Jeanne Bolger
Venture Partner
Seroba
Jeanne has over 35 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in management roles across R&D, Commercial and Business Development (BD) and Venture Investments. She spent 11 years in Licensing and Acquisition (L&A), including Global Head of Scientific Licensing for Johnson & Johnson’s Pharmaceutical business, and before that as Director in the Business Development group at GlaxoSmithKline.
Jeanne spent nearly 10 years (2012-2022) as Vice President Venture Investment in J&J’s corporate venture fund, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC. During that period, she was based in London, leading investments across Europe in start-up and early stage life science companies in areas of strategic interest to J&J’s business sectors in Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology, Medical Devices and Consumer. She represented JJDC on the Board of Directors of over a dozen companies, including Aelix Therapeutics, Asceneuron SA, Aviado Bio, Biocartis, Calypso Biotech, Inivata, Merus, Pulmocide, S-Biomedic, Syndesi, T-Rex. Dr Bolger also represented JJDC’s LP investments in multiple Venture Capital Funds in UK and Europe as well as representing J&J’s interests in other funding vehicles including incubators and accelerators.
David Cassak
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.
Barbara Castellano
Partner
Panakes Partners
At Panakes since 2016, Barbara Castellano brings a specific expertise in cardiovascular sector as well as a broad knowledge of the medical device sector, acquired as former Director of Clinical Affairs, Certifications, Registrations and Quality Assurance at CID SpA (now Alvimedica) and as former Director of Business Development & Global Marketing Director for the Heart Valves Business Unit at Sorin (now Livanova). She was also founder and CEO of Techwald SPA, an operational Holding Company supporting and investing in early stage Med Tech Companies.
Dave Chersky
VP of Strategy
Indo-MIM
Coming soon.
Janke Dittmer
Partner
Gilde Healthcare
Janke Dittmer joined Gilde in 2011 as a Partner. He led Gilde’s investment in Definiens (acquired by AZ), Sapiens (acquired by Medtronic), Volta Medical, Big Health, FIRE1, Lumeon and Nyxoah (IPO on NASDAQ) and was involved in several other investments including Spire Health, Withings, NightBalance and Stat Dx. He currently represents Gilde on the board of Volta Medical, Big Health, FIRE1 and Lumeon. He served on the supervisory board of Definiens and Sapiens until trade sale and as Vice-chairman of Nyxoah until NASDAQ IPO.
Prior to joining, he was a Venture General Manager and Head of Business Development & Strategy within Philips’ Corporate Venturing unit in Healthcare. On top of shaping the strategy, he was responsible for selecting new investment opportunities. He also started and lead two ventures in the fields of cardiology and sepsis.
He served as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company advising leading High Tech companies on strategies for growth and strategic marketing.
Prior to this, he cofounded a Nanotech company in the Silicon Valley after serving as a Fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. He earned a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge in the UK and was a Post-Doc in Nanotechnology at the University of California, Berkeley.
He is a founder and former healthcare chairman of the International Venture Club, serves on the VC council of Invest Europe and has advised the European Commission on innovation policy.
He is a German citizen based in Gilde’s Utrecht office. At Gilde Healthcare he is focusing on Digital and Home Health, MedTech, Diagnostics and Lifescience Tools investments.
Tonya Dowd
EVP, Reimbursement, Value Generation, and Market Access (RVMA)
PRIA Healthcare
Tonya Dowd, MPH, is Executive Vice President at PRIA Healthcare, where she leads corporate development and the Reimbursement, Health Economics, and Market Access (RHEMA) division. With over 25 years of experience in reimbursement and market access strategy, she has driven commercialization and adoption of innovative medical technologies worldwide. Previously with Johnson & Johnson, Quorum Consulting, and MCRA, Tonya built and scaled global market access practices. A recognized thought leader, she advises investors, payers, and policymakers and mentors emerging innovators through MedTech Innovator and Creative Destruction Lab (CDL).
Caroline Gaynor
Partner
Lightstone Ventures
Caroline Gaynor is a Partner of Lightstone Ventures and focuses on new investments in the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors out of the firm’s Dublin office.. She currently serves as a board director for Catamaran Bio, Parvalis Therapeutics, ProVerum, Carrick Therapeutics and FIRE-1 and as board observer for Volta Medical and Cerevance. She also previously served on the board of ALX Oncology. She is a council member of the Irish Venture Capital Association and a member of the BioInnovate Ireland Board of advisors.
Caroline joined Lightstone Ventures in 2017, bringing 15 years’ operational experience in the pharmaceutical industry and early stage medtech companies. Caroline spent 9 years at Bayer Healthcare, most recently serving on the board of senior management of Bayer Ltd. Ireland as head of market access, pricing and reimbursement. During her time in pharma she held a number of operational roles, predominantly focused on oncology, such as product management, strategic marketing, business development and regulatory/clinical affairs. Prior to Lightstone, and following completion of her BioInnovate fellowship in 2013, she co-led R&D on a device targeting Acute Pancreatitis and was subsequently involved in early pre-clinical, strategic clinical and commercial development at Vetex Medical.
In 2002 She received her degree in Pharmacy from Trinity College Dublin and subsequently went on to receive an M.Sc in Pharmaceutical Medicine in 2010.
Jinny Lee
SVP of 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 & 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.
Megan MacDonagh
Vice President
Ally Bridge
Megan is an investor at Ally Bridge Group, a life sciences focused investment group based in New York that primarily focuses on medtech and biotech investments. She has over a decade of experience in the medtech industry across operating, consulting and investing functions.
She holds a BE in Biomedical Engineering from University of Galway and an MBA from Harvard University.
Bibi Sattar Marques
Partner
Buenavista Equity Partners
Bibi is specialized in the financial sector with over 18 years of professional experience, as a result of her passages at PwC and ANACOM, acquiring solid knowledge in financial auditing, corporate finance, and regulation, having been a member of the Regulatory Accounting Group – Board of European Regulators of Electronic Communications.
In 2017, Bibi accepted the challenge to develop the Venture Capital arm in a financial entity as partner and member of the Board of Directors. In 4 years, the first nine venture capital funds were created with more than €100m+ under management, becoming the reference area of this financial entity.
In the context of corporate social responsibility, in 2019, she joined GRACE’s Advisory Board.
In 2021, Bibi, challenged by the GED group, joins the company as Partner and member of the Board of Directors of GED Ventures Portugal to develop the Venture Capital arm and strengthen the company’s Iberian leadership.
Joey Mason
Venture Partner
Claret Capital Partners
Joey joined Claret Capital Partners in September 2024 as a Venture Partner in Life Sciences. With over 30 years’ experience in this sector, Joey will focus on building on Claret’s existing Life Sciences network, sourcing new deal opportunities, and will act as an advisor to the team.
During his career, Joey has worked as an investor, entrepreneur, financier, director, mentor and advisor, and has significant experience in most segments of the Life Sciences industry – medtech, pharma/ biotech, diagnostics, health IT and techbio. He has served on the boards of 20 private and public companies in Ireland, Europe and the USA and also on the board of EVCA (InvestEurope), the trade association for the private equity industry in Europe. In 2021, he co-founded Duplex Capital Partners to advise and fund young companies innovating in the digitalisation of life sciences. Prior to this he led a Life Sciences fund at M Ventures, Merck KGaA’s corporate venture arm in Amsterdam, having previously spent 10 years at Delta Partners where his signature exit was the sale of Neuravi Ltd to Codman (J&J).
Murielle Thinard McLane
Managing Partner and President
Intuitive Ventures
Murielle is managing partner and head of Intuitive Ventures. She joined Intuitive Ventures in 2023 and brings a depth of experience across digital health tech, digital health, diagnostics, and biotech domains to lead investments in companies that are shaping the future of minimally invasive care throughout the patient continuum.
Murielle is a seasoned operator and executive with over 20 years-experience building and scaling organizations as an investor, entrepreneur and Fortune 500 executive. She most recently served as CEO of molecular diagnostics company, Ontera, and as co-founder of Nooma Bio, a life science tools platform focused on detecting cytogenetic abnormalities. She started her foray into venture capital as an Executive in Residence for GE Healthcare Ventures where she helped launch Verana Health, the largest clinical database in medicine empowering physicians and accelerating research for patients. While there she also supported investment in Genome Medical, a telehealth provider of genomic medical insights and Arterys the first cloud based deep learning imaging software start-up to receive FDA clearance. Previously, she was a General Manager at McKesson where she oversaw multi-billion-dollar P&Ls spanning therapeutics, surgical supplies, services and data analytics and before that worked in strategy and leadership roles at both Genentech, Novartis and Optum. Passionate about bridging the gender gap in the C-Suite of venture-backed companies, she served on Springboard Enterprises' executive council for pharmaceuticals and digital health, a network dedicated to building high-growth, technology-oriented companies led by women.
Murielle holds an MBA from Wharton and an MS in Finance and the Science of Management from Universite of Lyon and started her career in financial services.
Jennifer McMahon
Partner
Seroba
Jennifer McMahon is a Partner at Seroba. She graduated from UCD with an honours degree in Pharmacology in 2010. Jennifer then entered a Master’s degree programme in Biotechnology and Business to further her interest in the interface of biomedical science with commercialisation.
Having placed first in her Master’s degree in 2011, Jennifer then joined Seroba’s Investment Team as an Investment Analyst, progressing to Partner in 2022.
In 2019, Jennifer joined the Advisory Board for the European healthcare Businesswomen’s Association. She is Chair of Level20 Europe and was a founder member of the Ireland Chapter of Level20. She guest lectures on venture capital at University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She is also in high demand as a speaker at Investor/Entrepreneur life science partnering conferences across Europe.
Jennifer sits on the boards of Endotronix, Palliare and Deciphex, is a Board Observer to Shorla Pharma and was previously on the Board of Biosensia prior to its merger with Kypha Diagnostics.
Reed Miller
Senior Editor
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.
David Noonan
CTO
Moon Surgical
Coming soon.
John Olden
Partner
Addleshaw Goddard
John Olden is a Partner in the Firm’s Corporate Law Department. His practice areas are mergers and acquisitions law, venture capital, capital markets, company and Partnership law. His mergers and acquisitions experience covers both public and private companies.
In the area of venture capital, he has advised on the establishment and marketing of venture capital funds, relationships between the general partner and limited Partners, investment by venture capital funds into Irish and other businesses and he has advised Irish companies on the raising of venture capital finance.
His capital markets experience is in debt (in particular commercial paper and note issuance programmes) and equity (IPOs, rights issues and offerings by Irish corporates in the US).
Ruben Osnabrugge
Partner
415 Capital
Ruben Osnabrugge, MD PhD, joined 415C in October 2023 where he serves as Partner. Prior to joining 415C, Ruben was an investment manager at EQT Lifesciences (formerly LSP), where he focused on medical devices, digital health and diagnostics. Prior, Ruben led the Value-Based Care strategy for Philips, where he was part of the global Chief Medical Office. He also supported strategic deep dives and due diligence for Philips’s investments. Moreover, he represented Philips at Medtech Europe and led a World Economic Forum project with Intermountain Healthcare and Novartis.
Before, Ruben underwent surgical training in cardio-thoracic surgery with a special interest in interventional cardiology at Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam. As part of this training, he also performed general and vascular surgery and worked at the intensive care. Ruben is a recognized expert in cost-effectiveness and health outcomes research, especially in coronary revascularization and structural heart interventions. He received a Fulbright Scholarship which he spent at the Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City to work on pivotal cardiovascular clinical trials. He has (co-)authored >40 articles in top peer-reviewed medical journals including JAMA, European Heart Journal, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, two chapters in the ESC Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine and a European clinical guideline. Moreover, he was editorial board member at Eurointervention Journal and faculty at leading interventional cardiology and surgical societies EuroPCR and EACTS, from which he also received a young investigator award.
Ruben holds MD and PhD degrees from Erasmus Medical School in Rotterdam, a MSc in Clinical Research from NIHES and the Harvard School of Public Health, and a BSc in Health Economics from Erasmus School of Economics. Ruben lives in Munich, in his spare time he is an avid cyclist and enjoys family, traveling, good food and photography.
Antoine Papiernik
Managing Partner & Chairman
Sofinnova Partners
Antoine Papiernik is Chairman and Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners, which he joined in 1997.
“Life Sciences investing is not just about recognizing good science,” Papiernik says, “it’s about people — learning how to interact with co-investors, limited partners, and entrepreneurs. Listening, discerning, negotiating, and finding common interests.”
When you find the right people to invest in, he adds, “you can bank on them more often than you can predict how the science is going to turn out.” He looks for entrepreneurs with the nimbleness to adapt, “even if that means making a major shift from where one starts out on the journey.”
Antoine actively invests for our Capital Funds. He has been an initial investor and active board member in a number of public companies, including Actelion, ProQR, Shockwave Medical, NovusPharma (sold to CTI), and Movetis (sold to Shire). Trade sale success stories include CoreValve (sold to Medtronic), Fovea (sold to Sanofi Aventis), Ethical Oncology Science (EOS, sold to Clovis Oncology) and Recor Medical (sold to Otsuka).
He has also invested in and is a board member of private companies Reflexion Medical, Tissium, Pi-Cardia, SafeHeal, Noema Therapeutics, May Health, Highlife and Inspirna (formerly Rgenix).
Antoine has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. He has been selected twice for the Forbes Midas List, an annual ranking recognizing the world’s top venture capital investors. Antoine is one of the few European and life science investors to have appeared on the prestigious list.
Thom Rasche
Partner
Earlybird Venture Capital
Thom Rasche is a Partner at the Health Fund of Earlybird Venture Capital, which invests in early-stage companies across digital health, medical devices, diagnostics, R&D platform technologies, and biopharma.
Thom is an experienced healthcare executive with both operational and financial expertise, currently serving on the boards of Alesi Surgical and Polares Medical. Prior to joining Earlybird in 2013, he was managing director of Ethicon and VP Europe of Johnson & Johnson. Thom holds a Kaufmann Diploma from the University of Lüneburg.
Alexander Schmitz
Partner
Endeavour Vision
Alexander Schmitz is a Partner at Endeavour Vision, investing in medical technology, digital health and diagnostics companies across multiple therapeutic areas.
Alexander brings more than two decades of business and strategy experience in both medical device and high-technology companies. He currently represents Endeavour Vision on the boards of Kenbi, Lumeon, Nalu, Rapid Micro Biosystems (NASDAQ:RPID), Relievant MedSystems, and VentureMed, and led the firm’s investments in Gynesonics, Nuvaira and V-Wave. He previously served on the boards of VertiFlex (acquired by Boston Scientific in 2019) and EndoStim. He is a member of the steering committee for PCR Innovators’ Day and serves as both a jury member and expert panelist for the Healthtech Summit.
Aneta Sottil
Partner
Andera Partners
Aneta Sottil joined Andera Partners in January 2018. She serves as Partner in the Andera Life Sciences team, dedicated to investing in life sciences.
Rupert Winckler
Vice President Business Development
Olympus
Rupert Winckler joined Olympus in 2017 to lead the company’s business development activities for the EMEA region. He and his team oversee the sourcing and execution of transactions that cover investments, partnerships, acquisitions, and other transactions for the Medical Systems Division.
Rupert has more than 20 years of investment experience across the medical and life science sectors. He began his career in life science consulting before transitioning to healthcare investment banking. He has held various positions at ING Barings and Piper Jaffray, both in London, where he advised clients on cross-border public and private mergers and acquisitions. Immediately prior to joining Olympus, he led the European Healthcare Investment Banking team at Canaccord Genuity, also in London.
Rupert holds a Master’s Degree in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, as well as a diploma in Financial Management from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. He lives in Hamburg, Germany.
