Board of Directors
Zeev Binman
General Partner, Chief Financial Officer
Zeev Binman joined Pitango in 1998 and has extensive experience serving as a financial, commercial and operational executive in Israel and abroad.
Prior to joining Pitango, Zeev served as Vice President of Finance and Organization at PazGas, the leading Israeli energy company. He also held a similar position at Fibronics International, USA, a leading fiber-optic communication company. Early in his career, he served as referent for the defense industries in the Budget Department of the Israel Ministry of Finance.
He holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.B.A., specializing in Finance, from Tel Aviv University.
Zeev served on the board of Optonol, acquired by Alcon (NYSE: ACL) and currently serves on the Board of Directors of a number of companies, including Proneuron and superDimension.
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.
Daniel Cole
Venture Partner
Dan Cole joined Oxford Bioscience Partners as a Venture Partner during 2009. He also serves as a General Partner of Spray Venture Partners, which he joined in 1996. Dan brings twenty years of medical device operational experience and has served on the Boards of 16 med-tech companies. Prior to joining Spray, Dan served as Senior Vice President and Group President of Boston Scientific Corporation's vascular business, a $1.2 billion group including SCIMED (cardiology), Medi-tech (radiology), Meadox (vascular surgery), and EP Technologies (electrophysiology). He was also responsible for BSC's rapidly growing international operations. Dan was previously President and Chief Operating Officer of SCIMED Life Systems, a public company with revenues of $260 million in 1994 prior to the company's merger with Boston Scientific in 1995. He previously held a variety of executive and general management positions at Baxter Healthcare Divisions. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of CircuLite, Pathway Medical, Tryton Medical, Direct Flow Medical, PneumRx, Conventus Orthopedics, and Thoratec Laboratories.
He earned a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Kansas, an M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the United States Navy Post-Graduate School, and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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.
Jonathan Fleming
Jonathan Fleming is a General Partner of Oxford Bioscience Partners, an international venture capital firm specializing in life science technology based investments, with offices in Boston and Connecticut.
Mr. Fleming has been in the investment business for over twenty years, starting and financing growth companies in the United States, Europe, and Israel. Prior to joining OBP in 1996, he was a Founding General Partner of MVP Ventures in Boston, MA. He began his investment career with TVM Techno Venture Management in Munich, Germany. Mr. Fleming has also co-founded Medica Venture Partners, a venture capital investment firm specializing in early stage healthcare and biotechnology companies in Israel. Mr. Fleming holds a Master's degree in Public Administration from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Mr. Fleming is on the board of Asterand plc (LSE: ATD) and is a director of several private companies including Leerink Swann, a Boston based investment bank specializing in healthcare companies. Mr. Fleming is a Trustee of the Museum of Science in Boston, a Member of the Board of the New England Healthcare Institute and a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Business.
Paul J. Mraz
CeraPedics, Inc. — Chief Executive Officer
Paul Mraz has been active in the Medical Device and Life Sciences Industry for over 20 years - in companies large and small (mostly as a serial entrepreneur), 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 President and Chief Executive Officer of Cerapedics, Inc., a medical device company located outside Denver, CO. Cerapedics is developing and commercializing biologic bone grafting products for the spine, trauma and orthopaedic markets based on its proprietary small-peptide technology. To date, Cerapedics has raised $30M in venture capital financing and distributes its products in 20+ countries worldwide.
Mr. Mraz most recently served as Chairman and CEO of Angstrom Medica, Inc. (acquired by Pioneer Surgical Technology), a privately funded, early-stage biomaterials and 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 Charité Artificial Disc - the world’s first total disc replacement for the lumbar spine and the first to gain FDA approval in October 2004. There he served as Vice President, Worldwide Marketing and International Sales until its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson (DePuy Spine) 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. (where he began his professional career in Warsaw, IN) and DePuy Spine (formerly AcroMed Corporation) – both acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 1998.
Since 2008, Mr. Mraz has also been an Operating Partner for Point Judith Capital (Providence, RI), an early stage venture capital firm focused on the Internet & Mobile technology, Healthcare technology and Clean technology industries. In addition to Cerapedics, he also currently serves as a Director of Spirus Medical, Inc. (West Bridgewater, MA), a medical device company developing devices for the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal (GI) disorders.
Mr. Mraz received a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lafayette College (Easton, PA) and a M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering and Biomechanics from Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH). He holds seven US Patents for various medical devices and is active in the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG Network).
Mr. Mraz is an avid student of “communication styles” and enjoys executive coaching as well as mentoring, advising and working with other entrepreneurs and venture investors in the life sciences industry worldwide.
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.
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.