatment for hypertension, Cohen arranged for a sale of SoniVie to Boston Scientific for $600 million.

Cohen currently serves on the board of Kestra Medical Technologies, Inc., (Nasdaq: KMTS), InspireMD (Nasdaq: NSPR), RxSight (Nadsq; RXST), PE-backed Spectrum Vascular. He also serves as Chairman of privately held Nalu Medical, Archimedes Vascular, Resonant Link Medical and Tulavi Therapeutics. Cohen also serves as a venture partner to Paris-based Andera Partners and Beijing based Sherpa Capital.

Paul Conover

Partner
Knobbe Martens

Paul N. Conover is a partner in our Orange County office. He leads teams of attorneys in strategically obtaining patents domestically and internationally, performing due diligence in transactions involving intellectual property, developing and implementing licensing strategies, performing market clearance and engineering design-around efforts, and enforcing patents and defending against patents in the pre-litigation stages.

 Mr. Conover holds degrees in physics, history, and law, and he works with clients in multiple areas of technology, including many types of medical devices, optics, and consumer products. He has spoken at many events on intellectual property topics, including in Brazil, India, and the United States. He has also published on many intellectual property topics, including regarding the recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court on patent law.

 Mr. Conover joined the firm in 1997 and became a partner in 2003.

Dustin Cook

Managing Director and Partner
Intermountain Ventures

Dustin Cook is Managing Director and Partner at Intermountain Ventures, where he leads strategic investments that drive innovation across the health system. With a background spanning medical devices, health insurance, provider operations and startups, he brings a multifaceted perspective to healthcare venture funding. Dustin is passionate about advancing solutions that improve health and wellness for individuals and communities. Outside of work, he volunteers with Utah Country Search and Rescue, supporting backcountry safety and rescue efforts.

Tasneem Dohadwala

Founding Partner
Excelestar Ventures

Tasneem Dohadwala is the Founding Partner of Excelestar Ventures, focusing on promising investments in medical and deep technology. Her prior experience includes positions at Lehman Brothers and Matrix Partners. Notable investments at Excelestar include Augmenix and nVision, both acquired by Boston Scientific. Under her leadership, Excelestar Ventures was recognized as one of the top 100 Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts by The Boston Globe. Tasneem also serves as the Managing Partner of the Golden Seeds Boston Chapter and is a graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard Business School.

Steven Farmer

Senior Partner & Co-Owner
ABIG Health

Dr. Steven Farmer is a board-certified cardiologist and is co-owner and Senior Partner of ABiG Health.  He previously served as Chief Strategy Officer for Coverage at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).  In that role, he led an effort to streamline and accelerate the development of evidence-based coverage policies.  He was the principal architect of the Transitional Coverage for Emerging Technologies (TCET) pathway and led the initiative to incorporate real-world evidence into coverage decision-making.

David Filmore

Executive Editor
Market Pathways

David Filmore has been covering the medical technology sector as a writer and editor for about 20 years, previously serving as the executive editor/editor-in-chief of industry-leading publications The Gray Sheet and Medtech Insight. He specializes in the regulatory and reimbursement dynamics that impact device and diagnostics companies' ability to succeed in the marketplace. Earlier in his career, David was an editor with the American Chemical Society, producing content for professionals in the pharmaceutical industry and analytical instrumentation space, and he has also worked in the pharmaceutical industry.

Laura Findeiss

Principal
Rubrum Advising

Laura Findeiss, MD, MHA is a Principal at Rubrum Advising and former Director of the Division of Policy and Evidence Review at CMS, where she led the team drafting national Medicare coverage policy. She was previously Chair of Radiology at University of Tennessee Medical Center and Chief of Service for Radiology at Grady Health System in Atlanta, then served as legislative staff in the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee prior to going to CMS. Dr. Findeiss continues to practice clinically and is a past president of the Society of Interventional Radiology.  

Virginia Giddings

Vice President of Exploration
Edwards Lifesciences

Virginia is Vice President of Exploration at Edwards Lifesciences, where she builds external partnerships globally to advance breakthrough innovation. She has a track record of delivering innovation to patients, with roles spanning medical device, pharmaceutical and nutrition businesses. Virginia has focused on advancing innovation, with R&D, Program Management, and Business Development leadership roles at Stryker, Abbott, and Johnson & Johnson. She chairs the Cornell Biomedical Engineering Advisory Council, is an AIMBE Fellow, and is a co-founder of MedtechWomen. She holds B.S. and M.Eng. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford.

Hanson Gifford

Managing Partner
The Foundry

Partner
Lightstone Ventures

Hanson is a Partner of LSV. He assists the LSV medical device team with deal sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio company management. He has served in this role since November 2013.

Hanson is also a Managing Partner at The Foundry, LLC, a medical device company incubator and a preferred partner to LSV. Since its inception in 1998, Hanson has led The Foundry in all of its activities. These include the invention, identification and development of new technologies, the formation, financing, and staffing of over twenty new companies, and ongoing support of these new ventures as a board member. Success stories include Evalve (acquired by Abbott), Concentric (acquired by Stryker), Ardian (acquired by Medtronic), Twelve (acquired by Medtronic). At ForSight Labs, an Ophthalmology-focused incubator started by Hanson, Eugene de Juan, MD, and K. Angela Macfarlane, successes include Transcend Medical (acquired by Alcon), Forsight Newco 2 (acquired by QLT), Forsight Vision 4 (acquired by Genentech/Roche), and Forsight Vision 5 (acquired by Allergan).

Prior to The Foundry, Hanson was Vice President of Research and Development at Heartport, Inc., which had a successful IPO in 1996. From 1993-1998, he built and led a 62-person team at Heartport developing a wide variety of novel devices and procedures for minimally invasive cardiac surgery. In 1992-1993, Hanson co-founded and served as Managing Director of Bavaria Medizin Technologie, GmbH in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. In 1991, Hanson co-founded and served as President of Cardiovascular Therapeutic Technologies (acquired by Eli Lilly). From 1985-1990, Hanson worked at Devices for Vascular Intervention (acquired by Eli Lilly) in various engineering, clinical research and marketing capacities. Before joining DVI, Hanson worked in engineering roles at Oximetrix and General Dynamics.

Hanson is a named inventor on over 400 issued US patents. Hanson is a Director of FIRE1, Contego, Reprieve Cardiovascular, Half Moon Medical, Tangible Science, Apreo Health, and Mavericks Endo.

Townsend Goddard

Senior Vice President, Global Head, Business Development
Olympus

Townsend Goddard is senior vice president of business development at Olympus. a role he has held since 2019. In this position, he is responsible for M&A, divestitures, joint ventures and partnerships, and corporate venture capital. He concurrently co-lead Olympus’ Orthopedics division from 2020-2024, and from 2015-2019 managed Olympus’ surgical division in EMEA. Prior to joining Olympus, Townsend served in roles of increasing responsibility at Covidien and Stryker. 

Nir Goldenberg

Director of Technology Development
Mayo Clinic Ventures

Nir joined Business Development in 2022. He is a member of the Mayo Clinic Ventures Executive Committee and leads the Technology Development function, responsible for facilitating the development and commercialization of Mayo Clinic technologies by collaborating with Mayo Clinic staff, external companies, entrepreneurs, and investors. 

Prior to joining Mayo, Nir was CEO of Trendlines Innovation Labs (TIL), which focuses on in-house and collaborative invention and investment opportunities in the life science space. Prior to his appointment as CEO, he served as TIL’s VP Business Development. Before Trendlines, he was Director of Commercial Development for Europe at INSIGHTEC Ltd., a global MR-guided focused ultrasound surgery company.

Nir holds a BSc in engineering from La Sapienza University of Rome.

Paul Grand

Founder & CEO
MedTech Innovator

Paul Grand is the founder and CEO of MedTech Innovator. He created and managed MedTech Innovator as a program within RCT Ventures from 2013 – 2016. In 2016, with the financial support of RCT and other sponsors, Paul left to run MedTech Innovator as a stand-alone company. He spent 11 years as Director and Managing Director at RCT Ventures, the investment arm of Research Corporation Technologies, Inc. Prior to RCT, Paul was co-founder and CEO of startups in the medtech, pharma, and tech sectors.

Nathan Harrington

Managing Partner
Philips Ventures

Nate Harrington joined Philips in 2011 and is a Managing Partner at Philips Corporate Ventures, responsible for its Image Guided Therapy (IGT) investments.  He currently serves on over a half dozen of the portfolio’s boards; previous director positions include Corindus Vascular Robotics (CVRS) and Affera.  He also oversees several LP relationships for Philips’ ‘fund-of-funds’ investing.

Prior to moving to Philips Ventures in 2021, Nate was the Head of Business Development for the IGT cluster following the acquisition of Volcano. He oversaw acquisitions of Spectranetics, Cardioprolific, EPD, Vesper Medical and led investments in various start-ups currently in Philips CVC portfolio. 

Prior to Philips, Nate worked nearly a decade at Boston Scientific Corporation (BSX) where he held various roles in both product management for Peripheral Interventions division and business development for the Cardiac Rhythm & Vascular group.  Before BSC Nate spent 6 years in management consulting, including 3 years at Heath Advances focused on evaluating the commercial potential of emerging medical technology ranging from biotech and diagnostics to medical devices. 

Nate received his MBA from the Yale School of Management and his BA from Brown University. 

Daniel Hawkins

CEO
Vista AI

Coming soon.

Tamara Syrek Jensen

Principal and Vice President of Federal Programs
Rubrum Advising

Tamara Syrek Jensen is a nationally recognized health policy leader and former Director of CMS’s Coverage and Analysis Group (CAG), where she shaped national coverage standards for devices, drugs, biologics, and preventive services supporting 65+ million Medicare beneficiaries.

As part of Rubrum’s work with government stakeholders, Syrek Jensen designs and executes commercialization strategies—bridging evidence planning, regulatory milestones, and payer engagement—from early development and pre-FDA authorization through full market launch.

Over more than 25 years at CMS, Tamara delivered major reforms that modernized coverage pathways and expanded access to care. She led creation of CMS’s new coverage pathway for FDA breakthrough devices—impacting more than 780 technologies and ensuring patients had timely access to innovations with proven outcomes. She modernized the agency’s Coverage with Evidence Development (CED) policy, cutting timelines for final guidance by more than half, and published landmark guidance documents that set new standards for transparency and predictability. Her work has been recognized in JAMA and NEJM and cited as a model for how CMS can drive innovation responsibly.

Before joining CAG, Tamara was Special Assistant to the CMS Chief Medical Officer and Director of the Office of Clinical Standards and Quality (OCSQ) (now CCSQ), where she was instrumental in developing the first MOU between CMS and FDA. That agreement laid the groundwork for the data and information sharing that continues to support innovation today.

Tamara earned a reputation as a trusted leader and coalition-builder, fostering collaboration across CMS, FDA, NIH, specialty societies, and Congress. Under her leadership, CMS doubled its evidentiary reviews, managed a $6.7 million budget, streamlined workflows, and consistently met or exceeded statutory timelines for coverage decisions.

Prior to working at CMS, she was a legislative assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives. Tamara is an attorney, licensed in Maryland.

Christine Knoblauch

Vice President Business Development
Johnson & Johnson MedTech Surgery

Christine Knoblauch is Vice President, Business Development, Surgery, Johnson & Johnson MedTech. She is responsible for the leadership and direction of business development activities for the surgery portfolio from Johnson & Johnson MedTech, including robotics and digital solutions, overseeing strategic investments and portfolio decisions to drive growth, innovation, and value creation for Johnson & Johnson. She holds a B.A. in Economics and Biological Basis of Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from The Wharton School.

Allison Komiyama

CEO/Founder
Bluestocking Health

Allison is a consultant focused on getting medical devices to market and helping them stay there! She frequently presents at conferences, is an advisor at numerous technology incubators, and teaches students around the world about Regulatory Submissions as a faculty member at SDSU Global Campus. She received her doctorate in neuroscience in 2009, was an FDA reviewer from 2010-2011, received her Regulatory Affairs Certification (US) in 2014, and became a RAPS Fellow in 2024. 

Mark Leahey

President & CEO
MDMA

Mark Leahey is the President & CEO for the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA), a national trade association in Washington, DC that represents hundreds of research-driven medical technology companies. Mr. Leahey's responsibilities include advocating on behalf of the entrepreneurial sector of the medical device industry to Congress, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and other federal and state agencies. He has lobbied for a more reasonable user fee for smaller companies, worked to open access to the hospital marketplace by challenging the exclusionary and anti-competitive nature of certain large group purchasing organizations (GPOs), as well as ensure that medical device technologies are reimbursed adequately. Mr. Leahey has  been named one of the medical device industry's top lobbyists and sits on the Editorial Advisory Board of Medical Product Outsourcing. He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar and a graduate of Georgetown University, the Georgetown Law Center and Georgetown's McDonough School of Business.

Jinny Lee

SVP, Exploration, Strategy and Marketing
Edwards Lifesciences

Jinny Lee is the Senior Vice President of exploration, strategy and marketing for the Advanced Technology division of Edwards Lifesciences. She started her curiosity in medicine as a researcher at the Long Beach VA Hospital and at the US Food and Drug Administration in the public affairs group located in Southern California.  She is a veteran in medical devices with a passion for directing the movement of innovation forward.  

Stephen Levin

Editor-in-Chief
MedTech Strategist and Market Pathways

Stephen Levin served as Executive Editor & General Counsel at Windhover Information followed by Editor-in-Chief of Medical Devices for Elsevier Business Intelligence, where he directed the company’s editorial coverage of the medical device industry. Before that, Stephen was Senior Counsel to the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, where he directed Senate investigations into a wide variety of areas including health care fraud and abuse, international organized crime, and corruption in federal contracting programs, while also participating in other Senate investigations including the Whitewater inquiry.  Before joining the Subcommittee, he was with the Federal Election Commission and the Department of Justice.

Alvin Liu

Endowed Professor in artificial intelligence and AI Oversight Team
Johns Hopkins University

Partner
PTX Capital

Dr. T. Y. Alvin Liu is a retinal surgeon and endowed professor in AI at Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM). At JHM, he serves on the AI Oversight Team, a leadership team that oversees all AI initiatives across the entire health system. As an interdisciplinary strategist at the intersection of venture capital, startup companies and health systems, he specializes in the implementation and scaling of AI technologies in both clinical and operational domains. In addition to being an advisor/Medical Director for healthcare AI startup companies, he is a partner at a healthcare-focused venture capital fund.

Josh Makower

The Yock Family Professor, Professor of Medicine and of Bioengineering
Stanford University Schools of Medicine and Engineering

The Byers Family Director and Co-Founder
Stanford Mussallem Center for Biodesign

Josh Makower is the Yock Family Professor of Medicine and Bioengineering at the Stanford University Schools of Medicine and Engineering, and is the Byers Family Director and Co-Founder of the Stanford Mussallem Center for Biodesign.  Josh is the Founder and Executive Chairman of ExploraMed, a medical device incubator that has created 10 companies over the past 20 years. He is also a Senior Advisor to Patient Square Capital, and an Advisory Venture Partner with Sofinnova Partners. Josh currently serves on the boards of Elevage, ExploraMed, Moximed, Willow, X9, Coravin, SetPoint Medical and VentureWell.

Josh holds over 300 patents and patent applications for various medical devices in the fields of cardiology, ENT, general surgery, drug delivery, plastic surgery, dermatology, aesthetics, obesity, orthopedics, women’s health, 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.  Josh is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of The National Academy of Inventors and The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, was awarded the Coulter Award for Healthcare Innovation by the Biomedical Engineering Society in 2018 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Galway in 2024 for his work supporting and inspiring the creation of BioInnovate Ireland which has had a profound impact on the Irish Medtech Innovation Ecosystem.

Paul McCreadie

Managing Partner & COO
Arboretum Ventures

Paul oversees Arboretum’s investment process and leads the firm’s operations. His investments focus on capital-efficient medical device and health IT companies applying novel technologies to underserved markets. He currently serves as a board director for Allay Therapeutics, Navv Systems and Orasis Pharmaceuticals. He led Arboretum’s previous investments in Rethink Autism (acquired by K1) and BioIQ (acquired by LetsGetChecked) and is the former Chief Operating Officer for CerviLenz, where he led the design of the company’s first commercial product from concept to launch. 

Prior to Arboretum, Paul held management positions at Ford Motor Company within product development, manufacturing, and business strategy. He currently serves on the National Advisory Board for the Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation at the University of Michigan and is the treasurer and board director of the Michigan Venture Capital Association. 

Paul earned a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Biren Mehta

Vice President, Venture Investments, MedTech
JJDC

Based in Irvine, California, Biren Mehta is the Vice President, Venture Investments – MedTech, where he initiates and manages equity investments to drive business innovation and deliver new and sustainable business for the MedTech sector. He is responsible for existing and new MedTech investments on the West Coast, ensuring targeted strategic options are shaped for success. Biren plays a critical role in building and maintaining networks in the venture capital community, entrepreneurs, startups, incubators and accelerators and other venture organizations that fit the strategic interests of the MedTech sector, sourcing new opportunities for the sector and positioning JJDC as the partner of choice.

 Most recently, Biren was Vice President of Business Development for the Cardiovascular & Specialty Solutions (CSS) Group and J&J Vision. This represents a portfolio of six diverse, high-growth businesses within MedTech.   In this role, he provided strategic leadership in executing acquisitions, investments, distribution transactions, and other collaborations to support the growth and innovation agenda of these businesses.

 Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Biren was a medical device analyst at Roth Capital Partners. In that role, he wrote and published recommendations on publicly traded small and midcap medical device companies. Before joining the investment bank, he worked as a project manager and software engineer at Intralase Corporation, now owned by J&J Surgical Vision.

 Biren completed his bachelor’s degree in Cybernetics at UCLA. He earned master’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Southern California. He also earned his MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Reed Miller

Senior Writer/Market Analyst
Medtech Strategist

Reed is an experienced editor, journalist, and content creator who has been reporting on the medical device and diagnostics industry since joining the news staff of FDC Reports' The Gray Sheet in 2000. Most recently, he served as the commercial/R&D manager for Citeline's Medtech Insight, a digital descendant of The Gray Sheet, helping to shape the overall editorial direction of Citeline's medtech offerings while writing and podcasting extensively about cardiovascular technology. He also wrote for a physician audience as a member of theheart.org's award-winning heartwire team and worked with pharma industry compliance experts at HCPro. Reed has a BA in religion from the College of William & Mary and an MA in philosophy of religion from Boston University. He lives and works in his hometown of State College, Pennsylvania.

Jonathan Norris

Managing Director
HSBC

Jonathan Norris joined HSBC’s Innovation Banking Division in April 2023. He manages healthcare venture relationships and works with investors and companies on commercial banking and debt products. In addition, for more than a decade, Jonathan has written comprehensive reports on the venture healthcare ecosystem, covering venture fundraising, investment, valuations and exits. These reports have been widely cited in the ecosystem and he often speaks at major investor and industry conferences. He has more than 24 years of healthcare banking experience. Jonathan earned a B.S. in business administration from the University of California, Riverside, and a J.D. from Santa Clara University.

Marga Ortigas-Wedekind

Chief Commercial Strategy Officer
Fogarty Innovation

Marga is the Chief Commercial Strategy Officer at Fogarty Innovation where she coaches medtech startups on commercialization strategy and directs educational programming.  She is a seasoned leader with 35+ years of experience driving strategy, domestic and international commercial efforts and operations in medical technology and digital health companies at various stages of maturity, including iRhythm Technologies (IRTC), Omnicell Inc (OMCL) and Guidant (now Abbott Vascular) and women’s health startups, ProDuct Health and Xoft. She serves on the boards of HeartBeam (BEAT),Total Flow Medical and Bay Area Cancer Connections.

Mike Regan

Chief Innovation Officer
Fogarty Innovation

Mike has 40 years of industry experience spanning a broad range of positions in general management, product development, operations, sales and marketing, clinical, regulatory, and engineering. Previously, he served as chief operating officer at Minerva Surgical, a medical technology company focused on women’s healthcare. Prior to that, he was vice president of operations at Emphasys Medical (now Pulmonx), a company that develops therapeutic solutions for patients with emphysema. He was also chief operating officer of Cardeon and worked in interventional cardiology and cardiac rhythm management at Guidant, after his previous company, Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, was purchased. Mike started his career as an engineer at American Medical Optics (AMO). He holds a BS in industrial engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Michael Ryan

VP, Venture Capital & Business Development
Boston Scientific Corporation

Michael Ryan leads the Venture Capital team for Boston Scientific, and also leads M&A for the company’s MedSurg businesses (Endoscopy, Urology, and Neuromodulation). Michael has held a variety of strategy, business development, and integration roles at Boston Scientific. Previously, he was VP Corporate Strategy and Business Development at Pulmonx, and a Senior Consultant at DRG, where he led case teams advising pharmaceutical and biotech clients. He has held voting and observer seats on the board of directors of a variety of public and private medtech companies. Michael holds a B.A. in Molecular Biology from Cornell University.

Elton Satusky

Partner
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Elton Satusky is a partner in the Palo Alto office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Elton represents both public and private enterprises as their outside general counsel and serves as a key strategic advisor from their inception throughout their life cycle. He advises on complex venture capital and corporate finance transactions, corporate law and governance, mergers and acquisitions, and public offerings. 

Elton has a particular focus on companies in the medical device, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, diagnostic, and digital health sectors and serves as co-editor of The Life Sciences Report, a semi-annual newsletter on the life sciences industry published by the firm. He is also a board member and founder of US-Japan Medtech Frontiers, a nonprofit corporation that has hosted annual cross-border healthcare conferences in Japan for the past decade. In addition, Elton is a frequent guest lecturer at universities, industry and trade group conferences, accelerators, and incubators.

Eric Schantz

Vice President, Corporate Development
Medtronic

Eric Schantz is a Vice President of Corporate Development at Medtronic, and has focused on mergers, acquisitions and other strategic corporate transactions for the past 13 years. Prior to joining Medtronic in 2008, Eric was a sell-side equity research analyst covering medical technology companies. He received an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemical Engineering and a Master’s in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Cincinnati.

Mark Secrest

Managing Director and Co-Head of Healthcare Investment Banking
BTIG

Mark Secrest is a Managing Director and Co-Head of Healthcare Investment Banking at BTIG, focused on medical devices, life sciences tools and diagnostics companies. Prior to BTIG, he was a Managing Director and Head of Medical Devices M&A in Healthcare Investment Banking at Stifel. Previously, Mr. Secrest held several investment banking roles at Cowen between 1998 and 2010, including Head of Medical Technology M&A and Chairman of their Fairness Opinion Review Committee. Between 1995 and 1998, he was a Director in the M&A division at UBS. Mr. Secrest was instrumental in the development and growth of UBS’ M&A effort, and was responsible for the execution of the firm’s M&A assignments for North American clients outside of financial institutions. He began his career in the M&A team at Kidder, Peabody. Mr. Secrest earned a BA from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Sheila Swaroop

Partner
Knobbe Martens

Sheila Swaroop is a partner at Knobbe Martens and leads the firmwide Litigation Group. She is a first-chair trial lawyer and registered patent attorney who has litigated numerous intellectual property cases over the course of her career and works with clients to protect and defend their innovations.    Sheila has a B.A. in Molecular Biology from Harvard and a J.D. from UC Berkeley.  She can be reached at (949) 721-7646 or  Sheila.Swaroop@knobbe.com.

Raphael Taubenfeld

Executive Director, Healthcare Investment Banking
JP Morgan

Coming soon.

Tom Tu

Venture Partner
Vensana Capital

Tom Tu is a Venture Partner at Vensana Capital, where he also serves as CEO of Vensana Innovation, the firm’s innovation engine focused on the creation and building of category-defining medical technology companies. Prior to Vensana, Tom was Chief Medical Officer of Inari Medical, where he helped to develop the company’s core technology platform, execute numerous clinical studies intended to position peripheral thrombectomy as standard of care, and establish Inari as the global leader in the treatment of venous thromboembolism. Prior to his career as a medtech executive, Tom was a practicing interventional cardiologist for nearly two decades, including as the cath lab director and leader of the pulmonary embolism, complex PCI, and TAVR programs at Baptist Health Louisville. Tom graduated with a BA from the University of Virginia and earned an MD from Harvard Medical School. He completed his medical and cardiology training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and is board certified in interventional cardiology and fellowship trained in peripheral vascular intervention.

Todd Usen

CEO
Adagio Medical

Mr. Usen has extensive commercial and operational experience with a proven track record of leading large, complex global businesses across several highly regarded medical device companies. He has led both public and private organizations

He is currently the President & CEO of Adagio Medical (Nasdaq: ADGM), a leading innovator with proprietary catheter ablation technologies for treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, focusing on ventricular tachycardia.

Prior to Adagio, Todd was the President & CEO of Minerva Surgical, a publicly traded women’s health organization. He led a complete restructuring of the organization, while growing top line revenue, leading to the acquisition by a Private Equity Firm.  Prior, he spent four years as the Chief Executive Officer of Activ Surgical, a digital surgery company focused on advanced surgical imaging and AI, where he oversaw the FDA/CE clearance of its ActivSight technology, as well as leading four fundraising rounds totaling over $92 million. From 2015 to 2019, Mr. Usen was President, Medical Systems Group, for Olympus Corporation of the Americas, where he took charge of a complex $2B+ business and restructured the company for leaner growth and investment, drove successful mergers and acquisitions activity, led the expansion from 6 medical divisions to 11 in 3.5 years. Prior to that, Mr. Usen served in executive positions including President, United States Orthopedics, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Joint Reconstruction, and Senior Vice President Sports Medicine at Smith and Nephew, and Vice President Sales and Director of Sales at Boston Scientific Corporation.

Todd is currently the Executive Chairman of Rob Surgical, the Chairman of NeoPredics, an independent board director at Alesi Surgical, The Executive Chairman at MassMEDIC, the largest regional MedTech association in the United States. He serves as an advisor for The Cleveland Clinic Innovations and Ventures team, as well as Avertto Medical.

Mr. Usen holds a BS in Marketing from the Isenberg School at the University of Massachusetts and did his MBA work at Pepperdine University.

Todd is married to Melissa, and they have three children, Morgan, Rachel and Tyler.  

Angie Volk

Vice President Business Development
AVS

Angie Volk currently leads all Commercial and Business Development activities for Amplitude Vascular Systems, a start-up company in the Intravascular Lithotripsy (IVL) space. She spent the majority of her career at Boston Scientific, gaining cross-functional experiences across R&D, Marketing, Medical Affairs, Sales, and Sales Operations. Volk also led the Urology and Critical Care commercial team at Becton Dickinson, as well as the U.S. Sales team for 3M's Medical Solutions Division, now Solventum.

She is especially passionate about building high-performing cultures grounded in transparency and shared accountability, as well as talent development and upskilling across functions. She holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from North Dakota State University and an MBA in Marketing from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

Michael Wasserman

Partner & COO
Elevage Medical Technologies

Michael Wasserman, Ph.D. is a Partner and COO of Elevage. Michael has over 30 years of experience in healthcare as a scientist, entrepreneur, executive, and investor. Prior to Elevage, Michael served as Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity. Michael spent 17 years at H.I.G. Capital, a diversified private equity firm with over $60 billion in assets. As a Managing Director of H.I.G.’s BioHealth platform, Michael sourced, executed, and managed a diverse investment portfolio of healthcare business across stages, sectors and geographies. Michael worked closely with management teams and portfolio companies in key areas such as R&D, product development, market access, commercial and corporate strategy, equity and debt financing and achieving liquidity through M&A or IPO. Michael has served on the boards of numerous growth stage business including HyperBranch Medical Technologies (Stryker), NeuWave Medical (Johnson & Johnson), VertiFlex (Boston Scientific), amongst others.

Michael has also founded, held prominent operating roles, and sold several private healthcare businesses. Earlier in his career, Michael worked directly for, or as a consultant to, emerging technology businesses, and in the corporate finance, pharmaceutical and clinical research industries.

Michael is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital. He is also on the Board of Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP), where he chairs the Investment Committee, the Board of ORT Canada, the Faculty of Science Advisory Board at McGill University, and is a Member of The Board of Trustees Research Committee at The Center for Addiction and Mental Health.

Michael received his B.Sc. from McGill University and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Neuroscience from the University of Toronto.

Yu Zhao

President & Principal Advisor
Bridging Consulting

Yu Zhao has over twenty years of leadership experience in the medical device industry, including 16 successful years at Medtronic, a world leader in medical technologies, where he held successive leadership roles including that of director and interim vice president for several multi-billion-dollar business units.

Yu founded Bridging Consulting LLC in 2020, gradually expanding his team during the months that followed to include a diverse group of highly accomplished expert consultants worldwide. Since then, he and his team have worked with clients from all around the world whose companies range from four-person AI startups to mid-sized companies to the largest global medical device corporation with over 100,000 employees.