Rick Stewart
President and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Stewart has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Directors since 2001. From 1998 to 2001 he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Tegris Corporation, a leading IT infrastructure and enterprise applications provider for vertical markets. Prior to that Mr. Stewart had a long career within Eli Lilly and Company's Medical Device and Diagnostics Unit, holding multiple executive positions in general and technical management, sales, marketing and business development. Mr. Stewart was a member of the senior team that led a buyout of the Physio-Control subsidiary from Eli-Lilly in 1994 which shortly thereafter was taken public. Mr. Stewart received his MBA from the University of Washington.
Gerry Brunk
Lumira Capital Corp.
Mr. Brunk is a Managing Director at Lumira Capital, a health care venture capital firm. He has 20 years of investment, consulting and entrepreneurial experience in the life sciences industry.
Before joining Lumira Capital in 2002 to establish the firm's Cambridge, MA office, Mr. Brunk was an entrepreneur in the life sciences sector, founding and serving in a variety of management and board capacities at several venture capital-funded companies. Earlier in his career he was an engagement manager in the health care practice of The Boston Consulting Group, where he advised pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms on strategic issues involving portfolio management, product licensing, R&D productivity, new product introductions, acquisitions and post-merger integration. Mr. Brunk began his career as a member of the investment banking group of Credit Suisse First Boston where his clients included public and private health care companies.
Mr. Brunk holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a BA from the University of Virginia, where he studied biology and economics.
Mr. Brunk current or past board roles and investment responsibilities include Archemix, MAKO Surgical (NASDAQ: MAKO), NephroGenex, Pharmasset (NASDAQ: VRUS), PharmAthene (AMEX: PIP), and Targanta Therapeutics (now NASDAQ: MDCO).
Renee C. Ryan
Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation
Renee Compton Ryan, Vice President, Venture Investments, joined Johnson &
Johnson Development Corporation in 2011. She is based in Silicon Valley,
California.
Mrs. Ryan's background includes over 20 years of healthcare
investment banking. Most recently, she ran the medical device investment
banking effort at R.W. Baird & Co. Previously, she lead the West Coast medical
device group at Jefferies & Co. and was in the healthcare investment banking
groups at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse.
Mrs. Ryan received an MBA
from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor’s degree from Georgetown
University.
Nathan Every
Frazier Healthcare Ventures
Dr. Every is a cardiologist who has been with Frazier Healthcare since 1999, became a partner in 2001 and General Partner in 2005. Dr. Every is responsible for evaluating opportunities in the medical device and biotech sectors. He was integral to the formation of Synecor, a first-of-its-kind accelerator company backed by researchers, corporations, clinicians and a leading investment bank. He currently serves on the boards of BARRX, Inc., Calibra Medical, InnerPulse, Inc., MacuSight, PowerVision, and Zeltiq Aesthetics, Inc.
Prior to joining the Frazier Healthcare, Dr. Every was an associate professor of medicine and the director of the Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Center (CORC) at the University of Washington, where he performed multiple studies evaluating the costs and outcomes of new procedures and pharmaceutical agents. His findings have been published in more than 75 scientific articles, including The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and The Lancet. Dr. Every earned an M.D. from Emory University School of Medicine and a master of public health (M.P.H.) degree from the University of Washington School of Public Health, and he is board certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular medicine.
Doug Fisher
InterWest Partners
Dr. Doug Fisher joined InterWest's life sciences team in 2009, focusing on
biopharmaceutical, diagnostics, and medical device investments. He is a board
member of Cardiac Dimensions and Gynesonics. Dr. Fisher also is actively
involved in InterWest's investments in Integrated Diagnostics and Invuity.
Prior to joining InterWest, Dr. Fisher was a vice president at New Leaf
Venture Partners where he spent three years focusing on biopharmaceutical,
medical device, and diagnostics investments. He was involved with several
investments, including Pearl Therapeutics, Access Closure, and GluMetrics.
Prior to joining New Leaf, Dr. Fisher was a project leader with The Boston
Consulting Group where he was a member of the Health Care Practice Area and
consulted for leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Previously, he
worked for Centocor (a J&J operating company) in the Global Biologic Strategic
Marketing Group where he developed product strategies in three new disease
areas for Remicade.
Dr. Fisher received an A.B. in economics with honors
and distinction and a B.S. in biology with distinction from Stanford where he
graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He has an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine and an M.B.A. from Wharton where he graduated with honors as
a Siebel Scholar and Palmer Scholar.
Jim Fitzsimmons
President and Chief Executive Officer, Tissue Regenerations System, Inc.
Mr. Fitzsimmons is President and CEO of Tissue Regenerations System, Inc. (TRS), a start-up medical device company developing novel skeletal reconstruction implants for craniomaxillofacial reconstruction, orthopedic trauma and soft tissue repair, and spine fusion. Prior to TRS, he was Chairman and Chief executive Officer of Archus Orthopedics, Inc., which was sold in 2009. Archus was one of three companies created by Scout Medical Technologies LLC, a medical device incubation firm that Jim founded in 2000 and led as Managing Director. In association with his work at Scout, in addition to Archus Orthopedics, Mr. Fitzsimmons co-founded Cardiac Dimensions, Inc., and co-founded EndoGastric Solutions, Inc., both successful start-up medical device companies. Prior to Scout, he served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Guidant Corporation's Cardiac and Vascular Surgery Group. He joined Guidant in 1997 as a result of its acquisition of EndoVascular Technologies ("EVT"). Mr. Fitzsimmons was President and Chief Executive Officer of EVT for six years prior to the Guidant acquisition. Before that, he spent eleven years with the Medical Device and Diagnostic Division of Eli Lilly and Company. During his tenure at Lilly, he held a variety of positions in sales, marketing, mergers and acquisitions, and general management. Outside of his relationship with the Scout companies, he serves on the Board of RF Surgical Systems, Inc., a privately held medical device company. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Albers School of Business and Center for Entrepreneurship at Seattle University. Mr. Fitzsimmons holds a B.S. in Biology-Premedical and a MBA from Seattle University.
Dick Martin
Richard O. Martin, PhD retired in 2001 as President of Medtronic Physio-Control Corp., the worldwide leader in external defibrillation, monitoring and noninvasive pacing devices.
Dr. Martin became Physio President in 1991 when Physio was part of Eli Lilly. During his tenure he successfully instituted companywide quality improvement programs, rebuilt the management team after separation from the company's pharmaceutical parent, and took the company public. In September, 1998, the company merged with Medtronic, Inc.
Previously, Dr. Martin was with Sulzermedica, Inc., Angleton, Texas, where he was Vice President, Cardiovascular Business Development. Prior to that, he held several senior executive positions in engineering, marketing and sales with Intermedics, Inc. before being named President and Chief Operating Officer of that company in 1985. Martin also served as Director, President and COO of Positron Corporation during 1989 - 1990.
Dr. Martin received his BSEE in 1962 from Christian Brothers College; MSEE in 1964 from Notre Dame; and PhD in Electrical Engineering in 1970 from Duke University. Before joining the corporate world he taught at Christian Brothers College and the University of Tennessee.
Dr. Martin has served on the Board of the Northwest affiliate of the American Heart Association and was Chairman 1997-1999. He has served on the Board of the Medial Device Manufacturers Association and as its Chairman during 1996-1998. He has served as Board member and Chairman of the Washington Council of AeA (formerly American Electronics Association), the U.S.'s largest trade association representing the high tech industry, and as AeA's national chairman during 2001.
Dr. Martin also serves on the boards of Prescient Medical in Doylestown, PA, and SonoSite Medical in Bothell, WA.
Kurt Wheeler
Clarus Ventures (representing MPM Capital)
Mr. Wheeler has been Managing Director of Clarus Ventures since the firm's inception in 2005. He has over 25 years of direct investment and industry experience within the healthcare sector, including being a General Partner in a healthcare venture capital firm since 2000. Mr. Wheeler was founder and CEO of InControl, a publicly traded medical device company which was sold to Guidant. Prior to founding InControl he was a Principal with the Mayfield Fund focusing on healthcare investing. Mr. Wheeler began his career with Elli Lilly & Co.
Mr. Wheeler holds a BA from Brigham Young University, and a MBA from Northwestern University.
Mr. Wheeler represents Clarus Ventures on the Board of Directors of Globus Medical, Medasys, SFJ Pharmaceuticals and Zogenix. In addition, Mr. Wheeler is on the Board of Directors of Xoft. Previously he was responsible for investments in Hemosense acquired by Inverness Medical, Intrathrerapeutics acquired by Sulzer Medica, Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, SenoRx, Neuromed Pharmaceuticals, and Somaxon Pharmaceuticals.