Mr. Lewis Pell has founded over a dozen successful medical technology companies during the past three decades. In 1979, Mr. Pell founded Pentax Precision Instruments, which was sold to Asahi Optical in 1990. In 1983 he founded American Endoscopy Inc., which was sold to CR Bard in 1986. In 1984 he founded Versaflex Inc., which was sold to Medtronic Inc. in 1988. In 1989 he founded Heart Technology Corp., which went public in the U.S. in 1992 and eventually was sold to Boston Scientific in 1995. In 1991 he founded InStent Inc., which became a public company in 1995 and was sold to Medtronic in 1996. In 1994 he founded Influence Inc., which was sold to American Medical Systems Inc. in 1999. Working with Dr. Shlomo Ben-Haim, Mr. Pell founded Biosense Inc. in 1994, which was sold to Johnson and Johnson in 1997. Mr. Pell is currently Chairman and investor in a number of private medical device companies. In 1992 Mr. Pell founded and remains the Chairman of Vision-Sciences, Inc., which is currently a publicly traded company on NASDAQ. Mr. Pell has a B.S. in Political Science from Brooklyn College
Katsumi Oneda
Co-Founder Vision-Sciences, Inc.
Warren Bielke
Interim Chief Executive Officer and Director Vision-Sciences, Inc.
Mr. Bielke has extensive experience with medical device companies as a co-founder, CEO, sales and marketing executive and director. Mr. Bielke served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Bio-Surfaces, Inc., an orthopedic implant company. Mr. Bielke was a co-founder and President and Chief Executive Officer of InStent, Inc., a medical device manufacturer that went public in 1995 and was acquired by Medtronic, Inc., in 1996, subsequent to which Mr. Bielke served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Medtronic InStent. From 1980 to April 1990, Mr. Bielke held positions of increasing responsibility in sales and marketing at Pentax Precision Instrument Corporation, a medical instrument company, serving as Executive Vice President and a member of its Board of Directors from October 1989 to April 1990. Mr. Bielke served as Nationals Sales and Product Marketing at Xomed Medical from 1976 to 1980 and served as Regional Sales Manager at Baxter Travenol Health Care from 1970 to 1976. Mr. Bielke currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors at the following companies: Vision-Sciences, Inc., Advanced Bio-Surfaces, Inc., and Vertebral Technologies, Inc. Mr. Bielke has a B.A. in Business Management from Moorhead State University.
David W. Anderson
President, Chief Executive Officer Gentis, Inc.
David Anderson is currently President and CEO of Gentis, Inc. a clinical stage spinal implant company which he joined in December 2004. Mr. Anderson has been a successful serial entrepreneur in the Medical Device field for 20 years. The focus of Mr. Anderson's career has been Orthopaedics and he has been a part of the creation and growth of five Orthopaedic organizations; Osteotech (Founder and Exec VP)(1986-1989), Bionx Implants (CEO)(1994-1999), Replication Medical (Founder and Director)(1999-2004), Orteq Ltd (Founder and Chairman)(2003-present) and Gentis (CEO). In addition to his Orthopaedic experience, Mr. Anderson also served as CEO of Kensey Nash (Cardiology)(1992-1994) and Sterilox Technologies (Disinfection)(2000-2004). Over his 20 years as a hands-on manager in start-up operations, he has raised over $200 million in capital, taken a company through the IPO route onto NASDAQ and has been a part of multiple M&A transactions. Mr. Anderson began his medical technology career with Schering Plough in operations and general management. He serves as a non-executive Director for PhotoMedex (PHMD: NASDAQ), Vision-Sciences (VSCI: NASDAQ), and Orteq Ltd, and sits on the Advisory Boards for Mentor Tech Ventures II and the OLK Medical Fund, both early stage Medical Technology Venture Funds. Mr. Anderson has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University.
Mr. Koob is a cofounder of Extera Partners LLC, which provides interim management, consulting, technology and market assessment, support for restructuring, expanding business and financing for U.S. and European companies since 2007.
Prior to Extera, Mr. Koob served as the Executive Vice President of Analogic Corporation from 2001 - 2006, a public company which custom designs and manufactures advanced systems and subsystems sold to major health and security OEMs and the end-user market. From 1998-2001, Mr. Koob was president of the Zeiss/Humphrey Worldwide Ophthalmic Systems Business. Prior to 1998, Mr. Koob served as General Manager of Siemens worldwide Ultrasound and MRI businesses.
Mr. Koob has served as the director of a number of public and privately-held companies, including current positions as Chairman of Nexstim, Oy Finland; Chairman of XCounter AB, Sweden; director of Ultrasonix Medical/ Canada and Chairman of Helix Medical System Ltd/Israel.
Mr. Koob received a degree in electrical engineering (Dipl. Ing) from the University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany.
Managing Director Christofferson, Robb & Company LLC
Mr. Rydzewski is a managing director of Christofferson, Robb & Company LLC (CRC), a private investment firm, and is responsible for that firm's healthcare investments. Since joining CRC in 2006, his investment activity has focused primarily on monetizing promising intellectual property developed by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
Mr. Rydzewski's investment banking career included partnership responsibilities at Benedetto, Gartland & Company, Inc. Prior to that, he was a vice president in the Investment and Merchant Banking Departments of Kidder, Peabody & Co. Incorporated where he worked on both healthcare investment and advisory assignments. Earlier, he was a vice president in the Healthcare Finance Group of the Investment Banking Department of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.
Mr. Rydzewski has served as a Director of public and privately-held companies including ARV Assisted Living, Inc., United Medical Corporation, Maxim Healthcare Corporation and Healthology, Inc. He serves on civic and charitable boards including as Vice Chairman of the Board of Advisors of RAND Health, a unit of the RAND Corporation that is widely recognized as the leading source of objective health policy analysis, and the Investment Committee of the New York State Catholic Health Plan Inc. (d/b/a Fidelis Care New York).
Mr. Rydzewski received an MBA and a Bachelor of Science degree with Honors, from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a C.P.A. license in Missouri.
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