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 San Francisco based CEO’ operating in the Medical space. If you think a CEO’ 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.
Varsha Rao
Chief Executive Officer of Nurx
Varsha Rao is the CEO of Nurx, which is revolutionizing healthcare by home-delivering prescriptions, medication, and screening tests. She is a Board Member at ViaSat Inc., and the former COO of Clover Health, a health insurance startup developing an innovative platform that collects and analyzes long-term medical data to improve the health management and wellbeing of its clients. Varsha previously served as Head of Global Operations at Airbnb, where she was responsible for managing 16 offices across the globe and leading the company’s customer service and trust and safety teams in Oregon, Portland, Singapore, Dublin and San Francisco. Under her leadership, the company’s operations in Asia expanded, with many new hosts and visitors joining the Airbnb family. However, her entrepreneurial journey began much earlier, in 1998 when she founded Eve.com together with Mariam Naficy. Eve.com quickly became the leading e-commerce retailer for beauty and accessories. Within two years the company grew to 125 employees. Eve.com was sold to Idealab in early 2000 for $110M. In 1999, Fortune Magazine named the company as the 6th Best e-commerce site. Between founding Eve.com and landing at Airbnb, Rao has held a variety of senior roles. She was appointed VP, Category Marketing at Keen/Ingenio (acquired by AT&T) in 2001 and managed P&L for new and emerging major categories. In 2004-2008, she was VP, General Manager for OldNavy.com, the online division of Gap, Inc., where she led the company’s product development, marketing and merchandising efforts, resulting in a 60% increase in revenues. Rao went on to join SingTel as CEO, Digital Media in 2008 and led the team to launch its local search & reviews business inSing.com. After 3 years at SingTel she left to become Senior Vice President, International for LivingSocial where she was the first LivingSocial employee in Asia. As Senior VP, Rao managed more than 2,000 employees in the company’s network of offices in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and Europe. Varsha is a Sequoia Capital Scout, and a mentor for the KStart Catalyst, an incubator and seed investment program for early stage startups in India. She herself has also invested in several startups in various fields including e-commerce, finance and renewable energy. In 2014, she was named by San Francisco Business Times as one of the ‘Most Influential Business Women’ in the Bay Area and in 2016 she featured in The Boardlist’s top 20 list of women every Silicon Valley tech company should be adding to their board. Rao received her BS/BA in Economics/Math from the University of Pennsylvania. For two years following graduation, she worked at the Wasserstein Perella financial consulting firm, where she advised clients on private and public investment strategies. She then returned to school to obtain an MBA from Harvard Business School. As a strong believer in the power of education she contributes to a variety of educational initiatives for underprivileged children and youth. Among them Breakthrough, a program that works to motivate and empower K12 students to continue to higher education and excel academically and professionally.
Follow Varsha Rao:
About Nurx: Nurx is a digital healthcare company offering 10 services across reproductive health, at-home testing, dermatology, migraine care, and more.
David Ko
Co-founder and CEO of Ripple Health Group
David Ko is the Co-founder and CEO of Ripple Health Group (RHG), an early stage healthtech startup focused on helping people experience healthier lives by connecting them to the care, support, and community they need. Prior to RHG, David was the President, COO and Board Member of Rally Health, a digital health company that develops online and mobile solutions that make it easy for consumers to take charge of their health and health care. Rally’s solutions are currently available to nearly 55 million people through health plans, care providers, and more than 200,000 employers. Prior to joining Rally, David oversaw all strategy, planning and operations as COO at Zynga, which he helped take public in December 2011. At the time of its IPO, Zynga was the largest social gaming company in the world with over 100 million daily active users. Prior to his work at Zynga, he spent 10 years at Yahoo! in various senior executive roles, including SVP of Yahoo!’s audience, mobile, and local businesses. David serves on the board of overseers at his alma mater New York University Stern School of Business where in 2016 he established the NYU Stern Venture Fellows program for aspiring entrepreneurs. He also works as an advisor and investor to a number of companies in Silicon Valley including Calm, the number one app for Sleep, Meditation and Relaxation.
Follow David Ko:
About Audax Health Solutions, Calm, Ripple Health Group: Ripple Health Group is a platform for the world’s most trusted healthcare solutions.
Stephanie Tilenius
CEO, Founder of Vida Health
Stephanie is CEO & Founder of Vida Health.
Follow Stephanie Tilenius:
About Nextdoor, Vida Health: Vida Health is a virtual care platform that provides health coaching from experienced health care providers and medical institutions.
David Kopp
Chief Executive Officer of Healthline Media
David leads the Healthline Media team. His 25 year career spans publishing, digital advertising, consumer services, and clientside marketing for both big brands (Disney and Yahoo!) as well as more entrepreneurial ventures. David believes that people need better tools, education, and support in order to achieve good health, and he’s confident that Healthline’s purpose-driven team will make the world stronger and healthier. He also talks a lot about sugar: if you want to live a long, healthy life, minimize your sugar intake.
Follow David Kopp:
About Healthline Media: Healthline Media is the 2nd largest and fastest growing consumer health publisher in the world, reaching 85 million people a month.
Tom Nix
CEO of Ria Health
Follow Tom Nix:
About Ria Health: Ria Health’s evidence-based telehealth alcohol treatment program helps people drink less and live better.
Jiang Li
CEO of VivaLnk
Jiang has both passion and extensive experience in bringing innovative technology and products into the marketplace. He has held various senior management positions in both large high tech organizations and startup companies. Prior to joining VivaLnk, he was responsible for new product and technology development as the VP of engineering in Kovio and Thinfilm Electronics, leading printed electronics companies. Prior to that, he worked at AMD and the joint venture between AMD/Fujitsu, Spansion. As the VP of product engineering in Spansion, Jiang managed the major new product launches in Spansion. Jiang holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a bachelor’s degree from Zhejiang University in China.
Follow Jiang Li:
About VivaLnk: VivaLnk is a provider of connected healthcare solutions for in-patient and remote patient monitoring.
Paul Johnson
CEO of Lemonaid Health
Paul is the co-founder and CEO of Lemonaid Health. He moved from the UK to the US in 2014. In the UK Paul’s entrepreneurial career started aged 17 where I was a runner up in a Daily Mail sponsored entrepreneur of the year competition and founded his first company ran from the garage of his family home. Later Paul founded and ran the UK’s largest online pet retailer and became Head of Online for the second largest drugstore chain. Paul continues to advise McKinsey & Company and others on e-commerce, innovation and business strategy. In the UK Paul was an advisor to the Government on Entrepreneurism and Enterprise.
Follow Paul Johnson:
About Lemonaid Health: Lemonaid Health is a telemedicine platform that uses technology to change the way people interact with health care.
Francis deSouza
CEO of Illumina
Francis A. deSouza, 50, has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Illumina, Inc., a biotechnology company, since 2016 and served as President of Illumina from 2013 to 2016. Prior to joining Illumina, Mr. deSouza was President, Products and Services, of Symantec Corporation from 2011 to 2013, and Mr. deSouza served as Symantec’s Senior Vice President, Enterprise Security Group, from 2009 to 2011. Prior to that time he founded or worked in a variety of other technology businesses. He has served as a Director of Illumina since 2014 and was a director of Citrix Systems, Inc. from 2014 to 2016. He was elected a Director of the Company in December 2017, effective February 1, 2018.
Follow Francis deSouza:
About Illumina: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
Seth Sternberg
Co-Founder & CEO of Honor
Seth Sternberg is the Co-Founder and CEO of Honor, a non-medical home care company with a mission to enable our parents to remain in their homes as they age. Prior to Honor, Seth was the Co-Founder and CEO of Meebo, which brought instant messaging to the web and reached close to half the internet population in the United States. Meebo was acquired by Google, where Seth became a Product Director working on the Google Identity Platform, and then within GoogleX. Seth started his career with IBM’s Corporate Development group after graduating from Yale.
Follow Seth Sternberg:
About Honor, Meebo: Honor is a senior care network and technology platform that offers personalized care to improve the in-home care experience.
Chris Mansi
CEO, Co-Founder of Viz
Dr Mansi is a former Neurosurgeon and the CEO of Viz.ai an Applied AI Healthcare company.They recently received FDA clearance for the first ever AI aided triage and notification platform, opening the door to AI in acute emergency healthcare. Chris is a clinician innovator, entrepreneur and optimist focused on increasing healthcare access, building and supporting great teams and improving provider experience. Viz.ai builds clinician facing products that enable and empower doctors, allowing them to provide the best care to patients, everytime, everywhere.
Follow Chris Mansi:
About Viz: Viz is a medical imaging company that helps optimize emergency treatment using deep learning technology.
Daniel Perez
Co-Founder, CEO of Hinge Health
With a long personal history of MSK injuries including several leg surgeries, Dan has long been passionate about improving outcomes for musculoskeletal disorders. Originally from Miami, Dan pursued a PhD in the medical sciences at the University of Oxford (currently paused), founding the Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable and OneStart, a large healthcare accelerator program. As CEO, Dan brings startup technology experience and healthcare expertise to Hinge Health.
Follow Daniel Perez:
About Hinge Health: Hinge Health is a patient-centered digital clinic for treating chronic musculoskeletal conditions.
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.
Dwight Crow
Co-Founder and CEO of Whisper
Dwight Crow is a product manager at [Facebook](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/facebook#/entity), an online social networking service. Previously, he served as the founder of Carsabi.com. He is also the Co-Founder and CEO at Whisper.ai. Crow holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical biology and computer science from the [University of California, Berkeley](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/university-of-california-berkeley#/entity). He is based in San Francisco, California, United States.
Follow Dwight Crow:
About Meta, Whisper: Whisper develops AI-enabled, updateable hearing aids for people with hearing loss.
Philip Fung
Founder / CEO of Kit.com
Founder/CEO @Kit.com, Engineer #15 @Facebook
Follow Philip Fung:
About Kit.com: Kit.com is a home medical exams, delivered. Kit makes health testing simpler, easier and more reliable for your patients.
Drew Perkins
Co-Founder and CEO of Mojo Vision
Follow Drew Perkins:
About Mojo Vision: Mojo Vision is developing Mojo Lens, the world’s first AR smart contact lens with a built-in display that delivers Invisible Computing
Cheng Liu
Founder, CEO of Eureka Therapeutics
Cheng Liu is the founder and CEO of Eureka Therapeutics, a California biotech company dedicated to antibody research and discovery for cancer immunotherapy. Prior to founding Eureka, Dr. Liu was a Principal Scientist in antibody drug discovery at Chiron (now Novartis), where he championed anti-CSF1 antibody program for treatment of bone metastasis to human clinical trials. He is the inventor of multiple issued US patents in drug discovery. In 2007, he was awarded Special US Congressional Recognition for his contributions to improving human health. Dr. Liu received his B.S. in Cell Biology and Genetics from Beijing University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Follow Cheng Liu:
About Eureka Therapeutics: Eureka Therapeutics is a biotechnology company focusing on immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.
Sami Inkinen
CEO & Founder of Virta Health
Sami Inkinen is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Virta Health, a specialty medical clinic that reverses type 2 diabetes safely and sustainably, without the risks, costs, or side effects of medications or surgery. Previously, Mr. Inkinen was the co-founder of the leading online real estate marketplace Trulia, serving as its COO and president and board member until its IPO and eventual sale to Zillow Group. He also worked on Microsoft’s strategy team for MS Office, and as a consultant for McKinsey & Company within the software, telecommunications, and government sectors. A physicist by training, Mr. Inkinen started his career as a radiochemist at a nuclear power plant and holds a Master of Science in engineering physics from the Helsinki University of Technology. He also earned a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University. He thinks his greatest luxury today is a small vegetable garden at his San Francisco Bay area home.
Follow Sami Inkinen:
About Virta Health: Virta delivers a clinically-proven treatment to reverse type 2 diabetes and other chronic metabolic diseases.
Fabien Beckers
Founder & CEO of Arterys
Fabien Beckers is the CEO and co-founder of Arterys, a cloud/deep learning startup that is disrupting the medical imaging space and building image-based precision medicine tools. Fabien has led the growth of the company from four co-founders to a team of 34 today. Under his leadership, the company has become a pioneer in cloud-based medical imaging software, offering the first FDA-cleared end-to-end cloud infrastructure for medical imaging. They key advantages of the platform being automatic aggregation of real-world data and ability to scale and distribute the processing of increasingly large, complex datasets. Fabien’s vision for the company is to accelerate data-driven medicine by building precision medicine tools based on the consistent quantification of medical image features in combination with molecular, genomics and patient history data. Fabien holds a PhD in Quantum Physics from the University of Cambridge and a masters of business from Stanford University.
Follow Fabien Beckers:
About Arterys: Arterys is a medical imaging platform to deliver clinical AI products over the internet.
Deborah Kilpatrick
Chief Executive Officer of Evidation Health
Deborah Kilpatrick is the Chief Executive Officer of Evidation Health.Prior to this role, she served as the Chief Commercial Officer of genomic diagnostics company CardioDx. Earlier in her career, Deborah held multiple leadership roles at Guidant Corporation, including Research Fellow, Director of R&D, and Director of New Ventures in the Vascular Intervention Division. She serves on the Georgia Tech Advisory Board and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. Deborah is a co-founder of the MedtechVision Conference, now held annually in Silicon Valley. She holds BS, MS and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering with a bioengineering focus from Georgia Tech.
Follow Deborah Kilpatrick:
About Evidation Health, MedTech Women: 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.
Naama Stauber Breckler
CEO & Co-Founder of Better Health
Naama is a healthcare entrepreneur and the CEO and Co-founder of Better Health. She holds an MBA from Stanford GSB and is an experienced software engineer and product manager. She is dedicated to creating human centric healthcare solutions to improve our healthcare system. Naama previously co-founded CompactCath, MocaCare and Avails Medical.
Follow Naama Stauber Breckler:
About Avails Medical, Better Health, MOCACARE: Better Health offers an end-to-end care solution, bundling peer-support, coaching, education and home delivery of medical supplies
Lucia Huang
Co-Founder and CEO of Osmind
Lucia is CEO and co-founder of Osmind. We’re building a care platform for treatment-resistant mental health to accelerate drug development & precision medicine. She was previously Director of Operations & Finance and employee #10 at Verge Genomics (YC S15), an early stage AI-driven biotech startup focused on brain diseases. She began her career in healthcare in investment banking at Evercore and then as a investor at Warburg Pincus focused on growth-stage healthcare IT companies. She will complete her MBA at Stanford Graduate Business School of Business in June 2020 and studied Chemistry at Yale.
Follow Lucia Huang:
About Osmind: We build software and accelerate research for the future of mental health.
Adegoke Olubusi
Co-founder & CEO of Helium Health
Goke is one of Africa’s finest entrepreneurs at the forefront of technology disruptions across Africa. A Johns Hopkins University alumni and previously an engineer at eBay, PayPal and Goldman Sachs in the U.S., Goke has a penchant for solving tough problems. He served on the founding team of Africa’s leading social network with 30m+ users and received multiple honours/awards from Forbes, Chevron, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, etc.
Follow Adegoke Olubusi:
About Helium Health, MAGIC Fund: Helium Health is an EHR company specializing in developing hospital software to manage patients’ health records and data.
Andrew Lockhart
Co-Founder, Board Member & Chief Executive Officer of Fathom
Follow Andrew Lockhart:
About Fathom: Fathom develops a coding automation platform designed to expedite medical coding practice.
Kristina Cahojova
Founder & CEO of kegg
Kristina Cahojova is the Founder and CEO of Kegg.
Follow Kristina Cahojova:
About kegg: Kegg is a two-in-one device that combines fertility tracking with pelvic floor exercising.
Aleksandar Cabrilo
CEO of HTEC Group
Aleksandar is an entrepreneur by passion. He is the founder and CEO of HTEC Group, a consulting and technology R&D services company, founded in Serbia and grown internationally, headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Serbia, Scandinavia, and the UK, servicing its clients and partners globally in various verticals. Aleksandar has a special interest in business digitalization, corporate innovation, and venture acceleration and in HTEC he makes sure that technology excellence of its engineering teams meets relevant industry domain expertise to create the disrupting digital products that support innovative business models. Aleksandar is also a partner, advisor or investor with several technology startups.
Follow Aleksandar Cabrilo:
About HTEC Group: HTEC Group is a consulting, product development and digital platform engineering company.
William Facteau
CEO of Earlens
Follow William Facteau:
About Earlens: Earlens is a privately held medical technology company transforming the hearing experience with the only direct sound delivery system.
Steven Eidelman
Co-Founder and CEO of Modern Animal
Steven Eidelman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Modern Animal. He co-founded Whistle following his time at Spectrum Equity, where he focused on investments in consumer Internet. Previously he spent time driving online strategy for Warner Music Group and working at Bain for a number of technology, healthcare, and private equity clients. Steven graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Political Science.
Follow Steven Eidelman:
About Modern Animal: Modern Animal is an innovative veterinary platform building a new kind of veterinary experience for animals and humans.
Noga Leviner
Co-Founder & CEO of PicnicHealth
Noga was inspired to create Picnic after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and struggling to keep track of her own health data. She had previously co-founded Lumni USA, where she raised and deployed the first US investment fund to help underserved students access low-risk, equity-style student loan products. She has been a regular speaker and consultant on financial innovation for the underbanked and, more recently, an advocate for patient data access in the healthcare system. Noga has a BA from Stanford where she studied Human Biology and Economics. She can regularly be found spacing out while trying to meditate.
Follow Noga Leviner:
About PicnicHealth: PicnicHealth helps patients easily access their medical records and gives them the opportunity to contribute data to medical research.
Rakesh Mathur
Co-Founder & CEO of Whiterabbit.ai
Rakesh is a co-founder of Webaroo. He has been a founder of three technology start up companies in the past 10 years and also an early stage investor in several other companies. He was a founder and CEO of Junglee, whose virtual database technology led to the creation of comparison shopping on the Internet. Junglee was acquired by Amazon.com in 1998. He founded Armedia, which was one of the first companies with chip designs for the video component of the DVD standard. Armedia was acquired by Broadcom in 1999. He also founded PurpleYogi, now Stratify which provides enterprise solutions to the management of unstructured data. Rakesh is a board member of Geodesic, a BSE listed company whose Mundu Instant Messenger is used by millions of people. Rakesh was recognized as a member of the 1998 Upside 100, the 2001 India Today Global 100 and Junglee technology was given the Computerworld – Smithsonian award as one of the top five technologies of 1998. Rakesh received his MS from the University of Texas at Arlington and his B.Tech from IIT Bombay.
Follow Rakesh Mathur:
About GupShup, Percipient.ai, Terralogic, WhiteRabbit, Whiterabbit.ai: Whiterabbit.ai develops software using artificial intelligence to detect cancer at the earliest stages.
Kyle Robertson
Founder and CEO of Cerebral
Kyle Robertson is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cerebral.
Follow Kyle Robertson:
About Cerebral: Cerebral is a mental health telemedicine company that offers online care and medication management for anxiety, depression, ADHD and more.
Christian Gormsen
CEO of Eargo
Growing up across the world, Christian dreamed about a career in the NBA, but alas that was not to be. So, he decided on a wildly successful career in the hearing health and professional services industry instead. Over two decades, Christian has been instrumental in growing the hearing health and professional services market for leading global companies. We lured him from Copenhagen with the promise of a try-out with the Golden State Warriors.
Follow Christian Gormsen:
About Eargo: Eargo makes direct-to-consumer hearing aids, allowing customers to access help for their hearing loss from their homes.
Ben Lewis
CEO of Limbix
Ben Lewis is the co-founder of Tapjoy. He has an undergraduate degree in engineering from the University of Michigan, and his first job out of college was working as an engineer on Xbox Live. After spending some time at Microsoft, he returned to Michigan for his MBA where he focused on entrepreneurship and technology. Ben then moved to Google where he spent 4 years as a Product Manager, working on products such as the Toolbar, Search, and Checkout. Ben left Google to found Tapjoy, which began with the launch of TapDefense. Ben now leads the Tapjoy product team and manages accounts for the top publishers.
Follow Ben Lewis:
About Green Shoots Distribution, Limbix: Limbix is a prescription digital therapeutics platform that provides mental health treatment for young people.
Joseph Huang
CEO of StartX (Stanford-StartX Fund)
Follow Joseph Huang:
About StartX (Stanford-StartX Fund): StartX is an educational non-profit that helps Stanford’s top entrepreneurs.
Talha Sattar
CEO & Founder of NimbleRx
Follow Talha Sattar:
About NimbleRx: Nimble provides a pharmacy experience centered around the patient’s needs to provide a more streamlined workflow.
David Kim, MD
CEO of DigiTx Partners
David is the CEO of DigiTx Partners, bringing both business and clinical expertise to venture capital with an extensive background practicing medicine and building healthcare software companies. Most recently, Dr. Kim served as the COO of Lumiata, a venture-backed predictive analytics company positioned at the intersection of data science and medical science. Prior to Lumiata, he spent over a decade as an investor evaluating and growing healthcare companies at MPM Capital and Pinnacle Ventures. Before entering the business sector, David practiced as a general internist and hospitalist at Kaiser South San Francisco where he also served as the Director of Urgent Care and Assistant Chief of Internal Medicine. David completed his internal medicine residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and is a graduate from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (M.D), Stanford Graduate School of Business (M.B.A.), and Pomona College (B.A., Biology). In addition to leading the DigiTx fund, David serves as an active advisor to the Catalyst Program within the UCSF Clinical & Translational Science Institute.
Follow David Kim, MD:
About DigiTx Partners: DigiTx Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in digital health.
Fabian Gerlinghaus
Co-Founder & CEO of Cellares
Fabian Gerlinghaus is the CEO and Co-Founder of Cellares.
Follow Fabian Gerlinghaus:
About Cellares: Cellares is a life sciences technology company that develops the Cell Shuttle to automate cell therapy manufacturing.
Wenbin Jiang
Co-Founder and CEO of Cytek Biosciences
Wenbin Jiang is a co-founder of Cytek Biosciences, Inc. and a seasoned entrepreneur and inventor. E2O communications was the first company he cofounded in late 1990s, which was acquired by JDS Uniphase in 2004. He is an inventor of more than 90 US patents and an author of 4 book chapters and more than 50 peer reviewed technical papers.
Follow Wenbin Jiang:
About Cytek Biosciences: Cytek Biosciences is a manufacturer and supplier of flow cytometry products and services.
Colleen Cutcliffe
Co-Founder and CEO of Pendulum Therapeutics
Colleen Cutcliffe is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pendulum Therapeutics.
Follow Colleen Cutcliffe:
About American Diabetes Association, California Life Sciences Association, Pendulum Therapeutics: Pendulum Therapeutics is a biotechnology company improving health through products targeting the microbiome.
Andrew Hines
CEO of Canvas Medical
Andrew founded Canvas Medical in 2015 and leads the team. Prior to Canvas, Andrew built one of the largest real-time analytics tools in healthcare at Practice Fusion and led large-scale data science teams in the advertising and travel industries. He holds an MS from the Stanford School of Engineering. His wife, Anna, is a family nurse practitioner at a safety net clinic in San Francisco; her experience with electronic health records inspired him to start Canvas. Andrew enjoys spending time with his wife and son, surfing, and trail running on mountainous terrain.
Follow Andrew Hines:
About Canvas Medical: Canvas Medical is a healthcare platform for primary care practices.
Nancy Yu
Co-Founder & CEO of AllStripes
Nancy previously led Corporate Development at 23andMe, the largest consumer genetics company. She worked on 23andMe’s next generation sequencing platform, drug discovery strategy, and business development programs. Before that, she worked on Wall Street as a biopharma investment banker. Nancy began her career doing genetics research at the University of Pennsylvania. She’s passionate about bridging the gap between patients and industry to make drug R&D cheaper, faster, and better.
Follow Nancy Yu:
About AllStripes: AllStripes is a healthcare technology company that accelerates drug development and research for the treatment of rare diseases.
Arad Rostampour
CEO and Founder of Zenamins
Arad Rostampour is Founder at Zenamins.
Follow Arad Rostampour:
About Zenamins: Zenamins is a subscription service that home delivers a monthly box of preferred vitamins to its subscribers.
Richard Lin
CEO & Co Founder of Ombre
Follow Richard Lin:
About Ombre: Ombre is a provider of a microbiome testing kit designed to incorporate personalized probiotics and microbiome testing.
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.
Sourav Sinha
Co-founder, CEO of Oncolinx
Sourav Sinha is the Founder and CEO of Oncolinx LLC. Oncolinx is an early-stage bio-oncology company focused on creating targeted cancer therapies carry drugs directly to cancer cells and not healthy cells–avoiding many of the adverse side-effects of cancer. Oncolinx is partnered with more than 15 leading pharmaceutical partners, and 6 academic labs all over the world. Sourav also serves as the Entrepreneur In Residence of The Center For Advancing Innovation (CAI), a first-of-its-kind initiative to spin out the best inventions from the NIH, NCI, NASA, and other government funded agencies. Most uniquely, the fund redirects much of the value created into regional endowments to create jobs, increase prosperity, and support future sustainability. Sourav was named as a top 50 global entrepreneur under the age of 25 by Inc. Magazine and has been published in top scientific journals. Sourav holds an AB from Dartmouth College in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, an MA in Biomedical Sciences from Rutgers Biomedical Health Sciences, and is a graduate of the Singularity University Global Solutions Program.
Follow Sourav Sinha:
About Longevity Vision Fund, Oncolinx, The World Economic Forum: Oncolinx is developing antibody-drug conjugates.
Sy Fahimi
Co-Founder and CEO of DocSpera
Sy Fahimi serves as a Member of the Executive Team and Operating Partner at Symphony Technology Group. He was Executive-in-Residence at the firm. Fahimi leads the strategy and innovation charter across several portfolio companies. Until 2012, Fahimi was In Charge of Yahoo’s Monetization and Emerging Market products. Prior to 2012, he held various Vice President positions including Head of Yahoo’s Advertising Products globally, which also encompassed mobile, video, and social monetization. He ran Yahoo Small Business and Emerging Markets Products for the company. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of Adteractive, Inc. He joined Adteractive in October 2005. He served as the Managing Director of West Coast Office of SSA & Company, LLC since January 26, 2009. Fahimi has diverse experience with privately held, venture-backed and large public technology companies, along with SSA & Company’s long-standing consulting credibility and process improvement thought leadership. Prior to joining Adteractive, Fahimi spent most of his career in senior executive positions at Fortune 500 companies including Intuit, Sun Microsystems, and General Electric, where he held several executive positions including Operations, Marketing, Sales Ops, Risk Management, Quality, Finance, and Org./Process Excellence. During his tenure at GE, he became a certified Master Black Belt in the Six Sigma methodology, and served in two Vice President Positions. Fahimi began his career at GE, where he provided audit and consulting services to a wide variety of business units around the globe. In 2000, he joined Sun Microsystems as a Director of Six Sigma Quality and Customer Advocacy. After becoming a Senior Director of Global Sales Operations at Sun, he joined Intuit Corporation in a number of operating, customer advocacy, and process/organizational leadership roles. As an active entrepreneur over the last ten years, he has served as an Advisor, Investor or Board Member to several technology enabled start-ups such as Mint (Intuit), Empire Avenue, Sales Portal, Progresso Financiero, Blackfire Research Corporation, as well as being the Co-Founder of Compliant Innovations. Fahimi served as an Advisor, providing consulting services and early stage investment guidance to select start-up companies in Silicon Valley. He has been a Director of Empire Avenue Inc. since December 10, 2013. He has experience in international software, e-commerce, and digital media. Fahimi earned an M.B.A. from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA and a Bachelors degrees from University of California at Berkeley in and EconomicsEngineering .
Follow Sy Fahimi:
About DocSpera, Symphony Technology Group: DocSpera provides web and mobile solutions addressing surgical care coordination challenges facing health systems & devices
Zak Holdsworth
Co-Founder & CEO of Hint Health
Zak Holdsworth is the Co-founder & CEO at Hint Health.
Follow Zak Holdsworth:
About Hint Health: Hint Health fixes healthcare system by fundamentally restructuring the way that care is delivered.
Nima Farzan
Chief Executive Officer of Kinnate Biopharma
Nima Farzan is the chief executive officer of Kinnate Biopharma. He has his MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in Human Biology from Stanford University.
Follow Nima Farzan:
About Kinnate Biopharma: Kinnate Biopharma develops precision oncology therapeutics to treat patients with genomically-defined cancers.
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.
Kelsey Mellard
CEO & Co-Founder of Sitka
Kelsey Mellard is the CEO and Founder of Sitka, a first-of-its-kind medical vConsults platform and specialty provider network. She launched Sitka in 2018 to help improve access to and delivery of specialty care across the nation. Prior to founding Sitka, Kelsey led Health System Integration at Honor, a comprehensive technology-backed home care company. Before joining the Honor, Kelsey led the development of the Post-Acute Care Center for Research (PACCR), which she served as its Executive Director. Kelsey also served in VP roles at naviHealth, UnitedHealth Group, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), and held positions at Advisory Board Company, Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, and Kaiser Family Foundation. Kelsey holds a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Community Health from Winona State University and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Kansas. She also currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at Winona State University in the College of Nursing and Health Services.
Follow Kelsey Mellard:
About Sitka, Winona State University: Sitka is a customizable video software platform that connects primary care providers to the virtual specialty provider network.
Mark Mastalir
Co-CEO & Chief Marketing Officer of Halo Neuroscience
Follow Mark Mastalir:
About Halo Neuroscience: Halo Neuroscience is a neurotech company focused on using electrical neurostimulation to unlock human performance and treat human disease
Maryam Ziaei
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of iSono Health
Maryam Ziaei is the Co-Founder & CEO at iSono Health.
Follow Maryam Ziaei:
About iSono Health: iSono Health develops an AI platform for accessible and personalized breast health monitoring
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.
Eric Schadt
CEO & Founder of Sema4
Eric Schadt is Chief Scientific Officer of Pacific Biosciences and Director of the Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology and Chair of the Department of Genetics and Genomics Sciences at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. He oversees the scientific strategy for Pacific Biosciences, including creating the vision for next-generation applications of the company’s technology, contributing to the evolution of Pacific Biosciences’ transformative sequencing technology, and playing a key role in the company’s strategic relationships. At Mount Sinai, Eric is creating a world-class data analytic center where researchers can query and learn from data using cutting-edge technologies like next generation sequencing to create disease models and ultimately help develop and improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients. He is also a founding member of Sage Bionetworks, an open-access genomics initiative designed to build and support databases and an accessible platform for creating innovative dynamic disease models. Eric Schadt joined Pacific Biosciences in May 2009 from Rosetta Inpharmatics, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc. in Seattle, where he was Executive Scientific Director of Genetics. Eric Schadt’s work at Rosetta involved the generation and integration of very large-scale sequence variation, molecular profiling, and clinical data in disease populations to construct the molecular networks that define disease states and link molecular biology to physiology in ways that can impact clinical medicine. Eric Schadt has contributed to a number of discoveries relating to the genetic basis of common human diseases such as diabetes and obesity, which have been widely published in leading scientific journals. His research has provided novel insights into what is needed to master diverse, large-scale data collected on normal and disease populations in order to elucidate the complexity of disease and make more informed decisions in the drug discovery arena. Prior to joining Rosetta, Eric Schadt was a senior research scientist at Roche Bioscience. He received his BA in applied mathematics and computer science from California Polytechnic State University, his MA in pure mathematics from UCLA, and his Ph.D. in bio-mathematics from UCLA.
Follow Eric Schadt:
About Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Sage Bionetworks, Sema4: Sema4 uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze patient data to provide insights to transform the practice of medicine.
Anand Parikh
Founder & CEO of Faeth Therapeutics
Follow Anand Parikh:
About Faeth Therapeutics, Virta Health: Faeth Therapeutics is a data-driven company that focuses on using metabolism to rethink the science of cancer.
Andrew Pedtke
Co-Founder and CEO of LIM Innovations
Andrew Pedtke, MD is the CEO and Co-founder of LIM Innovations. As a practicing orthopedic surgeon and visiting Assistant Professor at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Pedtke brings a critical vision to LIM Innovations and the industry as a whole through his background in the clinical utility of medical devices, outcomes based decision-making, cost-effective care and global health policy.
Follow Andrew Pedtke:
About 413 Ventures, LIM Innovations, The Explorers Club, University of California Davis: At LIM Innovations we empower amputees by creating custom, innovative, sustainable and accessible prosthetic sockets.
Terry Rosen
CEO of Arcus Biosciences
Terry Rosen is the CEO at Arcus Biosciences.
Follow Terry Rosen:
About Arcus Biosciences: Arcus Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of cancer.
Kristian Ranta
CEO, Founder of Meru Health
Kristian Ranta is a Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Meru Health.
Follow Kristian Ranta:
About Meru Health: Meru Health is an online mental healthcare company that teaches people the skills needed to create long-lasting healthy lifestyle habits.
David Woodhouse
Chief Executive Officer of NGM Biopharmaceuticals
David Woodhouse became Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors in September 2018 and has served as our Chief Financial Officer since March 2015. From 2002 to 2015, he was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, most recently as a Managing Director in the healthcare investment banking group and co-head of biotechnology investment banking. Earlier in his career, Dr. Woodhouse worked at Dynavax Technologies and also as a research assistant at Amgen, Inc. Dr. Woodhouse received a B.A. in pharmacology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology from Stanford University School of Medicine.
Follow David Woodhouse:
About NGM Biopharmaceuticals: NGM Biopharmaceuticals is a drug discovery company developing biotherapeutics for the gastrointestinal endocrine system.
Shannon Goggin
CEO & Co-Founder of Noyo
Shannon Goggin is the CEO and Co-Founder of Noyo.
Follow Shannon Goggin:
About Noyo: Modern infrastructure for health insurance
Jordan Shlain
Founder & CEO of Private Medical
Jordan is a practicing physician who is building new models of healthcare delivery. On his 15 year journey he is actively deconstructing the status quo and rebuilding a model that honors the existential humanistic qualities of people while infusing the best technologies to enhance the patient experience, the physician experience and ultimately the patient outcome. When not practicing medicine, you can find him reading books on quantum physics, behavioral economics, statistics, art history and anthropology. Dr. Jordan Shlain is a nationally recognized physician for his innovative approach to the delivery of healthcare. In addition to being a full time doctor and founder of Healthloop, he has been appointed commissioner by the Mayor to the SF Health Service Systems Board and sits on the board of the bi-partisian Washington, DC policy think tank, Hope Street Group. He has been named one of the top 100 health care innovators by HealthSpottr. In addition to being a frequent speaker at various conferences; Health 2.0, RockHealth, Economist Big Ideas, Futuremed and UC Berkeley’s Pre-Med 101, he consults with the investor community as a due diligence expert.
Follow Jordan Shlain:
About American Medical Association, Bright HealthCare, Digital Wellness Lab, Eat Real, HealthLoop, Private Medical, TinctureHealth: A Medical Family Office
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.
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.
Kinkead Reiling
Founder and CEO of Bonneville Labs
Follow Kinkead Reiling:
About Bonneville Labs: Bonneville Labs offers lab equipment setup, training, lab operational, office amenities and autoclaving services to its clients.
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.
Robert McIntyre
CEO of Nectome
CEO at Nectome Inc.
Follow Robert McIntyre:
About Nectome: Nectome is a neuroscience startup that aims to preserve the brain and keep all its memories intact.
Sara Naseri
Co-Founder and CEO of Qvin
Sara Naseri is the Co-Founder and CEO at Qvin.
Follow Sara Naseri:
About Qvin, Stanford University School of Medicine: Qvin is a developer of a smart sanitary pad for women to proactively track their health.
Eric Stone
Chief Executive Officer & Co-founder of Velano Vascular
Eric M. Stone is the Chief Executive Officer at Velano Vascular. A patient advocate and serial healthcare entrepreneur, Stone is a former National Trustee of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. Prior to Velano, he served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Molecular Health, and earlier in his career launched a series of pioneering interventional cardiology devices for Abbott while based in Brussels, Belgium and California. Stone was a founding member of Model N’s (NYSE: MODN) Life Sciences division, where he led marketing and business development. Stone began his career in marketing with Trilogy Software, and has since co-founded social sector programs at Harvard and Wharton. He served for a decade on Harvard University’s Alumni Association (HAA) Board of Directors and is a past and current Director and Advisor to multiple healthcare upstarts. Stone received an MBA from The Wharton School, a Master’s from Harvard University, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. He lives with his wife and two children in San Francisco.
Follow Eric Stone:
About Velano Vascular: Velano Vascular is a medical device innovator committed to enhancing both inpatient blood collection and vascular access
Tyler Hayes
Co-Founder and CEO of Atom Limbs
Tyler Hayes is the Co-Founder and CEO at Atom Limbs.
Follow Tyler Hayes:
About Atom Limbs: Atom builds mind-controlled artificial limbs, to enable a better human body.
Aldo Carrascoso
Co-Founder and CEO of InterVenn
Aldo is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of InterVenn Biosciences. InterVenn combines next-generation glycomics (carbohydrates), instrumentation (LC/MS), and deep machine learning to augment cancer diagnosis, biomarker, and target discovery for the development of more efficacious molecular diagnostics. Venn was founded by a team of serial entrepreneurs with repeated and proven track record of success (value creation of half a billion dollars) and execution in the fields of Machine Learning, Analytical Chemistry through Liquid Chromatography / Mass Spectrometry and in Oncological Glycoproteomics. Prior to Venn, Aldo was the Founder and COO / CTO of San Francisco based Veem (formerly Align Commerce), a next generation replacement for outdated wire and telegraphic transfer systems. Align uses the blockchain and its proprietary multi-rail systems to change the way global cross border payments are done – making the process simpler, faster and more transparent to over 60 countries. Some of the company’s investors include Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, Byers (the same venture capital responsible for Google, Twitter, Amazon, Uber, Waze, Slack, and Snapchat among others), Google Ventures, Softbank Ventures, National Australian Bank, Silicon Valley Bank Ventures, Recruit Strategic Partners, and NYCA Investment Partnership LP (led by Hans Morris, former President of Visa and Max Levchin, founding CTO of PayPal). Prior to founding Veem, Aldo was the Founder and CTO of Jukin Technologies / Jukin Media – one of the world’s largest User Generated Content (UGC) payments and licensing platforms with over 60 billion global views, 50 million platform shares and over 10 million active contributors and subscribers in 221 markets. Jukin is currently being used by some of the world’s largest television networks and production companies including ABC, BBC, CBS, Comedy Central, CNN, Discovery, ESPN, FOX, HBO, MTV, NBC, TruTV, Vh1, and hundreds of other websites, and platforms throughout the world. Jukin’s main properties include FailArmy, JukinVideo, People Are Awesome, The Pet Collective, World’s Funniest on FOX and That are Funny! on UK’s Channel 5. Samsung Investments, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments Inc., Launchpad LA, and Maker Studios are some of Jukin’s lead investors. Aldo is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and technology disruptor. Prior to Jukin, he founded a number of ventures in global B2B matchmaking, international trading/finance, and business process outsourcing. Aldo has an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Babson and a degree in Psychology from Ateneo De Manila University.
Follow Aldo Carrascoso:
About InterVenn, Jukin Media, Jukinvideo, Veem: InterVenn Biosciences identifies, quantifies, and classifies Glycoproteomic and other PTM signals found in human blood and tissue.
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.
Shaun Rahimi
Founder and CEO of ENSO
Shaun Rahimi is CEO and founder of Thimble Bioelectronics. An award-winning innovator that has worked on the design and development of over 40 different medical devices at start ups since he was 15 years old. He has also held R&D roles at Neuropace, Sadra Medical, Modified Polymer Components and Abbott Labs where he participated in the design and development of novel polymer-based products and manufacturing processes.
Follow Shaun Rahimi:
About ENSO, Innovation Quest: ENSO is a wearable device shown in clinical trials to solve pain better than Vicodin
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.
Willam Rutter
CEO and Founder of Boston Biomedical
Dr. Rutter is Chairman and Founder of Synergenics, LLC, which owns and controls a portfolio of biotechnology companies at various stages of development. In his academic career, Dr. Rutter joined the University of California–San Francisco (UCSF) as head of the newly formed department of Biochemistry and Biophysics in 1968, and played a key role in developing UCSF into a major scientific institution. In research, he is particularly known for the discovery of the enzymes involved in the expression of DNA (RNA polymerases), the first cloning of the insulin gene, the cloning of hepatitis B virus (HBV), and formation of an HBV-like particle that provided the basis for a safe and protective vaccine. With 2 colleagues, Dr. Rutter founded Chiron in 1981, a pioneering biotech firm that developed the first recombinant vaccine (against HBV) with Merck and a process for manufacturing insulin from yeast with Novo-Nordisk. Chiron was the first to clone the AIDS (HIV) virus and to discover, clone, and sequence the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Chiron developed quantitative diagnostic tests for HIV, HBV, and HCV, thus providing the means for eliminating blood contaminated with these viruses, a major contribution to public health worldwide. Chiron developed and promulgated the concept of “viral load” as the basis for determining disease status, as well as the basis for developing and evaluating antivirals and other treatment protocols for these and other diseases. Prior to Chiron, Dr. Rutter was a consultant to Abbott Laboratories for about 20 years, and a member of the Amgen Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Rutter’s past board memberships include Novartis, Sangamo Biosciences, Cytokinetics, Nugen, Oscient Pharmaceuticals, and Epitomics. Dr. Rutter also currently serves on the boards of Eureka Genomics, Apexigen, One Globe, and Cellworks. He is Chairman of the Synergenics companies: Synco Biopartners, ReLIA Diagnostic Systems, Numera Health, Ventria Bioscience, Humabs Biomed, Pathologica, and BioEnergenix. Dr. Rutter is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received numerous awards for his contributions to science and the biotechnology industry.
Follow Willam Rutter:
About Boston Biomedical: Boston Biomedical focuses on the research and development of novel therapeutics to treat cancer.
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.
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.
James Sinka
Co-Founder and CEO of SleepWell.ai
James Sinka is the Co-Founder and CEO of SleepWell.ai. He tested the best science-backed sleep remedies and discovered what’s best using sleep trackers. Mr. Sinka uses his experiences from his lifelong study of biology and chemistry to bring you tried and true results.
Follow James Sinka:
About Hypnos, SleepWell.ai: SleepWell.ai is a technology platform that resolves your sleep issues with research backed science.
Manish Shah
CEO & Co-founder of Peerwell
Follow Manish Shah:
About Peerwell: PeerWell covers the full continuum of musculoskeletal care — from pain & prevention through to complex surgery & recovery.
Octavian Florescu
CEO of Xip
Follow Octavian Florescu:
About Xip: Xip produces disposable blood analyzers that wirelessly upload lab-quality clinical measurements in minutes.
Anthony Ortiz
Founder & CEO of Fitly
Anthony Ortiz, Founder and CEO at Fitly. Fitly is the creator of SmartPlate, is a two-time Digital Health award winner, University City Science Center-backed and DreamIt Health alumni, with a proven track record for vetted, technological innovation. SmartPlate is the world’s first intelligent plate that instantly tracks and analyzes everything you eat, so you never have to track meals manually again.
Follow Anthony Ortiz:
About Fitly: Fitly is the creator of SmartPlate, the world’s only intelligent nutrition platform.
Jared Seehafer
Co-Founder & CEO of Enzyme
Jared is an 11 year veteran of the medical device and biopharma industries, with a background in product management, medical device software, design assurance and regulatory strategy. His experience ranges from leading spinal cord stimulator programs at St. Jude Neuromodulation (now Abbott), to the UI/UX for the first hybrid closed loop insulin pump at Medtronic Diabetes, to the regulatory strategy for numerous combination drug-device products, including Amgen’s Neulasta Onpro and Repatha Pushtronex. Prior to his experience in the life sciences he trained and worked as a software engineer. He holds a BA from the University of Colorado and an MS in Medical Device Engineering from USC.
Follow Jared Seehafer:
About Enzyme, Village Global: Enzyme is building software to help life sciences companies with FDA approval and regulatory compliance.
Daniel Hawkins
CEO of Avail Medsystems
Mr.Daniel Hawkins is Founder and Senior Advisor of Shockwave Medical.
Follow Daniel Hawkins:
About Avail Medsystems, Shockwave Medical: Avail Medsystems is a medical technology company that develops telemedicine software for the procedure room.
Angie You
CEO of Amunix
Angie You, PhD, has served as CBO for a number of venture-backed biotech companies, including Synosia Therapeutics and REN Pharmaceuticals. She was also a Vice President at Venrock Associates, a venture capital firm, where she worked primarily on building start-ups and on corporate development activities for portfolio companies. During her tenure at Venrock, she served as the interim Vice President of Business Development for Anacor Pharmaceuticals, a Venrock portfolio company, where she completed a worldwide licensing transaction with Schering Plough, resulting in an upfront payment of $40 million, milestone payments up to $575 million, and double-digit royalties on sales for Anacor’s phase 2 product, AN2690. Before Venrock, she worked in business development at Exelixis, Inc., a cancer drug discovery company where she completed significant out-licensing transactions with Genentech and Helsinn Healthcare. She also served as a management consultant in the San Francisco office of McKinsey & Co., working primarily with biotechnology and pharmaceutical clients. She received an AB in Chemistry and a PhD in Biochemistry from Harvard University.
Follow Angie You:
About Amunix: Amunix is a biopharmaceutical company intended to discover, design, and develop novel biologics, protein, and peptide therapeutics.
Wei Deng
CEO & Founder of Clipboard Health
CEO & Founder of Clipboard Health .
Follow Wei Deng:
About Clipboard Health: Clipboard Health is a marketplace where nurses and CNAs can search for jobs, and where healthcare facilities can fill open shifts.
Yongwei Zhang
Group VP, CEO of Americas Region of BGI Group
Yongwei Zhang, Ph.D., serves as Executive Director of BGI Research, the R&D arm of BGI-Shenzhen, world’s largest genomics service company. He is also Chief Operating Officer of Complete Genomics (San Jose, CA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of BGI. Yongwei Zhang has over 20 years of experience in optics-based instruments and systems. He began his career in Quinta Technologies developing optically-assisted computer hard drives. Quinta was later acquired by Seagate. He was a Co-Founder of telecom component startup company iolon, Inc, which has raised ~$100million VC funding. He joined biotech startup Guava Technologies in 2005, where he held positions with increasing responsibilities. Guava was later acquired by Millipore, subsequently by Merck KGaA. As Head of New Product Introduction at Merck Life Science division, he helped to develop and manufacture several generations of Guava flowcytometry instruments and reagent kits, including the award-winning Muse Cell Analyzer. In 2013, he joined Complete Genomics as Sr. Director of Engineering, responsible for the development of NGS sequencing platform BGISEQ series. Yongwei Zhang is also a strong advocate for STEM education. He served as a Board Member of US nationally top-ranked Saratoga School Union District. Yongwei Zhang received his B. Eng in Precision Instruments and B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from Tsinghua University in Beijing, M.S. in Computer Sciences, M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.
Follow Yongwei Zhang:
About BGI Group: BGI Group is one of the world’s largest DNA sequencing service providers.
Myrtle Potter
Chief Executive Officer of Sumitovant
Follow Myrtle Potter:
About Sumitovant: Sumitovant is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative medicines and therapies for patients.
Yann Chong Tan
CEO of Nuevocor
Dr. Tan is the Chief Executive Officer at Nuevocor. Prior to that, he was the Chief Technologist and Company Founder of Atreca. He led the development of the technology underlying Atreca’s Immune Repertoire Capture™ platform while pursuing his dissertation research in William Robinson’s laboratory at Stanford University. He is the recipient of NSS(BS) and NSS(Ph.D.) fellowships from the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR) of Singapore. Dr. Tan received a BS in biology from Duke University and a Ph.D. in immunology from Stanford University.
Follow Yann Chong Tan:
About Cargene, Esco Ventures, Nuevocor: Nuevocor operates as a preclinical-stage biotech company.
Matt Angle
CEO of Paradromics
Follow Matt Angle:
About Paradromics: Paradromics is developing high data rate brain computer interfacing technology
Brook Ayalneh
Co-Founder & CEO of Avion
Brook Ayalneh is the CEO and founder of Avion.
Follow Brook Ayalneh:
About Avion: Avion is an autonomous aerial network that delivers medicals and vaccine supplies via drones.
Richard Foust
Chief Executive Officer of MicroTransponder
Richard Foust is the Chief Executive Officer of MicroTransponder. Prior to that, he served as a chief commercial officer at Velano Vascular.
Follow Richard Foust:
About MicroTransponder: MicroTransponder is a medical device company that develops and commercializes neurostimulation devices to treat neurological diseases.
Camilla Hermann
Co-Founder & CEO of Oath Care
Follow Camilla Hermann:
About Oath Care: Oath Care is building a new model of group-based, continuous care to meaningfully improve health outcomes for the next generation of kids.
Bill Perry
CEO, Director of Deep Blue Medical Advances
Bill Perry is the CEO and Director at Deep Blue Medical Advances.
Follow Bill Perry:
About Deep Blue Medical Advances: Deep Blue is developing a novel hernia mesh to address the unacceptably high rate of hernia occurrence and recurrence.
Victor McCray
Founder & CEO of Tangible Science
Vic McCray, MD is a Co-Founder of Tangible Science and serves as its President and Chief Executive Officer, where he leads commercialization of technology to improve contact lens comfort for patients suffering from dry eye disease. Involved at the inception, Vic has seen the company through several important milestones including initial proof of concept, venture funding, and the ongoing business development and licensing negotiations.
Follow Victor McCray:
About Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, Tangible Science: Tangible Science is a developer of contact lenses designed to reduce lens discomfort in dry eye diseases.
Benno Dorer
Chief Executive Officer of The Clorox Company
Benno Dorer was named chief executive officer of The Clorox Company, effective Nov. 20, 2014, with overall responsibility for directing the company’s worldwide business. Before assuming this position, Dorer had served as executive vice president and chief operating officer – Cleaning, International and Corporate Strategy since January 2013. In this role, he was responsible for the laundry, home care, and international businesses as well as corporate strategy and growth. Previously, Dorer served in numerous roles with the company. He was senior vice president – Cleaning Division and Canada; vice president and general manager – Cleaning Division, where he was responsible for U.S. retail for laundry (including Clorox® bleach, Clorox 2®) and home care (including Clorox® disinfecting wipes, Pine-Sol® cleaners, Formula 409® and Tilex® cleaners and other home care products) as well as the Brita® and Green Works® businesses; and vice president and general manager – Household Division, where was responsible for the U.S. retail Fresh Step® and Scoop Away® cat litter brands and the Glad® and GladWare® brands. He joined Clorox in 2005 as vice president and general manager – Glad® Products. Before joining Clorox, Dorer worked for 14 years at Procter & Gamble, where he led the marketing organization for the Glad® Products joint venture since its inception and worked in various other marketing positions across a range of categories and countries, including laundry, home care, beauty care and paper products, in the United States and worldwide. He currently serves on the executive committee of the board of the Grocery Manufacturers Association and on the Bay Area Council executive committee. Dorer holds a degree in economics from University of Freiburg in Germany and a graduate degree in business administration (Diplom-Kaufmann) from University of Saarbruecken, also in Germany. A German native, he is multilingual and has lived in Germany, Scandinavia and Belgium.
Follow Benno Dorer:
About The Clorox Company: The Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX) is a leading multinational manufacturer and marketer of consumer and professional products.
Orestis Vardoulis
Co-Founder & CEO of Zeit Medical
Orestis Vardoulis currently works as the Co-Founder and CEO for ZeitMedical.
Follow Orestis Vardoulis:
About Zeit Medical: Zeit Medical provides peace of mind to neurology injury patients through powered AI and cutting edge Bioelectronics.
Lea von Bidder
Co-founder & CEO of Ava
Lea co-founded L’inouï, a premium chocolate production and retail chain in Bangalore, India. As COO, she was key to establishing the L’inouï marketing and operation strategy. She holds a Master’s degree in global entrepreneurship from EM Lyon in France, Zhejiang University in China and Purdue Krannert University in the USA. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree from the University of St.Gallen and HEC Montréal in Canada. In between her studies, Lea worked for the marketing division of Procter & Gamble in Frankfurt and for a strategy-consulting boutique in Paris.
Follow Lea von Bidder:
About Ava: Ava is a patented multi-sensor bracelet, which allows women to precisely and conveniently predict fertile days.
Matt Schwartz
Co-founder & CEO of Virgo Surgical Video Solutions
Matt Schwartz is the Co-founder & CEO of Virgo.
Follow Matt Schwartz:
About Virgo Surgical Video Solutions: Virgo accelerates clinical trials with AI for endoscopy
Akash Bakshi
CEO and Co-Founder of ANA Therapeutics
Akash Bakshi is the Co-Founder and CEO of ANA Therapeutics.
Follow Akash Bakshi:
About ANA Therapeutics, NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals, YourChoice Therapeutics: ANA Therapeutics is a biotech company that is developing a novel coronavirus vaccine intended to save human lives.
Philip Sawyer
Chief Executive Officer of Invuity
Philip Sawyer is the CEO at Invuity, Inc.
Follow Philip Sawyer:
About Invuity: Invuity develops illumination and visualization products for minimally invasive surgical field applications.
Ran Ma
Cofounder & CEO of Siren Care
Ran Ma is biomedical engineer and serial entrepreneur with experience in medical device prototyping, project management, business development and marketing. Ran is a skilled networker and effective at finding resources for the team. She has a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering (Johns Hopkins University) and is in the process of finishing her M.S. in Biotechnology (Northwestern University) and M.Sc in Business Administration and Bio-entrepreneurship (CBS). Previously, Ran has developed medical devices for the department of Plastic Surgery at Northwestern University– biomasks to regenerate the human face for war veterans and burn victims. Last year, she was a cofounder and the CMO of Voltset, a Danish consumer electronics startup. She successfully ran the Voltset Kickstarter campaign, which raised $113,548 and reached 192% of the funding goal.
Follow Ran Ma:
About Siren Care: Multi-specialty virtual care clinic leveraging proprietary technology to cost-effectively care for patients at risk of diabetic foot ulcers.
Jordan Epstein
Founder, CEO of Stroll Health
Follow Jordan Epstein:
About Juno, Stroll Health: Stroll is a software application that lets patients choose the best care based on quality, price, and coverage.
