Susana Amorim

Investment Manager - Healthtech Venture & Growth
Gilde Healthcare

Susana joined Gilde Healthcare in 2021. As Investment Manager for Gilde’s Venture & Growth team, Susana focuses on the healthtech sector, handling deal sourcing, investment diligence, and portfolio management.

Before joining Gilde, she was a Biodesign Innovation Fellow at Stanford University. She also participated in the MIT-Harvard Medical School Healthcare Innovation Bootcamp and worked as a Project Manager at Biotronik, after beginning her career as an engineer at Xeltis.

Susana holds a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Minho, Portugal, with a study abroad experience at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

Mike Carusi

Managing Partner
Lightstone Ventures

Mike is a Managing Partner and Team Leader of Lightstone Ventures (LSV) and focuses on investments in the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors. He is based in the firm’s Portola Valley, CA office, where he also serves as a General Partner at Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV). His representative investments include Allay Therapeutics, Altura Medical (acquired by Lombard), Apreo Health, Ardian (acquired by Medtronic), Cala Health, EndoGastric Solutions (acquired by Merit Medical), Gynesonics (acquired by Hologic), MediSix Therapeutics, MicroVention (acquired by Terumo), Plexxikon (acquired by Daiichi Sankyo), PowerVision (acquired by Alcon), Shoulder Innovations (NYSE: SI), and Willow.

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.

Chris Eso

Vice President, Global Head of Corporate and Business Development & Ventures
Medtronic

Chris Eso currently is Vice President, Global Head of Corporate and Business Development & Ventures for Medtronic. Chris joined Medtronic in 2011 and has held numerous business development, M&A and strategy positions of increasing responsibility and scope over his tenure at Medtronic in both the businesses and corporate functions, including most recently Vice President of Business Development & Strategy for the Cardiovascular Portfolio.

Chris brings more than 25 years of successful professional business and general management experience within the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries, in addition to Medtronic, including Allergan, Watson Pharmaceuticals, Agilent Technologies, and Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, as well as he started his career at the Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA). Most of his experience is in a business/corporate development and strategy capacity where he has led and closed more than 60 transactions with consideration of approximately $16 billion, as well as general management capacity running a $50 million dollar revenue-generating contract biologic manufacturing wholly-owned subsidiary of a publicly-traded company.

Chris holds an MBA from Concordia University, Irvine and BA in Public Relations, Communications from California State University, Fullerton.

Peter Fitzgerald

Professor of Medicine and Engineering Director, Center for Cardiovascular Innovation
Stanford University Medical Center

Dr. Peter Fitzgerald is an Interventional Cardiologist and holds a PhD in Engineering. He has participated in over 150 clinical trials, published over 550 manuscripts, and trained over 150 postdoctoral researchers in Engineering and Medicine. Recently, Dr. Fitzgerald completed two years of study toward a master’s degree in machine learning and agentic principles supporting AI.

Dr. Fitzgerald has been principal or founder of 24 medical startups & has transitioned 18 via M/A’s or IPO’s. He serves on several boards of directors, advising dozens of medical device startups as well as multinational healthcare companies in the design and development of new diagnostic and therapeutic technologies. In 2010, he co-founded Triventures, a Medical & Digital healthcare technology fund with offices in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv.

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.

Alexandra Jones

VP, Business Development, Strategy, and Integration, Interventional Cardiology Therapies Medtronic

Coming soon.

Stephen Levin

Editor-in-Chief
MedTech Strategist & 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.

Josh Makower, MD

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.

Ramin Mousavi

Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer
NovoMed Partners

Ramin Mousavi is a seasoned medtech executive with a strong track record of driving growth, leading strategic transformations, and executing successful mergers, acquisitions, and exits across the medical technology and digital health sectors.

He is the Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of NovoMed PARTNERS, where he leads the firm’s strategic vision focused on building and scaling innovative healthcare companies. Prior to founding NovoMed PARTNERS, Mousavi served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Directors at CathWorks, a pioneering digital health company transforming the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease through advanced computational science and artificial intelligence. He successfully led CathWorks through its acquisition by Medtronic, further accelerating the global adoption of its technology.

Throughout his career, he has built and scaled high-performing organizations from early-stage innovation to global market leadership, holding senior leadership roles at Baxter International, Edwards Lifesciences, Panasonic Avionics, and Rockwell Collins. Mousavi brings extensive governance experience, serving on multiple boards, including CathWorks and SpectraWave, as well as nonprofit organizations such as the American Heart Association. He holds dual engineering degrees and an MBA from the University of California, Irvine, and completed executive education at Harvard Business School. He is a recipient of the UCI Lauds & Laurels Award, the university’s highest honor, and a member of the UC Irvine School of Engineering Hall of Fame, and is widely recognized as a leader in the global MedTech community.

David Neale

CEO
Arga Medical

Coming soon.

Filip Peters

CEO & Co-founder
Acorai

Filip Peters is the CEO and co-founder of Acorai. He leads the company’s strategy, financing, partnerships, and commercialization efforts. Under his leadership, Acorai has raised $15M and built a clinical program with over 2000 patients and are on a path toward FDA clearance in 2027. Filip has a background in machine learning, economics and finance, with an MA in Economics from The University of Edinburgh.

Amr Salahieh

President & CEO
Shifamed

Amr is a seasoned medical device entrepreneur with over 30 years of healthcare experience. He is the founder and CEO of Shifamed LLC, a successful and well-established medical innovation hub headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley. Legacy portfolio companies that Amr has held a leadership role in include Embolic Protection Inc. (acquired by Boston Scientific, 2001), Sadra Medical (acquired by Boston Scientific, 2011), Maya Medical (acquired by Covidien, 2012), Kalila Medical (acquired by Abbott, 2016), Apama Medical (acquired by Boston Scientific, 2017) and NuVera Medical (acquired by Biosense Webster, a Johnson & Johnson company, 2020).

Hal Stowe

Senior Manager, Regulatory Policy & Intelligence
Eurofins

As Senior Manager of Regulatory Policy & Intelligence, Hal Stowe leads regulatory strategy for Eurofins Medical Device Services’ U.S. in vitro diagnostic, medical device, and combination product portfolio - engaging with industry to shape regulatory policy from Eurofins’ unique perspective of bioanalytical testing and product development. In addition to his responsibilities as Manager, Hal also serves as a Senior Consultant for Eurofins Medical Device Consulting – where his specialty is regulatory strategy; Hal guides clients from early-stage product development, through FDA authorization (and beyond). Hal has a penchant for complex problems and novel technologies – having spent most of his career at the intersection of public policy and new product development.

Prior to joining Eurofins, Hal ran a boutique regulatory consultancy based in Washington, DC with a focus on policy-first solutions. He was also Regulatory Consultant at Sagentia Innovation (now Sagentia Medical), where he helped build the firm's regulatory affairs practice supporting strategy and premarket submissions. Hal began his career in Government Affairs, advocating for science-first policy solutions for various biotechnology stakeholders.

Michelle Tarver

Director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health
Center for Devices and Radiological Health, US Food and Drug Administration

Dr. Michelle Tarver is a visionary public health executive, board-certified in ophthalmology with a doctorate in epidemiology, who serves as the Director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health. She has spent more than 15 years as a medical device regulator, driving strategic initiatives, conducting clinical research, and changing organizational culture. Dr. Tarver has held various leadership positions while at FDA, including the Deputy Director of the Office of Strategic Partnerships and Technology Innovation and the Program Director of Patient Science and Engagement. Over the course of her career, she has conducted laboratory-based and epidemiological studies, clinical trials, and surveys to capture patient preferences, as well as developed registries and patient-reported outcome measures. Dr. Tarver has extensive policy experience in crafting regulations, guidances, and conducting premarket and postmarket reviews. She most recently served as the Deputy Center Director for Transformation, steering the development, implementation, and direction of CDRH’s transformative projects and strategic initiatives. Under her leadership, CDRH has launched efforts to amplify the perspectives of people living with medical conditions, foster collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem, and stimulate creative evidence generation pathways. Dr. Tarver received a B.S. in Biochemistry from Spelman College in Atlanta, GA and completed the M.D./Ph.D. program at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health. As a dedicated clinician, she continues to care for people living with inflammatory eye conditions.