Event Categorie: Dinner Series

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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.

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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.

Mr. Mehrdad Farhangnia serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President at Roxwood Medical, Inc. Mr. Farhangnia joined Roxwood Medical at its formation in January of 2011 and has a successful track record of launching novel medical devices. He has two decades of technical and commercial experience, with prior management roles at Spiracur, Rubicor Medical, FoxHollow Technologies and CardioVention Inc. Prior to his career in medical devices, he spent six years at NASA Ames Research Center, leading collaboration efforts with key aerospace manufacturers and national laboratories. He serves as Director at Roxwood Medical, Inc. He is an inventor of 8 issued patents and has co-authored 10 published articles or conference proceedings. Mr. Farhangnia received his BS and MS degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado.

Amr Salahieh is a seasoned medical device entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the medical device industry. Amr is the founder of Shifamed LLC, a Silicon Valley based medical device incubator founded in 2009, from which Legacy Portfolio Companies Maya Medical, Kalila Medical, and Apama Medical have successfully exited and through which three additional companies are currently under incubation. Prior to founding Shifamed, Amr founded Sadra Medical, a percutaneous aortic valve replacement company, which was sold to Boston Scientific in 2011 and co-founded Embolic Protection, Inc. (EPI) which was sold to Boston Scientific in 2001. Amr has extensive R&D management experience stemming from his engineering consulting firm, Sobek Medical LLC which he sold to EPI, and from his work at CardioThoracic Systems and Guidant. Amr is either the inventor or co-inventor on >100 granted and >140 published US patent applications. He holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

Dr. Stevens is the CEO of HeartFlow, a company focused on using data from standard CT scans, to create personalized 3D models of the coronary arteries and analyzes the impact that blockages have on blood flow. Trained as a cardiovascular surgeon, He had a distinguished career as an health care professional and entrepreneur. He was the Co-Founder and CTO of Heartport, the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Amp Resources, Co-Founder and Chairman and CEO of Sundrop Fuels. He has had extensive experience founding, investing and leading technology focused companies.

Dr. Stevens received his B.S. from the University of Utah and M.D. from the Stanford University School of Medicine. He was an Assistant Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery at Stanford University.

Thomas has 28 years of experience in healthcare with medical devices, biologics, and diagnostics. He has worked with global public companies, private equity, startups, and nonprofits.

He was CEO of Gambro and led the company in the largest private equity transaction in Europe at the time. Previously, Thomas was CEO of HemoCue, which he led to a successful exit. Prior, he was Senior Vice President of Baxter Healthcare / Baxter International and President of Baxter Bioscience. He has also been CEO of Immuno International, a leading global plasma and vaccines company. He was a Managing Director at the World Economic Forum, Davos.

Currently, Thomas is Vice Chairman of Grifols SA, a board member of Sulzer AG and Alkahest, as well as a Healthcare Advisor to Madison Dearborn and Partners.

Thomas is a graduate of Dartmouth College and holds an MBA from IMD in Switzerland. He has a Board of Directors Certification from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Currently he commutes between the US, Switzerland, and Sweden.

After graduating cum laude from Kent State University with a Bachelors of Business Administration degree and a major in Marketing, Mr. Likens began his professional career with Johnson & Johnson Corporation. He then spent more than twenty years in domestic and international sales, marketing and general management roles at Baxter Healthcare Corporation, culminating in the position of President, Baxter Biotech North America, followed by President of Baxter’s Renal Division in the U.S.

In July of 2006, Mr. Likens became President and CEO and the second employee of Ulthera, Inc., a venture capital-backed start-up company in energy-based aesthetics in Phoenix, AZ. Beginning with European regulatory clearance in late 2008, followed by FDA clearance in September of 2009, Ulthera has realized net revenue growth from $0.5M in ’08 to over $117M in 2014 and been profitable each year since 2012. After filing for an Initial Public Offering in early 2014, Ulthera attracted interest from several larger companies, and in July of that year, was acquired by Merz Pharma GmbH for $600M, an amount representing 6.6x trailing 12-months’ revenue. The Arizona Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) recognized this as Transaction of the Year for 2014.

Phoenix Business Journal honored Mr. Likens in 2012, naming him one of Arizona’s Most Admired CEOs.

In June of 2015, Ernst & Young presented Mr. Likens with the Entrepreneur of the Year for the Mountain Desert Region Award, which recognizes outstanding entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance, and personal commitment to their businesses and communities.

He has recently been appointed as president and CEO of GT Medical Technologies, seeking to improve the lives of patients with recurrent brain tumors. Over one hundred patients have already been treated with this patent-protected technology and the company is seeking FDA clearance in 2018.

Dr. Omkaram (Om) Nalamasu is senior vice president and chief technology officer (CTO) for Applied Materials. He brings extensive experience and passion to the role of CTO, where he is leading the development of new product pipelines, securing government funding for key strategic projects and building a world-class team to maintain Applied Materials’ technology leadership in the industries it serves and enable growth into new markets. Dr. Nalamasu is also the president of Applied Ventures, LLC, the venture capital fund of Applied Materials, overseeing the financial and strategic investments in early and growth-stage privately held companies.

A world-renowned expert in materials science and technology and one of our industry’s respected forward thinkers, Dr. Nalamasu has championed a renewed focus on the company’s innovation culture through various internal development programs and open innovation methods. He has strengthened Applied Materials’ strategic relationships with universities and research institutes around the world including IIT Bombay.

Dr. Nalamasu joined Applied Materials in 2006, after serving as vice president of research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). He has held key research and development leadership positions at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies, and Agere Systems, Inc., and was director of Bell Laboratories’ Nanofabrication Research Laboratory, MEMS and Waveguides Research, and Condensed Matter Physics organizations.

His research interests include nanomanufacturing, nanopatterning, electronic and photonic materials, and lithography, with special emphasis on applying patterning and materials know-how for device fabrication for electronics, photonics and energy applications.

Dr. Nalamasu has made seminal contributions to the fields of optical lithography and polymeric materials science and technology. He has received numerous awards, authored more than 180 papers, review articles and books, and holds more than 35 patents.

Dr. Nalamasu is a member of the board of directors of Semiconductor Research Corporation and The Tech Museum, and serves on the National Academies Panel on Materials Science and Engineering. He sits on several technical advisory boards and university advisory committees, and received his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.