Board of Directors
Jeffrey Barnes
Oxford Bioscience Partners – General Manager
Mr. Barnes joined Oxford Bioscience Partners in 1999. Prior to joining Oxford, he was a Principal at the investment banking firm of Robertson, Stephens & Co. He was also a senior research analyst, directly involved in the financing activity of over 20 healthcare technology companies.
Mr. Barnes was a co-founder and CEO of Biosyss Corporation, a cardiovascular device company and has held management positions in engineering, manufacturing, and marketing at Hewlett-Packard’s Medical Products Group. He has also served as a research associate at the Harvard-M.I.T. Health Sciences Technology Division and holds patents in physiological signal processing and medical display technology.
Mr. Barnes is a member of the Clinical Cardiology Council of the American Heart Association and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation. He holds a M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and an M.S. from Stanford University.
Yuval Binur, Ph.D.
Accelerated Technologies, Inc. – Chairman of the Board
Dr. Binur has over 26 years of venture capital experience in the U.S., Europe, and in Israel. In addition to co-founding ATI together with Martin B. Leon, MD, Dr. Binur has been a founding managing partner of Medica Venture Partners, a global health care and life sciences venture capital fund operating from Israel.
For nine years prior to co-founding Medica, Dr. Binur was a member of Adler & Co., a major U.S. venture capital firm based in New York. He has been a board member of over 30 venture-backed companies in the areas of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, software, and electronics in addition to many other board member positions.
Dr. Binur was a director of Percutaneous Valve Technologies, Inc. (PVT), a company that has revolutionized the percutaneous replacement of heart valves and was sold during 2004 to Edwards Lifesciences, Inc. In addition, Dr. Binur is a director of Pathway Medical, a company addressing peripheral diseases and FlowMedica, Inc., a player in the contract nethropathy field. In the past, Dr. Binur served among others as director of Acufax, Inc., an initiator and world leader in minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery.
Dr. Binur holds a B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. degree in Physics.
TOP
Nissim Darvish, M.D, D.Sc.
Pitango Venture Capital – Partner
Dr. Darvish joined Pitango in 2002. Prior to joining Pitango, he was among the founders of Impulse Dynamics, a highly successful developer of cardiovascular implantable devices, where he served as CEO and President for seven years. Dr. Darvish also served as an Entrepreneur in Residence with Medica Venture Partners.
Dr. Darvish previously served as a research fellow at the U.S. National institute of Health in the field of neurobiology and electrophysiology. He holds numerous academic and research appointments and has an extensive list of awards, prizes, publications and published patents in his field.
Dr. Darvish holds a M.D. (Cum Laude) and D.Sc. in Medical Sciences from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
TOP
Paul J. Mraz
CeraPedics, Inc. – Chief Executive Officer
Paul Mraz has been active in the Medical Device and Life Sciences Industry for over 17 years - in companies large and small, both venture backed and privately funded - with roles in executive management, product development, marketing, sales management and business development - all on a global basis.
Mr. Mraz currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of CeraPedics, Inc., a medical device company located outside Denver, CO. CeraPedics is working toward commercializing products for the orthopaedic bone graft substitutes market based on its proprietary small peptide technology and recently completed a $14.5M Series A financing with OrbiMed Advisors, LLC.
Mr. Mraz most recently served as Chairman and CEO of Angstrom Medica, Inc. (acquired by Pioneer Surgical Technology), a privately funded, early-stage biomaterials nanotechnology company engaged in the development of structural, calcium phosphate-based medical devices for the spinal, sports medicine, and trauma markets.
Prior to Angstrom Medica, Mr. Mraz was a Principal of Link Spine Group Inc., a start-up medical device company that developed and commercialized the world’s first total disc replacement for the lumbar spine. Mr. Mraz served as Vice President - Worldwide Marketing and International Sales until its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson in June 2003.
Mr. Mraz was also a key management team member of three other early-stage medical device companies and his early experience includes positions at Figgie Medical Systems, Ortho Development Corporation (acquired by Japan MDM) and Marlow Surgical Technologies, Inc. (acquired by Cooper Surgical) as well as DePuy, Inc. and DePuy Spine (formerly AcroMed Corporation) – both acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 1998.
Mr. Mraz received a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lafayette College and a M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering and Biomechanics from Case Western Reserve University. Mr. Mraz holds six US Patents for various medical devices and is an active advisor to numerous venture capital groups. Mr. Mraz also enjoys mentoring and advising other entrepreneurs in the medical device industry worldwide.
TOP
Jonathan Silverstein
OrbiMed Advisors LLC – General Partner
Mr. Silverstein is General Partner at OrbiMed Advisors LLC (“OrbiMed”), an asset management firm solely focused in healthcare with several billion in assets under management. Mr. Silverstein joined OrbiMed in 1998 to focus on private equity investments and structured transactions of small-capitalization public biotechnology and medical device companies. Prior to joining OrbiMed, Mr. Silverstein was the Director of Life Sciences in the Investment Banking Department at Sumitomo Bank. Currently, Mr. Silverstein is the Chairman of Cerapedics and Enobia, and a director of NxStage Medical (NXTM). He has been a former director or observer in an additional dozen companies including: Insulet Corporation (PODD), LifeCell (sold to KCI), Given Imaging (GIVN), Cerexa (sold to Forest Labs), Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (sold to Johnson & Johnson), Predix (sold to EPIX), Avanir (AVNR), Orthovita (VITA), Auxillium (AUXL), Bioenvision (BIVN), Adiana (sold to Cytyc), and Emphasys Medical. Mr. Silverstein has a B.A. in Economics from Denison University and a J.D. and M.B.A. from the University of San Diego.
TOP
Daniel Sullivan
superDimension – President and CEO
Mr. Sullivan is a veteran entrepreneur and leader in the medical technology industry in Minneapolis, Minn. Previously, he served simultaneous roles as general manager, Ancillary Division and vice president, sales and marketing, at SCIMED Life Systems, which was purchased by Boston Scientific Corporation in 1995 for over $1 billion. While at SCIMED, he was instrumental in guiding the company to be a major player in the cardiac angioplasty medical device market by achieving more than $300 million in sales by the time it was purchased by Boston Scientific.
After leaving SCIMED, Mr. Sullivan co-founded and served as president and CEO of anastomotic device-maker Vascular Science, Inc., which was sold to St. Jude Medical in 1999 for $95 million. Most recently, Mr. Sullivan co-founded Sinus Rhythm Technologies, Inc., a Minneapolis-based, development-stage company in cardiology, where he served as president and CEO.
Mr. Sullivan is an active company founder and board member of several medical device companies. A veteran medical industry leader, he co-founded Atritech, and sits on the board of NeuroVASxTM, Inc. He previously served on the board of Vascular Solutions, Quannum Medical, NeoVision, Inc. and ACIST Medical Systems, all companies that either completed a successful exit or an initial public offering.
Mr. Sullivan began his career at American Hospital Supply, Inc. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business and marketing from Arizona State University.
TOP
