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.

Serge Bernasconi

CEO
MedTech Europe

Serge Bernasconi has more than 30 years of experience in the world of pharmaceuticals and medical devices, working in companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Schering Plough in US and Europe, and more recently Medtronic. In his capacity as President & International Regional Vice President of Medtronic France, he was elected President of APIDIM (The French Association for the Promotion of Innovation in Medical Devices), and Vice President and Treasurer of SNITEM (French Medical Technology Industry Association).

Todd Brinton

Chief Scientific Officer & Corporate Vice President
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, as well as a strong patient focus as a practicing clinician. 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 enrolling in 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 has been an attending interventional cardiologist at both the Stanford University Medical Center and the Palo Alto VA Medical Center. Dr. Brinton served as the fellowship director at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign from 2006 to 2019, where he worked with numerous teams on the development of new technologies, in addition to serving as the co-director for both the graduate and executive education programs at the center. In 2021, he joined the board of the Alliance for SoCal Innovation and the advisory board for the Edwards Lifesciences Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Technology at UC Irvine. 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. He completed his internship, residency, and fellowships in both cardiology and interventional cardiology at Stanford.

Lisa Carmel

Executive Vice President Global Strategic Parnerships
Veranex

As Executive Vice President, Global Strategic Partnerships, Lisa 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 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.

Tak Cheung

Partner
NEA

Tak joined NEA in 2018 and is currently a Partner on the healthcare team. He focuses on medical device investments.

Prior to NEA, Tak was a Venture Partner at Merieux Development Venture Fund where he led all phases of investment for healthcare startups, including sourcing, diligence and investment approvals. Tak also co-founded Lexington Medical, a commercial-stage medical device startup in the gastrointestinal surgery space. Prior to Merieux and Lexington, Tak was VP of Business Development for the Global Surgical Division at Bausch & Lomb, and was responsible for all business development efforts in the ophthalmic surgical division. Tak has held various corporate and business development leadership roles at Edwards Lifesciences in the Heart Valve Therapy Division and Advanced Medical Optics (acquired by Johnson & Johnson).

Tak received a BS with Honors in Engineering and Applied Science from the California Institute of Technology, an MD from the University of California, Irvine, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Chris Cleary

Senior Vice President Corporate Development
Medtronic

Chris 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.

Gloria Crispino

CEO
StatisticaMedica

Dr. Gloria Crispino is the founder and CEO of StatisticaMedica Ltd - 2011 to present. Gloria has acquired over fifteen years of experience in conducting research, consulting and in education in the fields of biostatistics, both in academia and industry, in Europe and the USA.

Gary Curran

Senior Manager
EY

Gary Curran is a Senior Manager in EY’s Business Consulting services competency with a specific focus on Supply Chain Global Trade & Tax.

Gary has a wide range of experience in process design and development, along with supply chain system implementations, improvement and Operating Model optimization across multiple industries, including Construction, Mining, Healthcare and Life Sciences, and Software.

Gary has completed postgraduate work in Business Administration at NUIG, Ireland and Business Studies at UoP, USA.

Olivier Delporte

CEO
Miracor Medical

Olivier Delporte is an international executive with over 20 years of sales, marketing and general management experience, mostly in the medical device industry. Prior to joining Miracor, he was Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, U.S. at PneumRx (acquired by BTG in 2015) and Vice President Commercial Operations, Sales and Marketing of Tryton Medical in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Previously, Olivier held leadership positions at Guidant Corporation and Abbott Vascular. Olivier has studied and worked in the U.S., France, Spain, and Belgium. He is currently a Director of Endotoxins Therapeutics. Olivier earned a Master’s Degree in Business from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, and a Master’s in Business Administration from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

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.

Colin Doolin

Associate Partner, Global Trade
EY

Colin Doolin is based in EY Dublin and is an Associate Partner in the firm’s Global Trade Team, a unique practice which is solely dedicated to advising the firm’s key MNC clients on indirect tax issues affecting their business across the World.

He has extensive Customs and International Trade  experience and has worked with a large number of clients in a wide range of industries providing expertise in implementing cost saving programs and assisting with integration and compliance projects.

James Eadie

Partner
Sante Ventures

James 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.

Christopher Eso

Vice President, Business Development & Strategy, CardioVascular Portfolio & SH&A
Medtronic

Chris Eso currently has dual responsibility as Vice President of Business Development & Strategy for both the Structural Heart & Aortic operating unit and the Cardiovascular Portfolio, which includes eight cardiovascular operating units across Medtronic. Chris joined Medtronic in 2011 and has held numerous business development, M&A and strategy positions of increasing responsibility and scope over his tenure at Medtronic in both the businesses and corporate functions.

Chris brings more than 25 years of successful professional business and general management experience within the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries, in addition to Medtronic, including Allergan, Watson Pharmaceuticals, Agilent Technologies, and Peregrine Pharmaceuticals. Most of his experience is in a business/corporate development and strategy capacity where he has led more than 50 transactions with consideration of approximately $15 billion, as well as general management capacity running a $50 million revenue-generating wholly-owned subsidiary of a publicly-traded company.

Chris holds an MBA from Concordia University and BA in Public Relations, Communications from California State University, Fullerton.

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.

Jake Goble

Innovation Leader
WL Gore

Jake has spent 15 years at W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. supporting various commercialized products as well as new product development efforts.  Currently, Jake is a member of Gore Medical’s Divisional Leadership Team bringing specific leadership to their Innovation Business.  Here, he seeks to define a portfolio of growth opportunities leveraging Gore’s unique culture and capabilities to improve patients’ lives.

Caroline Gaynor

Principal
Lightstone Ventures

Caroline 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.

Hanson S. Gifford, III

Partner
Lightstone Ventures

Hanson is a Partner of LSV. He assists the LSV medical device team with deal sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio company management. He has served in this role since November 2013. Hanson is also a Managing Partner at The Foundry, LLC, a medical device company incubator and a preferred partner to LSV. Since its inception in 1998, Hanson has led The Foundry in all of its activities. Prior to The Foundry, Hanson was Vice President of Research and Development at Heartport, Inc., which had a successful IPO in 1996. From 1993-1998, he built and led a 62-person team at Heartport developing a wide variety of novel devices and procedures for minimally invasive cardiac surgery. In 1992-1993, Hanson co-founded and served as Managing Director of Bavaria Medizin Technologie, GmbH in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. In 1991, Hanson co-founded and served as President of Cardiovascular Therapeutic Technologies (acquired by Eli Lilly). From 1985-1990, Hanson worked at Devices for Vascular Intervention (acquired by Eli Lilly) in various engineering, clinical research and marketing capacities. Before joining DVI, Hanson worked in engineering roles at Oximetrix and General Dynamics. Hanson is a named inventor on over 360 issued US patents. Hanson is a Director of FIRE1, Contego, Reprieve Cardiovascular, Half Moon Medical, Tangible Science, and Foundry Therapeutics 2.

Jose Calle Gordo

Operating Partner
Valiance

Former CEO
Biosensors

Pepe brings 30 years of business and management experience in the medical device industry and serves on the Board of Lungpacer, FEops, JenaValve, and Laminate.

Pepe joined Valiance from Singapore-based Biosensors where he most recently served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. Pepe started his tenure at Biosensors as Executive Director and CEO. He performed a turn-around of the Company’s operating performance, forged strategic alliances and worked with the largest shareholder to successfully privatise and de-list the company in order to create a global player in interventional cardiology valued at over a $1 billion. Pepe joined Biosensors from Abbott where he was Vice President of Abbott Vascular and led the global commercial introduction of MitraClip, a percutaneous treatment for mitral valve repair. Prior to Abbott he served as Vice President and General Manager of Drug Eluting Stents at Guidant based in California. He started his career at Eli Lily in London.

Pepe holds a BSc in Biomedical and Electrical engineering from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain.

Paul Grand

Founder & CEO
MedTech Innovator

Paul 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.

Frederik Groenewegen

General Partner
415 Capital

Frederik has over ten years of experience in investment banking and portfolio management (both equity and debt). He currently serves as a board member at R3 Vascular Inc. Prior to co-founding 415 CAPITAL, Frederik led new business development efforts at Regis Medical GmbH, where he sourced and evaluated new MedTech investment opportunities, leading the due diligence process for several early-stage MedTech deals. Prior to joining Regis Medical in 2016, Frederik worked in HSBC’s Leveraged & Acquisition Finance group in New York City where he structured leveraged loans and high-yield bonds for private equity-backed buyouts and corporate M&A transactions including several mid- and large-cap Healthcare deals. Previously, he was in charge of the day-to-day monitoring of HSBC’s US private equity-backed credit portfolio. Before moving to New York City, he was an Analyst at HSBC in London where he advised clients on cross-border M&A transactions and IPOs. Frederik holds an Hon. B.A. in Economics magna cum laude from the University of Toronto (University College), Canada.

David Hochman

CEO
Orchestra BioMed

Mr. Hochman has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Orchestra BioMed since May 2018. Since 2006, he served as Managing Partner of Orchestra Medical Ventures, an investment firm focused on creating high-impact medical device therapies.

Mr. Hochman has also served President of Accelerated Technologies, Inc., a medical device accelerator company now owned by Orchestra BioMed. Mr. Hochman has over 24 years of healthcare entrepreneurial, venture capital and investment banking experience. He is currently Chairman of the board for Motus GI, a medical technology company dedicated to improving clinical outcomes and enhancing the cost-efficiency of colonoscopy. Mr. Hochman was a co-founder and until September 2020 served as a board member of Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRBP), a clinical-stage company focused on the development and commercialization of novel medicines designed to target the endocannabinoid system. Prior to joining Orchestra Medical Ventures, Mr. Hochman was Chief Executive Officer of Spencer Trask Edison Partners, LLC, an investment partnership focused on early stage healthcare companies. He was also Managing Director of Spencer Trask Ventures, Inc. during which time he led financing transactions for over twenty early-stage companies raising over $420 million. From 1999 to 2006, Mr. Hochman was a board advisor of Health Dialog Services Corporation, a leader in collaborative healthcare management that was acquired in 2008 by the British United Provident Association for $750 million. From 2005 to 2007, he was a co-founder and board member of PROLOR Biotech, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing longer lasting versions of approved therapeutic proteins, which was purchased by Opko Health (NYSE: OPK) in 2013 for over $600 million.

Alan Hobbs

Manager High Potential Start Ups
Enterprise Ireland

Alan 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.  

Mudit Jain

Founding General Partner
Treo Ventures

CEO and Co-founder
NuXcel

Mudit is a Founding General Partner of Treo Ventures, and the CEO and co-founder of NuXcel, a medical device accelerator. Mudit also co-founded and serves as Chairman of the Board of ShiraTronics, Inc., a NuXcel spin off company.

Mudit brings over two decades of medical device industry experience across company formation, R&D, business development, and venture capital, with a global perspective on healthcare based on his experiences in USA, Ireland, and India. Mudit has served on the boards of several medical device companies, from early to commercial growth stage, resulting in successful IPOs and M&A transactions.

Jeff Jump

Chairman & CEO
MedAlliance Swiss Medical Technology

Jeff has nearly 40 years’ experience of the international medical devices industry, 15 years of which have been at Board level. He is the former CEO of SGX publicly listed company Biosensors where he spent 13 years, which during this time grew from a start-up to become the fourth largest supplier of cardiac stents in the world. In addition to President and CEO he served as a Board Director and Chairman of Biosensors Europe.Jeff has also been a Non-Executive Director of various medical device companies including Symetis (sold to Boston Scientific), PneumRx (sold to BTG), Maya (sold to Covidien), Benechill, Anecova, Veryan and ARTS and former Chairman of Combioxin S.A. He is currently serving as an Independent Board Director for Impulse Dynamics and Chairman of Aleva Neuro S.A.

Jinny Lee

SVP, 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.  

Howard Levin

CEO
Deerfield Catalyst

A veteran in the field of biomedical engineering and cardiology, with a specialty in heart failure and transplantation, Dr. Levin brings more than 35 years of clinical and commercial healthcare experience to his role. In 2003, with Mark Gelfand, Dr. Levin co-founded Coridea. His inventions and co-inventions have successfully launched or their patents helped launch companies including Ardian (Medtronic), CHF Solutions (Gambro), Respicardia (formerly, Cardiac Concepts), eValve (Abbott) and RenalGuard/Reprieve Cardiovascular (PLC Medical), Cibiem and Soffio Medical. He has held a number of positions in these companies including President, Chief Scientific Officer, Chief Medical Officer and VP of R&D. Dr. Levin received his M.D. from the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and his training in cardiology at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He also has a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering.

Stephen Levin

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

Stephen 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, 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 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.

Megan MacDonagh

Senior Associate
SV Health Investors

Megan 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.

Josh Makower

Director & Co-founder
Stanford Biodesign

Dr. Josh Makower is the Boston Scientific Applied Bioengineering Professor of Medicine and of Bioengineering at the Stanford University Schools of Medicine and Engineering and the Director of the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, the program he co-founded with Dr. Paul Yock twenty years ago. Josh helped create the fundamental structure of the Center’s core curriculum and is the chief architect of what is now called “The Biodesign Process.” Over the past 20 years since Josh and Paul founded Biodesign, this curriculum and the associated textbook has been used at Stanford and across the world to train hundreds of thousands of students, faculty and industry leaders on the Biodesign process towards the advancement of medical innovation for the improvement of patient care. Josh has practiced these same techniques directly as the Founder & Executive Chairman of ExploraMed, a medical device incubator, creating 9 companies since 1995. Transactions from the ExploraMed portfolio include NeoTract, acquired by Teleflex, Acclarent, acquired by J&J, EndoMatrix, acquired by C.R. Bard & TransVascular, acquired by Medtronic. Other ExploraMed/NEA ventures include Moximed, NC8 and Willow. Josh is also a Special Partner at NEA where he supports the healthcare team and medtech/healthtech investing practice. Josh serves on the boards of Allay Therapeutics, Revelle Aesthetics, Setpoint Medical, DOTS Technologies, Eargo, ExploraMed, Intrinsic Therapeutics, Moximed, Willow and Coravin. Josh holds over 300 patents and patent applications. He received an MBA from Columbia University, an MD from the NYU School of Medicine, a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. Josh is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering and the College of Fellows of The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and was awarded the Coulter Award for Healthcare Innovation by the Biomedical Engineering Society in 2018.

Helen McBreen

Partner
Atlantic Bridge

Helen joined Atlantic Bridge in 2015 on our University Bridge Fund. At Atlantic Bridge, Helen manages early stage investing and leads investments from University Fund I & II which are focused on early stage deeptech companies built from world class research generated at leading research institutions and universities.   Having successfully sourced and financed dozens of IP rich technology ventures in software (enterprise, cloud, mobile), hardware (robotics, semiconductors) and life-sciences (medtech, diagnostics), Helen brings over 15 years’ experience in early stage investing.

Helen is a Kauffman Fellow (Class 22, 2019) and in 2021 was nominated as VP of TechTour Deep Tech (Software). Active in the early stage ecosystem Helen is also a board member to several companies and a mentor and advisor to organisations including Knowledge Transfer Ireland, UCD VentureLaunch, NDRC, TechIreland and TechInnovate.

Andy McGibbon

Managing Partner
Sonder Capital

Andy McGibbon has worked in the management consulting and life science industries, accelerating innovation across a wide range of company sizes. In 2017, he formed a consulting practice to support large and small medtech companies with defining business processes for identifying impactful unmet needs in healthcare and lead the subsequent efforts to identify, filter, and develop the associated innovations.

Prior to forming his consulting practice, Andy worked with medtech firms across the fields of cardiology, GI, ophthalmology, and pulmonology and worked as a life science strategy consultant with Capgemini Consulting.

Andy is a graduate of the Stanford University Biodesign 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 and Palliare, is a Board Observer to Shorla Pharma and was previously on the Board of Biosensia prior to its merger with Kypha Diagnostics.

Dennis McWilliams

Partner
Sante Ventures

Dennis is a serial life science entrepreneur and innovator dedicated to globally commercializing medical technologies.

Prior to joining Santé, Dennis founded SparkMed Advisors, a boutique advisory to the medical device space, Apollo Endosurgery, a medical device company developing novel flexible surgical devices for less invasive surgery, and co-founded Chrysalis BioTechnology‚ a development-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on novel drug therapies for tissue regeneration. He started his career as an analyst for the IC2 Institute, a global think tank focused on applied entrepreneurship and commercialization research.

Dennis also serves as Co-Course Director for the B.E.S.T. Innovation Course, taught at the IHU Institute in Strasbourg France, is a member of the Center for BioDesign’s Advisory Counsel at Johns Hopkins University and is a frequent lecturer in the Stanford BioDesign Fellowship program.

Dennis earned his MS in engineering management from Stanford University and his BS in aerospace engineering, with honors, from the University of Texas.  He has served on the Board of Directors for the Texas Exes and University of Texas Men’s Athletic Counsel, been named a Distinguished Engineering Graduate and an Outstanding Young Texas Ex and is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Alumni for the Department of Aerospace.

Dr. Marc-Pierre Möll

CEO
BVMed

Dr. Marc-Pierre Möll has been CEO of the German Medical Technology Association (BVMed) in Berlin and CEO of BVMed-Akademie, BVMed’s information and seminar service, since April 2019. In addition, he is a member of the BVMed board. The graduated political scientist has many years of experience in healthcare politics. He headed the division “Government and Parliament” at the Association of Private Health Insurance Funds in Berlin from 2008 until 2019. Prior to that he had managed two MP’s offices as personal assistant in the German Bundestag for 17 years.

Susan Morano

Vice President Business Development and Strategic Operations
Johnson & Johnson

Susan joined Johnson & Johnson as a college recruit in the Finance organization. During her tenure in the Corporation, she transitioned through a number of positions with increasing responsibility through six operating companies, primarily within Finance and Business Development. Susan has been involved in a number of significant transactions within Medical Devices.

Ms. Morano received her BS in accounting from Villanova University and an MBA from Columbia University.

Jennifer Nagy

General Manager
Ethicon GB

Jenny joined Johnson & Johnson in 2008 in new product commercialization.  She’s progressed through several roles focused on medical device innovation and holds multiple patents in implantable adjuncts.  

Her experience includes development and delivery of patient connected software and systems and scouting for new technologies. 

She currently serves as General Manager of Ethicon Great Britain.  Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, she worked in various roles in consumer, consulting, and education.

Dr. Lucy O’Keeffe

CEO
CroiValve

Lucy 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 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’Neill

Founder & CEO
Neuromod Devices

Ross O’Neill is the founding CEO of Neuromod Devices, an Irish medical device manufacturer that 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’.

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.

Antoine Papiernik

Chairman & Managing Partner
Sofinnova Partners

Antoine Papiernik is Chairman and Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners, which he joined in 1997.

Antoine has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. He has been selected twice for the Forbes Midas List, an annual ranking recognizing the world’s top venture capital investors. Antoine is one of the few European and life science investors to have appeared on the prestigious list.

Anne Portwich

Partner
EQT Life Sciences

Anne Portwich, PhD, has been with LSP since 2001. She is a Partner in LSP’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 LSP, 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.

Thom Rasche

Partner
Earlybird Venture Capital

Thom Rasche has been a partner at Earlybird Venture Capital since 2007 where he focuses on the healthcare technology sector. Mr. Rasche joined Earlybird Venture Capital GmbH & Co as a Venture Partner in 2003. Since he joined Earlybird, he has been responsible for the medical device portfolio and for making new investments in this area.

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.

Bruce Rosengard

Vice President for Medical Devices
Johnson & Johnson External Innovation

Bruce R. Rosengard is the Chief Medical Science and Technology Officer for Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies.   In this role, he is responsible for creating and delivering on a future oriented, strategic, and relevant medical innovation strategy.  Bruce and his team will identify emerging surgical trends and novel technology platforms with the goal of bringing innovative device solutions in the surgical and interventional spaces into the Medical Devices portfolio.

Harry Rowland

CEO
Endotronix

Harry Rowland is co-founder and CEO of Endotronix.  Dr. Rowland has led the company’s operations, strategy, and technology development since inception. His vision has been integral in raising $100M in VC and strategic financing and building the company to 70+ people.  He received his PhD in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a BS in mechanical engineering, and a MA in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.  Dr. Rowland has authored or presented numerous conference and journal papers in internationally recognized peer-reviewed publications such as Science and Nano, with his work referenced in nearly 500 scholarly articles. He has more than 15 issued patents and several pending applications.

Josep Sanfeliu

Managing Partner
Asabys Partners

Managing partner, president and co-founder at Asabys Partners. Josep currently serves on the board of directors of Anaconda, Cara Care, Inbrain Neuroelectronics, Medasense, Medlumics and Psious.

Formerly, Josep co-founded Ysios Capital (2008-2018) where he was the partner in charge of Health Technology investments, investing in a total of 9 companies in the areas of medtech and digital health in Europe and in the US. Previously, Josep held positions in the pharmaceutical and home-healthcare industries as Corporate Development Director at Almirall and General Manager of DomusVi. Josep started his career in Cuatrecasas, KPMG and Eurohold.

Josep has a Degree in Law by the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the University of Michigan Law School and also an MBA from IESE Business School.

Eric Schantz

Vice President, Corporate Development
Medtronic

Eric Schantz is a Vice President of Corporate Development at Medtronic, focused on M&A in the cardiovascular portfolio, along with other strategic corporate transactions. Eric joined Medtronic in 2008 following several years as a sell-side equity research analyst covering cardiovascular, orthopedics, ophthalmology, aesthetics, and neuromodulation segments. Eric received a BS and MS in engineering from the University of Cincinnati, and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Isabella Schmitt

Director of Regulatory Affairs
Proxima Clinical Research

Isabella Schmitt 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, oversees the marketing team, serves as a partner, judge, mentor, and speaker for healthcare accelerators, and as a pitch coach for SXSW Pitch Competition.

Alexander Schmitz

Partner
Endeavour Vision

Alexander 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.

Eliane Schutte

CEO
Xeltis

Eliane Schutte is Xeltis Chief Executive Officer since 2018. Under her leadership, the company expanded its strategy to cover valve and vascular applications and closed a €10.5 million Series D financing round. She initially joined Xeltis in 2015 as Chief Development Officer, leading its clinical trial program, product development strategy and regulatory.

Karl Schweitzer

Founder & CEO
Transform Medical

Karl has 30 years of international senior executive experience. He served as VP at Boston Scientific and at Medtronic where he launched the first ever trans-catheter heart valve. Karl was involved in an IPO on Nasdaq of a Bain Capital portfolio company. Karl is founder of Transform Medical, active in advisory work and investments. He is co-founder and CEO of Neuromodtronic and serves as chairman of the board of Biomodex and Oncomfort. He raised > €70m. Karl holds a JD, a MSc and a MBA from INSEAD.

Mark Secrest

Managing Director, Healthcare Investment Banking
BTIG

Mark Secrest is a Managing Director within BTIG Healthcare Investment Banking, focused on medical devices, life sciences tools and diagnostics companies. Prior to BTIG, he was a Managing Director and Head of Medical Devices M&A in Healthcare Investment Banking at Stifel. Previously, Mr. Secrest held several investment banking roles at Cowen between 1998 and 2010, including Head of Medical Technology M&A and Chairman of their Fairness Opinion Review Committee. Between 1995 and 1998, he was a Director in the M&A division at UBS. Mr. Secrest was instrumental in the development and growth of UBS’ M&A effort, and was responsible for the execution of the firm’s M&A assignments for North American clients outside of financial institutions. He began his career in the M&A team at Kidder, Peabody. Mr. Secrest earned a BA from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Ari Silverman

Partner

Mavie Technologies

Ari is a strategic and entrepreneurial business builder and healthcare industry leader with extensive experience in company and product growth strategies, commercial operations, digital strategies, government collaboration and talent and leadership development. He has over 17 years of global life sciences experience, with 12 years based in China. As a partner in McKinsey’s China Healthcare Practice, he worked with leading multinational healthcare players to build their China businesses for growth and scale.

Ari is regularly invited to speak about China healthcare opportunities and landscape at leading healthcare conferences. He also advises healthcare companies in US and Europe.

Aneta Sottil

Director
Andera Partners

Aneta Sottil joined Andera Partners in January 2018. She serves as Director in the Andera Life Sciences team, dedicated to investing in life sciences.

Aneta has 14 years of experience in Life Sciences, gained in healthcare investment banking (BAML between 2006 and 2008; Rothschild between 2008 and 2013) and Venture Capital (Norgine Ventures between 2013 and 2018). She holds a Masters in Finance and Banking from Warsaw School of Economics, Singapore Management University and l’Université Pierre Mendès France.

By origin Polish, Aneta also speaks English, French and Spanish. Aneta currently serves on the boards of Atlantic Therapeutics and Gamamabs.

Susan Trent

CEO
Atlantic Therapeutics

Susan has enjoyed a 20+ year career in GSK Pharmaceuticals and Consumer Healthcare, with extensive International experience gained in the UK, Latin America, Japan, SE Asia and USA. She has held GM, marketing, sales, business development and strategic planning roles at an operational and above-country level. She has proved adept at delivering results in diverse environments through strong relationship-building at all organizational levels.

Throughout her career, Susan’s particular area of focus has been in building brands that leverage strong science to meet a clear unmet consumer need. In her most recent role pre-AT, she created a new consumer brand in prostate health for a nutraceutical company, successfully launching it in the US via direct-to-consumer ecommerce and medical endorsement. Immediately prior, she ran GSK’s newly acquired Skin Health portfolio, taking traditionally hcp-focused brands and successfully bringing them into the consumer marketplace with compelling communications campaigns and appropriate commercial strategies.

Rupert Winckler

Head of EMEA Business Development
Olympus

Based in Hamburg, Germany, Rupert leads business development activities for Olympus in the EMEA region. His team is responsible for sourcing and executing deals including investments, partnerships, acquisitions and other transactions in EMEA. Prior to joining Olympus in 2017, Rupert led the European Healthcare Investment Banking team at Canaccord Genuity in London. Before this, he was a senior banker at Piper Jaffray (now Piper Sandler), where he worked for ten years, as well as ING Barings, advising clients on a number of cross-border public and private M&A in the life sciences sector. He began his career in life science consulting, servicing clients in the med tech, diagnostics and biopharma sectors. Rupert holds a Masters degree in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford as well as additional qualifications in Finance.