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| Keynote
Speaker |
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Chris Chavez, President and CEO, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems, Inc.
Christopher Chavez joined ANS as president and chief executive officer in 1998. Prior to joining ANS, Chavez was vice president of worldwide marketing and strategic planning for Eastman Kodak's Health Imaging Division. His experience also includes a 17-year tenure with Johnson & Johnson Medical, Inc., where he progressed through several positions in finance, strategic planning, domestic and international marketing, new business development and general management. Chavez is an active leader in the medical community, currently serving as vice chairman on the board of directors for Medical Device Manufacturers Association, chairman of the board for The Dallas/Fort Worth Health Industry Council, board member for The North Texas Visiting Nurse Association and board member for Advanced Medical Optics, Inc. Chavez received his master's degree in business administration from the Harvard Graduate School of Business.
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| Neurotech
Reports Editors |
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James Cavuoto, editor
and publisher
James Cavuoto is editor and publisher of Neurotech Business Report
and the founder of Neurotech Reports. He was the lead author of "The
Market for Neurotechnology," a market research report published
by Neurotech Reports. Cavuoto was the founder of Micro Publishing
Press, Inc., a publishing company that helped pioneer the market for
electronic publishing, digital imaging, and computer graphics. He
holds a degree in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve
University, where he studied under pioneers in the field of functional
electrical stimulation. He has also studied human factors engineering
at University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Cavuoto spent
three years as a member of the technical staff at Hughes Aircraft
Company in Los Angeles, where he worked on simulation, training, and
publication products produced for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Cavuoto is an adjunct professor at Rochester Institute
of Technology and the author of eight books on computer graphics,
electronic publishing, and digital imaging. He is a member of the
IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.
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Glenn Cornett, M.D.,
Ph.D., senior financial editor
Glenn Cornett is an experienced neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and
financial consultant, with a background in research and business development.
After earning his Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA and his M.D. from
University of Michigan Medical School, Glenn spent several years as
a technology and healthcare consultant with McKinsey & Company.
He has also held marketing and business development positions at Lilly
& Company and Razorfish. He currently runs his own consulting
firm, Metastrat, in Palo Alto, CA, providing strategic advisory services
to biotechnology and medical device firms.
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Warren Grill, Ph.D., senior technology editor
Warren M. Grill is one of the nation's leading experts in neural stimulation and neural prostheses. Dr. Grill is Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. He earned his Ph.D. at Case Western Reserve University, where he was most recently Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering. He has been nominated for both undergraduate and graduate teaching awards. He and his colleagues were awarded the 2002 Excellence in Neural Engineering Award by the IEEE-EMBS / BMES and he was named the 2003 Neurotechnology Researcher of the Year by Neurotech Business Report. Dr. Grill serves on the editorial boards of the IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering and Neuromodulation and as a Consultant to the Neurological Devices Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee, U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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| Venture Capital Professionals |
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Albert Cha, M.D., Ph.D., Partner, Vivo Ventures (formerly BioAsia Investments)
Albert Cha is an accomplished scientist with expertise in neuroscience and medical devices. He received his B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University and worked at Oracle Corporation in pharmaceutical consulting. He subsequently received an M.D. with honors (AOA) and Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California at Los Angeles, where he won multiple awards including the Outstanding Graduate Student Award. Dr. Cha has published several research articles in the field of molecular biophysics in publications such as Nature and Neuron. He currently serves on the boards of BioForm Medical, Angiogenix, and ViOptix. He joined Vivo in 2000 and became Partner in 2003. |
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Andrew Firlik, M.D., Venture Partner, Sprout Group
Andrew Firlik joined Sprout Group as a venture partner in January 2004. Prior to Sprout, he was a principal at Canaan Partners where he concentrated on life science investments. While at Canaan, Andrew invested in and served on the board of directors of several companies, including Viacor, Transoma Medical, Omnisonics, IntelliCare, and SpineWave. Prior to his involvement with Canaan Partners, he was a co-founder and principal of Cortex Consulting, where he served as a consultant to Mayfield Fund and several early stage healthcare companies. He is a co-founder and scientific advisory board member of Northstar Neuroscience, a medical device company in Seattle. Andrew has been in the health care profession for 12 years during his training and practice as a neurological surgeon. He has published more than 40 articles in the medical literature, written chapters for several medical textbooks, filed patents on several inventions, and is the co-editor of a book about cerebrovascular surgery. He also co-founded LaunchCyte, a healthcare seed stage investor and business accelerator. He currently serves on the board of directors of NovaVision and observes on the board of directors of Northstar Neuroscience. Andrew studied biology at Cornell University and Oxford University, received his MBA from the Katz Graduate School of Business, and his MD from Cornell University Medical College. He is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at New York University School of Medicine and is an attending neurosurgeon at the Manhattan VA Harbor Healthcare System affiliated with the New York University Medical Center. |
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Wende Hutton, Venture Partner, Canaan Partners
Wende Hutton joined Canaan's Menlo Park office in 2004, and augments Canaan's national life sciences investment practice as a Venture Partner. Wende began her venture career at Mayfield in 1993, where she was a General Partner in the life sciences group until 2001. Most recently, she was a General Partner at Spring Ridge Ventures, a health care-focused venture fund. Three of her investments from the past two years were co-investments with Canaan: SpineWave, Coapt Systems, and Northstar Neuroscience. Earlier in her career, Wende held senior management positions at GenPharm International and Nellcor. Wende holds an A.B. in human biology from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar. Wende has served on the board of directors for over 14 companies, and is currently a director of SenoRx, Alsius, and Northstar Neuroscience.
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Kevin Wasserstein, Versant Ventures
Kevin Wasserstein specializes in investing and building early-stage medical device companies, and is actively involved with several of Versant's portfolio companies and affiliations, including: LipoSonix, NeoGuide Systems, Rox Medical, Second Sight Medical and The Innovation Factory. Kevin joined Versant with more than ten years of successful operating roles in medical device and high technology companies, most recently serving in a variety of marketing and business development roles at Guidant Corp. During his tenure at Guidant, Kevin acted as the Director of Marketing in Guidant's Cardiac Surgery Group, managing product development and launch initiatives and spearheading market development programs to drive adoption of minimally invasive cardiac surgery. Kevin also served as Senior Global Product Manager in Guidant's Peripheral and Carotid Group, during which he developed and launched several first-generation stent and embolic protection devices. Previously, in Guidant's Compass Business Development Group , Kevin was involved in acquisition, licensing and investment activities with both private and public medical device companies, and in formulating corporate strategies to develop innovative medical technologies. Kevin's operational experience also includes business development at Heartstream and engineering design and engineering management responsibilities at Hughes Aircraft Company. Kevin holds both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering, as well as an MBA, all from Stanford University.
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| Panelists |
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Terri Zmina, Manager of Business Developemnt, NDI Medical
Terri Zmina joined NDI Medical in June 2003. She is responsible for intellectual property management, business and market opportunity analysis, and the development of reimbursement strategy for emerging neurostimulation/neuromodulation products, including coding, coverage, and payment. Prior to joining NDI, Ms. Zmina was Reimbursement Manager for a small venture capital based neuroprosthetic company where she developed positive reimbursement coverage for Vocare Bladder System for restoration of bladder function and the Freehand System for restoration of hand grasp to individuals with spinal cord injury. Ms. Zmina holds a B.S. in Physical Therapy and an M.B.A. in Health Care Administration and has 20 years of clinical and management experience in acute and chronic rehabilitation settings. In addition, she has dedicated the past five years to reimbursement strategy for various neuroprosthetic products, existing and emerging, for individuals with spinal cord injury and stroke. |
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Shai Gozani, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman and CEO, Neurometrix, Inc.
Shai Gozani founded NeuroMetrix, Inc., a publicly traded neurotechnology company, in 1996 and currently serves as Chairman , President, and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to forming NeuroMetrix , Dr. Gozani completed a neurophysiology research fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Gerald Fischbach at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Gozani has published articles in the areas of basic and clinical neurophysiology, biomedical engineering, and computational chemistry , and had authored 13 patents. Dr. Gozani holds a B.S. degree in Computer Science, an M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Neurobiology, from the University of California, Berkeley. He also received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard-M.I.T. Division of Health Sciences at M.I.T. |
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Andrew Merickel, Ph.D., Attorney at Law, Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear
Andrew Merickel joined Knobbe MartensOlson & Bear in 2000 and is an associate in the firm's San Francisco office. His practice focuses primarily on patent prosecution in the areas of biotechnology and integrated circuit fabrication. In addition, Dr. Merickel has particular experience in the legal areas of intellectual property due diligence, international intellectual property matters, licensing, patents, right-to-practice opinions, and invalidity/non-infringement opinions. Dr. Merickel is an active member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, American Bar Association, and Bar Association of San Francisco. He also has written for various scientific publications. Dr. Merickel graduated from Amherst College in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. In 1997 he received his Doctorate in Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2000, Dr. Merickel received his Juris Doctorate for the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Merickel is a member of the State Bar of California and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
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Gail Schechter, Ph.D., President, BioIntelligence
Gail Schechter is a neuroscientist with experience in the pharmaceutical industry, in academic medicine, and at the National Institutes of Health. She is the president of BioIntelligence, a consulting company specializing in technology assessment, product development, and grant writing. During her 10 years at BioIntelligence, she has written many successful multi-million dollar grant applications to fund emerging companies. She also has authored industry reports analyzing novel therapeutics to treat neurological disorders. Previously, she worked at Genentech, Inc., and other biotechnology companies to facilitate research collaborations. She was a clinical faculty member at the Stanford University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She also spent 10 years conducting research in human electrophysiology at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Schechter specializes in neuroscience research, and she received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. |
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Jennifer French, Executive Director, Society to Increase Mobility
Jennifer French is executive director of the Society to Increase Mobility (STIM), a nonprofit organization founded in Florida in 2003. Jennifer acquired her C6-7 incomplete spinal cord injury in 1998. Prior to her injury, she was recreationally active with such sports as canoeing, snowboarding/skiing, sailing, fly fishing, biking. After her injury, she still participates in all those activities. She is an active user of an FES system. Now residing in Tampa, Florida, Jen is active in the community accessible sailing program, Sailing Alternatives as well as the national US Sailing, Sailors with Special Needs. French has helped launch successful divisions is such organizations as Bombardier Capital and PC Connection, Inc. With an MBA specializing in marketing & strategy, she works with for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, large and small, emerge into new markets, profile target customers and create and build systems to support sales efforts. She is currently freelancing her talents through TJF Consulting, Inc. |
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Sam Hall, Financial Analyst, Citigroup SmithBarney
Sam Hall is a Financial Analyst in Citigroup's Global Health Care Investment Banking group, where he works with health care companies in fields ranging from emerging medical technology to managed care. Prior to joining Citigroup's Investment Banking Division, Hall worked in Smith Barney's Specialty Pharmaceuticals Equity Research group and at Intracel Corporation, a venture-backed biotechnology company. Hall is the author of an award-winning study on the commercialization of neuroprosthetic technologies that explores, through a series of case studies, the technological, regulatory, and reimbursement challenges faced by neurotechnology entrepreneurs and proposes policy initiatives that could expedite the successful development and marketing of novel technologies. Hall graduated Magna Cum Laude from Princeton University with an A.B. in Molecular Biology and a Certificate in Neuroscience.
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Everett Shockley, Assistant Vice President, Life Sciences, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies
Everett Shockley is an Assistant Vice President with the San Francisco office of Chubb & Son, Inc., a leading multinational property and casualty insurer headquartered in Warren , N.J. Everett has 19 years of property and casualty insurance experience including 15 years with Chubb, where he has focused mainly on insurance issues facing the technology and life sciences industries. Since July, 2001, Everett has been responsible for overseeing the development and underwriting of Chubb's Life Sciences business segment in the Northern California territory. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Notre Dame. |
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Joseph Schulman, Ph.D., Alfred Mann Foundation
Joseph Schulman is the President and Chief Scientist of the Alfred Mann Foundation, a non-profit research organization devoted to development of advanced medical products. Prior to joining the Foundation in 1985, Dr. Schulman served as Vice President of Research and Development and Chief Scientist for Pacesetter®Systems, Inc., Vice President of Advanced Research and Chief Scientist for MiniMed®, Inc., and President of Neurodyne Corporation. Dr. Schulman developed or initiated development of many leading edge medical products, such as the first reliable rechargeable cardiac pacemaker with bi-directional telemetry; a cochlear implant with bi-directional telemetry with analog and digital strategies; and an injectable neural muscular stimulator to restore function to impaired limbs and body organs. Dr. Schulman holds in excess of 40 patents and has authored many scientific, biomedical and engineering papers, posters and presentations. Dr. Schulman is a graduate from University of California, Los Angeles, with a B.S. in Applied Physics (Major: Spectroscopy) and a Ph.D in Zoology (Major: Neurophysiology; Minor: Genetics). Dr. Schulman is Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles and on the Advisory Board at the University of California, Los Angeles, Neuro Engineering Program. |
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Jason Harry, Ph.D., CEO, Afferent Corp.
Jason Harry has worked in biomedical engineering and medical device entrepreneurial environments for over 20 years. Prior to founding and capitalizing Afferent in 2000, he was VP of Research Engineering at NMT Medical, Boston, MA, a company specializing in minimally invasive cardiovascular implants. Having joined NMT in 1994 as its fifth employee, he built the infrastructure and team responsible for new product development. He led due diligence efforts on product and company acquisitions, and managed technology transfer with corporate partners. He received his doctorate from Harvard University in 1988 and was on the faculty of Brown University for five years, where his research focus was functional neural stimulation and muscle mechanics. |
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| Entrepreneur Panel |
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Chris Berka, CEO, Advanced Brain Monitoring, Inc.
Chris Berka has over 22 years experience managing clinical research and developing and commercializing new technologies. She is Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Advanced Brain Monitoring, Inc., (ABM) a Carlsbad, CA company that develops data acquisition technologies that enable the creation of low cost, easy-to-use, portable systems that monitor and interpret physiological signals, including the brain's electrical activity (EEG). She is co-inventor of three patented and two patent-pending technologies and is the principal investigator or co-investigator for grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that provide more than $6 million of research funds to ABM. Ms. Berka has 10 years experience as a research scientist with publications on the analysis of EEG in patients with sleep and neurological disorders. She received her B.A. with distinction in Psychology/Biology at Ohio State University and completed graduate studies in Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego. |
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Timothy Surgenor, President and CEO, Cyberkinetics, Inc.
Timothy Surgenor joined Cyberkinetics, Inc. as President and CEO in January 2003, after serving as Executive Vice President of Haemonetics Corp., a company commercializing automated blood processing systems, where he was responsible for global marketing, business development, regulatory, affairs and quality assurance. While at Haemonetics, Surgenor significantly strengthened the company’s product portfolio and grew revenues by focusing internal development programs and by completing several technology acquisitions. Prior to Haemonetics, Surgenor was a Division President and Senior Executive of Genzyme Corp. At Genzyme, Surgenor led the development of several key cell therapy programs, which are now incorporated in the Genzyme BioSurgery division. Mr. Surgenor has an MBA from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree from Williams College. |
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Vince Owens, President and CEO, Texcel Medical Systems LLC
Vince Owens joined Texcel Medical Systems as President and CEO in July of 2004. He has 18 years of medical device experience, most recently as President of Enpath Medical's Lead Technologies Division in Minneapolis. As President and CEO of Biomec Cardiovascular Inc. (BCI), a developer and manufacturer of proprietary stimulation leads for cardiac rhythm management and neuromodulation applications, Mr. Owens led the company to profitability, 300 percent revenue growth, and acquisition by Enpath Medical in October of 2003. Prior to launching BCI, Mr. Owens held the positions of Executive Vice President Operations and President and Chief Operating Officer at Biomec Inc., BCI's parent company, since 1998. Mr. Owens also serves on the Board of Biomec Inc. Earlier in his career, he held various engineering and operations management positions at Ciba Corning Diagnostics Corp. (now Bayer Diagnostics), and at Circon ACMI Corp., a medical endoscopy company. Mr. Owens graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and holds an M.B.A. from Ashland University. |
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Jeff Gagnon, Product Marketing Manager, Enpath Medical Inc.
Jeff Gagnon has over 10 years of medical device industry experience in multiple functions. Jeff came to Enpath from the Neurological Division of Medtronic where he spent six years serving in the roles of Project Manager, Product Development Engineer, and Manufacturing Engineer for surgical and percutaneous spinal cord stimulation leads, extensions, and accessories. Prior to Medtronic, Jeff served as the Pilot Operations Manager for Microvena Corp. (now ev3) responsible for project management and transfer of products from design to manufacturing. Jeff started his career with LecTec Corp., a manufacturer of surgical tapes, EKG/ECG monitoring electrodes, and a line of therapeutic patch products. Jeff holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Marquette University and an MBA from the University of St. Thomas. |
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