Commercialization Advisory Board
Commercialization Advisory Board BiographiesKeith Kerman, MD, ChairmanManaging Director, Primus Venture Partners Dr. Kerman joined Primus Venture Partners in 2003 and has over 12 years of private equity and operating company experience. Prior to joining Primus, Dr. Kerman was a general partner with Morgenthaler Ventures for six years and a partner with Marquette Venture Partners for two years. He has been active in both early and later stage healthcare, medical technology and life science companies. Dr. Kerman was previously an operating executive at U.S. Healthcare, where he was president of that company's subsidiary providing outsourced services to self-funded health plans. Prior to joining U.S. Healthcare, Dr. Kerman was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, where he served on the clinical faculty at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and was a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics at The Wharton School. Dr. Kerman has an M.D. from Brown University and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Kerman focuses on the firm's medical technology, healthcare services and life sciences investment activities. Dr. Kerman is responsible for the firm's investment in excelleRx, Inc. and serves on the Board of Directors of AxioMed, Inc. and Cardio-Optics, Inc. Michael Cressman,
MD Bob Easton Bob Easton is Chairman of Easton Strategy, LLC and a founder and Director of Apex Bioventures Acquisition. He was also the founder and former Chairman of Easton Associates, a consulting organization dedicated to the business of healthcare. He has spent the past 25 years in management consulting to the healthcare industry. Prior to co-founding Easton Associates, Mr. Easton was a founder and Managing Director of The Wilkerson Group, where he led and executed countless studies in a wide variety of medical products and service fields. His areas of expertise include pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and in vitro diagnostics. In addition to his experience in management consulting, Mr. Easton has 12 years managerial experience in a variety of in sales, marketing, planning, engineering and operations management positions with the industrial gas and medical products divisions of Union Carbide and Union Carbide Europe. Mike Ellwein Mike joined Three Arch Partners as a Venture Partner in February 2007. Prior to Three Arch Partners, Michael was a member of Fredrikson & Byron’s Medical Technology Group. He has vast experience in the medical technology industry, providing leadership for mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and licensing opportunities, as well as identifying, valuing and recommending growth opportunities. Prior to joining Fredrikson & Byron, Mike held several high-level positions during a seventeen-year career at Medtronic, Inc., where he was the Vice President and Chief Development Officer from 1998 to 2007, Vice President of Corporate Development and Associate General Counsel from 1993 to 1998, and Vice President of Corporate Development and Assistant General Counsel from 1990 to 1993. Mike was deeply involved in the company’s transition, by acquisition, from a small pacing company with $800M in revenue and a market cap of $1.7B, to the largest med-tech company in the world, with $12B in revenue and a market cap of $60B today. Rich Ferrari Mr. Ferrari was the co-founder and CEO of CardioThoracic Systems, a company he led to an initial public offering in 1996. CTSI was ultimately acquired by Guidant Corporation in November 1999. In addition, he founded Saratoga Ventures, a venture capital partnership that has provided seed financing to startup medical technology companies. At Saratoga, Mr. Ferrari was Chairman of Oratec, which was sold in 2001 to Smith & Nephew PLC. Prior to that, Mr. Ferrari was the CEO of a publicly traded medical technology company, Cardiovascular Imaging Systems. CVIS was acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation in 1995. Mr. Ferrari also co-founded The Medical Technology Group, which spun out Integrated Vascular Systems, a company which was sold to Abbott. From 1986 to 1990, Mr. Ferrari held the positions of Executive Vice President and General Manager of ADAC Laboratories. Rich is the recipient of the Mallinckrodt Award for Excellence in Medicine and twice a finalist for the Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He holds a BS degree from Ashland University and an MBA from the University of South Florida. Peter Fitzgerald,
MD, PhD Dr. Fitzgerald is co-director of the Center for Research in Cardiovascular Interventions and Director of the Cardiovascular Core Analysis Laboratory (CCAL) at Stanford University. Dr. Fitzgerald, with Dr. Paul Yock, has pioneered the efforts in catheter-based ultrasound for the past 12 years. Presently, Dr. Fitzgerald supervises 14 post doctoral research fellows and has served as the Principal Investigator for over 30 clinical trials involving intravascular ultrasound. Dr. Fitzgerald has joint appointments in the Stanford schools of Medicine and Engineering. His research is focused on signal and image processing of intravascular ultrasound for plaque characterization and advanced engineering developments in signal processing and catheter device development. Dr. Fitzgerald has advised dozens of medical device startups and multinational healthcare companies in the design and development of new devices, diagnostics and therapies in cardiology, orthopedics, and other areas. Peter holds an MD and PhD from Dartmouth, an RA from Stanford, an MS from Rensselaer and a BS from Santa Clara. Patrick Fortune,
PhD Dr. Fortune has over 30 years of experience in the healthcare, life sciences and information technology sectors. He was previously President and Chief Operating Officer of New Era of Networks; Vice President at Monsanto; Vice President, at Bristol Myers Squibb;, Group President at Baxter International; and VP R&D at Baxter International. Dr. Fortune currently serves on the boards of directors of Parexel International Corp, Combinatorx, Inc. and Epix Pharmaceuticals as well as several private life sciences companies. He has been responsible for nurturing start-up activities from idea to prototype to standalone business. He has also been involved in some 30 M&A transactions from sourcing the company to closing the deal and successfully integrating the result. Pat has served on the engineering and scientific advisory boards of The University of Wisconsin, the University of Illinois, and the University of Chicago. Pat holds a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin, an MBA from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin. Jan Garfinkle Jan Garfinkle specializes in medical technology investments, utilizing her educational background in biomedical engineering, extensive operating experience, and industry connections to select and nurture outstanding companies. Her investing activities primarily focus on FDA 510(k) and PMA medical device and diagnostics companies. Jan currently serves on the Board of Directors for HandyLab, VasoNova, and Mirabilis Medica and as an observer on Uptake Medical and BAROnova. Prior to founding Arboretum in 2002, Jan spent 20 years in senior management positions in entrepreneurial healthcare companies. Jan was Founder and President of Strategic Marketing Consultants, a consulting firm focused on the commercialization of healthcare technologies for start-ups and large medical device manufacturers. Earlier in her career, Jan worked for two successful medical device start-up companies, Advanced Cardiovascular Systems (ACS) and Devices for Vascular Intervention (DVI). Each of these companies was acquired by Eli Lily for more than $100 million and became the foundation for Guidant Corporation, which Eli Lily later spun out in 1994. She joined each company early in its development and held key management roles in marketing, clinical research and sales. She began her career as a manufacturing engineer and production line manager for Proctor and Gamble. Jan earned a BS in Bioengineering from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Jeff Gold After graduating from Northeastern University in Boston with a BS in Industrial Engineering, Jeffrey Gold attended the University of Florida where he received his MBA in Quantitative Management and Operations Research. He worked with General Electric Company as the manufacturing operations engineer until 1978 when he joined Cordis Corporation. At Cordis, he worked as the program manager for Angiographic Systems, after which, he became Vice President of Manufacturing in 1982. In 1991, he became Vice President of Research and Development. While working at Cordis, he managed the successful entry of Cordis Corp. into the highly competitive interventional cardiology (PCTA) market. In 1993, Mr. Gold became the President of Cordis Endovascular Systems, Inc. He was responsible for all functional elements of this entrepreneurial start-up company. In less than two years, Cordis Endovascular Systems, Inc. gained significant share from the market leader to attain a clear number two position in the U.S. market. Currently, Mr. Gold holds five US patents and recently served as Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, CardioThoracic Systems Inc. Reggie Groves Reggie Groves joined Medtronic in June 2002 as the Vice President and General Manager, Patient Management. After successfully launching the new business, Reggie was asked to lead the Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management - Quality and Regulatory functions. Before coming to Medtronic, Reggie was the Global Managing Partner, Enterprise Services for Scient, Inc. an internet consulting group. Prior to Scient, Reggie was the CFO for Kaiser Permanente-SE Division, CFO for Egleston Children’s Hospital and SEM at McKinsey & Company. Reggie received her Master of Business Administration from Harvard Graduate School of Business. She has a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Florida. She is a registered Pharmacist in Florida and Tennessee. She currently sits on the board of MedMined, Inc. and the Health Advisory Group for the Medtronic Foundation. Reggie was honored with the “Women Changemaker” award by the Business Journal in 2003 and was awarded the “Wallin Award” for her leadership contributions in 2006. Steven Gullans,
PhD Dr. Gullans has been a founder to several early-stage businesses, including RxGen, where he served as CEO. Prior to running RxGen, Dr. Gullans served for two years as the Chief Scientific Officer at U.S. Genomics in Boston following an 18 year career as an academic research scientist at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. As a faculty member in the Departments of Neurology and Medicine, Dr. Gullans published more than 100 original scientific papers, and built a record of achievement in the field of functional genomics and advanced technologies. As Director of the BWH Biotechnology Center, he established the first large-scale public database of gene expression in human tissues. Dr. Gullans received his doctorate in physiology from Duke University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University in 1985. He has served as an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association, an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Physiology and Physiological Genomics and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Gullans currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of U.S. Genomics, GenPat77, GeneOhm, Biomodels LLC, and GeneXP. He has also been an advisor to the venture capital community for many years, most notably working with CB Health Ventures. Kris Johnson Prior to joining Affinity Capital, Kris was most recently Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of Medtronic, Inc. During her seventeen years at Medtronic she was also President and General Manager of Medtronic's Vascular Business and its Tachyarrhythmia Management Business. Prior to Medtronic, she spent nine years in various executive positions at Cargill, Inc. Kris received her BA from St. Olaf College. She serves on the boards of directors of several portfolio companies as well as other for-profit and non-profit organizations. John Liddicoat, MD Bob More Mr. More joined Domain Associates as a Kauffman Fellow in 1996, and he became a General Partner in 2000. Since joining Domain, Mr. More has served on the Board of Directors of ESP Pharma, Glaukos, Onux Medical, OmniSonics Medical Technologies, Proxima Therapeutics, Novalar Pharmaceuticals, and TargetRx, and he was responsible for Domain's investment in IntraLase. From 1997-1998, Mr. More served as the Chief Operating Officer of Small Molecule Therapeutics, a Domain portfolio company subsequently purchased by Morphochem AG. From 1992 to 1995, Mr. More was with Pharmacia Biotech as a Senior Sales Associate. Prior to joining Pharmacia, Mr. More held a research position at Somatogen, a company developing a recombinant blood substitute that was subsequently bought by Baxter. During business school, Mr. More worked with MedVest, an early-stage venture group in Washington, D.C. He currently serves on the Board of the Kauffman Fellows Program. Howard Palefsky Mr. Palefsky has 35 years of experience as an entrepreneur, manager and investor in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. Mr. Palefsky has been a General Partner/Managing Member of Montreux since 2002 and was a Venture Partner of Montreux from 1999 to 2002. Immediately prior to joining Montreux as a General Partner, Mr. Palefsky was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of a Montreux portfolio company, NeurogesX. Mr. Palefsky was the Chairman, President, Chief Executive Officer, and/or Director of Collagen, a tissue engineering device company, from 1978 to 1997. Collagen and its affiliated companies made a number of venture capital investments during Mr. Palefsky's tenure. In addition to his responsibilities as CEO, Mr. Palefsky was directly responsible for these investments and, in each case, served as Collagen's representative on the board of directors. Mr. Palefsky currently serves as Chairman of the board of directors of Windy Hill and sits on the board of directors of two other Montreux portfolio companies Pulmonx and NovoStent. He is also actively involved in Montreux’s investment decisions in Asthmatx. Mr. Palefsky received his MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and his BS from the City College of the City University of New York. Matt Pollman, MD Matthew Pollman, consultant, has held a number of leadership positions in the development of cardiovascular therapeutics and diagnostics. He has most recently served as Medical Director, R&D, for Abbott Vascular. In this role, Dr. Pollman was the principal medical and scientific advisor for the R&D and Business Development organizations. Prior to this role, Dr. Pollman was the Director of New Ventures, Guidant Corporation where he led a multi-disciplinary in-house start-up incubator tasked with identifying, exploring and incubating through PhI/PhII clinical trials, novel therapeutic opportunities utilizing emerging device or combination product technologies. Dr. Pollman has also directed therapeutic/diagnostic target discovery and development efforts as Director of Cardiovascular Biology and Molecular Medicine for Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Pollman is a cardiologist and cardiovascular molecular biologist and has authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles. He has served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School and Morehouse School of Medicine. John Rice,
PhD John is founder and Managing Partner of Triathlon Medical Ventures in Cincinnati and brings 13 years of venture investing and 13 years of research and R&D management experience in biotechnology, devices, and diagnostics. John was a Managing Director of Senmed Medical Ventures from 1989 until 2003 and served as a member of the investment committee. He also led the emerging medical technology investment efforts. He represented Senmed on the board or as board observer to several Senmed portfolio companies, including Allergenics, Athersys, Merix BioScience, Transplant Therapeutics, and Optosonics and currently represents Triathlon on the board of Kereos and is an observer to the board of Endocyte. Prior to joining Senmed Medical Ventures, John spent 13 years with Battelle Memorial Institute serving in various research, research management, and business development capacities at Battelle Memorial Institute most recently overseeing Battelle's international biotechnology activities. John was among the early organizers of Bio/Start, Cincinnati's biomedical business incubator and currently serves on its Board of Trustees. He is also a trustee of Omeris, Ohio's life science economic development organization. John also holds an adjunct appointment in the department of Molecular Virology, Immunology and Medical Genetics in the School of Medicine and Public Health at Ohio State University. He has authored numerous scientific publications and holds four patents in the fields of virology and immunology. John earned a BS in Microbiology as well as MS and PhD degrees in Microbiology and Virology from The Ohio State University. Immanuel Thangaraj Managing Director Immanuel Thangaraj has 15 years of experience in operations and venture capital. Mr. Thangaraj began his venture career at ARCH Venture Partners, a leading venture capital firm with over $1 billion under management, which makes early stage technology and healthcare investments. In his initial tenure at AVP, he managed one of its portfolio companies, a medical information company, until its sale to a large hospital supplies company. Mr. Thangaraj joined Essex Woodlands in 1997. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of CBR Systems, Acura Pharmaceuticals (formerly Halsey Pharmaceuticals), Clear Vascular, Proteus, Medlogics, and Sound ID. He is also responsible for Essex Woodland’s investments in Accumetrics and Novacept. Mr. Thangaraj holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Chicago. Dennis Wahr, MD Dennis Wahr is a managing director at RiverVest. He has over 25 years of experience in medical device development, management and operations, as well as in clinical practice with a special emphasis on cardiac medicine. Prior to joining RiverVest, Dr. Wahr was the founder, President and CEO of Velocimed, LLC, a former RiverVest portfolio company. Dr. Wahr led the invention, development, clinical evaluation and commercialization of three innovative, minimally-invasive cardiovascular and neurovascular devices. He led Velocimed through four financing events that raised $45 million, proceeds of which funded the development of new products and the sponsorship of clinical trials in the U.S. and internationally. Ultimately the businesses of Velocimed were acquired by St. Jude Medical in April 2005. Before founding Velocimed, Dr. Wahr spent approximately 20 years in the medical field in various capacities, including director of interventional cardiology and chief of cardiology at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He also held the position of managing partner and executive committee member of the Michigan Heart and Vascular Institute, amongst other high profile roles as a practicing cardiologist. Lee Wrubel, MD Dr. Wrubel has ten years of experience in venture capital and has been associated with a large number of private companies, including such now publicly traded companies as Pozen Pharmaceuticals, OraPharma, and GenVec. Prior to starting Foundation Medical Partners, Dr. Wrubel was an investment professional with Canaan Partners and more recently Highland Capital Partners, where he specialized in biotechnology and medical device investments. Dr. Wrubel serves on the board of directors of EndoGastric Solutions, Inc., CardioMEMS, Inc., IlluminOss and Circulite, Inc. Dr. Wrubel began his business career as a consultant at The Wilkerson Group, a health care-focused management consulting company. Dr. Wrubel completed a pediatric internship at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. He holds an A.B. from Lafayette College, an M.D. and Masters in Public Health from Tufts University, and an M.B.A. from Columbia University. Dr. Wrubel serves on the Translational Research Advisory Committee of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and is a member of the Health Leadership Council of Save the Children. |
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