Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top California based President operating in the Medical space. If you think a President is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Sean Bohen
Executive Vice-President, Global Medicines Development and Chief Medical Officer of AstraZeneca
Sean was appointed Executive Vice-President, GMD in September 2015 and leads our global late-stage development organisation for both small molecules and biologics. He is also the Company’s Chief Medical Officer and is responsible for patient safety across the entire AstraZeneca and MedImmune portfolio. He joined AstraZeneca from Genentech, where he held a number of senior leadership roles across various therapy areas and was most recently Senior Vice President of Early Development. Before joining Genentech, Sean was a Clinical Instructor in Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine, a research associate at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and later earned his doctorate in biochemistry and his medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco.
Follow Sean Bohen:
About AstraZeneca: AstraZeneca is a global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets prescription medicines.
_______
Raymond H. Diradoorian
Executive Vice President of Allergan
Mr. Diradoorian has been Executive Vice President, Global Technical Operations since February 2006. From April 2005 to February 2006, Mr. Diradoorian served as Senior Vice President, Global Technical Operations. Since February 2001, Mr. Diradoorian served as Vice President, Global Engineering and Technology. Mr. Diradoorian joined Allergan in July 1981. Prior to joining Allergan, Mr. Diradoorian held positions at American Hospital Supply and with the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. Mr. Diradoorian received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine and a Master of Science degree in Technology Management from Pepperdine University.
Follow Raymond H. Diradoorian:
About Allergan: Allergan is a global pharmaceutical company.
Rachel Gollub
Vice President of Benefitter Technology of UnitedHealth Group
Founder at Benefitter
Follow Rachel Gollub:
About Benefitter, HealthMarkets, UnitedHealth Group: UnitedHealth Group is a healthcare company that offers insurance products and services for everyone.
Maynd Jolly
Vice President Strategic Corporate Accounts of Siemens Healthineers
Follow Maynd Jolly:
About Siemens Healthineers: Siemens Healthineers is a healthcare technology company that provides diagnostic and therapeutic products and services.
Alex Aravanis
Chief Technology Officer & Senior Vice President of Illumina
Follow Alex Aravanis:
About Illumina: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
Craig Ciesla
Vice President Advanced Engineering of Illumina
Follow Craig Ciesla:
About Illumina: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
Richard Klausner
Senior Vice President & Chief Medical Officer of Illumina
Richard Klausner joined Illumina in September 2013 as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. Richard is responsible for Illumina’s strategies for advancing genomics into clinical medicine and public health. He is also part of Illumina’s executive management team, which is responsible for directing all aspects of company strategy, planning and operations. Richard is a Scientific Advisor at Cyterix Pharmaceuticals Inc. He co-founded Pathwork Diagnostics, Inc. (Alternative name is Predicant Biosciences Inc.) in 2002. He serves as the Managing Partner at The Column Group LLC. He served as the Chairman of the Strategic Development and Scientific Advisory Council at Sanofi from March 1, 2011 to January 2013. Richard serves as the Chairman of the National Science Education Standards Projects of the National Academy of Science, overseeing the first comprehensive process to provide a vision of scientific literacy in the American educational system and the criteria required to achieve it. He served as Co-Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board and Scientific Advisor at Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He served as an Executive Director for Global Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Richard served as the President at the American Society of Clinical Investigation. He served as an Advisor to the President of the Academies for counter-terrorism, and a Liaison to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. From 1979 to 1981, he worked at NIH in National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Laboratory of Mathematical Biology. He served as a Director of Pathwork Diagnostics, Inc. and Immune Design Corp. He served as Director of 3-V Biosciences, Inc. He served as a Director of NCI from August 1, 1995 to 2001. He serves as a Member of Scientific Advisory Board at NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., Immune Design Corp., Constellation Pharmaceuticals and Audax Health Solutions. Richard served as a Distinguished Scientific and Strategic Advisor of Aveo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Richard currently sits on the board of Juno Therapeutics. He is also the Chief Strategy Advisor for USAID. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as a Member of Scientific Advisory Board at Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Igenica, Inc. and T2 Biosystems, Inc. Rick holds an M.D. from Duke Medical School.
Follow Richard Klausner:
About Audax Health Solutions, Illumina, Pathwork Diagnostics: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
Jay Flatley
President & CEO of Illumina
Jay was appointed President and CEO of Illumina in 1999 and oversaw the company’s expansion into the whole genome sequencing area with the acquisition of Solexa in 2006, and more recently into diagnostics and consumer sequencing. Under his leadership, Illumina has been named multiple times to the Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 and Fast 500 lists, as well as to the Forbes 25 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies (2007, 2009 and 2010), the Fortune 100 Fastest-Growing Companies (2010 and 2011) lists, and recognition by MIT Technology Review as the World’s Smartest Company in 2014. Previously, Jay served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Molecular Dynamics. As a co-founder and member of the board of directors for Molecular Dynamics he led the company to its initial public offering in 1993. He helped Molecular Dynamics develop and launch over 15 major instrumentation systems, including the first capillary-based DNA sequencer. Currently, he is an Advisory Board member for UC San Diego’s Moores Cancer Center, and a member of the Board of Directors at Coherent, Denali, and Illumina, Inc. Jay received a B.A. in economics from Claremont McKenna College and a B.S. and M.S. (summa cum laude) in industrial engineering from Stanford University.
Follow Jay Flatley:
About Illumina: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
Erik Holmlin
President, CEO of Bionano Genomics
Erik Holmlin has two decades of experience in the life science and health care industries. His expertise spans technology development and commercialization, global marketing, commercial operations, venture financing, mergers & acquisitions and intellectual property. Recently, he served as president and CEO of GenVault Corporation, a life science company bring innovative solutions to biosample management. He merged GenVault with IntegenX, Inc. in January of 2011. He also served as an entrepreneur in residence (EIR) at Domain Associates, LLC, a leading dedicated life science venture-capital firm. Prior to these roles, Erik was chief commercial officer at Exiqon A/S, where he was responsible for global sales, marketing, and clinical affairs for two businesses: Oncology Services in a CLIA lab and Consumables Business in Life Sciences Research. In 2001 Mr. Holmlin led the formation of GeneOhm Sciences, Inc., for which, over a span of 5 years, he was director of chemistry, senior technology director, vice president of technology and business development, and vice president of marketing.
Follow Erik Holmlin:
About Bionano Genomics: BioNano Genomics develops nanoscale imaging and analytic platforms designed to analyze DNA and other genome-related peptides and proteins.
Austin Harkness
Executive Vice President, Operations of Honor
Follow Austin Harkness:
About Honor, Sunoco – Stores: Honor is a senior care network and technology platform that offers personalized care to improve the in-home care experience.
Maury Blackman
President & CEO of Premise Data
Maury Blackman is CEO of Premise Data. Blackman is a tech executive with more than 25 years of experience leading high growth enterprise software companies. His industry experiences include government, construction, public safety, geospatial information, GPO’s, sharing economy services, and drone software. Blackman joined Premise in 2017; under his leadership the company has seen 661% revenue growth. In November 2020, Premise was named to Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, a list of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America. Premise is the 35th fastest-growing company in the Silicon Valley region and is 182nd on the overall list. Before joining Premise, Blackman was CEO at Accela, a civic tech company aimed at moving citizen transactions from city hall to online and mobile services. He joined the company in 2000 as the VP of Sales and Marketing and then assumed the role of CEO in 2007. To support strategic initiatives and growth, he raised more than $300M in financing from family offices, private equity, and senior debt. The capital from these raises was deployed to build out an enterprise offering, expand internationally, and execute an M&A strategy that closed 10+ acquisitions in 24 months. Prior to joining Accela, Maury worked for Investools (NASDAQ:IEDU) where he served in several executive positions from 1993 to 2000. At Investools, he first joined as an Account Executive and was later appointed Vice President, Business Development charged with selling data and content to brokerage firms and internet service providers in the nascent dot-com era. In this capacity, he built a dynamic portfolio of accounts that included Charles Schwab, Fidelity, AOL, and Netcom Online Communications. For his accomplishments at Accela, Blackman was recognized by Government Technology as one of its Top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers in 2015. In 2016, Ernst and Young awarded him the prestigious Northern California’s Entrepreneur of the Year. Maury holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Houston and was a commissioned field artillery officer in the United States Army, serving on both active and reserve duty for 10 years. Maury maintains an active lifestyle and is an eleven-time Ironman finisher, including the 2008 and 2013 Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona.
Follow Maury Blackman:
About Premise Data: Premise is a data and analytics platform powered by a global network of on-the-ground contributors, data science, and machine learning.
Zhen Li
Founder, President & CEO of ADARx Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Li is a co-founder of ADARx and a successful executive with more than two decades of diverse experience in research and development in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Prior to ADARx, Dr. Li served as Senior VP at Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals where she led the discovery and non-clinical development of Arrowhead’s delivery platform and multiple product candidates that are now in clinical studies. Previously, Dr. Li was a director at Merck, leading a team dedicated to siRNA development. Dr. Li received her Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Harvard University, and her B.S. from Peking University.
Follow Zhen Li:
About ADARx Pharmaceuticals: ADARx Pharmaceuticals is a genetic medicine company focusing on the base editing of mRNA transcripts.
Andrew Song
President and Co-Founder of Whisper
Andrew Song is the President and Co-Founder at Whisper.
Follow Andrew Song:
About Whisper: Whisper develops AI-enabled, updateable hearing aids for people with hearing loss.
Kim D. Blickenstaff
President and Chief Executive Officer of Tandem Diabetes Care
Kim joined Tandem in August 2007, bringing more than 30 years of healthcare experience in finance, marketing management, sales and strategic planning. Prior to joining Tandem, he was Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Biosite Incorporated, a medical diagnostic company that was acquired by Inverness Medical Innovations for $1.8 billion in June 2007. Prior to founding Biosite, he held various finance, operations, research management, sales management, strategic planning and marketing positions with Hybritech Incorporated and Baxter Healthcare. Kim has been active in the medical device and diagnostics industry over the last 12 years, serving on the board of directors for innovative, young healthcare companies such as SenoRx and MediVation Incorporated. He holds a Masters of Business Administration from Loyola University Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.
Follow Kim D. Blickenstaff:
About Tandem Diabetes Care: Tandem Diabetes Care develops medical devices for the treatment of diabetes offering diabetic insulin pumps for adults and children.
Paul Molloy
President & CEO of ClearFlow
Paul has over twenty years experience of operations, executive management and Board work at public, private and VC funded medical device companies. Two IPO’s at previous companies, particularly as President & Managing Director orchestrating LMA’s successful 2005 SGX listing at a market capitalization of >$300m. LMA was recently acquired by Teleflex in a process that he brokered. Paul was a practicing CRNA until he joined Datascope Corp in NJ in 1989, obtaining his MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and rising through executive positions with leading medical device firms to CEO level in successive start ups, most recently completing the sale of VasoNova to Teleflex Inc. He has extensive global industry connections and has traveled, lived and worked in Asia, Europe and the USA, including substantial experience setting up and managing operations in Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, China, Japan, India and Latin America as well as serving on the Board of those local subsidiaries.
Follow Paul Molloy:
About ClearFlow: ClearFlow is a medical device company developing technologies to solve clinical problems associated with obstructed catheters.
Kristen Hege
Vice President, Translational Development, Hematology/Oncology of Celgene
Kristen Hege has served as a member of our board of directors since October 2018. Kristen Hege is currently a Clinical Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Oncology and an attending physician at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She has held a clinical faculty appointment at UCSF since 1997 in the adult hematology and bone marrow transplant program. Kristen Hege has been board-certified in internal medicine, medical oncology and hematology. Kristen Hege received her B.A. summa cum laude from Dartmouth, M.D. from UCSF and completed a medical residency at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and a fellowship in hematology and oncology at UCSF. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, and Mersana Therapeutics and the Strategic Advisory Group for the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. In 2015, FierceBiotech recognized her as one of the top 12 women in Biopharma. Kristen Hege currently serves as Corporate Vice President, Translational Development, Hematology and Oncology and San Francisco site head at Celgene where she is responsible for translational and early clinical development for all hematology and oncology products including small molecules, biologics and cell therapies. Prior to joining Celgene, she served as acting Chief Medical Officer at Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Theraclone Sciences and Cellerant Therapeutics. Kristen Hege began her career at Cell Genesys Inc. where she spent 14 years in various roles of increasing responsibility, ultimately leading the Clinical Research and Development organization.
Follow Kristen Hege:
About Celgene: Celgene discovers, develops and commercializes innovative therapies to treat cancer and immune-inflammatory-related diseases.
Amit Vohra
Co-Founder, President & CEO of Promaxo
Promaxo is led by Dr. Amit Vohra who is a serial entrepreneur, business strategist and advisor to several healthcare and technology startups. Amit is a Partner in Advanced Biopharma Consulting, a management consultancy offering strategic business development and commercialization services in the life sciences space. He also serves as an advisor to Cricking, MedDx and HealthyX and a strategy consultant to Precision Biopsy and Weinberg Medical Physics. Prior to Promaxo, Amit was the CEO/President of Convergent Life Sciences wherein he took a MRI-US fusion product, for targeted laser ablation of soft tissue cancer, through FDA clearance within 18 months of Company formation. Previously, as VP of Strategy and Operations at Eigen, he led the development and successful commercialization of two class II medical devices in the prostate biopsy space. In 2009, Amit co-founded Navya Biomedical Technologies, a biotechnology company using proprietary polyhydroxy fullerenes (PHF) for non-invasive imaging and destruction of solid tumors. Amit has a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from University of Florida, and an Executive MBA (Fuqua Scholar) from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
Follow Amit Vohra:
About 8chili, Neuro42, Promaxo, TriOcula Technologies: Promaxo is commercializing customer-centric MRI systems and robotic guidance tools for live diagnosis and treatment in a physician’s office.
Kathryn Zavala
Vice President, Business Development & Operations of MedTech Innovator
Follow Kathryn Zavala:
About MedTech Innovator: MedTech Innovator is the largest lifescience accelerator in the world for medical device, digital health, and diagnostic companies
Irv Edwards
Founder & President of Emergent Medical Associates
Dr. Irv Edwards obtained his Bachelor’s Degree from McGill University and his Medical Degree from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. He came to Los Angeles to pursue his interest in Emergency Medicine and interned at Los Angeles County Hospital. After his internship, Dr. Edwards completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Harbor UCLA Medical Center. Following his residency, Dr. Edwards pursued private practice at a variety of hospital sites in Los Angeles and Orange Counties including Chino Valley Medical Center, Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center, La Palma Intercommunity Hospital, Mission Community Hospital, Montclair Hospital Medical Center, Olympia Medical Center, Sherman Oaks Hospital, and Valley Presbyterian Hospital. He was the Director of Performance Improvement at Mission Community Hospital from 1998 – 2003 and he currently serves as the Director of Case Management at Mission Community Hospital and as the Chief of Staff at Chino Valley Medical Center. He is the Director of Emergency Services at Chino Valley Medical Center, Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center, Mission Community Hospital, and Montclair Hospital Medical Center. In 1989, Dr. Edwards founded Emergent Medical Associates and has served as its President since inception. Since 2001, Dr. Edwards has been a dedicated member of CAL/ACEP and he currently sits on their Executive Board. He served as its President from 2005-2006.
Follow Irv Edwards:
About Emergent Medical Associates: Emergent Medical Associates is a provider of emergency care and episodic care management services to patients.
Agatha Martindale
Vice President and Global Finance of Rakuten Medical
Follow Agatha Martindale:
About BUILTBYGIRLS, Rakuten Medical, Rakuten Medical: Rakuten Medical is a biotechnology company that develops therapies to treat cancer.
Christine Lemke
Co-Founder & President of Evidation Health
As Chief Product Officer, Christine leads product management and development at Evidation Health. Previously, Christine co-founded and led The Activity Exchange, an insight and personalization platform that helps healthcare companies deliver the right digital interventions and incentives to consumers to help them achieve sustainable behavior change. Prior to her work in healthcare, Christine was the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Sense Networks, developers of the first machine learning platform for mobile phone activity data (exited to YP.com). She has also held roles at 3iGroup (Paris), Microsoft XBOX and co-founded Chicago-based Channel IQ, a product analytics platform. Christine has a BA from the University of Washington and an MBA from HEC Paris.
Follow Christine Lemke:
About Evidation Health, Evidation Health: We enable and empower everyone to participate in better health outcomes.
Uday Kumar
Founder, President, CEO, and Board Member of Element Science
Co-Founder & Board Member at Sympara Medical – Dr. Uday N. Kumar, a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist by training.
Follow Uday Kumar:
About Element Science, Stanford University, Sympara Medical: Element Science is a medical device and digital health start-up that develops lifesaving wearable solutions.
Hira Thapliyal
Founder, President & CEO of Aneumed
Hira Thapliyal is the founder, president & CEO of AneuMed, Inc.AneuMed is an early stage company engaged in developing devices for the treatment of various ailments affecting the human cardiovascular system. Prior to that, Dr. Thapliyal was the co-founder, president & CEO of VytronUS, Inc., a development stage company working on products for treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. Currently, VytronUS is conducting human clinical trials for its products. Before that, Hira was the co-founder, president & CEO of Tescient, Inc. Tescient was focused in developing products aimed at tissue regeneration and wound healing in human body. Tescient prototype products did not perform well in early animal tests, so Dr. Thapliyal closed Tescient and returned 60% of the invested capital back to the investors. Prior to Tescient, Dr. Thapliyal co-founded ArthroCare Corp (NASDAQ: “ARTC”) in 1993, and served its president & CEO and took the company public in 1996. ArthroCare was recently acquired by Smith & Nephew for $1.7 billion. ArthroCare markets products in the field of arthroscopy, ENT, spine, skin, and wound healing. Before ArthroCare, Hira served as the president of MicroBionics, a company developing products for continuous measurements of blood parameters in critically ill patients. Before MicroBionics, Hira co-founded and served as the president of CardioVascular Imaging Systems (NASDAQ: “CVIS”) which developed and marketed an ultrasound based imaging system, Intravascular Ultrasound (‘IVUS’), for the human blood vessels. CVIS went public and was later acquired by Boston Scientific (“BSX”). Prior to that, Hira served as the Vice President of Devices for Vascular Interventions (DVI) which developed and marketed products for removal of plaque form inside on the diseased arteries. DVI was acquired by Eli Lilly in 1989. Prior to DVI, Dr. Thapliyal held engineering and management positions at Oximetrix, Inc., Amdahl, and Corning. Dr. Thapliyal holds a BSEE degree from Washington State University, a MSEE from University of Idaho, and a PhD degree in Materials Science & Engineering from Cornell University. Hira has received numerous awards, and currently serves as an advisor to the Stanford-India Biodesign Program at Stanford University. Dr. Thapliyal also served as a judge for the Entrepreneur of the Year award at Earnst & Young. Dr. Thapliyal currently holds over 193 issued US and International patents for various medical devices.
Follow Hira Thapliyal:
About Aneumed, VytronUS: Aneumed is a biotechnology company based in California, United States.
Ade Adesanya
Co-founder & President of Moving Analytics
Follow Ade Adesanya:
About Moving Analytics: Moving Analytics is a provider of turnkey and home-based post-acute care management solutions for cardiopulmonary disease.
Surendar Magar
President and CEO of LifeSignals
Surendar Magar has over 30 years’ experience in the technology industry. He co-invented the Texas Instruments TMS320, the groundbreaking digital signal processing architecture that launched the DSP industry. Later he co-founded Athena Semiconductors, an early developer of the wireless networking platform that would become Wi-Fi; Athena was acquired by Broadcom Corporation.
Follow Surendar Magar:
About LifeSignals: LifeSignals’ offers innovation in wearable biosensor technologies to address a broad set of needs and opportunities throughout healthcare.
Hartmuth Kolb
Vice President, Neuroscience Biomarkers and Janssen R&D Global Imaging of Johnson & Johnson
Follow Hartmuth Kolb:
About Johnson & Johnson: Johnson & Johnson engages in the research and development, manufacture and sale of a range of products in the healthcare field.
Andrew Toy
CTO & President of Clover Health
Andrew is currently the Chief Technology Officer of Clover Health, a technology oriented Medicare Advantage company focused on changing healthcare by developing models and interventions that improve member outcomes. Prior to Clover, Andrew was a Product Management Director at Google working in the Google Cloud team and was responsible for Developer Platform and Intelligence features. Previously, he was the Product Director for Android for Work – the enterprise platform for Android. Andrew joined Google in 2014 via the acquisition of Divide where he was co-founder and CEO. At Divide, Andrew helped drive the company’s founding vision of bringing Work and Play together on a single device with no compromises. Divide raised over 25MM in venture funding before being acquired by Google. Before co-founding Divide in 2010, Andrew was VP of Mobile and Syndication Technology at MTV Networks. In this role, he provided technological leadership for digital distribution of Viacom content, serving cable brands including MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon. Prior to joining MTV Networks, Andrew headed mobile application development for Morgan Stanley, where he specialized in mobile security as well as fixed-mobile convergence telephony. Before Morgan Stanley, Andrew was chief architect for Jarna Inc., a startup focused on enabling mobile workflows on event-based platforms. Andrew holds both a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, where he has also served as an associate lecturer.
Follow Andrew Toy:
About Clover Health, Divide: Clover is a healthcare technology company helping members live their healthiest lives with its Medicare Advantage plans.
Ben Hindson
CSO, CO-Founder & President of 10X Genomics
Ben Hindson has served as Chief Scientific Officer and Director of 10x Genomics since its founding in 2012. Prior to 10x Genomics, Hindson was Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Quantalife, a privately-held life sciences company that developed and commercialized a droplet digital PCR platform, until its sale to Bio-Rad in 2011. From 2002 to 2008, he served in various positions of increasing responsibility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in the Chemical and Biological Weapons Non-proliferation Program. He has published extensively in his field and holds many patents for assays and instrumentation. Hindson earned his BSc in Chemistry in 1998 and his PhD in Chemistry in 2001 from Deakin University, Australia.
Follow Ben Hindson:
About 10X Genomics: 10X Genomics ELV solutions and security systems company that provides an innovative genomics platform.
Asish Xavier
Vice President, Venture Investments of Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation
Asish Xavier is the Vice President of Venture Investments at joined Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC) in 2004. Asish is based in Silicon Valley, California. Asish previously worked in business development at BioRexis Pharmaceutical, Inc., which was acquired by Pfizer in 2007. While at BioRexis, Asish assisted the company in raising a $30 million second round of financing. Asish has worked in business development at Structural GenomiX, Inc., acquired by Eli Lilly in 2008, and was a project leader at Message Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Asish received a Ph.D. from the University of Houston and a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with honors. Asish received a Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India. Asish was also a postdoctoral research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University.
Follow Asish Xavier:
About Cue, ESCAPE Bio, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Legend Biotech, Paige, ViaCyte, XWPharma: Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, a venture capital subsidiary, finances technology companies focused on patient health.
Stacy Feld
Vice President, Consumer Venture Investments of Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation
Stacy received a B.A. in sociology, graduating magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt Law School.
Follow Stacy Feld:
About Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation: Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, a venture capital subsidiary, finances technology companies focused on patient health.
Shankar Chandran
Vice President, Catalyst Fund of Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center
Shankar Chandran is vice president at Samsung Electronics and head of the Samsung Catalyst Fund, at the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center (SSIC). The SSIC is based in Menlo Park, California and is focused on accelerating innovation for Samsung Electronics. Shankar is responsible for early stage and disruptive venture capital investments in technologies targeted at high growth sectors such as cloud infrastructure, mobile technology and security, digital health, next-generation user interfaces, and the internet of things. Previously, he was part of the founding team at Panorama Capital and has been an active venture investor for 12 years at Panorama Capital and JP Morgan Partners. Shankar has held various engineering, business development and management roles at Applied Materials, Inc., and has been granted eight patents as the primary inventor. He also serves on the Advisory Board at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Santa Clara University, and has served as a director or observer on the boards of over ten companies. Shankar holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), India, an MS in Materials Science from Arizona State University, and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Follow Shankar Chandran:
About Samsung Catalyst Fund, Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center: SSIC is a global organization within Samsung’s Device Solutions division focused on identifying and nurturing new technologies
Hakan Sakul
Vice President and Head of Diagnostics of Pfizer
Follow Hakan Sakul:
About Pfizer: Pfizer provides access to safe and effective and affordable medicines and health care services.
Bob Colloton
Vice President of Sales & Marketing of Neuravi
Follow Bob Colloton:
About MIVI Neuroscience, Neuravi: Neuravi provides medical products and services.
Steve Pham
Vice President of Clinical and Research Affairs of Eko Health
Steve Pham is a practicing emergency medicine physician, the head of medical and research affairs at Eko, and a new father. His passion is translating between digital and clinical insights.
Follow Steve Pham:
About Eko Health: Eko develops AI-powered digital tools to detect and monitor heart and lung disease
Robert Desantis
Executive Vice President Chief Product Officer of Intuitive Surgical
Bob DeSantis joined Intuitive Surgical in January 2013 as Vice President, Research and Development, Instruments and Accessories Engineering. In November 2015, Mr. DeSantis was promoted to the position of Senior Vice President, Instruments and Accessories. In this position, Mr. DeSantis is responsible for managing the development of new technology from design to market as well as production engineering support for the instrument and accessory portfolio. Prior to joining Intuitive Surgical, Mr. DeSantis spent almost twenty years in the medical device industry, holding positions at several companies, including US Surgical and most recently at Covidien, where he last served as the Vice President, Research and Development for the mechanical and energy instrument businesses. Mr. DeSantis holds a B.S. and M.S.in Mechanical Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Mr. DeSantis also holds a certificate in Innovation Management from MIT.
Follow Robert Desantis:
About Intuitive Surgical: The da Vinci Surgical System is changing the experience of surgery for patients around the world.
Dave Rosa
Executive Vice President & Chief Business Officer of Intuitive Surgical
Dave J. Rosa joined Intuitive Surgical in March 1996 and has held leadership positions in Engineering, Clinical Development, Marketing and Product Development. In 2015, Mr. Rosa was appointed as Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. In 2013, Mr. Rosa assumed the position of Senior Vice President, Scientific Affairs and, in 2014, he was appointed as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer. He has been a passionate supporter and evangelist of da Vinci technology since its inception. Prior to joining Intuitive Surgical, Mr. Rosa contributed to the development of trans-esophageal transducers for Acuson Corporation. He graduated magna cum laude with a B.S.in Mechanical Engineering from California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo. He also holds a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
Follow Dave Rosa:
About Intuitive Surgical: The da Vinci Surgical System is changing the experience of surgery for patients around the world.
Gillian Duncan
Senior Vice President, Professional Education & Program Services – Worldwide of Intuitive Surgical
Gillian Duncan, Ed.D., joined Intuitive Surgical in December 2006 as an Education Manager. After holding several positions of increasing responsibility in clinical, product and professional education, Dr. Duncan was promoted to the position of Vice President, da Vinci® Professional Education & Program Services – Worldwide in August 2015. In this role, Dr. Duncan is responsible for leading the company’s high-quality, worldwide Customer Training, Genesis, Lab Services and Clinical and Product Education programs. Prior to joining Intuitive Surgical, Dr. Duncan held both teaching and research positions at Columbia University and California State University, East Bay. Dr. Duncan holds a B.A. in Rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley, and master’s and doctorate degrees in Applied Physiology from Columbia University.
Follow Gillian Duncan:
About Intuitive Surgical: The da Vinci Surgical System is changing the experience of surgery for patients around the world.
Myriam Curet
Executive Vice President & Chief Medical Officer of Intuitive Surgical
Myriam J. Curet, M.D. joined Intuitive Surgical in December 2005, as Chief Medical Advisor. In February 2014, Dr. Curet was promoted to the position of Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Curet also held a faculty position as Professor of Surgery at Stanford University. Since October 2010, she has served as a Consulting Professor of Surgery at Stanford University with a part time clinical appointment at the Palo Alto Veteran’s Administration Medical Center. Dr. Curet received her M.D. from Harvard Medical School and completed her general surgery residency program at the University of Chicago. She then worked for the Indian Health Service for four years before finishing her Surgical Endoscopy fellowship at the University of New Mexico. She was on the faculty at the University of New Mexico for six years prior to joining the Stanford University Department of Surgery in 2000.
Follow Myriam Curet:
About Intuitive Surgical: The da Vinci Surgical System is changing the experience of surgery for patients around the world.
Craig Child
Sr. Vice President, Human Resources of Intuitive Surgical
Craig Child joined Intuitive Surgical in May 2001 as a Recruiting Consultant. In March 2015, Craig Child was promoted to the position of Vice President, Human Resources. Prior to this role, Mr. Child has held several key positions since the inception of the human resources organization at Intuitive Surgical, playing an instrumental role in the development of key human resources functions. Prior to joining Intuitive Surgical, Mr. Child held positions in human resources at Adobe and Informix. Mr. Child holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Oregon and a M.B.A from Colorado State University.
Follow Craig Child:
About Intuitive Surgical: The da Vinci Surgical System is changing the experience of surgery for patients around the world.
Charles Jones
Senior Vice President, Design and User Experience of Intuitive Surgical
Charles Jones joined Intuitive Surgical in April 2016 as the Senior Vice President, Design and User Experience. In this role, Mr. Jones is responsible for leading the company’s efforts to blend leading-edge technology with enhanced human-centered design thinking and driving a consistent design experience for Intuitive products and services. Prior to joining Intuitive Surgical, Mr. Jones has held several key leadership roles at Whirlpool Corp., Xerox Corp. and Herman Miller, and most recently served as the Chief Design and Technology Officer for Newell Rubbermaid. Mr. Jones has received several international design awards, including the prestigious Smithsonian National Design Award, and holds several patents. Mr. Jones is an honors graduate from Purdue University with degrees in Industrial Design and Human Factors Engineering.
Follow Charles Jones:
About Intuitive Surgical: The da Vinci Surgical System is changing the experience of surgery for patients around the world.
James Hinrichs
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Alere
James (“Jim”) Hinrichs joined Alere in April 2015 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, with global responsibility for Finance, Accounting, Procurement, IT and Shared Services. Prior to his appointment as CFO of Alere, Jim Hinrichs was CFO at CareFusion Corp., a global medical technology corporation, since 2010. He held this position through the completion of Becton Dickinson’s acquisition of CareFusion in March 2015. Prior to this role, Hinrichs served as SVP of Global Customer Support and, before that, Corporate Controller of CareFusion. Previously, he was Executive Vice president and Controller of Cardinal Health, CFO of Cardinal Health’s Clinical and Medical Products segment and CFO of Cardinal Health’s Healthcare Supply Chain Services segment.. He joined Cardinal Health in February 2004, following 12 years of finance and marketing roles at Merck & Co. and two years as the CFO of SangStat Medical Corporation.
Follow James Hinrichs:
About Alere: Alere provides diagnostics and health management solutions for infectious, heart and cancer-related diseases and drug addicts.
Mark Gladwell
Senior Vice President, Global Operations of Alere
Mark Gladwell has served as Senior Vice President, Global Operations since January 2015. From January 2014 through January 2015, he held the role of Vice President, Operations for North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa. From September 2011 through December 2013, Mr. Gladwell served as Vice President of Operations for North America and as President and General Manager of one of Alere’s key manufacturing facilities in North America. From 2007 to 2010 Mr. Gladwell was Vice President, Quality and Technical Service for Alere. From 2005 to 2007, he served as a director covering multiple functions in the start-up of Alere Technology Limited where he focused on the development and manufacture of the Alere home BNP product. Prior to 2005 Mr. Gladwell held a variety of operations, quality and project leadership positions in North America and Europe for Alere, Johnson & Johnson, Agfa Gavert and DuPont. Mr. Gladwell has more than 18 years of experience in manufacturing high-volume, high-technology in-vitro diagnostics and medical devices.
Follow Mark Gladwell:
About Alere: Alere provides diagnostics and health management solutions for infectious, heart and cancer-related diseases and drug addicts.
Gerrit Klaerner
Chief Executive Officer & President of Tricida
Gerrit joined Relypsa in October 2007 after negotiating the Relypsa spin out transaction from Amgen as an advisor to the lead investor 5AM Ventures. He co-founded Ilypsa in 2003 while at Symyx Technologies. Between 2003 and 2007, Gerrit held varying positions at Ilypsa and was in charge of the series A and B financings on the company side and licensing deals with Astellas and Cubist. As Ilypsa’s Chief Business Officer, Gerrit co-led the M&A negotiations and diligence efforts. Prior to Ilypsa, he joined Symyx in 1998 as a Staff Scientist, and was later promoted to Director of Business Development. Gerrit received his Ph.D. in polymer chemistry from the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany. He conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University and the IBM Almaden Research Center.
Follow Gerrit Klaerner:
About Tricida: Tricida operates in the healthcare industry focusing on pharmaceutical business.
Charles Yang
Vice President of Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs of Blockade Medical
Charles is currently the Vice President of Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs at Blockade Medical. He has been in the medical device industry for over 15 years in the quality and regulatory field with extensive experience in achieving product approvals in a timely manner. Charles has been successful in achieving multiple product approvals through CE Mark, 510K and other regulatory processes all over the world. He has a diversified portfolio of working in start-up companies and large corporations which has allowed him to gain the experience to build efficient quality systems that meet the needs of the medical device industry. Prior to joining Blockade Medical, Charles worked at various medical device companies which include Acutus Medical, MindFrame Inc. (acquired by Covidien), Ablation Frontiers (acquired by Medtronic) and Edwards LifeSciences. Charles received a B.S. in Bio-engineering at the University of California, San Diego.
Follow Charles Yang:
About Blockade Medical: Founded in 2011, Blockade Medical is a privately held company dedicated the development of catheter based therapeutic devices for the
Ryan Solomon
Vice President of Marketing & Business Development of Blockade Medical
Ryan is the Director of Global Marketing and Business Development at Blockade Medical and has more than 10 years of medical sales and marketing expertise including extensive interventional neurovascular experience. Ryan has successfully launched many products in the neurovascular field including launching the first flow diversion device in the United States while serving as the Group Marketing Manager at Covidien Neurovascular and global launches of multiple coil lines as a Sr. Product Manager at MicroVention. His previous roles have also included Associate Marketing Manager at Karl Storz Endoscopy, Sr. Clinical Sales Specialist at Glaxo Smith Kline, and a Professional Sales Representative for Boehringer Ingelheim. Ryan received a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California, Riverside and a M.B.A. from the University of California, Irvine.
Follow Ryan Solomon:
About Blockade Medical: Founded in 2011, Blockade Medical is a privately held company dedicated the development of catheter based therapeutic devices for the
Jeffrey Brewer
President & CEO of Bigfoot Biomedical
Follow Jeffrey Brewer:
About Bigfoot Biomedical: Bigfoot Biomedical is a medical device company changing diabetes care for people with insulin-requiring diabetes.
Thomas W. Burns
President & Chief Executive Officer of Glaukos
Thomas W. Burns has served as our president, chief executive officer and as a member of our board of directors since March 2002. Mr. Burns has also been a member of the board of directors of DOSE Medical Corporation since October 2009 and its chief executive officer and president since March 2010. Mr. Burns has a proven record of building successful medical device and pharmaceutical businesses and creating successful new markets in ophthalmology. Mr. Burns has more than 25 years of direct ophthalmic management experience, including over 20 years of general management experience across a broad range of ophthalmic medical devices, ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, drug delivery technologies, surgical products and over-the counter products. Prior to joining our company, Mr. Burns led Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) as its president and chief operating officer, and a director. From 1990 to 1997, Mr. Burns served as senior vice president and general manager of Chiron Vision Corporation (acquired by Bausch & Lomb, Inc.), and then as vice president, global strategy and general manager, refractive surgery of Bausch & Lomb from 1998 to 2000. Mr. Burns has also served as an entrepreneur-in residence at Versant Ventures Management, LLC, an entity affiliated with one of our principal stockholders. Mr. Burns received a B.A. from Yale University. We believe Mr. Burns’ extensive understanding of our business, operations and strategy, as well as significant industry experience and corporate management skills and experience qualify him to serve onour board of directors.
Follow Thomas W. Burns:
About Glaukos: Glaukos is a glaucoma treatment company developing micro-bypass therapies to moderate the intraocular pressures that help preserve vision.
Billoo Rataul
President & CEO of Paramit Corporation
Billoo Rataul is the President & CEO at Paramit Corporation.
Follow Billoo Rataul:
About Paramit Corporation: Paramit designs and manufactures medical devices and life science instruments.
Bhavin Shah
Vice President of Engineering and Quality of Paramit Corporation
Bhavin joined Paramit in 2014. Bhavin brings with him over 20 years of experience in developing products involving hardware and software/firmware for multiple industries. Prior to Paramit, Bhavin spent 5 years at Diamond Systems, managing engineering teams developing high precision digital and analog PCBAs and 9+ years with Asyst Technologies. Bhavin has a BSEE from the Mumbai University(India) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Computing from C-DAC (India).
Follow Bhavin Shah:
About Paramit Corporation: Paramit designs and manufactures medical devices and life science instruments.
Francesco Grieco
Vice President of Operations of Paramit Corporation
Francesco Grieco is the VP of Operations at Paramit Corporation.
Follow Francesco Grieco:
About Paramit Corporation: Paramit designs and manufactures medical devices and life science instruments.
Thomas Alessi
Vice President, Development and Manufacturing of Intarcia Therapeutics
Dr. Alessi joined Intarcia in December 1997 as Executive Director, Regulatory Affairs and Drug Development and was promoted to Vice President, Development in February 2002 with responsibility for the areas of product development, project management, chemistry and manufacturing. Prior to joining Intarcia, Dr. Alessi served as the Senior Director, Regulatory Affairs, Quality Assurance and Project Management at Ansan Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for successful IND filings and for managing five drug development programs with oversight of vendors for preclinical and clinical studies and manufacturing clinical supplies. Before joining Ansan, Dr. Alessi was Director of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at Glycomed, Inc. where his duties included oversight and compliance of clinical manufacturing. His previous experience includes regulatory affairs and drug discovery experience in large pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Alessi was Senior Manager of Regulatory Affairs for Schering-Plough working in the Anti-infectives, Allergy Products and Chemisty, Manufacturing, & Controls groups. While at Schering-Plough, Dr. Alessi had regulatory responsibilities for approval and launch of interferon alfa-2b for hepatitis C as well as for hepatitis B. In his CMC role, he served on separate committees for process development and production of solid oral dosage forms, inhaled products, creams and semisolid products and sterile dosage forms, in addition to regulatory review of the CMC sections of Schering-Plough INDs and NDAs. Prior to joining Schering-Plough, Dr. Alessi invented and patented several new families of antidiabetic drugs while working as a Senior Scientist in the drug discovery group at Wyeth-Ayerst. Dr. Alessi earned a B.S. degree at Allegheny College and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in organic synthetic chemistry from the University of Rochester.
Follow Thomas Alessi:
About Intarcia Therapeutics: Intarcia Therapeutics develops therapies for diseases that require long-term chronic treatment.
Paul Negulescu
Vice President of Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Paul Negulescu is the Senior Vice President and Site Head of San Diego Research. He’s been leading Vertex’s San Diego research location since 2003, the site that discovered Vertex’s medicines that treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis. Prior to joining Vertex, Dr. Negulescu was Senior Vice President of Discovery Biology and a member of the executive team at Aurora Biosciences. When Vertex acquired Aurora, he was responsible for integrating Aurora’s research into Vertex. Dr. Negulescu received both his B.S. and Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley in Physiology and carried out post-doctoral work at U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Irvine in the areas of ion channel biophysics and immunology.
Follow Paul Negulescu:
About Vertex Pharmaceuticals: Vertex Pharmaceuticals is focused on the discovery and development of small molecule drugs for the treatment of serious diseases.
Steve James
President and Chief Executive Officer of Pionyr Immunotherapeutics
Steven James has 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry, including the creation and leadership of multiple companies. He is currently President and CEO of Pionyr Immunotherapeutics and was the President and CEO of Labrys Biologics from 2012 until it was acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals in 2014. Prior to joining Labrys, Steven James was President and CEO of KAI Pharmaceuticals from 2004 until the company was acquired by Amgen in 2012. His previous positions have included Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at Exelixis, Chief Business Officer at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals and VP of Business Development at Isis Pharmaceuticals (now Ionis). He began his career in new product planning at Eli Lilly. Steven James is Chairman of Antiva Biosciences, and a director of Chrono Therapeutics. He was formerly on the board of Cascadian Therapeutics (acquired by Seattle Genetics) and a past director of Ocera Therapeutics (acquired by Mallinckrodt). Steve holds a Masters in Management from the Kellogg School of Northwestern University and an undergraduate degree from Brown University.
Follow Steve James:
About Pionyr Immunotherapeutics: Pionyr Immunotherapeutics is a developer of cancer immunotherapies designed to target the tumor microenvironment.
Glenn S. Boehnlein
Chief Financial Officer & Vice President of Stryker
Follow Glenn S. Boehnlein:
About Stryker: Stryker is a medical technology company that offers products and services in orthopaedics.
Anish Bhatnagar
Chief Executive Officer, President & Chief Operating Officer of Soleno Therapeutics
Dr. Bhatnagar was appointed as our Chief Executive Officer in February 2014. Prior to that, he served as our President and Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Bhatnagar joined us in 2006, and has held positions of increasing responsibility since then. Dr. Bhatnagar is a physician with over 15 years of experience in the medical device and biopharmaceutical industries. His experience spans development of biologics, drugs, drug-device combinations and diagnostic as well as therapeutic medical devices. His prior experience includes working at Coulter Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 1998 to 2000 and Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2000 to 2006. He is the author of several peer-reviewed publications, abstracts and book chapters. He obtained his medical degree at SMS Medical College in Jaipur, India and completed his Residency and Fellowship training in the U.S. at various institutions, including Georgetown University Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania.
Follow Anish Bhatnagar:
About Soleno Therapeutics: Soleno Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company
Ivor Royston
CEO & President of Viracta Therapeutics
Ivor Royston is president & CEO, Viracta Therapeutics.
Follow Ivor Royston:
About Viracta Therapeutics: Viracta Therapeutics is a precision oncology company focused on new treatment of virus-associated malignancies.
Heather A. Brown
Senior Vice President, Market Access & Reimbursement of HeartFlow
Dr. Brown brings 10 years of experience in advanced medical imaging product development and service. She has held leadership roles in multiple startups and drove the development of AAA stent graft and TAVR planning applications as well as novel methods of assessing cardiac wall mechanics. Dr. Brown developed the first Volumetric Medical Imaging college accredited program at Jefferson Community and Technical College in 2005. She holds six patents. She received her B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University.
Follow Heather A. Brown:
About HeartFlow: HeartFlow is a medical technology company that provides new methods of diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease.
Juan Jaen
President & Co-Founder of Arcus Biosciences
Juan has been engaged in all aspects of drug discovery and development for more than 30 years. In 2015, he co-founded Arcus Biosciences together with Terry Rosen. Prior to that, he was co-founder and President/Head of R&D at Flexus Biosciences, until its acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb for $1.25 billion. Previously, he was Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery at ChemoCentryx. During his tenure there of just under 7 years, Juan led the discovery and progression into the clinic of 8 novel drug candidates in the immunology space. At ChemoCentryx, Juan led the discovery efforts for the multi-year collaboration with GSK, which generated over $100M in non-dilutive milestones and fees. From 1996 to 2006, Juan held various scientific management positions at Tularik (responsible for about 100 scientists in Medicinal and Computational Chemistry, as well as Structural Biology) and then Amgen Inc. (after its acquisition of Tularik in 2004), most recently as Vice President of Chemistry. From 1983 to 1996, Juan held various scientific leadership positions at Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert. Juan holds a Visiting Scholar appointment (ChEM-H) at Stanford University and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at Cleave Biosciences. Juan obtained a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Universidad Complutense in Madrid (Spain) and a Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Michigan. He has co-authored over 100 scientific papers and is an inventor on 50 issued U.S. patents. Juan has been responsible for the advancement of over 20 novel molecules into clinical development for diseases including cancer, Alzheimer’s, Crohn’s, RA, diabetes and diabetic nephropathy, psoriasis, asthma, and vasculitis, among others.
Follow Juan Jaen:
About Arcus Biosciences: Arcus Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of cancer.
Amir Dan Rubin
Chair & CEO & President of One Medical
Amir Dan Rubin is President & CEO at One Medical. As president and chief executive officer, Amir is focused on delivering better health through outstanding, coordinated clinical care; innovative digital technology; and the highest levels of service, access, and engagement. Previously, as EVP and divisional CEO of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division, he oversaw a number of business lines focused on helping to make the health system work better for everyone. Prior to Optum, Amir was president and CEO of Stanford Health Care where he helped raise patient experience and quality scores to the highest levels in the nation, grow a regional network of care settings, and advance digital health and corporate partnerships in the heart of Silicon Valley. Amir also previously served as COO for the UCLA Health System, and has been awarded the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Northern California in recognition of his role in innovation and industry transformation. He holds MBA and MHSA degrees from the University of Michigan.
Follow Amir Dan Rubin:
About One Medical: One Medical is a members-only technology platform offering an array of concierge medical services.
Lara Abbaschian
Vice President of Lightstone Ventures
Follow Lara Abbaschian:
About Lightstone Ventures: Lightstone Ventures is a leading global venture capital firm.
Dan L. Dearen
President & Chief Financial Officer of Axonics Modulation Technologies
Follow Dan L. Dearen:
About Axonics Modulation Technologies: Axonics Modulation Technologies is a pre-revenue company developing novel implantable neuromodulation.
Curtis Scribner
Vice President, Regulatory of Eiger BioPharmaceuticals
Dr. Scribner has more than 25 years of drug development and regulatory affairs experience. He spent 11 years at the FDA in the Center for Biologics as a medical officer with wide experience reviewing non-clinical, CMC, clinical, and IND/BLA regulatory systems, including 2.5 years as the Deputy Director of the Office of Blood. He also was the Senior Regulatory Consultant for Quintiles Consulting, Chief Regulatory Office for Intarcia Therapeutics and he is now the Senior Vice President for Medical and Regulatory Affairs for RRD International. Dr. Scribner is a board certified Internist with post-doctorial training in Immunology and Rheumatology at the NIH.
Follow Curtis Scribner:
About Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, QED Therapeutics: Eiger is a biopharmaceutical company that develops new antiviral agents against novel targets in the treatment of hepatitis.
Kevin Kaster
Vice President, Patents and Licensing of Eiger BioPharmaceuticals
Kevin Kaster has 20 years of experience in biotechnology and large pharma with an established track record of developing effective patent and licensing strategies for important technologies and drug products.Kevin Kaster most recently served as Vice President Corporate Development for Threshold Pharmaceuticals, a public company focused on developing anti-cancer agents. Previously, Kaster was Vice President Intellectual Property for Kosan Biosciences, a public company acquired by BMS in 2008 with geldanamycin and epothilone anti-cancer agents. Kaster also previously managed the patent portfolios of Geron Corporation (telomerase and human embryonic stem cell technologies) and Affymax/Affymetrix (combinatorial chemistry and DNA chip technologies) as well as the PCR technology patent portfolio of Cetus Corporation. Kaster began his career at Eli Lilly and Company, first as a research scientist and then as a patent technician.Kevin Kaster is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Law and a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a BS in Chemistry and Molecular Biology.
Follow Kevin Kaster:
About Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, Lygos: Eiger is a biopharmaceutical company that develops new antiviral agents against novel targets in the treatment of hepatitis.
David Cory
President and Chief Executive Officer, Board Director of Eiger BioPharmaceuticals
David Cory is an entrepreneur and industry veteran with 25-years experience in large pharmaceuticals, emerging stage biotechnology, and specialty pharmaceutical organizations with an established track record of operational, transactional, and financial success.Mr. Cory is currently the President and CEO of Eiger BioPharmaceuticals since 2008. He is responsible for negotiating Eiger’s multiple product licenses from Merck and Astra Zeneca. Cory was previously President and Chief Operating Officer of Prestwick Pharmaceuticals, an Orphan CNS specialty pharmaceutical company, which was acquired by Biovail Pharmaceuticals for $160 million in 2008. Cory was Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer at CoTherix, an Orphan Pulmonary Hypertension company, which was acquired by Actelion for $425 million in 2006. Cory began his start up career as Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at InterMune, a public biotechnology company focused on developing Orphan products for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. He was as a key executive in the InterMune IPO, building and managing the company’s commercial organization, in-licensing 4 products and raising over $400 million in the capital markets. Mr. Cory spent the first 12 years of his career in operating positions of increasing responsibility at The Upjohn Company, Glaxo, Glaxo Wellcome, and Glaxo Smith Kline leading teams in CNS, Critical Care, Oncology, Infectious Disease, and Respiratory therapeutic areas, where he directed 10 pharmaceutical product launches and the commercialization of 20 brands.David Cory is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, College of Pharmacy, is board certified in Pharmacy, and holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland.
Follow David Cory:
About Eiger BioPharmaceuticals: Eiger is a biopharmaceutical company that develops new antiviral agents against novel targets in the treatment of hepatitis.
Shelly Xiong
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs of Eiger BioPharmaceuticals
Shelly Xiong has over 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in virology, clinical development, and regulatory affairs spanning Asia, Europe, and North America. Dr. Xiong most recently served as Director of Regulatory Affairs at InterMune where she was responsible for establishing and managing the product labeling function for European and Canadian commercialization and US labeling preparation for Esbriet NDA for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Previously, she served as Director of China Operations at Covance in Shanghai, responsible for business strategy, client and goverment interactions. Dr. Xiong was at Gilead for 15 years, where she held positions in Clinical Virology and Regulatory Affairs, leading the clinical virology development program for Hepsera for HBV from Phase 2 through product approval. She was involved in multiple IND and NDA filings as well as commercial product labeling for antiviral programs in the US with FDA and in China with CFDA while at Gilead. Dr. Xiong has extensive experience in drug discovery and development in viral diseases including HBV, HCV, HIV, and CMV. She is an author on over 30 publications in scientific journals and publications. Dr. Xiong received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of Wisconsin-Madison and B.S. in Chemistry from Beijing University.
Follow Shelly Xiong:
About Eiger BioPharmaceuticals: Eiger is a biopharmaceutical company that develops new antiviral agents against novel targets in the treatment of hepatitis.
Alex DePaoli
Chief Medical Officer and Vice President Translational Research of NGM Biopharmaceuticals
Follow Alex DePaoli:
About NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Sansum Diabetes Research Institute: NGM Biopharmaceuticals is a drug discovery company developing biotherapeutics for the gastrointestinal endocrine system.
Stephanie Pinto
Vice President Operations of Noyo
Stephanie Pinto currently works as Vice President of Operations at Noyo.
Follow Stephanie Pinto:
About Noyo: Modern infrastructure for health insurance
Dow Wilson
President and Chief Executive Officer of Varian
Dow R. Wilson is president and chief executive officer of Varian Medical Systems, a NYSE-listed medical device manufacturer with more than $3.3 billion in global sales. Varian designs and manufactures advanced equipment and software products for treating cancer with radiation as well as imaging components used in imaging and security applications. Mr. Wilson is also a member of the company’s Board of Directors.
Follow Dow Wilson:
About Varian: Varian Medical Systems is a manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions.
Spencer Sias
Vice President, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations of Varian
Spencer Sias joined Varian Medical Systems in 1999 when it became one of three independent businesses created by the spin-off of Varian Associates, Inc. He manages investor relations and corporate communications including public relations, employee communications and community relations for the company.
Follow Spencer Sias:
About Varian: Varian Medical Systems is a manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions.
Franco Palomba
Senior Vice President, Finance and Treasurer of Varian
Franco N. Palomba is responsible for domestic and international cash management, foreign exchange activites, derivatives, credit, receivables, and stock administration. He is also responsible for the company’s risk management, tax, fleet, and travel functions. Palomba joined Varian Medical Systems in 2004, after serving as vice president and controller of Varian, Inc. since 1999. From 1984 to 1999, Palomba worked with Varian Associates, Coopers&Lybrand, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, in various audit management positions.
Follow Franco Palomba:
About Varian: Varian Medical Systems is a manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions.
Patrick Joda
Vice President and General Manager of Varian
Patrick Joda assumed the role of vice president and general manager of Varian’s Oncology Systems Customer Support Services in November 2011. Joda joined the company in 2005, as senior director of Oncology Systems (OS) manufacturing. In 2006, he was promoted to the position of vice president, OS worldwide operations. In 2009, he assumed the responsibility for OS worldwide engineering.
Follow Patrick Joda:
About Varian: Varian Medical Systems is a manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions.
Kolleen Kennedy
President, Proton Solutions and Chief Growth Officer of Varian
Kolleen Kennedy was named senior vice president as well as president of Varian’s Oncology Systems business in October, 2011. Prior to this appointment, she served for six years as vice president and general manager of the Customers Support Services (CSS) organization. Under her leadership, Varian’s CSS organization was rated the #1 service provider among linear accelerator manufacturers every year by IMV, Ltd., an independent healthcare market research firm that analyzes service trends. Ms. Kennedy joined Varian in 1997 as marketing manager for delivery systems. She was promoted to manage Oncology Systems marketing in 2001, and also the engineering function in 2002.
Follow Kolleen Kennedy:
About Varian: Varian Medical Systems is a manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions.
Susan M. Kanaya
Senior Vice President, Finance, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of ChemoCentryx
Ms. Susan M. Kanaya has served as our Senior Vice President, Finance, and Chief Financial Officer since January 2006, and Secretary since February 2006. Prior to joining us, Ms. Kanaya served as Senior Vice President, Finance, and Chief Financial Officer at Kosan Biosciences Inc., a biotechnology company, from 1999 to 2005. Prior to this, she served in financial management positions at SUGEN, Inc., a biotechnology company, from 1994 to 1999, most recently as Vice President, Finance, and Treasurer. Ms. Kanaya also served as Controller with high technology companies and as a public accountant with KPMG. Ms. Kanaya received her B.S. in business administration from the University of California, Berkeley.
Follow Susan M. Kanaya:
About ChemoCentryx: ChemoCentryx develops orally administered small molecule therapeutics that target chemokine receptors and related chemo-attractants.
Sofie Qiao
President and Chief Executive Officer of Vivace Therapeutics
Dr. Qiao is the founding president and CEO of Vivace Therapeutics & Virtuoso Therapeutics.
Follow Sofie Qiao:
About Virtuoso Therapeutics, Vivace Therapeutics, WuXi Healthcare Ventures: Vivace Therapeutics is a venture-backed start-up dedicated to discovering and developing cancer therapeutics by targeting a novel pathway.
George Winston
Senior Vice President / General Manager Acute Care Division of Sommetrics
33 years in healthcare commerce, including sales, sales management, marketing, marketing management, with Sorenson Research, Abbott Laboratories and Hospira Worldwide and 5i Sciences. This experience spans across several medical device product lines for the hospital critical care, CV surgery, and CV anesthesia markets. The product lines include physiological pressure measurement, continuous mixed venous oxygen saturation monitoring, electronic infusion devices, airway management, sleep apnea and CV Surgery devices. Net result of the assignments is a thorough understanding of the acute care hospital market, with special knowledge of physician and nursing technology needs along with designing and selling products into the anesthesia, critical care and CV surgery areas. Currently V.P. Marketing, 5i Sciences, a medical device start-up with a focus on OSA and airway management in sedated patients, undergoing medical procedures. Experienced in partnership and financial discussions with major potential corporate partners and investors. Areas of experience include: Establishment of a regional critical care sales force with top and bottom line sales accountability, establishment of a KOL referral program, development of sales and product training materials and participation in the product design process, with focus on product usability to enhance clinician acceptability. Education: 1972 – 1975 Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida Marketing and business, 1969 – 1971 Miami – Dade College, Miami, Florida A.A.S., Aeronautical Technology. FAA flight certifications include Commercial license, Flight instructor, Instrument flight instructor.
Follow George Winston:
About Adela Health Inc., Keiretsu Forum, Sommetrics, TruPosture: Sommetrics is focused on improving health and well-being by optimizing sleep quality.
Alex Choy
Executive Vice President R&D, CIO of Change Healthcare
Alex Choy is executive vice president of Research and Development and Information Technology and serves as the company’s chief information officer. Before joining Change Healthcare, Mr. Choy was global vice president, Product Development at Oracle Corporation, responsible for all research, development, and delivery of the Oracle healthcare and life sciences product portfolio. Prior to Oracle, Mr. Choy was vice president of Engineering for enterprise software products for Adobe Systems. There he brought in and cultivated an enterprise software culture and product discipline. He also was a key driver of its cloud transformation and key technology acquisitions, leading to the company’s digital marketing platform. Before joining Adobe, Mr. Choy held senior product and engineering positions, including founding team level, at Interwoven, Veritas Software, Tandem, Sun Microsystems, and Hewlett-Packard. Mr. Choy holds a B.S. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University.
Follow Alex Choy:
About Change Healthcare: Change Healthcare is a healthcare technology company that focuses on accelerating the transformation of the healthcare system.
Aslan Noghre-kar
Vice President of Enterprise Communities of Change Healthcare
Aslan Noghre-kar is the VP of enterprise communities at Change Healthcare.
Follow Aslan Noghre-kar:
About Change Healthcare: Change Healthcare is a healthcare technology company that focuses on accelerating the transformation of the healthcare system.
Nik Tehrani
Vice President of Business Development of Dynosense
Dr. Nik Tehrani earned his PhD in Business Administration from Northcentral University, holds an MBA with a specialization in Executive Management from Pepperdine University and a BS in Electrical Engineering and has over 17 years of teaching experience as a lecturer and professor at various universities in the San Francisco Bay Area. He also has over 8 years of experience advising and mentoring university graduate students, and currently serves as a Dissertation Committee Chair and Member at Argosy University, San Francisco Bay. Dr. Tehrani has taught management, marketing and business courses in Finland, China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, and Chile. Dr. Tehrani has been able to supplement his teaching with professional experiences. Spending over 20 years as a high-level executive for various companies in Silicon Valley has enhanced the body of experiential knowledge he possesses which enables him to pass on practical and theoretical information to his students. As the author of two MBA textbooks, Contemporary Marketing Mix for the Digital Era and Understanding Green Business, he has translated these experiences into applied learning theories. He has published several peer-reviewed academic papers. Please see the publications page for details. Dr. Tehrani has over 25 years of experience in business management, marketing, and supply chain development and implementation. He is currently Vice-President of Business Development for DynoSense Corporation, one of the leaders in emerging advanced remote monitoring of health and preventive care solutions. Prior to DynoSense, he was President and CEO of Savitron, Inc., an Electronic Manufacturing Solution Company; Global Director of Program Management at Sanmina-SCI, a leading EMS provider; Managing Director and Founder of Majital Solutions, a marketing and engineering consulting company; and Vice- President of Marketing and Engineering of ACI, an Electronic Manufacturing Company. Dr. Tehrani is Chair of the Education Committee of the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Northern California Chapter, as well as a member of the HIMSS Innovation and Technology Committee. His interests are developing marketing tools for patient engagement, digital health, and enhancing patient experience. Dr. Tehrani is a member of various other prestigious organizations such as the American College of Healthcare Executives; Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS); Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE); United Nations Association of the United States; Commonwealth Club of California; New York Academy of Sciences; American Marketing Association; Higher Education Management Group; Renewable Energy Technology Inventions Group; and Worldwide Management Consultants.
Follow Nik Tehrani:
About Colorado State University, Dynosense, San Jose State University: Dynosense aims to innovate products and services for better life that are integrated, accurate, secure, and simple to use.
Jay Wei
CEO/President of Optovue
Jay Wei founded Optovue, Inc., in 2003 to develop the next generation of Ophthalmic OCT instruments. His vision in the clinical use of OCT technology has resulted in the first FDA cleared Fourier-domain (spectral domain) OCT system, RTVue®. Jay has been working in ophthalmic instrument development and management since 1992, and he has pioneered the commercialization of optical coherence technology for ophthalmic diagnosis since 1994. Prior to founding Optovue, Jay was a Director of Advanced Development and an OCT Program Manager at Carl Zeiss Meditec (Humphrey Instruments). He led the OCT development from ground zero in 1993 and delivered all prior generations of OCT products to the market. Jay received his Bachelor of Science in Electro-physics from the National Chiao-Tung University in Taiwan, and a Master of Science in Applied Optics from the University of New Mexico. He has been granted over 30 patents in ophthalmic devices and has published research in over 10 peer-reviewed journals.
Follow Jay Wei:
About Optovue: Optovue, an ophthalmic device company, works with eye care professionals to improve diagnosis and therapy of ocular diseases.
Alan H. Auerbach
Chief Executive Officer & President of Puma Biotechnology
Auerbach is the Founder, President, and CEO of Puma Biotechnology, a company dedicated to in-licensing and developing drugs for the treatment of cancer. Previously, he founded Cougar Biotechnology and served as the company’s President and CEO until the company’s acquisition by Johnson & Johnson in 2009. Following the acquisition, Mr. Auerbach served as the Co-Chairman of the Integration Steering Committee at Cougar that provided leadership and oversight for the development and global commercialization of Cougar’s lead product candidate, abiraterone acetate, for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. Prior to founding Cougar, Mr. Auerbach was a Vice President, Senior Research Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, where he was responsible for research coverage of small- and middle- capitalization biotechnology companies, with a focus on oncology. He had primary responsibility for technical, scientific, and clinical due diligence as well as selection of biotechnology companies followed by the company. Prior to that, Mr. Auerbach was a Vice President, Research Analyst at the Seidler Companies, where he was responsible for research coverage of small-capitalization biotechnology companies. Previous to his work as a biotechnology analyst, Mr. Auerbach worked for Diagnostic Products Corporation, where he designed and implemented clinical trials in the field of oncology. Mr. Auerbach received a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University and an MS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southern California.
Follow Alan H. Auerbach:
About Innovative Acquisitions, Puma Biotechnology: Puma Biotechnology acquires and develops innovative products for the treatment of various forms of cancer.
Charles Eyler
Senior Vice President, Finance and Administration and Treasurer of Puma Biotechnology
Mr. Eyler has served as our Senior Vice President, Finance and Administration and Treasurer since the closing of the Merger on October 4, 2011 and, prior to the Merger, served in such capacity at Puma since September 2011. Prior to joining Puma, Mr. Eyler served as Vice President of Finance at Cougar Biotechnology, Inc. from August 2004 until July 2009 when Cougar was acquired by Johnson & Johnson. He also served as the Treasurer of Cougar from April 2006 to July 2009. From July 2009 until March 2010, Mr. Eyler served on the Cougar Integration Committee and oversaw the integration of Cougar’s finance and IT functions with those of Johnson & Johnson. Prior to joining Cougar, Mr. Eyler served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Hayes Medical Inc. from March 1999 to January 2004. Mr. Eyler received his B.S. from Drexel University and his M.B.A. from Saint Francis College.
Follow Charles Eyler:
About Puma Biotechnology: Puma Biotechnology acquires and develops innovative products for the treatment of various forms of cancer.
Farzad Azimpour
Vice President, Strategic Innovation, Advanced Technology of Edwards Lifesciences
Follow Farzad Azimpour:
About Edwards Lifesciences, Stanford University, Stanford University School of Medicine: Edwards Lifesciences is the global leader in the science of heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring.
Satnam Alag
Senior Vice President Software Engineering and Chief Security Officer of Grail
Dr. Alag is a software professional with over fifteen years of commercial software development and management experience, with over twenty years of experience in machine learning and search areas. His expertise is in Big Data technologies, building large-scale multi-tenant SaaS applications, applying intelligence and personalization to Web 2.0 applications, SOA and J2EE architectures, delivering high-quality software, and building high performing engineering teams. He is currently the CTO and VP of Engineering at NextBio. NextBio is a data-driven engine, which is at the intersection of Big Data and genomics. At NextBio, he leads a team that mines billions and billions of data points using the Hadoop stack and commodity hardware. Prior to joining NextBio, he worked as a consultant with Johnson and Johnson’s BabyCenter where he helped develop their personalization engine. Prior to that, he was the Chief Software Architect and Dir. of Application Engineering at Rearden Commerce. He began his career at GE R&D and has held senior technical and management positions at Computing Technologies International and Black Pearl. Satnam is a Sun Certified Enterprise Architect (SCEA) for the Java platform. His doctoral dissertation from the University of California, Berkeley was in the area of probabilistic reasoning and machine learning. He has a number of peer-reviewed publications, holds five patents. He is the author of the book “Collective Intelligence in Action”.
Follow Satnam Alag:
About Grail, Zenufa Laboratories: Grail develops a pan-cancer screening test designed to detect cancers at an early stage.
Thomas Gordon
Consultant to the President of Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Chairman of the Board at DSL Construction Corp.
Follow Thomas Gordon:
About Cedars Sinai Medical Center: Cedars-Sinai is a non-profit, academic, community-centric medical center in Los Angeles, California.
Linda Bolton
Senior Vice President & Chief Health Equity Officer of Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Dr. Linda Burnes Bolton is Vice President for Nursing, Chief Nursing Officer, and Director of Nursing Research at Cedars-Sinai. Her research, teaching and clinical expertise includes: nursing and patient care outcomes, improving organization performance, quality care, and cultural diversity within the health professions. She is co-investigator of the regional Collaborative Alliance for Nursing Outcomes research team. Dr. Burnes Bolton is a past president of the American Academy of Nursing and the National Black Nurses Association. She has provided leadership for several state and national programs including service as chair of the National Advisory committee of Transforming Care at the Bedside, Veteran Affairs Commission on Nursing and vice chair of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing at the Institute of Medicine. She is a trustee at Case Western Reserve University and a board member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She was named one of the top 25 women in health care in 2011 by Modern Healthcare magazine. Dr. Burnes Bolton serves on the American Organization of Nurse Executive Board of Directors and will assume the role of President-Elect in 2014. Dr. Burnes Bolton earned her bachelor’s of Science degree in Nursing from Arizona State University (ASU). She completed her master’s of Science degree in Nursing, Master in Public Health, and Doctorate in Public Health from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Follow Linda Bolton:
About American Academy of Nursing, Cedars Sinai Medical Center: Cedars-Sinai is a non-profit, academic, community-centric medical center in Los Angeles, California.
Shlomo Melmed
Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs & Dean of the Medical Faculty of Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Shlomo Melmed, MB ChB, MACP, FRCP received his medical degree with distinction from the University of Cape Town, School of Medicine in 1970. At Cedars-Sinai since 1980, he is now Senior Vice-President for Academic Affairs, and Dean of the Medical Faculty. He is also Professor and Associate Dean of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine, and Director of the Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He holds the Helene A. And Philip E. Hixon Chair in Investigative Medicine. Dr. Melmed is a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine, certified in Endocrinology and Metabolism; a Master of the American College of Physicians; an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and the American Society of Clinical Investigation; recipient of the Endocrinology Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine; the Endocrine Society Clinical Investigator Award; the Society of Endocrinology Transatlantic Medal; Ipsen Fondation Endocrine Regulation Award; the Pituitary Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award; and is listed in BEST Doctors of America. Dr. Melmed’s laboratory has been consistently funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 1980, and he has trained over 70 physicians, scientists and graduate students who occupy leading positions in academic endocrinology worldwide. His research is devoted to molecular pathogenesis and treatment of pituitary tumors and growth factor regulation of anterior pituitary function. He has pioneered the discovery and application of novel treatments for endocrine tumors and is a recognized international authority on pituitary medicine. Dr. Melmed is acknowledged as a plenary speaker at multiple national and international meetings and is the author of over 300 peer-reviewed articles in prestigious publications. He edits The Pituitary, co-edits Endocrinology: Basic and Clinical Principles, is the Neuroendocrine Section Editor for DeGroot and Jameson’s Textbook of Endocrinology, and Williams Textbook of Endocrinology; and is pituitary section author for Harrison’s Textbook of Medicine. In addition to being the Editor-in-Chief of Pituitary, he is on the editorial board of Journal of Clinical Investigation and past Editor-in-Chief of Endocrinology. Having served on the NIH Endocrinology Study Section, he also has chaired Special Endocrine Study Sections. He was President and founding member of the Pituitary Society, co-chairs its Program Committee, and was an elected member of the Endocrine Society Council. He was President of the International Society of Endocrinology and a member of the Executive Board Committee, Program Chair of the International Congress of Endocrinology, a Director of the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP), and is a Board Member of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). At Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Melmed has spearheaded major academic growth and development by leading building efforts, recruiting talented nationally recognized faculty leadership, establishing new programs and maintaining standards of excellence for educational programs. His executive leadership continues to maintain Cedars-Sinai as a top tier academic medical center.
Follow Shlomo Melmed:
About Cedars Sinai Medical Center, University of California, Los Angeles: Cedars-Sinai is a non-profit, academic, community-centric medical center in Los Angeles, California.
Mike Thompson
Vice President, Enterprise Data Intelligence of Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Vice President, Enterprise Data Intelligence at Cedars-Sinai.
Follow Mike Thompson:
About Cedars Sinai Medical Center: Cedars-Sinai is a non-profit, academic, community-centric medical center in Los Angeles, California.
Richard Jacobs
Senior Vice President of System Development & Chief Strategy Officer of Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Richard B. Jacobs is Senior Vice President of System Development & Chief Strategy Officer at Cedars-Sinai.
Follow Richard Jacobs:
About Cedars Sinai Medical Center: Cedars-Sinai is a non-profit, academic, community-centric medical center in Los Angeles, California.
Jeanne Flores
Senior Vice President of Human Resources & Organization Development of Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Jeanne Flores is Senior Vice President of Human Resources & Organization Development at Cedars-Sinai.
Follow Jeanne Flores:
About Cedars Sinai Medical Center: Cedars-Sinai is a non-profit, academic, community-centric medical center in Los Angeles, California.
Laura Hix Glickman
Vice President, Research & Cofounder of Actym Therapeutics, Inc.
Glickman, an inventor of Actym’s core technology, has over 20 years of experience working in the immuno-oncology and infectious disease fields. Dr. Glickman is a trained cancer immunologist, and was previously the lead scientist at Aduro Biotech (NASDAQ:ADRO), where she initiated studies on the STING program. Her seminal studies with STING agonists let to the development of ADU-S100, of which Dr. Glickman is a co-inventor. ADU-S100 is now in clinical development, and is being tested alone and in combination with an anti PD-1 antibody for the treatment of advanced malignancies. ADU-S100 was the subject of a $750 MM ($250 MM upfront) strategic co-development alliance between Aduro and Novartis, where Dr. Glickman served as the lead Aduro scientist on the joint development team. Dr. Glickman was co-first author on the seminal journal article describing the unprecedented potency of STING agonists in pre-clinical tumor models, as well as co-authoring several additional STING papers. Before Aduro, Dr. Glickman held scientific roles at Catalyst Biosciences (NASDAQ:CBIO), where she constructed Catalyst’s lead hemostasis compound Factor VIIa marzeptacog alfa, currently in Phase II clinical development, and developed core technology in multiple bacterial, yeast and mammalian platforms. At Hawaii Biotech, she constructed the recombinant subunit West Nile vaccine and early development of the Dengue Vaccine, now licensed to Merck. She was also co-inventor of CDX-085, a novel carotenoid derivative for treatment of cardiac disease and cancer, now in clinical development, which led to the spinning out of Cardax Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CDXI) from Hawaii Biotech. Dr. Glickman has multiple years of academic research experience at UCSF and LBNL in infectious disease, molecular biology and genetics, including early work on utilizing transgenic mice to elucidate immune pathways, and researching poliovirus vaccine vectors for HIV and cancer. Prior to that, she performed gene mapping studies for the Human Genome Project at LLNL. Dr. Glickman has 13 patents and 20 publications, as well as having filed two successful INDs. She studied Molecular and Cell Biology (double major with Psychology) at UC Berkeley, and has a Ph.D. in Cancer Immunology from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
Follow Laura Hix Glickman:
About Actym Therapeutics, Inc.: Actym Therapeutics is a privately-held biotech focused on the discovery and development of novel immuno-oncology therapies to treat cancer.
Christopher Thanos
President, CEO, and Cofounder of Actym Therapeutics, Inc.
Christopher Thanos is an inventor of Actym’s core technology, has 18 of years of biotechnology industry experience. Previously, he was appointed Head of Biotherapeutics Discovery at Halozyme (NASDAQ: HALO), leading Immunology, Cell Biology, Protein Engineering and Production efforts to populate HALO’s oncology pipeline. Dr. Thanos is the lead inventor of PEG-ADA2 (US Patent 9,969,998), a checkpoint inhibitor that targets immuno-suppressive adenosine, currently in candidate nomination studies. Translational I/O studies from Dr. Thanos’ group on HALO’s PEG-PH20® therapeutic candidate (Phase III, pancreatic cancer) led to a broad strategic alliance between Halozyme and Genentech to study a combination between Tecentriq® (anti-PDL1) and PEG-PH20® in the clinic across 8 solid tumor types. Dr. Thanos’ group also developed an IDE-approved companion diagnostic currently being used in a global phase 3 pancreatic cancer trial. Before HALO, Dr. Thanos was Head of Protein Engineering at Sutro Biopharma (Nasdaq:STRO). Dr. Thanos is a named inventor on nine issued US patents assigned to Sutro, and is the lead inventor of core platform technology used by both Sutro Biopharma and SutroVax Inc. (US Patent 9,650,621). Prior to that, Dr. Thanos co-founded Catalyst Biosciences (NASDAQ:CBIO), where he participated in raising venture capital, and helped to establish the company’s technology platform. He is a co-inventor of Factor VIIa marzeptacog alfa, currently in Phase II/III clinical trials (purchased by Wyeth/Pfizer, garnering $41.2 million in milestones), Factor IX CB2679d/ISU304, currently in Phase I/II trials, and Factor Xa, currently in pre-clinical development. Dr. Thanos also devoted significant effort to establishing Catalyst’s directed evolution-based, protein engineering platform. Earlier in his career, Dr. Thanos was a National Cancer Institute Postdoctoral Fellow under Professor Jim Wells at UCSF and Sunesis (NASDAQ:SNSS). He earned a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from UCLA where he was an NIH Chemistry / Biology Interface Predoctoral Fellow. At UCLA, Dr. Thanos discovered the atomic structure and binding mode of SAM domains- one of the most common protein modules found in eukaryotic cells, work which was prominently featured in Science Magazine. He is a named inventor on 17 issued and multiple pending patent applications in the area of biological and cellular therapeutics and a first author of several peer-reviewed articles in top tier journals. As a recognized thought leader in the field, Dr. Thanos is frequently called upon to present as an invited speaker, workshop leader, and conference chairman at international scientific conferences focused on biological therapeutics to treat cancer.
Follow Christopher Thanos:
About Actym Therapeutics, Inc.: Actym Therapeutics is a privately-held biotech focused on the discovery and development of novel immuno-oncology therapies to treat cancer.
Joy Weiss
President & CEO of Tempo Automation
Joy Weiss, currently President of Dust Networks at Analog Devices, has held executive leadership positions over the past 35 years at a variety of private and public technology companies. Joy was CEO of Dust Networks, a pioneer in industrial wireless sensor networking, when it was acquired by Linear Technology in 2011, and she has served on the boards of several private companies in Silicon Valley. She is currently on the board of Vigilent and Tempo Automation. Joy is also the Chair of the board of Playworks, a national non-profit based in Oakland, CA. Joy holds a BSEE from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Follow Joy Weiss:
About Analog Devices, InkSpace Imaging, Tempo Automation: Tempo Automation is transforming the way companies innovate and bring new electronic products to market.
Joseph Payne
Founder, President & CEO of Arcturus Therapeutics
Joseph E. Payne, is Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board for Arcturus Therapeutics, Inc. He brings with him an exceptional track record of ushering novel therapeutics to the clinic including successful experience developing sophisticated targeted RNAi nanoparticle technologies. Joseph’s background includes over 20 years of successful drug discovery experience at Merck Research Labs, DuPont Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Kalypsys, and Nitto Denko as evidenced by over 40 publications and patents, and 7 FDA-approved IND clinical candidates.
Follow Joseph Payne:
About Arcturus Therapeutics: Arcturus Therapeutics focuses on developing novel RNA therapeutics for the treatment of various diseases aiming at Rare Diseases.
Glen McLaughlin
President, Founder,CTO of Zonare Medical Systems
Follow Glen McLaughlin:
About Zonare Medical Systems: Zonare Medical Systems develops compact ultrasound systems that are used for diagnostic imaging activities in clinical applications.
Frank Fischer
President and CEO of NeuroPace
Frank Fischer has more than 25 years of senior management experience in the medical device industry. The president and CEO of the biomedical device company NeuroPace, he has served on the company’s board since 1998 and joined the company as its chief executive officer in January 2000. Prior to joining Neuropace, Mr. Fischer was president and chief executive officer of Heartport, Inc., a cardiac surgery company, from May 1998 until September 1999 and served on Heartport’s board of directors. Mr. Fischer was president and chief executive officer and a director of Ventritex, Inc., a company that pioneered implantable cardiac defibrillators, from 1987 until the sale of the company to St. Jude Medical, Inc. in early 1997. Mr. Fischer holds an M.S. in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Currently, he serves on the boards of several privately held medical device companies.
Follow Frank Fischer:
About NeuroPace: NeuroPace develops and markets implantable devices for the treatment of neurological disorders.
Ted W. Love
President & CEO of Global Blood Therapeutics
Ted Love is the President & CEO at Global Blood Therapeutics.
Follow Ted W. Love:
About Global Blood Therapeutics, Global Blood Therapeutics: GBT is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing its lead product candidate, voxelotor, as a therapy for sickle cell disease.
Kirk Seward
Co-Founder, President, Chief Science and Technology Officer of Mercator MedSystems
Dr. Seward is the inventor of the Mercator Micro-Infusion Catheter and led its development from prototype through FDA 510(k) marketing clearance. Prior to co-founding Mercator MedSystems Dr. Seward was a staff principal investigator at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He completed his doctoral studies in mechanical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, and his masters and bachelors in mechanical engineering at MIT. He has authored more than 50 patent applications.
Follow Kirk Seward:
About Mercator MedSystems: Mercator MedSystems develops site-specific delivery devices for the treatment of vascular, oncologic, and regenerative diseases.
Mark Laret
President & CEO of UCSF health
Mark R. Laret is president and chief executive officer of UCSF Health, which is comprised of Benioff Children’s Hospitals San Francisco and Oakland, Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics and the Faculty Practice. Laret, who joined UCSF in 2000, is a 30-year veteran of health care management and a national leader in health care reform. His career began at UCLA Medical Center, where he served from 1980 to 1995 in several leadership positions, before being named CEO of UC Irvine Medical Center, which he led from 1995 to 2000. As CEO of UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, Laret heads one of the most distinguished medical institutions in the world, one that is consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top hospitals in the United States and as the best in Northern California. At UCSF, he has led initiatives to improve quality of care and patient safety and to modernize facilities and equipment. He led an effort to build a $1.5 billion UCSF hospital complex at the Mission Bay campus — including hospitals for children, women’s services and cancer — and raised $600 million in private contributions for the new facility. He is immediate past chair of the California Hospital Association and past chair of the board of directors of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Laret’s volunteer service includes membership on the board of the international charity Mercy Ships, which delivers medical care on hospital ships to indigent communities in Africa. He chaired corporate fundraising drives in San Francisco for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and American Heart Association. He is a member of the board of directors of Varian Medical Systems in Palo Alto and Nuance Communications in Boston, Mass. Laret earned a bachelor’s degree at UCLA and a master’s degree at the University of Southern California, both in political science.
Follow Mark Laret:
About UCSF health: UCSF health offers healthcare services in the areas of cancer, heart disorders, neurological disorders, organ transplants, and more.
Paul DiPerna
Founder and President of Modular Medical
Paul DiPerna is the chief executive officer of Fuel Source Partners. Prior to that, he was a board member and business consultant at AtheroNova. DiPerna founded Tandem Diabetes Care in 2003 and served as its chief technology officer for over 8 years. Previously, he worked at Baxter Healthcare for over 14 years, where he held progressive management positions as a technologist for cell separation systems, program manager of the largest and complex system the company had undertaken, director of business development, and general manager of Digital Dental Sciences, a startup within the company. DiPerna holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and master’s degree in engineering management from Northeastern University. DiPerna resides in San Diego, California, United States.
Follow Paul DiPerna:
About Modular Medical: Modular Medical operates as a drug delivery tech developer.
Richard Hope
Vice President of Clinical and Medical Affairs of Ivantis
Richard Hope currently works as Vice President of Clinical & Medical Affairs at Ivantis.
Follow Richard Hope:
About Ivantis: Ivantis is focused on developing an innovative treatment for glaucoma which includes eye drops, laser therapy, and surgery.
Ken Galt
Vice President of Research and Development of Ivantis
Ken Galt currently works as Vice President of Research and Development at Ivantis.
Follow Ken Galt:
About Ivantis: Ivantis is focused on developing an innovative treatment for glaucoma which includes eye drops, laser therapy, and surgery.
