Michael Berman, Berman Medical

A co-founder of Velocimed, which sold to St. Jude Medical in April, 2005, Michael Berman is a medical device investor/entrepreneur who serves on the boards of nine emerging medical device companies, including:

• Aetherworks
• Apnex Medical
• Benechill
• BridgePoint Medical
• Conceptx
• PharmaCentra
• Data Sciences Int’l
• UltraShape

Tony Chou, Vertical Group

Tony M. Chou is a general partner at the Vertical Group, a venture capital firm focused on the fields of medical technology and biotechnology. Dr. Chou has over 15 years of health care experience as both an interventional cardiologist and medical device industry executive. Dr. Chou was employed by the Abbott Vascular Division of Abbott Laboratories at which he held positions with both general management and business development responsibilities. In his last role, serving as Division Vice President and General Manager of Vascular Closure, he was responsible for the IDE studies, PMA approval, and global launch of the Perclose Proglide and StarClose femoral closure devices.

Prior to joining Abbott, Dr. Chou was the Director of the Adult Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco where he remains Associate Professor of Medicine. Dr. Chou received an MD from Case Western Reserve University and a BS in Physics and Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

John Maroney, Delphi Ventures

A General Partner at Delphi Ventures since 2003, John Maroney focuses on medical device and diagnostic investments. Prior to Delphi, John was President and CEO of EndoTex Interventional Systems, Inc., a development stage, venture-backed start-up company where he redirected the technology, resized the team and raised more than $50 million over six years through a series of venture capital, technology licensing and corporate partnership financings.

From 1988 to 1997, Maroney held a variety of senior management positions, including President and General Manager at EP Technologies, Vice President of Operations at both Boston Scientific Corporation and Cardiovascular Imaging Systems (CVIS). While at CVIS, John was a key member of the senior management team during the Company’s IPO and eventual acquisition by Boston Scientific Corporation.

John Maroney’s current and past board memberships include:

• Acclarent, Inc.
• EndoTex Interventional Systems, Inc.
• Interventional Rhythm Management, Inc.
• InnerPulse, Inc.
• Paracor Medical, Inc.
• Primaeva Medical, Inc.
• VytronUS, Inc.

Jon Root, US Venture Partners

As a physician, Jon Root evaluates investments in the medical field with a practitioner’s eye.

“The greatest idea in the world will not be successful if it’s not practical to use,” he says. “Entrepreneurs are great at applying technology to those unmet clinical needs, but they need a good medical advisory board to help them with real-world considerations such as ergonomics. I try to bring some of that hands-on, pragmatic advice to the table.”

“Efficacy always dictates the doctor’s choice of procedure or method,” he notes. “It’s critical to gain feedback from the people who will actually use your product,” he says.

Root spent nine years in clinical practice before joining USVP in 1995 as a Ewing Marion Kauffman Fellow in venture capital. Before USVP, Jon was on the faculty and clinical staff at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in New York City, where he was an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Director of the Neurology-Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit. He is board certified in neurology.

Jon Root’s current and past board memberships include:

• Altus Pharmaceuticals
• Raven Biotechnologies
• OncoMed
• Proteolix
• Sequent Medical

Root is also active with USVP’s investment in Ascenta.

Jay W. Schmelter, RiverVest Venture Partners

As managing director and co-founder of RiverVest, Jay Schmelter’s focus is investing in the medical device sector. He works closely with entrepreneurs as both a sounding board and mentor.

Before RiverVest, Schmelter was with Crescendo Ventures, a global venture capital fund, where he led investments for the firm’s life science division. During his tenure at Crescendo, he was also involved with several portfolio companies and founded TissueLink Medical, now known as Salient Surgical Technologies, Inc.

Prior to his transition to venture capital, Schmelter worked as a medical device research analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co., where he focused on cardiovascular-related medical device stocks. He was also a marketing executive for Medtronic, Inc., where he was responsible for two successful product launches and the marketing activities of two cardiac surgery-related businesses.

Jay Schmelter’s current and past board memberships include:

• Salient Surgical Technologies, Inc.
• IDev Technologies, Inc.
• Tryton Medical Inc.
• Accumetrics, Inc.
• Velocimed, LLC

Kevin Wasserstein, Versant Ventures

Kevin Wasserstein has more than 15 years of venture capital and operating experience in medical device and technology companies. Prior to Versant, he served in a variety of marketing and business development roles at Guidant Corporation, including acting as the Director of Marketing for Guidant’s Cardiac Surgery Group, managing market/product development and launches.

Wasserstein 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, he was involved in acquisition, licensing and investment activities with both private and public medical device companies, and in formulating strategies to develop innovative medical technologies.

Kevin Wasserstein’s current and past board memberships include:

• Acclarent
• Cardiac Concepts
• Cellutions
• LipoSonix
• Microfabrica
• NDO Surgical
• NeoGuide Systems
• Rox Medical
• Second Sight Medical
• St. Francis Medical
• The Innovation Factory

Elizabeth (“Bess”) H. Weatherman, Warburg Pincus

Bess Weatherman is a Managing Director of Warburg Pincus, the global private equity firm, where she leads the firm’s healthcare investments and serves as a member of the Executive Management Group. She joined Warburg Pincus in 1988 and was responsible for building the firm’s medical device investment capabilities. Under her leadership, Warburg Pincus has invested more than $3 billion in the medical device industry and helped build more than 30 medical device companies spanning a broad range of technologies across all stages of development.

Recent investment highlights include: the 2007 acquisition of Bausch & Lomb, a global leader in ophthalmic products and technologies; the lead investment in Kyphon, a spine surgery device pioneer that went public in 2003 and was subsequently acquired by Medtronic for $4.2 billion; the co-founding and leading investor in ev3 Inc., a global endovascular device company that went public in 2005 and was acquired by Coviden for $2.6 billion in July 2010. Previous investments include the spinout from Pfizer and subsequent IPO of American Medical Systems, today valued at $1.5 billion, and the buy-out and IPO of Wright Medical, today valued at $580 million.

Bess Weatherman currently serves on the boards of:

• Aldens Beacon
• Bausch+Lomb
• Constitution Medical Investors
• ITC Nexus
• Keystone Dental
• PhotoThera
• Tornier