Serge Bernasconi

CEO
MedTech Europe

Serge Bernasconi has more than 30 years of experience in the world of pharmaceuticals and medical devices, working in companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Schering Plough in US and Europe, and more recently Medtronic. In his capacity as President & International Regional Vice President of Medtronic France, he was elected President of APIDIM (The French Association for the Promotion of Innovation in Medical Devices), and Vice President and Treasurer of SNITEM (French Medical Technology Industry Association).

Daniel Burnett

Founder & CEO
Theranova

Dr. Burnett received his M.D. from Duke University and concurrently obtained an M.B.A. from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. Since 2006 Dr. Burnett has raised, or helped raise, over $250 MM for the fourteen TheraNova spinouts. He is an inventor on 57 issued patents and over 180 patents pending worldwide. He recently joined University of California San Francisco as an entrepreneur in residence with QB3 and as adjunct faculty in the Bioengineering Department.

David Cassak

Editor-in-Chief
MedTech Strategist

David has more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry. With his partner, Stephen Levin, he launched Innovation in Medtech LLC, publisher of Medtech Strategist and Market Pathways, as well as a series of international conferences. 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.

Laurie Clarke

Vice President and Principal, Medical Device Regulatory
TSG Consulting

Laurie Clarke leads TSG Consulting’s medical device regulatory practice. Her knowledge and experience as a former FDA lawyer enable her to be an effective adviser and advocate for clients throughout the device lifecycle. Laurie specializes in helping device companies develop and implement regulatory strategies that meet their marketing objectives. A former FDA partner at three top-ranked law firms, Laurie is a recognized leader in medical device regulations, spanning from premarket submissions to FDA enforcement actions.

Christopher Cleary

Senior Vice President of Corporate Development
Medtronic

Chris Cleary has led Corporate Development for Medtronic since 2014. During this period, he has led more than 40 acquisitions with consideration of $64 billion, including notable deals like Covidien, NGC, Twelve, Smith & Nephew TruClear, HeartWare, Mazor Robotics and Epix. Chris also led the sale of portions of Medtronic’s non-strategic medical supplies business to Cardinal for $6 billion.

Chris also has responsibility for Medtronic’s venture investing business. In 2018, Ventures sold approximately half of its non-strategic investments to Sightline Partners, resetting Ventures to invest more aggressively in the future through its Boston based team of 7 professionals. Investments have risen past $100M annually since the reset. Most recently, Chris jointly leads Portfolio Management and Business Development, bringing together all facets of new business development origination and execution.

Andrew Cleeland

CEO
Fogarty Innovation

Andrew 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 start-ups to large multinationals. In joining Fogarty Innovation he further broadens this range of experience to include managing a non-profit. The versatility required to be effective across such diverse groups is rare and is a testament to Andrew’s strong leadership skills. Andrew has received numerous awards and honors and is a frequent invited lecturer at major industry conferences and leading academic institutions.

Paul Conover

Partner
Knobbe Martens

Paul N. Conover is a partner in Knobbe Martens’ Orange County, CA 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 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.

William Dai

Founding Managing Partner
ShangBay Capital

William Dai is the Founding Managing Partner of ShangBay Capital, a leading early stage Medtech-focused VC based in Palo Alto, California. Since the founding of ShangBay Capital in 2015, William has led ShangBay to become a very successful VC with 55 portfolio companies to date and multiple successful exits. William currently serves on the board of directors for several companies, including SetPoint Medical, Aqua Medical, Emboline, Meditrina, Corinth Medtech, FemDx, Apostle, Yorlabs, Laplace Interventional, and previously served on the board of directors for NeuroVasc (acq in 2019) and Arrinex (acq by Stryker in 2019).

William’s prior work experiences span more than 20 years in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and capital markets in both Asia and the U.S. Prior to founding ShangBay Capital, he was the CFO of ShangPharma (NYSE: SHP), Nepstar Corporation (NYSE: NPD), Microport Scientific Corporation (HK:00853), and Boston Scientific China. In these roles, William was responsible for the overall execution of business transactions to drive business success. He began his career at the Ford Motor Company in Michigan as a Finance Manager of the Treasury department.

He is well-respected among financial and investment circles and is a recognized leader in the industry. In addition, due to his hands-on experience leading multiple large international medical device companies, he has a very in-depth knowledge of the medical device industry and its market dynamics.

William Dai holds a master’s degree in business administration with an emphasis on finance from Michigan State University.

Tracy Dooley

Partner
Avestria Ventures

Raised in the melting pot of the Bay Area before attending USC to major in biomedical engineering, Tracy took to heart Theodore von Kármán’s famous quote: “Scientists discover the world that exists; engineers create the world that never was.”  In pursuit of creating a better world, she headed to medical school at Stanford where she quickly experienced firsthand the challenges of getting innovative products into the hands of clinicians to ultimately improve patient care.  

Pivoting to industry, Tracy spent several years in healthcare M&A, then moved to Novartis Diagnostics, where she worked with Linda.  As Chief of Staff to the President, she led strategy and built out the innovation pipeline, then headed global operations. More recently Tracy has been focused in digital health, where she advised a range of organizations, from early-stage startups to the Novartis Digital Accelerator Lab and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, before joining Avestria. She is also a member of the Women’s Health Executive Committee at Springboard Enterprises.

A classically trained violinist, Tracy believes that art & creativity is a critical underpinning for “STEAM” education.  She’s a fan of swimming, baking, and impromptu dance parties with her daughter.

Ingrid Ellerbe

Executive Director of Diversity by Doing (DxD)
Stanford Biodesign

Ingrid is the executive director of Diversity by Doing (DxD), a healthtech initiative developed by Stanford Biodesign and Fogarty Innovation. At DxD her mission is to lead the endeavor of being a transformational force for diversity through an industry-wide initiative formed to raise awareness of inequity, help individuals take action to create a more just and inclusive environment, and provide programs and resources that support systemic change. These efforts span the pipeline from students interested in health technology to start-up and mid-sized healthtech company operations and the myriad of entities that are included in the ecosystem. She has spent the past 30 years working to help underserved communities succeed in the technology and education industries. Previously, she served as the Executive Director of Base 11, a nonprofit workforce and entrepreneur development company that helps women and minorities succeed in STEM. During her tenure, Ingrid grew participation from three community colleges to 15, developed partnerships with universities, institutions and corporate sponsors across the country, and built programs to provide advanced technology training. Prior to that, she held leadership roles at several innovative educational technology companies, in both the private and nonprofit sectors. The two things that Ingrid finds most motivating are driving people to STEM careers and seeing the positive impact of those choices. She is a trustee of the NAACP Foundation, and serves on the boards of Project Tomorrow, Hines Family Foundation and Better Days Integrated Programs (Bdips). She holds a BA in communications from California State University Dominguez Hills.

David Filmore

Executive Editor
Market Pathways

David 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.

Kevin Fu

Former FDA Director of Medical Device Cybersecurity, Associate Professor
University of Michigan, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Dr. Kevin Fu, PhD, is Associate Professor of EECS at the University of Michigan where he directs the Security and Privacy Research (SPQR) Lab and the Archimedes Center for Healthcare and Device Security. Dr. Fu served as the nation's first Acting Director of Medical Device Cybersecurity at U.S. FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health and Program Director for Cybersecurity at the Digital Health Center of Excellence. His research vision is a world where science-based security is built-in by design to all embedded systems: medical devices, healthcare delivery, autonomous transportation, manufacturing, and the Internet of Things. Dr. Fu is most known for his security research on technology to defend against vulnerabilities in pacemakers and defibrillators. His research led to more than a decade of revolutionary improvements at medical device manufacturers, global regulators, and international healthcare safety standards bodies---foreseeing the risks of malicious software affecting hospitals a decade before ransomware began disrupting clinical workflow worldwide. Dr. Fu founded the Archimedes Center for Healthcare and Device Security, the world's first academic research center devoted to improving medical device security. He is an IEEE Fellow, Sloan Research Fellow, and MIT Technology Review TR35 Innovator of the Year. He co-founded the N95decon.org team for emergency reuse decontamination of N95 masks during pandemic shortages. Dr. Fu received his PhD, MEng, and SB from MIT. He earned a certificate of artisanal bread making from the French Culinary Institute, builds wood-fired brick ovens, and enjoys woodworking.

Jenny Gaffney

VP Health Economics and Reimbursement
LimFlow

Jenny Gaffney brings over 15 years of experience working in the MedTech industry to design and execute global reimbursement strategies to accelerate patient access to critical therapies.

Most recently, Jenny led global health economics, reimbursement and public policy initiatives for Medtronic’s Coronary and Renal Denervation business.  In this role, Jenny worked with affiliates across 50+ countries to maintain reimbursement for well-established coronary therapies and ensure access to renal denervation following regulatory approval. 

Prior to Medtronic, Jenny was a consultant in the Reimbursement Practice at Avalere Health, a leading strategic advisory company in the U.S. healthcare field.  While there, she supported multiple companies to secure U.S. Medicare coverage, codes, and appropriate payment for new and existing therapies.

Jenny received an A.B. from Harvard University and an executive master’s degree in public health and health services administration at the University of Michigan.

Gary Gershony

Founding General Partner
Baymed Venture Partners

Dr. Gershony founded, served on the Board of Directors, and served as Chief Medical Officer for Vascular Solutions and AngioScore, which were acquired for a combined value of $1.3B. He is an experienced healthcare venture and angel investor and Board Member for multiple early-stage medical device companies. Dr. Gershony holds 11 patents, has been an internationally recognized interventional cardiologist for over 20 years, and has served as Principal Investigator for more than 50 clinical trials with over 100 peer reviewed medical publications.

Hanson Gifford, III

Partner
Lightstone Ventures

Managing Partner
The Foundry

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. 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 360 issued US patents. Hanson is a Director of FIRE1, Contego, Reprieve Cardiovascular, Half Moon Medical, Tangible Science, and Foundry Therapeutics 2.

Daniel Gottlieb

Associate Director
Broadview Ventures

Daniel shares responsibility for the day-to-day investment activities at Broadview Ventures, including identification and screening of new opportunities, due diligence, negotiation of deal structure, and portfolio company board involvement.

Daniel has 20 years of experience at medical device and biotechnology companies in corporate and business development, corporate venture capital, marketing, and strategy. Previously, Daniel was a member of the leadership team at Proteon Therapeutics, most recently as Vice President, Corporate Development. Daniel led Proteon’s business development, strategic marketing, and corporate development activities as the company progressed from a Series A startup through multiple private financings, a successful IPO, and completion of Phase 3 clinical studies. Prior to Proteon, Daniel was a strategic marketing manager in Abbott Vascular’s endovascular business unit, where he led the team developing next generation devices for peripheral artery disease. Prior to that, Daniel was at Guidant Corporation, primarily as a member of Guidant Compass, the company’s corporate venture capital, business development, and corporate strategy group. As a member of the Compass team, Daniel led investments in early stage cardiovascular device companies, focusing on coronary and peripheral revascularization, cardiac rhythm management, heart failure monitoring, and cardiac surgery.

Daniel holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Daniel currently holds board roles at XII Medical, CroíValve, Puzzle Medical Devices, and previously at Nido Surgical (acquired).

Paul Grand

Founder & CEO
MedTech Innovator

Paul 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.

Daniel Hawkins

CEO
Avail Medsystems

Daniel Hawkins is the founder and CEO of Avail Medsystems, a medical technology company creating a network where medical expertise sharing can occur between healthcare professionals and experts to and from the operating room anytime, anywhere. Over the past 25 years in the medical technology field, Daniel’s mission has been to identify and close gaps that prevent patients from getting the best possible healthcare. He is an inventor on over 140 patents and applications and has held roles in both large and emerging companies, including Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc., Endologix, Restore Medical, EnteroMedics, and Intuitive Surgical. Daniel is a co-founder of Calibra Medical, acquired by Johnson & Johnson, and founder of Shockwave Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ: SWAV). Daniel has an MBA from Stanford University and a BS in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In 2017 and 2021, Daniel was honored by Goldman Sachs as one of its Top 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.

Gerard von Hoffman

Vice President of Intellectual Property
Imperative Care

Gerard joined Imperative Care in 2022 and was previously a member of the Executive Committee and Chair of the Medical Device Practice group at Knobbe Martens, which specializes in all aspects of intellectual property law. He received his bachelors degree in Chemistry from Rice University and Occidental College, and his J.D., cum laude, from the University of San Diego School of Law. He studied international law at the Institute on International and Comparative Law, Oxford University, England and has taken graduate courses in patent law at George Washington University Law School. Gerard served for two years as a law clerk to the Honorable Helen W. Nies, Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington D.C. (the patent appeals court). He has served for six years as an Adjunct Professor of Patent Law at the University of San Diego School of Law, and served on the Board of Directors of two public and four private venture backed medical device companies. He is currently a guest lecturer and Team Coach at Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign.

James Huie

Partner
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

James Huie is a corporate and securities partner in Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's San Francisco office, where he has one of the most active practices in the country representing venture-backed companies. He advises life sciences and technology companies on general corporate matters, mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, strategic partnerships, and private equity and debt financings. He also has extensive experience in representing venture capital firms and other investors in private equity and debt financings. James also serves on the investment committee for the firm's affiliated fund, the WS Investment Company

Abigail Hunter-Syed

Director
Olympus

Abby Hunter-Syed is a Director at Olympus' Digital Unit. Prior to joining Olympus, Abby was a Partner at LDV Capital, leading investments in pre-seed and seed stage startups powered by computer vision, machine learning and AI. She has a 15 year proven track record building companies across four continents as a founder as well as with global organizations such as Morgan Stanley Investment Management, the Boston Consulting Group, and the World Trade Organization. Abby holds an MSc from the International University of Geneva, Switzerland and a BA from the University of Rochester, NY.

Mudit Jain

Founding General Partner
Treo Ventures

CEO and Co-founder
NuXcel

Mudit is a Founding General Partner of Treo Ventures, and the CEO and co-founder of NuXcel, a medical device accelerator. Mudit also co-founded and serves as Chairman of the Board of ShiraTronics, Inc., a NuXcel spin off company.

Mudit brings over two decades of medical device industry experience across company formation, R&D, business development, and venture capital, with a global perspective on healthcare based on his experiences in USA, Ireland, and India. Mudit has served on the boards of several medical device companies, from early to commercial growth stage, resulting in successful IPOs and M&A transactions.

Irfan Lateef

Partner
Knobbe Martens

Irfan Lateef is head of the firm’s Electrical, Semiconductor & Computer Technology Litigation committee and also leads the firm’s Japan practice. With over two decades of experience, Irfan ranks among the premier IP litigators in the "World's Leading Patent Professionals" for the Patent 1000 guide by Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) magazine. Clients turn to Irfan to tackle some of their most technically complex issues. His engineering background gives him the ability to master the technology. His experience includes advanced signal processing and digital and analog circuitry. With a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering, he possesses unique insight for medical device litigation. He is familiar with noninvasive patient monitoring, breath analyte monitoring, blood component separation, atrial fibrillation devices, ECG and EEG signal processing, imaging (e.g., MRI), and acoustic signal processing.

Howard Levin

CEO
Deerfield Catalyst

A veteran in the field of biomedical engineering and cardiology, with a specialty in heart failure and transplantation, Dr. Levin brings more than 35 years of clinical and commercial healthcare experience to his role. In 2003, with Mark Gelfand, Dr. Levin co-founded Coridea. His inventions and co-inventions have successfully launched or their patents helped launch companies including Ardian (Medtronic), CHF Solutions (Gambro), Respicardia (formerly, Cardiac Concepts), eValve (Abbott) and RenalGuard/Reprieve Cardiovascular (PLC Medical), Cibiem and Soffio Medical. He has held a number of positions in these companies including President, Chief Scientific Officer, Chief Medical Officer and VP of R&D. Dr. Levin received his M.D. from the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and his training in cardiology at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He also has a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering.

Stephen Levin

Editor-in-Chief
Market Pathways

Stephen Levin has spent nearly 25 years covering the life sciences industry, writing and speaking primarily on medical technology worldwide. Before Levin and his partner, David Cassak, launched Innovation In Medtech, LLC, the parent company of MEDTECH STRATEGIST and MARKET PATHWAYS, along with international conferences, Levin formerly was Editor-in-Chief/Medical Devices at Elsevier Business Intelligence (EBI). At EBI, he directed the editorial coverage for the company’s leading medtech publications, including IN VIVO, START-UP, MEDTECH INSIGHT, THE GRAY SHEET, and THE SILVER SHEET, along with the content for the Investment In Innovation (IN3) series of medical device partnering conferences. He is a frequent speaker at medical device conferences and for companies worldwide on a variety of topics related to the medtech industry.

Josh Makower

Director & Co-founder
Stanford Biodesign

Dr. Josh Makower is the Boston Scientific Applied Bioengineering Professor of Medicine and of Bioengineering at the Stanford University Schools of Medicine and Engineering and the Director of the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, the program he co-founded with Dr. Paul Yock twenty years ago. Josh helped create the fundamental structure of the Center’s core curriculum and is the chief architect of what is now called “The Biodesign Process.” Over the past 20 years since Josh and Paul founded Biodesign, this curriculum and the associated textbook has been used at Stanford and across the world to train hundreds of thousands of students, faculty and industry leaders on the Biodesign process towards the advancement of medical innovation for the improvement of patient care. Josh has practiced these same techniques directly as the Founder & Executive Chairman of ExploraMed, a medical device incubator, creating 9 companies since 1995. Transactions from the ExploraMed portfolio include NeoTract, acquired by Teleflex, Acclarent, acquired by J&J, EndoMatrix, acquired by C.R. Bard & TransVascular, acquired by Medtronic. Other ExploraMed/NEA ventures include Moximed, NC8 and Willow. Josh is also a Special Partner at NEA where he supports the healthcare team and medtech/healthtech investing practice. Josh serves on the boards of Allay Therapeutics, Revelle Aesthetics, Setpoint Medical, DOTS Technologies, Eargo, ExploraMed, Intrinsic Therapeutics, Moximed, Willow and Coravin. Josh holds over 300 patents and patent applications. He received an MBA from Columbia University, an MD from the NYU School of Medicine, a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. Josh is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering and the College of Fellows of The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and was awarded the Coulter Award for Healthcare Innovation by the Biomedical Engineering Society in 2018.

Jennifer McCaney

Executive Director
UCLA Biodesign

Jennifer McCaney holds a dual appointment at UCLA Anderson School of Management and the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonology and Critical Care. She is the co-executive director of UCLA Biodesign, a new joint interdisciplinary initiative led by UCLA Health, David Geffen School of Medicine and Anderson that promotes leadership and entrepreneurship in health care technology. McCaney specializes in early-stage company formation and technology development in the health care sector, bringing her experience as an entrepreneur, advisor and operator to the classroom. Her interests are related to the disruption of the health care industry across digital health, medical devices, diagnostics and care delivery transformation. As the founding director of the MedTech Innovator Accelerator, McCaney has worked extensively with startup companies in the healthtech sector, as well as with business development executives from leading manufacturers, including Johnson & Johnson, Amgen, Baxter, BD, Olympus and others.

Andy McGibbon

Managing Partner
Sonder Capital

Andy McGibbon has worked in the management consulting and life science industries, accelerating innovation across a wide range of company sizes. In 2017, he formed a consulting practice to support large and small medtech companies with defining business processes for identifying impactful unmet needs in healthcare and lead the subsequent efforts to identify, filter, and develop the associated innovations.

Prior to forming his consulting practice, Andy worked with medtech firms across the fields of cardiology, GI, ophthalmology, and pulmonology and worked as a life science strategy consultant with Capgemini Consulting.

Andy is a graduate of the Stanford University Biodesign Fellowship.

Ryan McGuinness

Commercial General Manager
Triple Ring Technologies, Inc.

Ryan was trained in genetics and cell biology at the University of California at Davis. Since 1988 he has worked in several biotechnology companies and as an independent biotech consultant focused on adding value to early stage therapeutic and technology efforts. Early in his career Ryan worked in teams that applied cutting edge genetic engineering technologies to advance the development of gene therapy and cellular therapeutics.

In 2002 Ryan transitioned to research and product development for biopharmaceutical instrumentation, where he held customer-facing positions related to the introduction of novel technologies. In this role, Ryan grew to be a recognized expert in label-free biosensors, presented at numerous international scientific conferences, and was invited to chair several scientific symposia. Ryan is co-inventor of five US patents, has published multiple scientific communications, developed many applications for the drug discovery market, and lead collaborations worldwide with well-known pharmaceutical research teams from companies like Merck, Amgen, J&J, Novartis and AstraZeneca.

Matt McLean

CEO
Half Moon Medical

Coming soon.

Biren Mehta

Vice President, Venture Investments, MedTech
Johnson & Johnson

Coming soon.

Karun Naga

Partner
The Foundry

Karun is an operating executive and entrepreneur in the healthcare industry. As part of The Foundry’s leadership, Karun has led the formation and incubation of several new ventures, including Foundry Therapeutics, a platform for localized, sustained drug delivery, Allay Therapeutics, a clinical stage company focused on durable, opioid-free pain control following major surgery, and Foundry Therapeutics 2, a collaboration addressing unmet needs in China.

Prior to joining The Foundry, Karun was part of the executive team at Altura Medical, a venture funded startup that developed a breakthrough endograft for treating abdominal aortic aneurysm and was acquired by Lombard Medical. Prior to joining Altura Medical, Karun was Director of Corporate Development at Medtronic, where he had roles in business development, strategic partnering and corporate investment across Medtronic’s cardiovascular portfolio. Karun joined Medtronic via its acquisition of Ardian, a Foundry portfolio company that pioneered a catheter-based treatment for hypertension, where he served on its executive management team. In a previous stint with The Foundry, Karun served on the founding team of Miramar Labs, a dermatology and aesthetics medicine company. Karun also previously worked at Mentor Corporation, as its first in-house intellectual property counsel, and Jones Day, a leading international law firm. 

Karun serves on the boards of directors of Foundry Therapeutics, Allay Therapeutics, Foundry Therapeutics 2 and Foundry Endovascular and is also a patent attorney registered with the US Patent Office. Karun holds a BS in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University, a JD from the University of Michigan Law School and an MBA from The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania.

Chris Neil

Venture & Angel Investor
Life Science Angels

Chris Neil is an experienced venture & angel investor and senior executive with a focus on medtech and medical devices.

He is active in Life Science Angels (LSA), the largest angel organization in the U.S. focused solely on early stage medical device and life science start-ups, and currently serves as Co-Chair of their Device Screening Committee.

He is an active participant in MedTech Innovator, which is the largest medtech focused accelerator.

He is currently forming the MedTech Advantage Fund - a multi-hundred million dollar fund focused on early-stage and mid-stage medtech companies that will invest in the graduates from medtech-focussed accelerators like MedTech Innovator.

He spent over 30 years at Maxim Integrated, where he was Senior VP (running their $1B revenue, 600-person Industrial & Medical Solutions Group) and co-founded and was Head of Maxim Ventures for seven years - investing in medical devices & life sciences. Maxim was acquired by Analog Devices in 2021.

He served as observer / advisor on several start-up boards, including Unaliwear, Ontera, toSense (now part of Baxter), and Profusa. He was Board Member at Spire Health - which makes a respiratory monitoring system focused on COPD - through their Series-C funding.

He holds BSEE and MSEE degrees from MIT.

Maria Nyåkern, Ph.D.

President
NAMSA Madrid (Formerly AKRN)

Dr. Nyåkern has experience in the medical device industry as a clinical research scientist and entrepreneur across the spectrum of early-stage start-ups to large multi-national organizations.

In 2017, Maria Nyåkern founded AKRN Scientific Consulting, a European medical device CRO. As CEO, she led a 50+ team of consultants supporting manufacturers in the regulatory and clinical development of medical device technology. AKRN Scientific Consulting was acquired by NAMSA in 2022, and Maria transitioned to Executive Director at NAMSA.

Dr. Nyåkern’s expertise is cardiovascular devices, focusing on coronary and peripheral revascularization, cardiac rhythm management, heart failure monitoring, and cardiac surgery. Dr. Nyåkern has co-authored over a dozen peer-reviewed articles in interventional cardiology. She is a Doctor of Cell Biology at Stockholm University, Sweden (2003) and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Bologna, Italy (2006).

Noboru Ohrui

Head of Growth Strategy, Cardiac & Vascular Company
Terumo Corporation

Noboru has a broad range of business development, international trade and venture experience in healthcare.  He joined Terumo Corporation in April 2020 and is now heading the growth strategy and corporate development.  Prior to joining Terumo, he worked for Mitsubishi Corporation for 25 years, where he led the healthcare business development initiative in Tokyo head office.  He was also based in Silicon Valley for six years, and was responsible for venture investment in medical devices.  During his assignment, Noboru worked side by side with Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty at his medical device venture fund, Emergent Medical Partners.  He also sat as a board member/observer for Avantis Medical, Cianna Medical, Novare Surgical, Bacchus Vascular, etc.  Besides working in Tokyo and Silicon Valley, he was based in London office managing hospital construction projects under Japanese ODA program.  Noboru received his MBA from IMD in Switzerland and has BS from Columbia University.

Gabriel Sanchez

Co-Founder & CEO

Enspectra Health

Leveraging his extensive experience innovating in the fields of optics and electromechanical devices, Gabriel serves as the visionary for Enspectra Health. Working with a team of experts, Gabriel is leading the rapid advancement and development of Enspectra's multiphoton imaging device to evaluate a broad spectrum of skin conditions. 

Hal Stowe

Regulatory Consultant
TSG Consulting

Harold ”Hal” Stowe is a Regulatory Consultant supporting clients achieve pre-market and ongoing compliance with US EPA and FDA federal regulation.

Hal supports TSG’s medical device clients, leading companies in the development and execution of strategies to navigate FDA’s premarket authorization pathways – 510(k) Premarket Notification, De Novo, and PMA.

Hal also specializes in pre- and post-market compliance for chemical and mechanical antimicrobial technologies under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

Hal has a Bachelor of Science in Economics, and Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness from Clemson University.

Andrew Weiss

President & CEO
ReCor Medical

Mr. Weiss brings over 20 years experience in the Medical Device Industry, starting with global management responsibilities at GE Medical Systems. Mr. Weiss left GE to become Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Marquette Medical Systems. Following Marquette, Mr. Weiss became President & CEO of Vital Images, a company he took public in 1996. Mr. Weiss then joined Medtronic as VP & General Manager of its Surgical Navigation Systems business, following which he became VP & General Manager of the Medtronic Neurological business. Prior to joining ReCor Medical, Mr. Weiss served as President & CEO of CoAxia, Inc. Mr. Weiss is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in mechanical and electrical engineering and has an MBA from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

Paul Wilkins

Managing Director
Sagentia Innovation

Paul Wilkins is the Managing Director of Sagentia Innovation, a science and engineering company offering technology strategy and product development services. Paul has an impressive background in engineered solutions for the medical sector, having worked with both disruptive start-ups and global market leaders. He has significant experience in the identification of new market opportunities and the delivery of novel technologies and products. 

In vitro diagnostic systems are an area of focus and expertise and Paul has led the design and development of several Point of Care diagnostic systems. More recently, he has been involved in extensive software development programs with applications including bioinformatics and infusion pumps. Paul is an engineer by training, and holds a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering (M.Eng), specialising in fluid dynamics, from University of Cambridge.

Rob Winkelmann

Managing Partner & CEO
Credo 180

Rob has spent over 25 years in the capital markets including debt advisory, corporate finance and venture lending. He founded Credo 180 in 2006. Previously, Rob started the West Coast operations for two venture lending institutions including Charter Financial (acquired by Wells Fargo) and Oxford Finance Corporation. Before moving into the venture capital arena, Rob worked at LaSalle National Bank/ABN AMRO in Chicago providing senior secured debt, tax-exempt bond financings and other structured finance vehicles to private, public and not-for-profit hospital systems & health care entities. Rob advises clients and structures debt capital financings for companies in the biotech, medical device, healthcare and technology industry segments.

Christine Winoto

Founder & Director
UCSF Rosenman Institute

Christine Winoto is the founder and director of the UCSF Rosenman Institute and founding partner of Medtech Venture Partners. Christine is also the QB3 deputy director, where she manages QB3 operations and programs.

Christine has decades of experience in operations, strategic planning, business/corporate development, M&A and venture investment in the healthcare sectors. Prior to joining UCSF, Christine worked at Kaiser Permanente in its capital and strategic planning capacity. She also worked at Genencor in the business unit that covers the US, Europe, Latin America and ASPAC operations. Christine also previously worked at medical device startups Physiometrix and Heartport, where she held R&D and operations roles, and at a European investment bank in London where she advised clients on mergers and acquisitions.

Christine was named one of most influential women in San Francisco Bay Area business in 2020 and she holds an MBA from Erasmus University in the Netherlands and a BS in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Ming Zhao

Program Director
SBIR Development Center, National Cancer Institute

Coming soon.