Auriel August

Senior Associate
Sante Ventures

Auriel August cultivates the firm’s portfolio of early-stage companies with a focus on medical devices and healthcare services.

Prior to joining Santé, Auriel was a Physician-in-Residence in IDEO’s Design for Health Studio where she worked with clients in the healthcare space to design new medical devices, digital health technologies and patient care experiences. Before joining IDEO, Auriel completed the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship where she identified unmet needs within healthcare, invented novel technologies to address them and mapped a path to implementation. Auriel trained as general surgeon at Stanford, where she focused on innovation as a way to address healthcare disparities.

Auriel earned her MD from Dartmouth Medical School and BS in biomedical engineering from Duke University.

John Babitt

Partner
EY

John Babitt is the EY MedTech leader for the Americas and is also the Life Sciences Leader for Financial and Accounting Transaction Advisory. John has over 20 years of experience, all in the healthcare industry, and originally joined E&Y in 1995. John’s corporate clients include but not limited to: Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson (including DePuy), Fresenius, GE Healthcare and Bayer, and significant PE clients including, Apax, Warburg Pincus, Avista Capital, Linden and Altaris.

Sophie Baratte

Managing Director
Agile Capital Markets

Sophie Baratte spent 20+ years in General Management roles in Blue chip companies and in Start-ups. As CEO, Sophie was CEO of CIT, the largest preclinical company in France, that she rebranded as Citoxlab, after acquiring additional businesses, and served as CEO of Cellnovo, developing and commercialising and e-connected insulin micro-pump. As CEO, Sophie raised around €80m and listed a company on Euronext in 2015. Amongst other key roles, Sophie served as GM for the in-vitro Diagnostics business of J&J France, as VP North EU for Sorin Group (now Livanova) across 5 BU in the cardiac sectors and Dialysis and as VP Sales and Marketing EU, Lifecell, in reconstructive Breast, Abdominal, Pelvic floor surgery. Along the years, Sophie has driven product development, industrialisation, market access and commercialisation in all geographies. Sophie's education is Engineering in Biotechnology, PhD in Immunology and MBA.

Adam Barker

Head of Healthcare Equity Research
Goodbody

Adam Barker is the head of healthcare equity research at Goodbody covering multiple sectors including MedTech, pharmaceuticals, and diagnostics. Prior to Goodbody, he worked as a healthcare equity research analyst at Shore Capital for seven years including two years closely covering the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare companies. Adam has a Master’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and a Master’s degree and PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Cambridge. He also holds an ACA chartered accountancy qualification.

Oliver Bisazza

CEO
MedTech Europe

Oliver Bisazza joined MedTech Europe in 2017, originally heading the department which supports members in implementing new and changing EU regulatory requirements affecting the medical technology industry.

In January 2023, Oliver assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer, responsible for the association’s overall management and strategy and reporting to the Board of Directors.

Oliver’s passion is to see the value of medical technology innovation fully recognised as a source of solutions to the many challenges facing healthcare systems, economies and societies, both in Europe and around the world.

Prior to joining MedTech Europe, he worked at Medtronic as Director of Regulatory Policy for EMEA.

In addition to this company experience, Oliver had various trade association roles in Brussels, at COCIR (the European association for the radiological, electromedical and healthcare IT industries) and at EDANA (the industry association for the nonwovens and related industries).

Oliver is a native speaker of English, and a dual national of Australia and Malta.

When not working, he enjoys travel, spending time with his family, and rock-climbing. 

Kevin Boyle

SVP R&D Interventional
BD

Kevin Boyle is currently the SVP of R&D for the BD Interventional Segment. He has responsibility for R&D for three business units; Peripheral Intervention, Surgery and Urology & Critical Care. He is a member of the segment leadership team. He also sits on the RDLT and has responsibility for Innovation across all R&D for the enterprise.

Previously Kevin was VP of R&D at BD PI from 2013 to 2018. During his time in that role Kevin oversaw 54 product launches generating $954M in revenue. He was also responsible for 169 R&D associates across 5 sites and an annual budget of ~$48M. The portfolios he led were Peripheral Artery Disease, End Stage Renal Disease, Biopsy devices and Ports.

Prior to BD he was an R&D Director at Medtronic from 2003 to 2013. While at Medtronic he developed coronary balloon products, drug eluting stent (DES) products and abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) Stent Grafts.

Kevin has a BCOMM from National University of Ireland and an MBS in Management Information Systems from Michael Smurfit Business School, Dublin Ireland. He is DFSS certified and has a Diploma from the Project Management Institute (PMI). He is currently enrolled at Texas A&M Master of Engineering, Biomedical Engineering program.

Todd J. Brinton, M.D., F.A.C.C.

Corporate Vice President, Advanced Technology Chief Scientific Officer
Edwards Lifesciences

Todd J. Brinton, M.D., has been corporate vice president, advanced technology, and chief scientific officer, since 2019. Dr. Brinton has significant experience as a champion of cardiovascular innovation and has a strong patient focus as a tenured practicing clinical cardiologist. He has deep ties to the medical technology community as a founder, board member and advisor to several start-up companies, including his role as physician founder, board member, and chief medical officer of ShockWave Medical, Inc. Dr. Brinton began his career as an engineer in the medical technology industry, ultimately becoming a director of clinical research and development, prior to entering medical school. Before joining Edwards, he was a clinical professor of medicine (cardiology) and adjunct professor of bioengineering at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He was an attending interventional cardiologist at both the Stanford University Medical Center and the Palo Alto VA Medical Center. Dr. Brinton also served as the fellowship director at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign from 2006 to 2019, where he mentored and directed numerous teams on the development of new technologies. In addition, he served as the co-director for both the graduate and executive education programs at the center during a similar time period. He is extremely active in the American Heart Association serving as the Chair of the 2022 Bay Area Research Roundtable and the 2022 Orange County Heart & Stroke Ball. In addition, he currently serves on the AHA national research committee and strategic outcomes subcommittee. He has served on the advisory board for the Edwards Lifesciences Foundation Cardiovascular Innovation and Research Center at UC Irvine since 2020. Dr. Brinton received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, San Diego in biomedical engineering, and his medical degree from the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University. He completed his internship, residency, and fellowships in cardiology and interventional cardiology at Stanford.

Chuck Carignan

Executive Chairman
Cairdac

Charles S. Carignan is the Executive Chairman of Cairdac and of Samantree Medical. He was previously the CEO of SoniVie, CEO of Rex BionX (now Chairman of the Max Rex Joint Venture in China) the President and CEO of BionX Medical Technology (sold to Ottobock), founding President and CEO of NinePoint Medical, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Novasys Medical, Inc. (sold to Roper), Chief Medical Officer at Boston Scientific, and Vice President of clinical research and medical affairs at Conceptus (sold to Bayer). He is currently a Director on the boards of Biothea and Neurofenix.

Lisa Carmel

Executive Vice President Global Strategic Partnerships
Veranex

As Executive Vice President, Global Strategic Partnerships, Lisa Carmel leverages her global product commercialization experience to help forge long-term collaborations with a core focus on Veranex’s strategic partners and their portfolio management.

Lisa has 25+ years of healthcare product commercialization with companies in the U.S., Europe, and China, with a special emphasis on MedTech innovation. As an active member of the MedTech and investor communities, Lisa is an advisor to many startups and accelerators including CLSI’s FAST program, MedTech Innovator, and UCSF Health Hub. She also serves as an advisor to the Cleveland Clinic MedTech Advisory Board, the Mayo Clinic’s Executive Steering Committee for the Surgical Innovation Summit, UCLA Biodesign, UCLA’s Technology Ventures Group Advisory Board, and RedCrow Angel Investor platform. Lisa serves on the Board of Directors for MarinHealth system, a partner of UCSF and is Co-Chair of MedtechWomen’s Annual MedTech Vision Conference in 2021-22. Lisa has a keen interest in the latest MedTech innovation trends and authors Veranex’s MedTech Pioneers blog, which spotlights MedTech leadership and their groundbreaking work.

David Cassak

Co-Editor-in-Chief & Managing Partner
MedTech Strategist

David Cassak has more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Cassak co-founded Windhover Information Inc., along with his partner, Roger Longman, in which they spun out exceptional publications such as IN VIVO, START-UP, Medtech Insight, Emerging Medical Ventures and The RPM Report. Cassak also served as Vice President, Content, and Managing Director, Medical Devices for Elsevier Business Intelligence, a Reed Elsevier Company, including the publications The Gray Sheet and The Pink Sheet.  He is a frequent speaker before various companies and trade groups within the medical device industry and is widely known for his vast knowledge and reporting in MedTech.

Barbara Castellano

Partner
Panakes Partners

Barbara Castellano is a partner in Panakès Partners. She has more than 20 years of experience in Medtech, in particular in Cardiovascular, having held corporate senior positions at Sorin (now Livanova) and CID Cardiovascular (now Alvimedica). By leading strategic marketing, business development, clinical, quality and regulatory departments, Barbara developed and brought innovative technologies to the market. Before joining Panakes, as founder and CEO of an advisory firm, she developed strong experience in the Medtech startup world, successfully raising significant amounts in venture capital funding for innovative European and Israeli medical technology companies.

Barbara holds a degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology from UniPG and an Executive MBA (both magna cum laude) from SDA Bocconi in Milan.

Christopher Cleary

Senior Vice President Corporate Development
Medtronic

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

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

Andrew Cleeland

CEO
Fogarty Innovation

Andrew Cleeland is a seasoned executive with over 30 years experience in the medical device industry. During this time, he has held key leadership positions in organizations ranging from early-stage startups to large multinationals. In joining Fogarty Innovation he further broadens this range of experience to include managing a nonprofit. The versatility required to be effective across such diverse groups is rare and is a testament to Andrew’s strong leadership skills.

A native Australian who grew up in a suburb of Melbourne, Andrew’s leadership capabilities became evident at an early age. Raised by a single parent, Andrew was forced to grow up quickly and play a supportive role for his mother and brother. These early experiences were formative in shaping the person Andrew would become and the things he would inevitably accomplish.

Andrew’s values and life philosophy were also greatly influenced by sport. His natural athleticism and leadership propelled him into many team captain roles and ultimately competing in Australian Rules Football at a semi-professional level. If you’ve never seen this sport played, do so. It won’t take long to recognize the toughness, teamwork and grit the sport demands, all traits which Andrew continues to bring to every position he holds.

After completing his undergraduate degree, Andrew began his medtech career working for the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration. This provided an invaluable introduction to the industry along with an appreciation for the challenges regulators face when balancing innovation with protecting public health. Several years into this role, serendipity presented him with a unique opportunity to work for a company based in the United States. Although he had never lived outside Australia, he saw it as a great opportunity and moved alone to Denver, Colorado, to work for Telectronics. He probably didn’t realize it at the time, but this move exemplifies a classic element of Andrew’s personal and professional mindset: think big, set audacious goals and act boldly. At the time, Andrew expected this to be a two-year position. Thirty years later, he’s still in the U.S., setting and achieving big goals.

Andrew’s rapid career advancement during this timeframe has been impressive. After Telectronics, he accepted a management role at Baxter Healthcare’s Novacor division, and later as vice president of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs at Bay Area startup company Radiant Medical. Following this, he was CEO of Ardian, which pioneered the use of renal denervation to treat hypertension. Ardian was acquired by Medtronic in 2011 in a transaction valued at over $1.3B which, at the time, was the largest medical device acquisition ever for a pre-revenue medical device company.

Whenever a first time CEO has such a wildly successful exit, the market often wonders: Is the person really that good or were they just lucky? Andrew quickly answered that question by taking the role of CEO at Twelve, a startup in the transcatheter mitral valve space. Several years after his joining, this company was also acquired by Medtronic in a transaction valued at $458M. Back to back successes at such large valuations answered the question – it wasn’t just luck.

Propelled by these successes, Andrew has become a key figure in the medical device community. His leadership, experience and insights have led many organizations to seek his involvement. He currently serves on the board of three venture-funded companies — Saluda Medical, Zenflow, Inc. (chairman) and MMI S.p.A. (chairman). He also holds advisory positions at two top-tier venture capital firms: Longitude Capital and Arboretum Ventures. At a global industry level, he has been invited to serve on multiple initiatives including the UCSF-Stanford Pediatric Device Consortium; the Medical Device Innovation Consortium; and the Singapore government’s Biomedical Research Council (BMRC).

Passionate about healthcare, Andrew is a champion of innovators and innovation in the medtech field. His commitment to mentoring and education is rooted in his passion for helping patients and being a catalyst for positive change. This purpose and drive is captured in one of his favorite quotes, by Mahatma Gandhi: “A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”

“Working at Fogarty Innovation gives me the ability to positively influence the medtech ecosystem and give back in a meaningful and effective way,” summarizes Andrew. “To have worked with such amazing teammates on such impactful programs has allowed me to do something BOTH meaningful and enjoyable…I love the challenge.”

Andrew has received numerous awards and honors and is a frequent invited lecturer at major industry conferences and leading academic institutions. Andrew holds a BS in biophysics from the Swinburne Institute of Technology.

Bernard Collins

Chairman
Aerogen

Dr. Bernard Collins is a leading expert in the medical technology sector and serves on the Board of Directors of several US and Irish life-science companies. Prior to forming Lifemed, his consultancy company, Dr. Collins served for 10 years as Vice President of international operations at Boston Scientific Corporation before this held senior executive positions in life-science companies including Baxter Corporation and has held several senior executive positions in international life-science companies during his career. A seasoned businessman, with 30 years of general management & multifunctional experience in the medical device and healthcare industry spans start-ups, turnarounds, leveraged buyouts, and IPOs for both large and small businesses.

Dr. Collins holds a BA Honors in Applied Industrial Psychology/Business from University College Cork, Ireland, and an honorary Doctorate in Law from the National University of Ireland Galway. He is a recipient of the prestigious RDS Gold Medal for Industry in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to the development of the biomedical industry in Ireland.

Stephen Cox

CEO
InVera Medical

Stephen Cox is the CEO & co-founder of InVera Medical (formerly Venari), a medical device company developing a less-invasive, effective and pain-free device for the office-based treatment of varicose veins and venous ulcers, known as chronic venous disease, a condition that affects one in four people worldwide.

Olivier d’Arros

Managing Partner
MAVIE Technologies

Olivier d’Arros is Managing Partner at MAVIE Technologies, a leading China-based boutique investment bank dedicated to cross-border transactions in MedTech.  

Olivier has 22 years of experience in Venture Capital and Tech companies across China and Europe including more than a dozen of cross-border M&A, Joint-Venture and Licensing transactions.  

Before founding MAVIE Technologies, he was the CEO and President of EESYO, a high-technology company founded in 2010 in China and sold to OCTAV in 2015. 

Olivier has a MSc. in Mathematics from Ecole Centrale (France), a certificate in Chinese history from Harvard University and an Executive MBA from CEIBS (China). He has been living in China for the past 13 years and speaks 5 languages, including Mandarin.

Arjun Desai

Chief Strategic Innovation Officer
Insightec

Arjun (JJ) Desai, MD leads the strategy for future platforms, luminary ecosystem development, clinical and economic data analytics and modeling, and Medical Advisory Board operational support at INSIGHTEC.

Dr. Desai comes to INSIGHTEC from Johnson & Johnson Innovation, where he held the position of Vice President and Chief Operating Officer responsible for delivering on the goals and objectives across the global JLABS organization and the Center for Device Innovation.

Dr. Desai completed his advanced medical training at Stanford University where he sits on both clinical and Biodesign faculty. He holds an MD from University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and a B.S. in Economics from The University of Oklahoma.

Janke Dittmer

Partner
Gilde Healthcare

Janke Dittmer joined Gilde in 2011 as a Partner. He led Gilde’s investment in Definiens (acquired by AZ), Sapiens (acquired by Medtronic), Volta Medical, Big Health, FIRE1, Lumeon and Nyxoah and was involved in several other investments including Spire Health, Withings, NightBalance and Stat Dx. He currently represents Gilde on the board of Volta Medical, Big Health, FIRE1, Lumeon and Nyxoah. He served on the supervisory board of Definiens and Sapiens until trade sale.

Prior to joining, he was a Venture General Manager and Head of Business Development & Strategy within Philips’ Corporate Venturing unit in Healthcare. On top of shaping the strategy, he was responsible for selecting new investment opportunities. He also started and lead two ventures in the fields of cardiology and sepsis.

He served as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company advising leading High Tech companies on strategies for growth and strategic marketing.

Prior to this, he cofounded a Nanotech company in the Silicon Valley after serving as a Fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. He earned a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge in the UK and was a Post-Doc in Nanotechnology at the University of California, Berkeley.

He is a founder and former healthcare chairman of the International Venture Club, serves on the VC council of Invest Europe and has advised the European Commission on innovation policy.

He is a German citizen based in Gilde’s Utrecht office. At Gilde Healthcare he is focusing on Digital and Home Health, MedTech and Diagnostics investments.

Théophile Mohr Durdez

CEO
Volta Medical

Théophile Mohr Durdez grew up in France, Germany, and Austria. Since his young age, he wanted to help his fellow humans with technology. Later on, he studied at Ecole Polytechnique (Paris), where he fell in love with Statistics, Machine and Deep Learning. There, he obtained a double degree with the Business School HEC (Paris). His first accomplishment was to create a wheelchair controlled via eyetracking for SLA disabled people. He then helped in solving complex geophysics with the use of differential equations. In 2016, he co-founded Volta, where he was the passionate architect and inventor of Volta’s algorithms. In 2017, Théophile received the Research Award from Ecole Polytechnique for the algorithms that he developed at Volta. Théophile is hiring and leading a team of top talents to drive Volta towards success by making a difference for operators and patients.

Claire Dyson

Consultant/former Head of UK Approved Body
DEKRA

Claire Dyson entered the MedTec sector through drug delivery systems. She has over a decade of experience in drug and device design, including regulatory strategy, and has been involved in establishing routes to market for a range of devices in several jurisdictions. Over the past 5 years, Dyson has worked in certification bodies developing approaches for conformity assessment under the EU MDR and IVDR and the UK MDR. She is now working as a constant and advisor on a number of exciting projects.

James Eadie

Managing Director
Sante Ventures

James Eadie joined Santé Ventures in 2009 and is an emergency medicine physician.

Prior to joining Santé, James served in the Air Force and was Vice-Chair of Emergency Medicine at Wilford Hall Medical Center, an academic level-one trauma center. He completed two tours in Iraq as a Critical Care Transport Team Chief and Emergency Department Commander, before separating honorably as a Major in 2008.

James is an Oversight Committee member for the University of Michigan’s Michigan Translational Research & Commercialization program, an early-stage granting body for life science companies. He is also a Mentor in the Coulter Program at Michigan and a Board Member of the Michigan Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care.

James is board-certified in emergency medicine and completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He earned his MD from the Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology (HST), his MBA from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and his BS in bioengineering from the University of Michigan.

Pedro Eerdmans

Director, Global Strategy Services
NAMSA

Pedro Eerdmans has more than 25 years experience in medical devices. He studied medicine in The Netherlands, has a PhD in Pharmacology and Master in Medical and Pharmaceutical Research from Belgium. He was co-author in more than 25 publications including two Lancet publications.

As CEO, CMO, VP Medical Affairs, Director, Manager and physician he worked in almost all levels of the medical device space. Hospital, CRO, Industry (4-30.000 employees) and Notified Body.

As head of the Notified Body (for 3 years) he managed to obtain MDR accreditation, as Medical Director he was responsible for the evaluation of the medical evidence to grant CE certification.

He managed global clinical teams while based in Europe and the US (Houston Texas). Under his supervision several medical devices received CE mark, most recently 3 IDE approvals were granted.

Due to the variety in his positions, he has deep understanding in the medical device development from concept to market release and post market follow up.

Currently he is providing companies (large and small) clinical strategies to obtain global market release as  Director, Global Strategy Services at NAMSA.

Arthur Franken

General Partner
Gilde Healthcare

Arthur Franken joined Gilde in 2001. He is focusing on venture and growth capital investments in the biopharm, medtech, diagnostics and digital health sectors. He represents Gilde on the boards of Breath Therapeutics, Calypso, Levicept, Moximed and Symphogen and served as a board member for FlowCardia, MTM Laboratories, ProQR Therapeutics and STAT-Dx until the trade sales or IPO. Prior to joining Gilde he was active in cardiovascular research at the Leiden/Amsterdam Center for Drug Research and TNO. He holds a master’s degree in Biopharmaceutical Sciences from Leiden University, The Netherlands.

Caroline Gaynor

Partner
Lightstone Ventures

Caroline Gaynor joined Lightstone Ventures in 2017 and evaluates new investment opportunities in the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors out of the firm’s Dublin office.

Caroline has over 10 years’ operational experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Caroline spent 9 years at Bayer Healthcare, most recently serving on the board of senior management of Bayer Ltd. Ireland as head of market access, pricing and reimbursement. During her time in pharma she held a number of operational roles, predominantly focused on oncology, such as product management, strategic marketing, business development and regulatory affairs. Prior to Lightstone, and following completion of her BioInnovate fellowship in 2013, she co-led R&D on a device targeting Acute Pancreatitis and was subsequently involved in early pre-clinical, strategic clinical and commercial development at Vetex Medical..

She currently serves as a director on the board of Catamaran Bio Ltd., Parvalis Therapeutics and ProVerum. She is an observer to the board of Carrick Therapeutics, Cerevance, and FIRE-1. She also previously served on the board of ALX Oncology. She is a member of the BioInnovate Ireland Board of advisors.

Virginia Giddings

Vice President Exploration
Edwards Lifesciences

Virginia Giddings is Vice President of Exploration at Edwards Lifesciences, where she advances breakthrough innovation for structural heart disease patients by building external partnerships globally. Virginia has a track record of delivering innovation to patients, with roles spanning medical device, pharmaceutical and nutrition businesses. Throughout her career, Virginia has focused on advancing breakthrough innovation, with R&D, Program Management, and Business Development leadership roles at Stryker, Abbott, and Johnson & Johnson. She serves on the Cornell Engineering Council, the President’s Council of Cornell Women, and chairs the Cornell Biomedical Engineering Advisory Council. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and the Industry Council Chair on the Board of Directors. Virginia is a co-founder of the MedtechVision Conference, now held annually in Silicon Valley. She holds B.S. and M.Eng. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

Ronan Glynn

Partner, Health Sector Lead
EY

Ronan Glynn is Health Sector Lead at EY Ireland. A physiotherapist and medical doctor, Ronan is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine, at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. Prior to joining EY, Ronan worked as Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health in Ireland, was a member of the team tasked with leading the national response to COVID-19, and was Acting Chief Medical Officer for six months of the pandemic.

Jake Goble

Cardiac and General Medical Products Business Leader
WL Gore

Jake Goble earned both his MS and PhD degrees in bioengineering from Arizona State University. After graduating in 2007, Jake moved to Flagstaff, Arizona to work as a Product Specialist within the Medical Division at W.L. Gore & Associates. As a Product Specialist, Jake demonstrated his versatility while contributing at a high caliber across a vast array of areas including clinical trial design, FDA regulatory submissions, product launches, marketing strategy, sales support, litigation depositions, product design, quality control, etc. His leadership role allowed him to influence engineering and business teams toward the development of new medical devices for the treatment of congenital heart defects. After seven years in this position, Jake transitioned to a role within Gore to focus on upstream strategic marketing within Gore’s Aortic business unit. Here, Jake was responsible for the development and execution of brand strategy for the GORE® EXCLUDER® Aortic Abdominal Aneurysm product line while helping to pave the road for market access of developing product iterations. During his two years in this role, Jake completed his MBA with a focus in International Business. Subsequently, Jake accepted a business leadership role in Gore’s Structural Heart followed by Gore's Cardiac Business. Currently, Jake leads Gore's Medical Products Division's Innovation Business where he seeks to define a portfolio of growth opportunities that will contribute to our efforts to improve the lives of patients. Over the years, Jake’s vast experience has yielded multiple peer reviewed publications and patent applications, and various speaking engagements at international interventional cardiology congresses. Outside of work, Jake’s interest include hiking, backpacking, and basketball, as well as spending time with his family. He continues to live within the Flagstaff area with his wife, three children, and a small dog.

Lucien Goffart

CEO
Robocath

Holding a master’s degree in Business, Lucien Goffart started his career in 1999 at Johnson Johnson Inc Then, he joined Abbott before holding different positions at Volcano company between 2004 and 2011 From 2012 to 2014 he held different executive positions at Stentys and Mitralgin Last four years, he served Boston Scientific as Business Unit Manager France In the meanwhile, he was Board member of several companies from the Medtech industry such as Opsens Medical Since 2019 he is Board member of Electroducer and was appointed CEO of Robocath in September 2019

Jose Calle Gordo

Chairman
Highlife Medical

Board Member
JenaValve

Coming soon.

Paul Grand

Founder & CEO
MedTech Innovator

Paul Grand is the founder and CEO of MedTech Innovator. He created and managed MedTech Innovator as a program within RCT Ventures from 2013 – 2016. In 2016, with the financial support of RCT and other sponsors, Paul left to run MedTech Innovator as a stand-alone company. He spent 11 years as Director and Managing Director at RCT Ventures, the investment arm of Research Corporation Technologies, Inc. Prior to RCT, Paul was co-founder and CEO of startups in the medtech, pharma, and tech sectors.

Michael Healy

Director, Healthcare Investment Banking
UBS Healthcare

Michael Healy is a Director in the Healthcare Investment Banking team at UBS, based in London.

Following a degree in Biomedical Engineering, Michael spent 10+ years' in the medical device industry in new product development. He has experience in Endoscopy with Boston Scientific, and in Endovascular Aortic Repair (EVAR), where he was Principal Engineer at Lombard Medical.

Leveraging his industry experience, Michael completed an MBA at Imperial College London and transitioned into Investment Banking, initially as an Equity Analyst at Berenberg Bank. He covered European Medtech, including companies in a range of subsectors including Audiology, Cardiovascular, Endoscopy, Imaging, LST and Diagnostics, Neuromodulation, Ophthalmology & Orthopaedics.

In his current role at UBS, Michael provides advisory services to corporate clients and financial sponsors. Transactions include M&A, LBO, ECM and DCM deals, plus arranging private funding for early stage MedTech businesses.

Alan Hobbs

Manager High Potential Start Ups
Enterprise Ireland

Alan Hobbs manages the Irish Government’s life science High Potential Start-Up team who work with the best emerging Bio, Pharma and Medical Device companies in Ireland. He has 30 years global experience living and working in China, Silicon Valley, Taiwan, Korea and Ireland. Alan started his career working for IDA Ireland targeting “C” level executives in US and Asian Multinationals, selling Ireland as a HQ for their EMEA activities, he crossed over to the domestic side of economic development with roles in High Growth Markets, Corporate Communications and the Food sector. MBA graduate from Trinity College Dublin.  

Kinam Hong

Partner
Sofinnova Partners

Kinam Hong joined us in January 2017 as a partner driving Sofinnova's later-stage, crossover investment strategy. Prior to joining Sofinnova Partners, Kinam was a co-manager of the Exane Equinox fund, a global healthcare fund backing later-stage, public biotechnology companies. Before that, he spent 10 years as an investor and analyst covering the biotechnology sector, including at Citigroup Investment Research, where he specialized in small- and mid-cap biotechnology companies.

Mano Iyer

Partner
Sofinnova Partners

Mano Iyer, a serial entrepreneur whose ties with Sofinnova Partners stretch back more than 15 years, rejoined the firm in October, 2022.

As a Venture Partner, Mano investigates global medical device investment opportunities across the Sofinnova Partners platform of strategies, with a particular focus on helping the firm’s in-house medtech accelerator, Sofinnova MD Start, incubate world-class companies.

“Sofinnova has realized something truly impressive in developing a first-class medtech ecosystem based out of Europe,” he said. “The firm is recognized globally as an influential player in the space and I’m excited and proud to be back.”

In 2008, Mano was among the co-founders of the original MD Start team that incubated companies including CorWave and LimFlow. He also advised CoreValve, a Sofinnova Capital Strategy portfolio company, which was subsequently purchased by Medtronic for $800 million.

Mano founded ReCor Medical during his time as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Sofinnova Partners in 2009. He left Sofinnova in 2013 to work full-time as the Chief Operating Officer of ReCor, which was successfully sold to Otsuka Medical Devices in 2018.

Mano started his career in medical devices as an engineer at Arrow International. While at Arrow, he met Tim Lenihan. In 2001, he co-founded Contract Medical International (CMI) with Lenihan, and ran operations and engineering. CMI was acquired by Heraeus Group in 2020.

He joined Sofinnova Partners thanks to an introduction from Gerard Hascoët, whom he had also met while at Arrow. The trio (Hascoët, Lenihan, Iyer) joined forces with Antoine Papiernik and, with the backing of Sofinnova Partners, founded MD Start, which, now in its third iteration, has been fully integrated into the Sofinnova platform of strategies.

Mano holds an MBA from Stanford and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Sinead Keogh

Director, MedTech Engineering
Ibec

Sinead Keogh is the Director of the Ibec’s Medtech and Engineering Sectors, which includes the Irish Medtech Association. A number of Government Funded Skills Networks (Skillnets, Apprenticeships and Springboards) fall under her remit. Sinead currently sits on a number of national and international boards including the Advisory Industry Board for Enterprise Ireland funded BioInnovate Ireland and the Governance Board for Science Foundation Ireland funded Irish Photonic Integration Centre (IPIC). She is a member of the National Executive Committee at Medtech Europe. Prior to Ibec Sinead held technical roles at 3Com Technologies, and lectured part-time at DIT, Kevin St. She holds a Ph.D. in the Physics of Molecular Materials/Nanotechnology and B.Sc. (Hons.) in Applied Physics, DIT Kevin St.

Jennifer Kozak

Vice President, Business Development
Johnson & Johnson

As Vice President, Business Development for Johnson & Johnson MedTech – a $27 billion business unit of Johnson & Johnson – Jennifer Kozak directs corporate initiatives including strategic, investment and portfolio decisions. During her tenure at Johnson & Johnson, Jennifer has held numerous positions leading business development activities with increasing responsibility for strategic planning and portfolio optimization. Today, Jennifer is a member of Johnson & Johnson’s MedTech Leadership Team and oversees all business development activity to drive growth, innovation, competitiveness, and value for Johnson & Johnson. Jennifer has executed more than $7 billion in transactions during her tenure at Johnson & Johnson. Most recently, she led the acquisitions of Auris Health and Verb Surgical, expanding J&J’s digital surgery portfolio and capabilities. Prior to her role in Digital Surgery, Jennifer led business development activities for New Growth Platforms, where she was instrumental in enhancing and implementing a more robust strategic planning and business unit portfolio optimization process. She also developed new external innovation models partnering with Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC) to optimize J&J’s equity investment strategy and portfolio. Additionally, Jennifer led a broad-based assessment of the Medical Device landscape to identify new business opportunities, drove strategy to enter the ENT (Ears, Nose, Throat) space and led the acquisition of Acclarent. She also executed numerous other new business development transactions and projects, including the acquisition of Angiotech’s knotless tissue closure device and led a global cross-functional team charged with accelerating the performance of J&J’s acquisitions. Jennifer began her career at Johnson & Johnson as an engineer at Johnson & Johnson Interventional Systems prior to the merger with Cordis Corporation. While at Cordis, she held various roles in Operations, R&D and New Business Development. Jennifer earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Bucknell University and completed the Smith College Leadership Consortium Executive Education.

Reinhard Krickl

CEO
Phagenesis

Reinhard Krickl is an ex-Medtronic market development leader with strong commercialization success. Business, sales, engineering and marketing expertise. Passionate about building and leading great teams.

Edna Lazar

Senior Director, Exploration
Edwards Lifesciences

Coming soon.

Jinny Lee

SVP of Exploration, Strategy and Marketing
Edwards Lifesciences

Jinny Lee is the Senior Vice President of exploration, strategy and marketing for the Advanced Technology division of Edwards Lifesciences. She started her curiosity in medicine as a researcher at the Long Beach VA Hospital and at the US Food and Drug Administration in the public affairs group located in Southern California.  She is a veteran in medical devices with a passion for directing the movement of innovation forward.  

Stephen Levin

Co-Editor-in-Chief & Managing Partner
MedTech Strategist
Market Pathways

Stephen Levin served as Executive Editor & General Counsel at Windhover Information followed by Editor-in-Chief of Medical Devices for Elsevier Business Intelligence, where he directed the company’s editorial coverage of the medical device industry. Before that, Stephen was Senior Counsel to the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, where he directed Senate investigations into a wide variety of areas including health care fraud and abuse, international organized crime, and corruption in federal contracting programs, while also participating in other Senate investigations including the Whitewater inquiry.  Before joining the Subcommittee, he was with the Federal Election Commission and the Department of Justice.

Agata Lindenthal

Senior Consultant
HTI Healthcare and Technology International

Agata Lindenthal, MD worked both as physician and in the medtech industry. During the 12 years spent at Boston Scientific she introduced innovated technologies into the market – among which the first aortic stent graft worldwide. Her fascination for disruptive technologies in all fields of medicine led her to join HTI in 2008. Ever since she has helped numerous start-ups and large companies to fill senior and middle management positions.

Olivier Litzka

Partner
Andera Partners

Olivier Litzka holds a PhD in molecular microbiology from University of Munich (LMU). During his scientific work he focused on fundamental and applied sciences relating to molecular regulation mechanisms in antibiotic biosynthesis.

Florian Ludwig

CEO
CardiacBooster

Venture Partner
Thuja Capital

Florian Ludwig serves Thuja as a Venture Partner. Florian originally joined Thuja as an Investment Director in 2016. In 2022, he was invited to lead CardiacBooster, a Fund II portfolio company, as CEO, and as a result transitioned to a venture partner role at Thuja. Prior to joining Thuja Capital, Florian has held management positions in medtech development from early concept to competitive commercialization. He has worked at Guidant, Abbott Vascular and Covidien, as well as in start-ups such as Ventrica, ROX Medical and Direct Flow Medical. Florian holds an MSc and a PhD in physics from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, gained in research collaborations with Duke University, USA, and the University of British Columbia, Canada. He currently represents Thuja on the board of Salvia Bioelectronics.

Megan MacDonagh

Vice President
SV Health Investors

Megan MacDonagh joined SV in 2020 and works as a Senior Associate for the Medtech Convergence Fund (MCF), primarily focusing on medtech and digital health investments.

Prior to joining SV, Megan was a Senior Life Sciences Consultant at Charles River Associates in their New York office, where she led strategic projects for top biopharma and medtech clients across a wide range of therapeutic areas.

Before CRA, Megan spent six years at Novate Medical (acquired by BTG) in Galway, Ireland developing novel vascular devices from design to FDA approval. During business school, Megan did an internship with The Foundry and Lightstone Ventures in Menlo Park, where she evaluated device and drug/device combination products.

Outside of SV, Megan is a member of the HBS Healthcare Alumni Association and the New England Venture Network. Although she is not a native of Boston, she is Irish so she feels right at home around these parts.

Academic Credentials
BE, Biomedical Engineering, National University of Ireland, Galway; MBA, Harvard Business School

Lyn Markey

Co-Founder & CEO
XTremedy Medical

Lyn Markey is CEO of Xtremedy Medical based in Galway. Xtremedy is a pre-clinical surgical device company with a vision to transform the musculo-skeletal infection market. By leveraging known anti-microbial technologies, our team have developed the first non-invasive surgical device to deliver clean wound margins for patients suffering from chronic wound infections and bone infections.

Lyn has extensive experience in product development, manufacturing, innovation management and business development. She holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry and Nanomaterials from Trinity College Dublin and an MBA from UCD Smurfit Business School. 

Fergal McAleavey

Partner and Head of Corporate Finance
EY

Fergal McAleavey is a Corporate Finance Partner in the firm’s Strategy and Transactions practice and leads the Corporate Finance practice on the island of Ireland.

Fergal has extensive experience in advising both public and private companies of a wide range of transactions, ranging from acquisitions, disposals, equity and debt capital raising, IPO’s and public company takeovers.

He has significant experience in sectors such as technology, life sciences, telecoms, media, engineering and financial services. 

Prior to joining EY, Fergal was Head of Private Equity at ISIF (Ireland’s sovereign wealth fund), where he led investments in funds (PE, VC and alternative credit) and directly invested equity into leading indigenous companies.

He was previously the Managing Director of the Corporate Finance division of a leading banking institution.

Fergal received his PhD in Physics from Trinity College Dublin and is a Chartered Director with the Institute of Directors.

Andy McGibbon

Managing Partner
Sonder Capital

Andy McGibbon is a managing partner at Sonder Capital, where he invests in companies working on transformative medical technologies at their earliest stages and is dedicated to working with visionary entrepreneurs and executives to create companies that positively impact people's lives. Andy’s experiences span the medical device and healthtech segments, where he serves as a board member, advisor, and partner to portfolio companies to help them achieve their full potential. Prior to Sonder, he was a life science strategy consultant for medtech companies of all sizes. Andy holds a B.S. in Materials Engineering from the University of Cincinnati, a M.Sc. in Management, Technology, and Innovation from the ETH Zurich, and is an alumnus of the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship.

Jennifer McMahon

Partner
Seroba Life Sciences

Jennifer McMahon is a Partner at Seroba.  She graduated from UCD with an honours degree in Pharmacology in 2010.  Jennifer then entered a Master’s degree programme in Biotechnology and Business to further her interest in the interface of biomedical science with commercialisation.

Having placed first in her Master’s degree in 2011, Jennifer then joined Seroba’s Investment Team as an Investment Analyst, progressing to Partner in 2022.

In 2019, Jennifer joined the Advisory Board for the European healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.  She is Chair of Level20 Europe and was a founder member of the Ireland Chapter of Level20.  She guest lectures on venture capital at University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.  She is also in high demand as a speaker at Investor/Entrepreneur life science partnering conferences across Europe.

Jennifer sits on the boards of Endotronix, Palliare and Deciphex, is a Board Observer to Shorla Pharma and was previously on the Board of Biosensia prior to its merger with Kypha Diagnostics.

Rabab Nasrallah

Investment Team
Earlybird Venture Capital

Rabab Nasrallah is a healthcare investment professional at Earlybird Venture Capital and former program manager at INCUBATE, a startup accelerator at the University of Sydney. Rabab completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, focusing on therapies in the areas of immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases. She has a strong research background, with a PhD in stem cell and developmental biology from the Australian University of New South Wales and the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute.

John O’Dea

CEO
Palliare

John O’Dea has 30 years’ experience in the medical device industry and is CEO of the Palliare group of companies. John previously worked at Medtronic following their 2017 acquisition of GI Diagnostic company Crospon, which he founded in 2006.

John co-founded Caradyne, an Irish respiratory medical device company, which was acquired by Respironics, Inc. in 2004. Over the past 35 years, John has held R&D management positions in Nellcor Puritan Bennett and engineering positions in Digital Equipment, Inc. and Dataproducts, Inc.

John is a named author on 18 U.S. Patents.

Lucy O’Keeffe

CEO
CroiValve

Lucy O’Keeffe has extensive experience leading medical device development programs. She worked as a cross-functional lead at Medtronic, managing R&D programs from concept to launch, including an early transcatheter aortic program. Additionally, she worked in Nypro Healthcare, managing multiple complex, cross-functional, global projects developing drug delivery devices for top tier pharmaceutical clients and in a CRO, ICON PLC, where she developed an understanding of clinical trials. She holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from University College Dublin, a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from University of Limerick and a Diploma in Project Management from University College Cork.

John Olden

Partner
Addleshaw Goddard

John Olden is a Partner in the Firm’s Corporate Law Department. His practice areas are mergers and acquisitions law, venture capital, capital markets, company and Partnership law. His mergers and acquisitions experience covers both public and private companies.

In the area of venture capital, he has advised on the establishment and marketing of venture capital funds, relationships between the general partner and limited Partners, investment by venture capital funds into Irish and other businesses and he has advised Irish companies on the raising of venture capital finance.

His capital markets experience is in debt (in particular commercial paper and note issuance programmes) and equity (IPOs, rights issues and offerings by Irish corporates in the US).

Ross O’Neil

Founder & CEO
Neuromod Devices

Ross O’Neil is the founding CEO of venture-backed medical devices company Neuromod. Neuromod has developed and patented LENIRE, a non-invasive bimodal neuromodulation treatment for chronic tinnitus, a condition that affects 1 in 8 adults, commonly known as ‘ringing in the ears’.

Donal O’Shea

Founder & CEO
Deciphex

Donal O’Shea is an experienced corporate officer in the technology and diagnostics sectors, having 20 years of business leadership experience from start-up through to large corporate enterprise. Donal has considerable M&A experience. He has founded three companies and has senior management experience in Slidepath, Genetix, Leica Microsystems and Leica Biosystems.  

Ruben Osnabrugge

Investment Manager
EQT Life Sciences

Ruben Osnabrugge is an investment manager in the EQT Life Sciences team. Ruben worked for LSP from 2021 until 2022, when LSP joined forces with EQT and was renamed EQT Life Sciences. He focuses on investment opportunities in private companies in Med Tech, Diagnostics and Digital Health.

Prior to LSP, Ruben led the global value based care strategy of Philips, where he was also involved in strategic deepdives and due diligence for potential investments. Before, Ruben worked as a cardiothoracic surgeon at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. As part of this training, he also performed general and vascular surgery and worked at the intensive care. He was faculty in several cardiovascular societies, editorial board member, authored >40 articles in top medical journals and was a Fulbright scholar at the Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City.

Ruben obtained his MD and PhD degrees from Erasmus Medical School in Rotterdam. He holds a MSc in clinical research from NIHES and the Harvard School of Public Health, and a BSc in health economics from Erasmus School of Economics.

Michalis Papadakis

Founder & CEO
Brainomix

Dr. Michalis Papadakis is the CEO and co-founder of Brainomix. He leads the management team, commercial strategy, fund raising, and corporate partnerships. He has grown the company from the ground up, building the company’s global presence and has raised more than £30 million of private investment and public funding. When he founded Brainomix he was the Scientific Director of the preclinical stroke lab at the University of Oxford. He has a BSc Honours in Biochemistry from Imperial College London and a PhD in neurosciences from UCL School of Pharmacy. He has been an invited speaker at international scientific and innovation conferences.

Daniel Parera

Partner
Kurma Partners

Daniel Parera is a Partner at Kurma Partners Munich office, co-managing the recent Growth Opportunities Fund, investing into late-stage biotech, diagnostics, medtech, digital health, life science tools.

Prior to joining Kurma, he co-founded a Biotech and Medtech company, was an investor after 12 years at Novartis with management responsibilities in the Pharma, Vaccines & Diagnostics and Sandoz Divisions, overseeing multiple collaborations, licensing deals and acquisitions, world-wide clinical trials, registrations and commercial launches.

He is a McKinsey-alumni, trained as MD in Germany, Switzerland and US.

Martin Pfister

Principal
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management

Dr. Martin Pfister, Immunologist by training, had an academic career in Germany and the US before transferring into the startup scene as co-founder of two companies in the fields of diagnostics & health services. In 2010 he joined HTGF on the investor side. With his long-standing experience in drug development/gene therapy and medtech/Dx, he is a valued sparring partner in the fields of biotechnology and healthcare. He also holds several advisory board positions with portfolio companies.

Anne Portwich

Partner
EQT Life Sciences

Anne Portwich, PhD, has been with EQT Life Sciences since 2001. She is a Partner in EQT’s Amsterdam office. Her prime focus and responsibility within LSP is to invest in private companies. Over the years, she has been responsible for investments in numerous portfolio companies of LSP, such as Sapiens (acquired by Medtronic in 2014), Nexstim (IPO in 2014), and ActoGeniX (acquired by Intrexon in 2015).

When the first LSP Health Economics Fund was launched in 2012, she became part of the investment team managing this fund, leading investments in companies such as ViCentra, MedEye, Vivasure Medical and Neuravi (acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2017). She also played an pivotal role in raising the LSP Health Economics Fund 2 in 2017, the largest European fund dedicated to medical technology with a fund size of € 280 million. Prior to joining EQT, Anne was a Scientist and Project Leader at OctoPlus, a Dutch company offering advanced research services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. She obtained an MSc in biochemistry from the University of Hanover and received her PhD from the Max Planck-Institute of Marine Microbiology in Bremen. Anne lives near Leiden with her husband and son.

Jack Qian

CEO
Alfa Medtech

Jack Qian is the co-founder and CEO of AlfaMedtech China, a leading urology device company in China with a focus on minimally invasive surgery.

He started his career at US Surgical and established the China's operations in 1997 as the national sales manager. After the merge with Tyco Healthcare, he had played various leadership roles and witnessed the exponetial growth of the company. In 2007 after successfully completed the Tyco's first local M&A of Surgi-land in China, he expanded his career in orthopedics as the general manager of Bonovo then joined Trauson Holding as the Director of Strategic Development and led the team to help the company become the first IPO in Chinese orthopedics. He then started his own investment in several startups in Chinese medtech industry and successfully conducted M&A deal between Kinetec and Ideal Orthopedics. In 2017 he co-founded AlfaMedtech and through merges with Realton and Engine Medical, he has led the company to become the leader in Chinese urology and keep moving towards the leader in Chinese MIS industry.

Thom Rasche

Partner
Earlybird Venture Capital

Thom Rasche is a Partner at the Health Fund of Earlybird Venture Capital, which invests in early-stage companies across digital health, medical devices, diagnostics, R&D platform technologies, and biopharma.

 Thom is an experienced healthcare executive with both operational and financial expertise, currently serving on the boards of Alesi Surgical, Atlantic Therapeutics, and Polares Medical. Prior to joining Earlybird in 2013, he was managing director of Ethicon and VP Europe of Johnson & Johnson. Thom holds a Kaufmann Diploma from the University of Lüneburg.

Dan Rose

CEO
LimFlow

Dan Rose joined LimFlow in August of 2016 with over 16 years of leadership experience in the medical device and venture capital/startup sectors. Most recently, Dan was VP and General Manager EMEA for Direct Flow Medical, a leading innovator in Transcatheter Valves. Previously, he was VP of Commercial Operations and a Member of the Board at Sequana Medical, a Swiss medical device company with innovative implantable pump systems.

Dan also spent 8 years in leadership roles at Medtronic in the cardiovascular and cardiac surgery groups, including as Director of Marketing for Coronary Vascular EMEA and leading the Vascular Business unit in the Nordic Region. Earlier in his career, Dan cofounded a device company in the diabetes space and worked as an associate in London for a boutique life sciences VC, High Plains Investment Group. Dan has a BA and a MA from the University of Virginia and a MBA from the Darden Business School.

Elle Sander

Co-Founder & CEO
Lifelet Medical

Coming soon.

Isabella Schmitt

Director of Regulatory Affairs
Proxima Clinical Research

Isabella Schmitt, MBA, RAC is the Director of Regulatory Affairs at Proxima Clinical Research, a contract research organization guiding emerging MedTech and Biotech companies through regulatory, quality, and clinical development. She leads 100+ medical device and pharma projects and oversees the marketing team. Outside of Proxima, Isabella is a partner, judge, mentor, and speaker for multiple healthcare accelerators, including M1 MedTech Accelerator, MedTech Innovator, TMCi, MassChallenge, gBEta, and Hatch.  She also serves as a pitch coach for SXSW Pitch Competition.

Alexander Schmitz

Partner
Endeavour Vision

Alexander Schmitz is a Partner at Endeavour Vision, investing in medical technology, digital health and diagnostics companies across multiple therapeutic areas.

Alexander brings more than two decades of business and strategy experience in both medical device and high-technology companies. He currently represents Endeavour Vision on the boards of Kenbi, Lumeon, Nalu, Rapid Micro Biosystems (NASDAQ:RPID), Relievant MedSystems, and VentureMed, and led the firm’s investments in Gynesonics, Nuvaira and V-Wave. He previously served on the boards of VertiFlex (acquired by Boston Scientific in 2019) and EndoStim. He is a member of the steering committee for PCR Innovators’ Day and serves as both a jury member and expert panelist for the Healthtech Summit.

Ashley Seehusen

Venture Partner
Sante Ventures

Ashley Seehusen is the Chief Operating Officer of Santé Accel, a Santé affiliated company focused on creating and fostering the development of seed stage opportunities as well as a network of entrepreneurial talent.  Through incubation, company formation, talent matching, and extensive coaching, Ashley helps these medtech, biotech, and healthtech companies grow and prepare for larger investment from Santé’s main investment funds.

Ashley has spent 20+ years in the medical device industry; leading teams, setting business strategy, defining new products, and bringing them to commercialization. Prior to joining Santé Ashley was the  CEO and Co-founder of Nasus Medical, a biopharma and medical device combination company that was founded out of her year as a Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellow.   She has worked for both big companies (Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Stryker Neurovascular) and small (Maya Medical treating Renal Denervation and Barrx Medical treating Barrett’s Esophagus).

Ashley earned a BS from University of California, Berkeley and a PhD from University of Bristol, both in mechanical engineering.  She also has an MBA from Babson College.

Fiachra Sweeney

CTO
FIRE1

Coming soon.

Sinéad Walsh

Director of Operations
BioInnovate Ireland

Sinéad Walsh joined BioInnovate Ireland in March 2022 and is leading the programme operations as well as shaping the programme’s strategic policies. 

Prior to joining BioInnovate Ireland, Sinéad was involved in driving the early stage development and commercialisation of BioInnovate start-up company, Relevium Medical.

Sinéad has a wealth of experience developing and delivering research funding opportunities during seven years leading the Irish Cancer Society’s research funding arm, and a further eight years’ experience managing research and innovation programmes from basic research to highly commercial MedTech initiatives.

Sinéad’s experience working with health tech start-ups began when she joined Trinity College Dublin start-up company Deerac Fluidics in 2008.  During her time at Deerac Fluidics, the company was acquired by US multinational Labcyte Inc.

Rupert Winckler

Head of EMEA Business Development
Olympus

Rupert Winckler joined Olympus in 2017 to lead the company’s business development activities for the EMEA region. He and his team oversee the sourcing and execution of transactions that cover investments, partnerships, acquisitions, and other transactions for the Medical Systems Division.

Rupert has more than 20 years of investment experience across the medical and life science sectors.  He began his career in life science consulting before transitioning to healthcare investment banking. He has held various positions at ING Barings and Piper Jaffray, both in London, where he advised clients on cross-border public and private mergers and acquisitions. Immediately prior to joining Olympus, he led the European Healthcare Investment Banking team at Canaccord Genuity, also in London.

Rupert holds a Master’s Degree in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, as well as a diploma in Financial Management from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. He lives in Hamburg, Germany.

Jennie Xue

Senior Managing Director
Guggenheim Securities

Jennie Xue is a Senior Managing Director at Guggenheim Securities.  She has specialized in medical device investment banking for the last 14 years – focused on advisory for sellside & buyside transactions, IPOs, debt financings, PE and VC investments. Prior to joining Guggenheim, Jennie was in the Healthcare investment banking group at BofA Merrill, and Merrill Lynch prior to that. Jennie received a dual degree BS from Wharton and BSE from the Engineering School at the University of Pennsylvania.