Event Categorie: Special Event

Sponsored by

Frank Fischer has more than 40 years of senior management experience in the medical device industry. He co-founded NeuroPace in Dec 1997, led the company as its President and Chief Executive Officer from January 2000 thru July 2019, served on its Board of Directors since inception and is currently Chairman of the Board. Prior to joining NeuroPace, Mr. Fischer was President and Chief Executive Officer of Heartport, Inc., a cardiac surgery company, from May 1998 until September 1999 and served on Heartport’s Board of Directors. Previously, Mr. Fischer was President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of Ventritex, Inc., a company that pioneered implantable cardiac defibrillators, from July 1987 until the sale of the company to St. Jude Medical, Inc. in 1997. Before joining Ventritex, he held various management positions at Cordis Corporation from 1977 to 1987 in the cardiac and neurosurgical device areas, serving most recently as President of the Implantable Products Division. Currently he is a member of the Board of Directors of Nevro, Inc., the Board of Trustees of both Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Babson College as well as the Board of Directors of the Epilepsy Foundation of America. Mr. Fischer holds B.S.M.E. and M.S. in Management degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Sponsored by

Dr. Parhizgar is an experienced and highly successful medical device industry executive and serial entrepreneur currently serving on a number of industry and academic board positions. In her five year tenure serving as President and Chief Executive Officer of Claret Medical, Inc., an embolic protection company, she transformed the company from an early stage ventured backed company to a successful revenue staged company with commercial sales in the US, EU and other markets in excess of $20m in revenue in 2018. She successfully transacted the company’s sale to Boston Scientific Corporation in late 2018 for cash proceeds of $270M.

Prior to joining Claret Medical, she served as the Chief Operating Officer of Conor Medsystems Inc., a reservoir-based drug eluting coronary stent company, which led to the acquisition of the company by Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson Company in 2007 for $1.3B. She spent one year post merger with Johnson & Johnson for successful integration of the companies.

Between 1996-2002, she held the position of Executive Vice President of Clinical, Regulatory, and Quality Engineering at Arterial Vascular Engineering (AVE), an innovative broad portfolio interventional cardiology, peripheral and endovascular company, which was acquired in year 2000 by Medtronic Inc., for $3.4B and was the foundation of the Vascular division of Medtronic. She spent two years at Medtronic post-merger in increasing roles & responsibilities leading to her position as Executive Vice President of Emerging Ventures and New Technologies.

Prior to AVE, Dr Parhizgar held management positions at J&J, CR Bard, and Summit technologies. Dr. Parhizgar has served as an advisor to emerging medical device technology companies including several Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board positions throughout her career.

Dr. Parhizgar has received both her Ph.D. in Cell, Gene therapy and Tissue Engineering and her M.Sc. in Biomechanical Engineering and Artificial Organ Design from Brown University, Providence, RI.

Entrepreneur Kara Goldin is the Founder and CEO of hint, Inc., a healthy lifestyle brand that produces the leading, award-winning, unsweetened flavored water, as well as a scented sunscreen spray that is oxybenzone and paraben-free.

Kara has received numerous accolades, including being been named EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2017 Northern California, one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs and Forbes’ 40 Women to Watch Over 40. The Huffington Post listed her as one of six disruptors in business, alongside Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.

Previously, Kara was Vice President of Shopping and E-commerce Partnerships at AOL, where she helped lead the growth of its startup shopping business to a $1 billion enterprise.

Kara is an active business speaker and writer and, in 2016, she launched The Kara Network, a digital resource and mentoring platform for entrepreneurs. She also recently launched the podcast Unstoppable, where she interviews founders, entrepreneurs and disruptors across various industries.

Dr. Joseph M. DeSimone is the CEO/Co-founder of Carbon, Inc. located in Silicon Valley. Prior to this, DeSimone was the Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University and of Chemistry at UNC. DeSimone has published over 350 scientific articles (> 21,000 citations and H-index = 70) and has nearly 200 issued patents in his name with over 200 patents pending. DeSimone has mentored and trained 73 postdoctoral research associates and has graduated 80 PhD students from his group, 50% of whom are women and people from underrepresented groups in the sciences. = In June, 2016 DeSimone was recognized by President Barack Obama with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

DeSimone is one of fewer than twenty individuals who have been elected to all three branches of the U.S. National Academies: the National Academy of Medicine (2014), the National Academy of Sciences (2012), and the National Academy of Engineering (2005). He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2005). DeSimone has received over 50 major awards and recognitions including the 2017 $250,000 Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment; the inaugural $250,000 Kabiller Prize in Nanoscience and Nanomedicine; the 2015 Dickson Prize from Carnegie Mellon University; the 2014 Industrial Research Institute Medal; the 2014 Kathryn C. Hach Award for Entrepreneurial Success; the 2012 Walston Chubb Award for Innovation by Sigma Xi; the 2010 AAAS Mentor Award in recognition of his efforts to advance diversity in the chemistry PhD workforce; the 2009 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award; the 2009 North Carolina Award; the 2008 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for Invention and Innovation; the 2002 John Scott Award presented by the City Trusts, Philadelphia, given to “the most deserving” men and women whose inventions have contributed in some outstanding way to the “comfort, welfare and happiness” of mankind; and the 2002 Engineering Excellence Award by DuPont.

DeSimone is the co-founder of several companies including Micell Technologies, Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions, Liquidia Technologies, and Carbon. DeSimone received his B.S. in Chemistry in 1986 from Ursinus College in Collegeville, PA and his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1990 from Virginia Tech. He currently resides in Monte Sereno, California with his wife of 30 years, Suzanne.