Kurt Azarbarzin

— Chief Executive Officer & Founder

Kurt Azarbarzin founded SurgiQuest, Inc. in the spring of 2005 and started operations in April 2006. Mr. Azarbarzin is an accomplished, senior medical device executive with a proven track record of leading the development of over 80 new products, resulting in annual sales of over $910 million during his 25-year career with SurgiQuest, U.S. Surgical/Tyco Healthcare (now Covidien), Spine Wave and Respimetrix. Kurt has gained significant and diversified experience in all facets of product design/enhancement, process/manufacturing engineering, team building, finance, vendor relations, regulatory requirements and quality assurance serving the surgical, cardiovascular, interventional, orthopedic and urological markets.

Joseph DeVivo (Chairman)

— President and CEO of AngioDynamics

http://www.angiodynamics.com
Joseph DeVivo is the President and CEO of AngioDynamics, a leading provider of innovative, minimally invasive medical devices for vascular access, surgery, peripheral vascular disease and oncology. Prior to joining AngioDynamics, Mr. DeVivo served as the President of Smith & Nephew's Orthopaedic Reconstruction Division as well as the President and Chief Executive Officer of RITA Medical Systems, Inc., a pioneer of radiofrequency ablation technology, which was acquired by AngioDynamics in 2006. Previously, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of medical robotics company Computer Motion, Inc., helping to turn the company's performance around ahead of its merger with Intuitive Surgery, Inc in 2003. From 1993 to 2002, DeVivo was at U. S. Surgical (now Covidien), he held a wide variety of roles, including Vice President and General Manager of the USS/DG Sutures division, VP of Global Marketing, VP of Global R&D and Director of Product Development. He brings them 18 years of marketing, development, sales, operations and executive leadership experience. He has a B.S. in Marketing and Management from the University of Richmond.

David Collier, M.D. (Director)

— CEO of Velocity Pharmaceutical Development (VPD) and Managing Director of Presidio Partners

 

http://www.presidiopartners.com
As CEO of VPD, David is pioneering a new business model for the development of promising drug candidates. VPD acquires the rights to individual therapeutic drug candidates from pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, and academia, and invests in their development through clinical proof-of-concept. Following proof-of-concept, VPD seeks to sell each drug asset to a major pharmaceutical company. In addition, David joined Presidio Partners in 2001 to focus on investments in biotechnology companies developing drugs through clinical trials across many different therapeutic areas. Before joining Presidio Partners, David was a Managing Director at Burrill & Co., a private merchant bank focused exclusively on life science companies, where he played a leading role in the management of the company’s life science venture capital funds. Earlier in his career, he was Assistant Vice President at First Options of Chicago where he directed a group of traders and managed a large portfolio of futures and options. David holds an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine, an M.B.A. from the Wharton School, and a B.A. in Physics from Wesleyan University.

Carter McNabb (Director)

— Managing Director, River Cities Capital Funds

http://www.rccf.com
Carter McNabb joined River Cities Capital Funds in 1999 and leads the firm's healthcare investing practice with concentration on medical device and technology-enabled healthcare service companies. Previously, Mr. McNabb worked in marketing and business development for Home Technology Healthcare, a comprehensive home healthcare company offering nursing, DME, infusion therapy and hospice across the southeast. Home Technology Healthcare was private equity financed by Willis Stein & Co. and acquired by Integrated Health Services in 1997. Carter worked in equity research at J.C. Bradford & Co. (now part of UBS) while attending business school at Vanderbilt University. He is a graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, CT. He has led over 14 healthcare investments for River Cities during his tenure and currently serves as Director on the boards of OrthoHelix Surgical Designs, OrthoScan, Nico Neuro, Health Integrated, AcceleCare Wound Centers, and SurgiQuest.

Ned Scheetz (Director)

— Founder, Aphelion Capital, LLC

http://www.aphelioncapital.net
Ned Scheetz is the founder of Aphelion Capital, a healthcare investment firm engaged in public and private equity investing. Prior to forming Aphelion, Mr. Sheetz was a Managing Director with Piper Jaffray Ventures ("PJV") for seven years. Ned joined PJV from Janus Capital where he was a Senior Research Analyst covering healthcare. Ned is currently a Director of Thermics Inc., SurgiQuest, Inc., and Vaso Nova and Chairman of Vitruvian Orthopaedics, and has served on the boards of 14 healthcare companies in his career. He holds the CFA designation and is an Advisory Board Member with the Center for Medical Device Innovation and on the Business Advisory Board of The Epilepsy Therapy Development Project. He received his MBA from Duke University and his BA from Colby College.

Bruce Shook (Director)

— President & CEO of Intact Vascular, Inc.

http://www.intactvascular.com
Bruce Shook is the President and CEO of Intact Vascular, Inc., a privately held medical device company that develops minimally invasive peripheral vascular products. Mr. Shook is a highly experienced medical device executive with over 30 years of experience in the industry. Most recently, Mr. Shook was co-founder, Director, President & CEO of Neuronetics, Inc., which is a privately held medical device company that markets the NeuroStar® TMS Therapy system worldwide. NeuroStar is a non-invasive brain stimulation technology that uses high intensity pulsed magnetic fields for the treatment of depression. Prior to Neuronetics, Mr. Shook was co-founder, Director, President & CEO at Neuron Therapeutics, a venture-backed company developing a drug/device product for the treatment of CNS disorders. Previously, Mr. Shook was President of Abiomed [NASDAQ: ABMD] where he successfully obtained PMA approval for the first FDA-approved ventricular assist device, and built a direct sales and marketing team to market the product. Mr. Shook was also employed at Cordis Corporation where he was involved with the development of cardiac pacing and anti-arrhythmia products. Mr. Shook holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Penn State University, an MS in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University, and an MBA from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

Peter P. Wiest (Director)

— Founder of W.O.M. World of Medicine AG

http://www.world-of-medicine.de
Peter Wiest is the former CEO of World of Medicine, a Berlin-based medical device manufacturer and leader in the field of minimally invasive surgery. As Chairman of World of Medicine's Management Board, Mr. Wiest was responsible for the corporation's strategic orientation, sales, marketing, finance, legal, and regulatory affairs. After university studies in engineering and with the assistance of a gynecologist, Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Lindemann, Peter developed the first insufflator for hysteroscopy in 1974, enabling the use of gas for controlled distention and visualization of the uterus. In 1977, He was a founder of Wiest + Fuchs GmbH which later became today's W.O.M. WORLD OF MEDICINE AG.