Aaron Pierce serves as Managing Director at JF2 Capital and is responsible for business development, financial analysis, due diligence, as well as implementation activities for JF2 Capital portfolio companies. Prior to joining JF2 Capital, Aaron worked at J.P. Morgan where he performed public and private market investment analysis to bring tailored investment advice to large family offices, private foundations, entrepreneurs and corporate executives in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Aaron received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Finance from the University of Arkansas. Aaron serves on the Board of Lemonade Day Dallas and is a member of the Host Committee for Great Investors’ Best Ideas. He resides in Dallas, Texas and enjoys mentoring students and aspiring business owners in the Dallas community.
Adam Cohen is a serial entrepreneur and inventor holding over 70 US utility patents with some 20 pending, including seven different 3D printing and robotics technologies. Adam has 27 years of technology startup and senior management experience spanning advanced manufacturing, robotics/automation, and medical devices, both as a technical innovator and through business development and marketing of breakthrough technologies. He is a pioneer of the 3D printing industry, having brought to market three different 3D printing processes and including the first commercial 3D printer, and invented several other pricesses.
Adam is Founder and CEO of Now Cuisine, Inc., a food tech startup, and of innoNovo LLC, a consultancy focused on 3D printing, robotics, and product development.
He founded Microfabrica Inc. to commercialize a revolutionary 3D printing technology he invented that enables mass production of highly-miniaturized metal devices. As the company’s CEO, he raised $17M in venture funding from investors including Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Chevron. He later led Microfabrica’s successful entry into the medical device business, landing major customers and serving as co-PI with Harvard and Boston University on a $5M NIH project to develop robotic devices for minimally-invasive cardiac surgery. This led to a major equity investment by Versant Ventures and InterWest Partners.
Prior to Microfabrica, Adam co-founded and served as Vice President of AMEX-traded Soligen Technologies, the first company to license and commercialize MIT’s 3D printing industry. As Program/Product Line Manager at 3D Systems, he led the team that brought to market the world’s first 3D printing system, a product that generated over $100M in revenue for the company.
As an SMU professor and founder and director of the Laboratory for Additive Manufacturing, Robotics, and Automation, Adam pursued research on robotic systems and next-generation 3D activities including developing a novel class of robot for minimally-invasive procedures; filing ten US utility patent applications, and teaching design, robotics, mechanical engineering, and prototyping. Adam received a bachelor’s degree in physics from MIT.
Adam Persiani is Director of Business Development at Pharos Capital Group, LLC where he leads the firm’s business development and deal origination initiatives. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Persiani served in a similar role with Valesco Industries, a Dallas based Small Business Investment Company (SBIC). Mr. Persiani began his career as a trading professional in the futures and options markets at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
Adam graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.S. in Engineering and holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Mr. Persiani is based out of the firm’s Dallas office.
Akhil Reddy, DDS is an entrepreneur and practicing dentist in Dallas, TX. He is the managing partner of The Dental Method, a boutique dental group. He is the CEO of Reddy Vineyards, a leading vineyard and winery in Texas. Akhil Reddy is an Eagle Scout and he was born and raised in Lubbock, TX. He received his D.D.S at University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco, CA in which he graduated at the age of 23. Thereafter he moved to Dallas, TX and co-founded a Dental Service Organization and affiliated private practices called MB2 Dental Solutions. He then completed a private equity transaction with Sentinel Capital Partners in 2017 and went to focus on his boutique practices and winery. He completed the UC Davis Wine Executive Program with the University of California Graduate School of Management. Akhil Reddy has served on various boards including the University of the Pacific and San Francisco technology startups along with being an active and passive investor.
Alain Jablonowski is a global business leader with expertise in strategic marketing, business development and commercialization with a passion to build and grow business ventures. He founded Garonne Consulting LLC with a group of experts to support mid-market companies wanting to accelerate their growth. His company offers consultation, support and implementation services at all stages from innovation to market introduction of products and services.
In his spare time, he mentors, advises and supports emerging companies in the start-up communities of Texas and of Michigan among others.
Alain’s career is highlighted by growing businesses very successfully at the “innovative edge”, be it new technology introduction, new segment development, new market entry or pivoting capabilities and competencies into new industries for diversification. His approach is characterized by his strategic outlook, his creative business model structuring and his focus on collaborative execution for growth.
Previously, Alain Jablonowski has held global executive leadership positions of increasing responsibilities in large corporations in the areas of Strategic Marketing & Product Management, Global Sales, Program & Application Engineering in France, Germany and in the USA in the Medical Devices, Automotive, Commercial Vehicles and Aerospace sectors.
He is a member of North Texas business associations and international chambers of commerce to expand local and cross-Atlantic relationships. He also keeps a close involvement in high education as a member of the Oakland University School of Medicine board of visitors and was director at the board of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) promoting STEM education.
He has a Master in Electrical Engineering/Robotics, in Mechanical Engineering and is a Ross School of Business MBA.
Alberto spent his career in financial services and technology, running, building, restructuring, buying, selling and financing businesses. Going back to his university days, technology and how it can improve lives always has been and remains his passion. Alberto’s worked all over the world and seen businesses as an operator with significant P&L responsibility, as an investor and as a corporate advisor. Building and running them has been the most difficult, fun and rewarding. Developing strategies and finding better ways to help customers achieve their goals through new technology-enabled business models will always be a thrilling challenge.
Amy Foertsch is the co-founder and COO of Ataia Medical, a med device startup empowering patients with the freedom to speak. In this role, she oversees the quality and manufacturing of the SPEAX Communication System, ensuring a quality product is delivered to every patient every time. She has previously held roles in quality assurance and clinical research. She graduated from Georgia Tech in 2017 with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering.
Dr Festa is a board certified and practicing internal medicine specialist/diabetologist who has spent most parts of his professional life improving the lives of patients with diabetes, covering all aspects from research to academic teaching to clinical care. He graduated from the University of Vienna, Austria, where he was also appointed professor of medicine after completing a research fellowship at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas. In 2002 he joined the pharmaceutical industry, where he served in various positions in drug development and research as well as in upper management.
Dr Festa has authored numerous scientific publications in high-ranked journals, including The Lancet, Circulation and Diabetes Care, where he also served as a member of the Editorial Board. He also received several national and international research awards.
In his current position, Dr Festa leads a busy out-patient diabetes clinic in Austria. Based on 25+ years of experience in diabetes, he also acts as a consultant for various pharmaceutical and device companies in the field of diabetes and associated conditions, including obesity and cardiovascular disease.
His specific interests include drug development, real world data generation and application, diabetes technology, including CSII devices (insulin pumps) and glucose sensors, as well as telemedicine solutions.
Andrew is an attorney, former investment banker and experienced entrepreneur. A 1995 graduate of Brown University, Andrew obtained his JD/MBA from the University of Houston with a concentration in finance. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas. Andrew worked at JP Morgan Chase in mergers and acquisitions and then WestLB as a Vice President in the Structured Finance group, both in New York City. In 2004, Andrew founded Vivature, the leading provider of software and insurance billing solutions for college health centers. After Vivature was sold to OrchestrateHR in 2013, Andrew went on to become Trigger Point Technologies’ first CEO, outside the Founder, since the company’s inception in 2004. Trigger Point was sold to Implus in 2014. Andrew is currently the managing partner at KinetikLaw, which specializes in business and legal solutions for health and fitness professionals.
Andrew Offer is General Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Scientific Health Development (SHD), a Dallas, TX based venture capital firm focused on earlier stage, innovative medical device and diagnostics companies. Andrew currently serves on the board of directors for most active SHD portfolio companies including Podimetrics, Mindera Health, Empirical Spine, Potrero Medical, and several others. Prior, Andrew held board directorships with successful companies such as Sight Sciences (Nasdaq: SGHT), Channel MedSystems and Koya Medical in addition to contributing as Chief Financial Officer for multiple portfolio companies. Andrew also serves as an advisor and mentor to other local startups.
Prior to joining SHD, he was a senior analyst and associate at VMG Health, where he performed and managed hundreds of business valuations exclusively in the healthcare industry. Mr. Offer graduated Magna Cum Laude with multiple honors distinctions earning a B.B.A. in Finance from the Mays School of Business at Texas A&M University. In addition, he earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 2009 and is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Dallas-Fort Worth. Andrew is also a member of the Mid-America Health Investors Network (MHIN).
Andrew lives in Dallas with his wife Heather, twin children Averie and Bentley, and enjoys golf and other outdoor activities in his free time. Born in Chicago, Andrew is a loyal Cubs and Bears fan and tries to catch a game whenever possible.
Andrew Sumarsono MD MPH is a board-certified internal medicine physician at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where he serves as his division’s first Clinician Scholar. His clinical work centers at Parkland Hospital, where he provides inpatient care for underserved populations in Dallas. He earned both his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of California Los Angeles and completed his internal medicine residency at UT Southwestern Medical Center. After residency, he completed the Journal of Hospital Editorial Fellowship and graduated with a master’s degree from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. He serves as a member of the Society of Hospital Medicine’s Research Committee.
Dr. Sumarsono brings a curious mind and collaborative spirit to the teams with whom he works. His areas of expertise include clinical trials, implementation science, social determinants of health, and heart failure. He is passionate about narrowing the health disparities of underserved communities through scientific and technological innovations. His research has resulted in dozens of scientific articles in high-impact medical journals such as JAMA Internal Medicine and JAMA Cardiology and his work has been publicized in the media.
Angel Pu is an investor at Warburg Pincus, a global growth-focused venture capital and private equity fund with over $44 billion in assets under management. Angel joined Warburg Pincus in 2013, and focuses on technology investments. Prior to Warburg, Angel was at Goldman Sachs in the Investment Banking Division. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University.
Animesh (Aashoo) Tandon, M.D., M.S., is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, with joint appointments in Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, at UT Southwestern and Children’s Medical Center, Dallas. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a BA in 2003. During his medical training at the University of Michigan Medical School, he performed a research fellowship at the NINDS/NIH through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute/NIH Research Scholars (Cloister) Program. Dr. Tandon completed his pediatric residency and categorical pediatric cardiology fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. During fellowship, he earned a Masters in Clinical and Translational Research from the University of Cincinnati. He then completed an advanced imaging fellowship at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta/Emory University.
Dr. Tandon’s current clinical and research interests are:
He is an outspoken proponent of bringing innovative ideas to pediatrics. He is co-founder of VARYFII Imaging, a company developing virtual reality surgical planning software; is a mentor for Health Wildcatters, a local incubator, and the UT Southwestern Biomedical Innovation program; and has judged national pitch competitions at the American Heart Association.
He currently serves on the American Heart Association Center for Health Technology & Innovation (CHTI) Health Technology Advisory Group (HTAG); is the co-chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section of Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery Early Career Working Group; serves on the American College of Cardiology Early Career Section Leadership Council; and the Society of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance 3D+ Special Interest Group Steering Committee.
Ariana Thacker is the Founding Partner of Conscience VC, an early-stage firm founded with the mission to generate a positive and scalable impact for the individual by partnering with technical founders. Ariana has extensive deep tech investment experience, with a portfolio of 50+ early-stage investments and prior VC experience. She is a chemical engineer, with a focus on bio, and has technical operating experience across Fortune 500 companies to formation-stage start-ups and academic spin-outs.
President, Managing Partner and Board Member, THMED
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Fidelis Partners, Allied Staffing Network and THMED Executive Search
As Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Fidelis Partners, THMED Executive Search, and Allied Staffing Network, Arthur Cooper has developed a reputation as a results-driven leader in the healthcare recruitment industry. He also currently serves as President, Managing Partners and Board Member at the parent company of THMED, LLC.
With nearly two decades of experience in the staffing industry, Mr. Cooper has parlayed his background to become a driving force in healthcare recruitment and propelled the THMED companies to become healthcare industry leaders. His dedication and leadership led to the startup achieving over $30 million in sales and employing over 150 workers after only six years. In 2016, THMED was recognized for its 124 percent revenue growth in three years in Inc. Magazine’s 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies and as one of the Best Places to Work in North Texas by the Dallas Business Journal.
Despite his executive position, Mr. Cooper believes in remaining active in the daily business operations of THMED companies. He’s as equally interested in achieving and refining THMED’s overall vision and company culture as he is in recruiting and mentoring new talent. He also focuses on consistently building new relationships with clients and potential partners.
Mr. Cooper has repeatedly demonstrated his commitment to serving his community. As a Marine, he served in both Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He also earned two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals during his four years of service. Mr. Cooper also maintains an active membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and volunteers as Elders Quorum President. Now, that same sense of obligation to the wider community has led him to become a mentor with the Health Wildcatters, so he can provide his expertise to fledgling startups in the health industry.
Recognized for his business acumen, emotional intelligence, and personal integrity, Mr. Cooper has spoken at the American College of Healthcare Executives leadership event, an annual conference for staff physician recruiters and a recruitment board for a hospital system. He also served on the Physician Advisory Board for Excela Health Medical Group Advisory Board from 2012 through 2014.
Prior to his time at THMED, LLC, he was recognized as a top sales producer for eight consecutive years as an Executive Vice President at a competing firm. Mr. Cooper also exceeded the sales goals during his tenure by nearly 300 percent and by doing so accounted for 40% of the entire revenue of his previous employer.
Mr. Cooper resides in Lucas, TX with his wife of almost two decades and their four children. Outside of work, Mr. Cooper enjoys playing golf, coaching his children’s sports teams, and spending time with his family.
Autri is a Director at FundRx, an early stage healthcare venture capital firm based in New York. Previously, Autri was an associate in Huron’s Life Sciences Strategy practice (previously Frankel Group) where he worked on a wide range of commercial projects for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. He previously worked in clinical and preclinical research settings across the labs of Dr. Ed Levin at Duke, Dr. Frances Leslie at UC Irvine and the Duke Center for Smoking Cessation. He holds degrees in Biology (BS), History (BA) w/ Distinction and Chemistry (Min.) from Duke University.
Dr. Azam Anwar, FACC, is a board-certified cardiologist and interventional cardiologist. He completed his training at The University of Texas — San Antonio and his interventional cardiology fellowship at The San Francisco Heart Institute.
Dr. Anwar’s expertise is in new-device investigation, complex-cardiovascular interventions, ASD/PFO closure, PFO closure for migraines and stroke, alcohol septal ablation, valvuloplasty, percutaneous mitral valve repair, device development and cardiovascular education. He has been awarded numerous US patents. He helped develop a coronary stent, embolic-protection device, total-occlusion device and vascular-anastomosis device, cardiac-surgery device and invented the Oz Palm Injector.
He was the Founder and Director of the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship at Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, the President of the Baylor HeartPlace panel, and a founding board member of the Baylor Heart and Vascular Hospital. He has dedicated his career to improve the lives of patients with heart disease through clinical practice, education, device, and product development.
Dr. Anwar is a serial entrepreneur, investor and principal at Anwar Ventures.
FOUNDER & CEO, VATOR
Entrepreneur, investor, wife, mother, author. Founder and CEO of Vator, a media and research firm for entrepreneurs and investors; Managing Director of Vator Health Fund; Co-Founder of Invent Health; Author of “Unequally Yoked, Finding balance and hope in our differences.” Former award-winning tech/financial columnist at Dow Jones MarketWatch, providing analysis on tech startups on Fox Business News, CNBC, CBS.
Srinivas (Benné) Betté has more than 40 years of increasing responsibility and achievement as an engineer, executive, leader, and entrepreneur in the energy and technology industries. Currently, as Chairman & CEO of Quasitum Inc., a company that is involved in the Oil and Gas, Infrastructure businesses and new technology ventures. His focus is building new businesses, investing in new ventures and advising companies. He is the founder Chairman of IITEAN – an entrepreneur advisor network. Recently he served on the Advisory Board of Cairn India Ltd., an $11B oil and gas company, and aLTreo an Oil Reserves based financial services firm. He was the President & CEO of Reliance International Exploration & Production Inc. during 2007-09. In this capacity he led Reliance Industries’ International oil and gas activities ranging from business planning to development and operations in the US, Colombia, Peru, Middle East, and Australia. Prior to that he cofounded Mcube Investment Technologies and as the CTO he led the technology effort to build financial asset management software tools for large institutional & pension funds. Benne started his career in the oil and gas industry with Mobil Oil Corporation where he spent 18 years in various technical and senior management positions including VP and Head of Sub-Surface Producing Technologies Division for Mobil Technology Company. He currently serves on the Industrial Advisory Board of the Chemical Engineering Department at University of Houston. He was on the executive committee of Global Petroleum Research Institute during 1997-98 and was on the Board of Directors for Abu-Dhabi National Reservoir Research Foundation in 1989. Benné has authored over 27 technical papers and has delivered many keynote speeches and seminars. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston, Houston, Texas.
Mr. Goldstein has over 30 years of experience in information technology. Mr. Goldstein is a highly accomplished and results-oriented senior information technology executive with demonstrated expertise in system design, implementation, agile methodologies, information security, predictive analytics, and business transformation. He is considered a trusted advisor on technology-related matters with a focus on healthcare, manufacturing and distribution. Mr. Goldstein is considered a visionary and innovative leader who builds and develops high-performing teams and delivers cost-effective solutions that drive company performance and profitability.
During his career, Mr. Goldstein has been the Chief Information Officer, Vice President Development, Senior Vice President of Information Technology for several large companies including Vizient, Inc, MedAssets, Master Halco, Balboa Water Group, Orora Group, and Mount Sinai Health System. Mr. Goldstein holds a BS, Information Systems from SUNY, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Dr. Hirsch is Senior Medical Director for Flatiron Health and a practicing medical oncologist with Texas Oncology in Dallas. At Flatiron Health, he helps to lead multiple efforts including value based care initiatives, collaborations with life sciences companies, and the development of novel research capabilities. Prior to joining Flatiron, he served as Medical Director of Informatics and Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) for US Oncology and was as an Assistant Professor at Duke University in the Duke Cancer Institute and Duke Clinical Research Institute. He is also a Co-Founder and Board Member at SignalPath Research, a start up leveraging technology to make clinical trials more efficient and effective. Across these roles, he focuses on the economic and organizational complexities of health care delivery and on the use of information systems to improve cancer care and patient engagement.
Dr. Duncan is an experienced investor and advisor in numerous early-staged deep-technology companies. He founded Orion Capital, LLC to invest primarily in health and life science companies. Dr. Duncan serves on multiple Board of Directors including CerSci Therapeutics, a Dallas-based company with a new generation of non-opioid medicines to treat acute post-operative and chronic neuropathic pain. He also serves on the Board of Directors and as Investment Officer of a private foundation primarily supporting early childhood education.
Prior to Orion Capital, Dr. Duncan advised faculty on new company formation at the University of Texas at Dallas - Venture Development Center. He has founded multiple companies including Syzygy Memory Plastics and Adaptive 3D Technologies, two materials science companies aiming to challenge cost and throughput of traditional plastic manufacturing.
Dr. Duncan received his PhD from Duke University in biomaterials science and engineering, followed later by an MBA from the Georgia Institute of Technology, focusing on technology commercialization.
Brian Giles, MD is a full time private practice interventional radiologist in Dallas, with a specialized focus on interventional oncology and hepatobiliary diseases. He earned a degree in biomedical engineering with honors from Tulane University, and subsequently attended the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas for medical school and diagnostic radiology residency training. He then completed a fellowship in interventional radiology at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. Dr. Giles is board certified in both Diagnostic Radiology and Interventional Radiology, and is an active member in the Society of Interventional Radiology and Western Angiographic and Interventional Society.
Outside of his clinical practice, Dr. Giles enjoys multiple aspects of medical device design and development including prototyping, IP strategy, market and stakeholder analysis. He is a named inventor of 8 patents/patent applications in the US, Europe and Japan.
Cain McClary, MD is the founder and Managing Partner of KdT Ventures. A native of Nashville, TN, Cain received his Sc.B. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Brown University in 2007. During his undergraduate studies, Cain studied proteins involved in the development of
appendages, both in the labs of Dr. Kristi Wharton at Brown University and Dr. Fred Kaplan at the University of Pennsylvania.
Following Brown, Cain went on to receive his medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine in 2012. During medical school, Cain also spent a year at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute “Cloister” Fellowship, where he studied the role of non-coding RNA in cancer at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the lab of Dr. Curtis Harris.
Immediately following medical school, Dr. McClary underwent residency training in anatomic pathology at Stanford University, where during his final year, he was named Chief Resident. While in residency, Dr. McClary discovered a genetic mutation in a rare jaw tumor,
ameloblastoma. This discovery subsequently led to a successful phase IV clinical trial of BRAF inhibitors in ameloblastoma, a condition where previously surgery was the only option. Due to this success, Dr. McClary was appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at Stanford University, becoming the youngest person on faculty in pathology at the time. He has won several notable awards, spoken at universities and national conferences, and published more than 10 peer reviewed articles.
Most recently, prior to the founding of KdT Ventures, Cain was the lead pathologist, analytics and data science clinical thought leader, and staff physician for Grand Rounds, a San
Francisco, CA based digital health company focused on objectively quantifying physician quality for large self-insured employers. During his time at Grand Rounds, Cain developed the pathology program to support over 2 million lives, negotiated several high impact academic and employer relationships, and helped to lead the training team for all onboarding physicians.
Over the past 10 years, Cain has been at the forefront of the intersection between technology and science/medicine. In addition to personal investments in this space with outsized returns, including companies like Zymergen (currently a 56X), Firefly Bioworks (10X Exit), Concert Genetics, and PathAI, Cain has been an active advisor to both companies and institutional investors (i.e. Lux Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, Innovation Endeavors, NueCura Partners, Cleargenes, HealthSpek, etc…), with contributions ranging from scientific thesis development all the way to monetization of product/company. Additionally, Cain is involved in entrepreneurship and finance advisory at both the local (Mentor at the Economic Development Center of Asheville/Venture Asheville) and national levels (Finance Committee Member of the US and Canadian Academy of Pathology).
Mr. Soderstrom is a founding partner of Green Park & Golf Ventures and is currently serving in a role with Texas Health Physician Group (THPG). He is a member of the board of directors of Caddis Partners, a Dallas based healthcare real estate investment firm. Additionally he serves on the Board of Dallas-based PerioSciences. Mr. Soderstrom served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of PhyServe Physician Services, Inc. for 14 years before joining THPG, and brings 23 years of experience in physician practice management.
Prior to joining PhyServe, he was Chief Operating Officer for Metroplex Emergency Physicians for two years, a company that ultimately spun off the initial practices that became the first clients of PhyServe. Mr. Soderstrom lead the effort to sell that medical group to EmCare in 1998. From 1989- 1996, he worked for Coastal Healthcare Group, Inc. in North Carolina, helping to grow the company to $750M and become one of the first physician practice management companies to go public in 1992. Mr. Soderstrom served as Chief Operating Officer of the $500M Emergency Services Division until 1996.
Mr. Soderstrom attended Illinois State University where he received his B.A. in business, and received his MBA from The University of Notre Dame in 1988. He was recognized as a finalist in 2010 for Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” in the Southwest Region of the United States.
Dr. Carl Soderstrom opened his private practice in Morton, Ill. in 1973 and has been treating central Illinois patients for more than 35 years. He grew up in Streator, Ill., and attended the University of Illinois where he received his medical degree. After an internship at the University of Miami, JacksonMemorialHospital, Dr. Soderstrom completed residencies at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in both internal medicine and dermatology and is board certified in both specialties. He is on the active staff at OSFSt.FrancisMedicalCenter and MethodistMedicalCenter and is assistant clinical professor of dermatology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria. He is a fellow of the AmericanAcademy of Dermatology, the AmericanCollege of Physicians, the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, and the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery.
Dr. Soderstrom is a member of the Mayo Clinic Alumni Association Board of Directors. He has served as chairman of both the O’Leary Society and the Plummer Society. He is the Chairman of the Mayo Clinic Leadership Council for Alumni Philanthropy. He is a founding member of the Doctors of Mayo Society and a proud Mayo Alumni Laureate.
Carlos Crawford has held various leadership positions in sales, marketing, market research, human resources, and operations as an executive at leading pharmaceutical manufacturers Eli Lilly and Company and Astra Zeneca. Crawford has been instrumental in the strategy development and sales execution for 24 commercialized products including 11 new-product launches across myriad disease states and medical specialties. As Executive Business Director, Cardiology for Astra Zeneca, he helped establish the business as the new market leader in Post-PCI oral anti-platelet therapy while doubling US sales. He has served as Commercial Officer and Head of Sales for the medical device company, Vital Art and Science and most recently, runs a boutique consulting practice helping early stage life science companies build commercial capabilities. An active member in the North Texas Angel Network and mentor in the UTD-Venture Development Center and Dallas Health Wildcatters, he provides capital and expertise to a variety of start -up businesses. He currently serves as a volunteer pilot for Angel Flight America and a mentor for HIS Bridge Builders. Crawford holds an MBA from the Cox School of Business at SMU.
Carter is a managing director with River Cities Capital Funds and has been with the firm for 15 years. He leads the company’s healthcare investing practice. Previously, Carter worked in marketing and business development for Home Technology Healthcare, a comprehensive home healthcare company, private-equity financed by Continental Illinois and acquired by Integrated Health Services. As the recipient of the Bradford Fellowship, Carter also worked in equity research at J.C. Bradford & Co. while attending business school.
Carter has represented RCCF in successful exits in healthcare services and medical technology companies, including Accelecare, Horizon Resource Group, Pioneer Surgical, OrthoHelix Surgical Designs, Suros Surgical Systems, Orthoscan, invivodata and mostly recently, Centerre Healthcare.
Carter holds a BA from Trinity College and received his MBA from Vanderbilt University.
Carter serves on the Cincinnati Parks Foundation board and is an independent director on the board of Onconome, a molecular diagnostics company.
Carter Meyer is the Chief Executive Officer of Scientific Health Development (SHD) since its formation in February 2006, and is a General Partner of SHD II and SHD III. Prior to joining SHD, he was an attorney in private practice for over 12 years, most recently with the Dallas office of the Vinson & Elkins L.L.P. As an attorney, Mr. Meyer focused on commercial transactions with substantial experience buying, selling, financing and making investments in both public and private entities. Mr. Meyer has a B.B.A. in finance from Texas Christian University and a J.D. from St. Mary’s University School of Law. Mr. Meyer is a director of all SHD portfolio companies.
Chad Birckelbaw is an experienced leader with a proven record of success and diverse experiences tosupport profitable organizational growth. Chad is adept at utilizing a market-based approach to formulate an optimal strategy and identifying and retaining leadership to support growth.
Most recently, Chad served as President and CEO of FAIRPAY Solutions, a role he held since 2010. FAIRPAY is a healthcare technology company focused on payment integrity and cost containment. During Chad’s tenure with FAIRPAY, the company transitioned from venture-backed ownership to private equity in 2009. The company was then sold to a strategic acquirer in 2014 generating a positive return for the investors. Chad was instrumental in building the infrastructure needed to support organizational growth a Chad Birckelbaw is an experienced leader with a proven record of success and diverse experiences to support profitable organizational growth. Chad is adept at utilizing a market-based approach to formulate an optimal strategy and identifying and retaining leadership to support growth.
Prior to joining FAIRPAY, Chad worked in numerous leadership roles and locations with State Farm Insurance, a Fortune 50 Company. During his tenure he was a member of the Future Executive Leaders program designed to identify and support the development of those individuals deemed to have potential for significant upward mobility within the organization. Chad has a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Administration from Illinois State University. Inaddition, he has earned the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Associate in RiskManagement (ARM) designations. nd worked closely with clients to define and refine the company’s service offerings.Prior to joining FAIRPAY, Chad worked in numerous leadership roles and locations with State FarmInsurance, a Fortune 50 Company. During his tenure he was a member of the Future Executive Leaders program designed to identify and support the development of those individuals deemed to have potential for significant upward mobility within the organization.
Chad has a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Administration from Illinois State University. In addition, he has earned the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designations.
Chad Hebel has over 18 years of healthcare information technology experience with several large multi-specialty organizations servicing both hospital and ambulatory settings as well as hundreds of independent providers. His past 6 years have been devoted to growing his business, Convert EHR LLC, which provides extraction, conversion and integration assistance to medical providers/organizations regarding their EHR solutions. Services consist of Quality Reporting (NQF, HEDIS, QIP, Custom), Process Improvement Feedback Tools, Practice Automation, Ad-hoc Reporting, Data Integrity, etc. Mr. Hebel was formerly the Director of Health Information Technology for Fortune 100 Company, Humana/Concentra; he is responsible for the systems integration/implementation efforts of their Occupational Medicine, Urgent Care and Primary Care service lines. Prior to this, Mr. Hebel was Executive Director of EHR for Texas Health Resources, the second largest non-for profit Texas based hospital system in Dallas/Ft. Worth where he was responsible for the Electronic Health Record division of Texas Health Physicians Group. He is proficient in interpreting and integrating information gained from EHR and entity systems to improve processes for clinical and other business departments. He holds an MBA is MIS/Healthcare and a BS in Finance from The University of Illinois.
Charles H. (Charley) Kiser founded C. H. Kiser & Company, LLC, a management consulting practice specializing in developing business and technology strategies that drive extraordinary results. Charley brings decades of executive management experience leading high performing teams on a regional, national and global scale.
Prior to launching his own firm, Charley was with HP Enterprise Services (formerly EDS) serving in Account Executive, Regional Manager, and Director roles for major clients across several industries. He was also in senior management at NationsBanc (now Bank of America) and served as Chairman of the PULSE ATM Network based in Houston, TX.
Charley holds a bachelor’s degree in business statistics from the University of Texas at Austin and has completed executive studies at London Business School. Charley is co-inventor on several patents and has spoken at national quality and electronic banking industry conferences. In his spare time, he enjoys golf, swimming, biking, and an occasional triathlon. Charley is on LinkedIn, at http://www.linkedin.com/in/chkiser, and his company’s website is www.chkiser.com.
Charlie Plauche is a Partner at S3 Ventures. Charlie currently serves on the boards of S3 portfolio companies Alkami Technology, Iconixx, OutboundEngine, Tango Health, and z-lien. He also works closely with S3’s investments in AllStacks, Chrono.gg, and Liveoak Technologies. Previous board duties include Favor Delivery (acquired by H-E-B), Kimbia (acquired by GiveGab) and Pristine (acquired by Upskill). Charlie also worked closely with TVA Medical (acquired by Becton Dickinson, NYSE:BDX).
Prior to S3, Charlie was with Harbert Private Equity Funds, a subsidiary of Harbert Management Corporation. At Harbert, Charlie analyzed and structured leveraged buyouts in the healthcare and manufacturing sectors and assisted with portfolio management. He received his MBA from the McCombs School at the University of Texas in Austin and his BS in Finance from the University of Mississippi, where he was a Holmes Scholarship recipient and a Mississippi Eminent Scholar.
Chase Curtiss is an innovative digital health expert and clinical exercise physiologist with a strong expertise in developing mobile software solutions within the medical and fitness markets. Chase has an academic and research background in biomechanics, exercise physiology and neuroscience with published research in each field. Chase has been recognized as a pioneer in the mobile health space with the first ever FDA clearance for a software only mobile medical device. He has been highlighted in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg TV, Forbes, Pando Daily, Mobihealthnews, the Grey Sheet and many other mainstream and medically focused publications. YouTube has also named Chase NextUP for his work in video instruction content reaching 30 million viewers.
As an expert in the field of digital healthcare, Chase is also a regular speaker having presented for events put on by Blue Cross Blue Shield, AARP and Chase was the 2014 commencement speaker for Wichita State University.
Specialties: Healthcare IT, Mobile Software (iOS and Android), HIPAA Secure Systems, HL7 Standards, Data Encryption, Big Data Statistical Analysis, Complex Database Architecture, User Interface/Experience Design (UI/UX), FDA Regulations, Quality Systems Standards, Organizational Strategies for Device Management with BYOD.
Chris serves as the Vice President of Operations for Nuvectra Medical, an active implantable medical device company committed to improving the lives of people with chronic conditions. Chris is one of the original members of the Nuvectra commercialization team. He played a lead role in developing and executing the operational infrastructure, including, supply chain, warehousing and distribution, IT, compliance, and a point-of-sale solution. It is this infrastructure that provides the foundation from which Nuvectra currently operates and will continue to leverage as Nuvectra continues its hyper-growth and launches new therapies. He was also instrumental in spinning-off Nuvectra from its parent company in 2016 into a independent publicly traded corporation by securing long-term supply chain agreements and establishing independent warehousing and worldwide distribution.
Prior to joining Nuvectra, Chris lead the Health Policy, Preauthorization and Reimbursement teams at Abbott. These teams were instrumental in Congressional discussions with regard to healthcare reform and repeal of the medical device tax. They also achieved insurance approvals on behalf of tens of thousands of patients who would not otherwise have had access to Abbott therapies.
Chris began his career in medical devices 15 years ago as the Vice President of Strategy for a startup neuromodulation therapy where, in partnership with the CEO and COO wrote the business plan and secured $13MM in angel funding. Once funding was secured he turned his attention to company infrastructure including, compliance, IT, manufacturing, distribution, reimbursement and supply chain.
Chris holds an MBA from Southern Methodist University as well as Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Clemson University.
Christopher Crow, M.D. CEO of StratiFi Health and president of Catalyst Health Network, is a nationally recognized healthcare innovator. Dr. Crow created StratiFi Health and launched Catalyst Health Network after founding Village Health Partners and Legacy Medical Village in Plano, Texas in 2007. He is an award-winning primary care physician and has spent the past 20+ years focused on helping communities thrive through improving the delivery of healthcare.
As president of Catalyst Health Network, Dr. Crow has connected and aligned a network of more than 500 Primary Care Providers with nearly 1 million lives across North Texas, to build a better care model for patients that improves health and lowers cost. His work with Catalyst Health Network led them to be the first North Texas physician network to hold value-based contracts with the top four major carriers: Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, BCBSTX, and Cigna. In 2016, the first full year of operations, Catalyst Health Network performed with significant savings of approximately $20 million for the communities they serve. Additionally, Catalyst Health Network became the 5th URAC Clinically Integrated Network in the nation in December 2017.
As CEO of StratiFi Health, Dr. Crow has been instrumental in the company’s massive 5 year growth and success. StratiFi Health serves over 1,200 providers between their population health and practice services offerings. These practices manage well over 1 million lives and over $5 billion in annual medical expenditures.
Dr. Crow received his B.A. at the University of Texas at Austin, his M.D. at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and completed a family practice residency at Memorial-Hermann Hospital in Houston. He also holds an Executive M.B.A. from The University of Texas at Dallas.
Clark Terrill has over 15 years experience in management and driving business strategies. He is currently the CEO and a co-founder of La Jolla Digital, LLC, a SaaS based practice management and medical billing solution for the healthcare industry. Mr. Terrill has used his diverse background in corporate environments, and entrepreneurial organizations to lead La Jolla Digital to becoming one of the top Practice Management solutions in the country.
In 2013, Mr. Terrill and his father, Robert C. Terrill M.D., founded Sonoma Skin Works, a comprehensive Dermatology and aesthetic practice. Clark and his father developed Sonoma Skin Works to provide patients with the opportunity to achieve the optimum experience by combining experienced dermatological care with sophisticated specially formulated products and superior customer service.
Mr. Terrill holds a BA in Business Administration from the University of San Diego.
Dr. Heighten is a founding member of Green Park and Golf Ventures. After completion of residency training at the Southwestern Medical School affiliated Parkland Hospital program in Dallas, Texas he practiced Emergency Medicine for 13 years. In the early 1990’s Dr. Heighten was one of five physicians founding Metroplex Emergency Physicians Associates, P.A. “MEPA”. MEPA employed and managed emergency medicine providers contracting with 23 hospitals at its peak in Texas and surrounding states. MEPA was sold in 1998 to EMCARE a publically traded emergency services provider.
In 1994, Dr. Heighten founded the physician organization that ultimately became known as Medical Edge Healthcare Group, P.A. “MEHG”. MEHG at the time of its acquisition in 2010 by Texas Health Resources, “THR”, employed over 400 doctors and mid-level providers and owned facilities providing a comprehensive range of ancillary and laboratory services that in aggregate accounted for over 1.5 million patient encounters per year. Dr. Heighten has continued his involvement in the integration of MEHG into the Texas Health Physician Group as an employee of THR with particular emphasis on pay for performance initiatives.
Dr. Heighten was also a founder and board member of Physerve Physician Services, “Physerve”. Physerve provided comprehensive management support to multiple physician groups across the USA and was also sold to THR.
Dr. Heighten is also a founding member of Caddis Partners, a real estate development and management company specializing in healthcare properties. Caddis has consistently ranked as a top developer by number of square feet developed in North Texas.
Along the way Dr. Heighten has served on the boards of hospitals, insurance entities and technology companies. He is married to Dr. Debra Caudy, a medical oncologist and has four children. His philanthropic interests are devoted to the understanding, prevention and treatment of autistic spectrum disorders.
Clay J. Cockerell, M.D. is an internationally renowned specialist who has served in many leadership roles in organized medicine including President of the American Academy of Dermatology. He is also Clinical Professor of Dermatology and Pathology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Director of the Division of Dermatopathology. He is a board certified Dermatologist and Dermatopathologist licensed in many states in the United States.
Dr. Cockerell has been in practice since 1986 and has extensive experience in clinical dermatology and dermatopathology having evaluated well over 1 million biopsy specimens to date. He has lectured and published extensively having authored over 500 papers, book chapters and books.
Craig specializes in brand identity development and marketing strategy in the healthcare space. He is currently Senior Brand Manager for AMN Healthcare, a workforce solutions company, overseeing their brand messaging and communications. Previously he was Vice President of Marketing for BroadJump, a SAAS company providing expense management solutions for healthcare systems. Prior to that Craig was Director of Marketing for Methodist Health System, a nonprofit healthcare system based in Dallas, Texas. His background includes creative director for a unit of Publicis Dallas and several years in account services with The Richards Group advertising agency.
Education:
Master of Business Administration
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
Master of Graphic Design
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, North Carolina
Bachelor of Business Administration
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, Texas
Dr. Daniel Joseph “D.J.” Verret was born and raised in the heart of Cajun country, Lafayette, LA. He attended Tulane University where he earned a degree in biomedical engineering with honors. He went on to attend the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas for both his medical degree and residency training. For further refinement of his skills, he applied for and was awarded one of only 38 nationwide one year fellowships through the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. After living in the Dallas Metroplex for nine years, Dr. Verret became enamored with the area and moved back to Plano to open his practice.
Dr. Verret continues to stay abreast of the latest innovations in facial plastic surgery through attendance at various local, national, and international facial plastic surgery meetings. He regularly teaches at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and volunteers at various local civic organizations. He has been invited to speak at national and international facial plastic surgery meetings and he has been rewarded with numerous peer reviewed articles and book chapters. Dr. Verret is double board certified by the American Board of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, the American Board of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, and fellowship trained in facial plastic surgery.
Dan Bedell is the president of Scorpion Healthcare, a digital services company focused on hospitals and healthcare providers. Scorpion Healthcare offers SaaS-based AdTech, MarTech, design and marketing services to over 300 hospitals and healthcare organizations across the US via approximately 65 employees located primarily in Los Angeles, Dallas and New York. Prior to taking over as President of Scorpion Healthcare, Dan served as Chief Operating Officer for the parent company, Scorpion, which is a digital services, SaaS and marketing company generating over $200MM in annual revenue and a perennial member of Inc’s 5000 Fastest Growing Companies. Dan’s background has been split primarily between entrepreneurship where he founded two companies and operational/execution leadership. When he’s not working, he’d prefer to be traveling with his wife and occasionally even his three children.
Dan L. Dodson serves as President of Fortified Health Security where he brings over 10 years’ experience in the healthcare and insurance industries. During this time Dan has served as both an operational leader and sales leader. Dan’s specific focus has been in aligning organizational strengths with client needs through the execution of relevant go-to-market strategies and solution development.
Prior to joining Fortified, Dan served as Senior Vice President at Hooper Holmes, Inc. (AMEX: HH), a company serving the health and wellness and life insurance industry. Dan led sales and account management efforts for a $100+ million business unit. Dan, along with the executive team, crafted a new strategic plan which resulted in the company selling under-performing business lines and focusing on the growing health and wellness market. Prior to joining HH, Dan served as Global Healthcare Strategy Lead for Dell Services (formally Perot Systems), where he was responsible for strategy, business planning and M&A initiatives for the company’s healthcare services business unit. He helped develop market strategies for Dell’s health information exchange, informatics, community physician and electronic medical record services. He also led the development of the division’s Asia-Pacific strategy including joint venture business planning and Brazil and China market entry plans. Prior to joining Perot Systems, Dan held numerous positions within various healthcare organizations including Covenant Health System and The Parker Group.
Dan holds an M.B.A. in Health Organization Management and a B.S. in Accounting and Finance from Texas Tech University. Dan currently serves on the Southern Methodist University Cyber Security Advisory Board.
Danny Janiak is an Associate with Mercury, where he focuses on developing and originating science-based investment themes and startup opportunities. Prior to joining Mercury, Danny was an Associate in the Physical and Biological Technologies practice at In-Q-Tel, the strategic venture investment arm of the U.S. Intelligence Community. While at In-Q-Tel, Danny was responsible for the management and oversight of technology development programs in numerous In-Q-Tel portfolio companies. In addition, he was responsible for leading technical due diligence on all potential investment candidates in the advanced materials space.
Danny received his BS and PhD from the University of Maryland where he was a Future Faculty Fellow and held the Robert E. Fischell Fellowship in Biomedical Engineering. In addition, Danny is currently participating in Class 17 of the Kauffman Fellows Program through the Center for Venture Education.
Outside of Mercury, Danny serves in Advisory roles for PIPELINE – Kansas City, the University of Missouri’s Enterprise Investment Program, the University of Texas Horizon Fund, and the William J. von Liebig Center at the University of California – San Diego.
Dan is the Managing Partner of GPG Ventures - Houston. Dan is a native Houstonian where he has been an active venture investor in early-stage medical device, biotech, digital health, insurance, and technology companies.
Dan is a passionate venture entrepreneur having started, led, advised, and funded numerous early-stage technology companies over the past 25 years. He has personally invested in over 35 early-stage companies. Most recently, Dan led the nationwide syndication investor network of a crowd-funding investment platform focused on early-stage medical innovation.
Prior to that, Dan was involved in several technology companies including a 10-year tenure as CEO of SalvageSale, a venture-backed online auction platform, essentially an “industrial eBay”, which was acquired by the world’s largest heavy equipment auction company.
Dan started his career with Accenture and was a partner with Computer Sciences Corporation before entering the venture community. He has been recognized for his leadership with high growth technology companies and is a frequent entrepreneurial speaker.
He is also very active in the charitable and business community. Dan currently is a board observer of several portfolio companies including Hooray Health, NonInvasix, NovaScan and WorkShield. He is a director of Texas Business Hall of Fame, past president of the Children’s Museum of Houston, and a member of the San Jose Clinic Advisory Board. He served as an Assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 55 of the Boy Scouts of America.
Dan earned his undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University and an M.B.A. from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. Dan is married to Allison Zwiener Parsley. They have three children, one loyal dog, and a fat cat. He enjoys duck hunting, flyfishing, cooking, and golf.
Dr. Gandhi is Medical Director of Oncology at Methodist Charlton hospital in Dallas . He is board certified in Internal medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology and carries a special interest in healthcare management, regulations and heath entrepreneurship. He also serves as Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine and Chair of Cancer Program at the Methodist Charlton hospital. He sits on the national Pharmacy and Therapeutics committee for Catamaran PBM (pharmacy benefit manager) as an Oncology expert. He has earned MBA (Masters of Business Administration) from the Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts.
Dr. Gandhi is a physician-entrepreneur/investor involved in mentoring and assisting health start ups. He is Founder and Organizer at DIHEN (DFW Indian Health Entrepreneur Network) and works with local and national angel groups and crowd-funding platforms. He serves as an Advisor to oncology and other health related ventures. As an active member of SoPE (Society of Physician Entrepreneurs) and TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) he is actively involved in engaging the physician community in health entrepreneurship.
In his spare time he enjoys writing, traveling and spending time with his 3 children and his wife Dr.Shyama Gandhi who is a practicing Family physician in the Dallas area.
Mr. Marshall has over 35 years of experience in providing financial, tax and legal advice within the energy, real estate and privately owned family and start-up business environments. Some of that experience was gained from an innovative pump technology startup, GeoTek Energy, where he served as CEO. Mr. Marshall led GeoTek’s successful efforts to acquire a DOE multi-phase grant and matching private investor funds for the development and testing of its patented Gravity Head Energy technology.
Prior GeoTek, Mr. Marshall worked as CFO and General Counsel for J.D. Murchison Interests, Inc., a privately held holding company with oil and gas exploration, single and multi-family real estate development and financial investments. Mr. Marshall’s background includes experience in Big-4 public accounting, legal services, energy consulting and regulatory work.
Mr. Marshall has a Bachelor of Accountancy degree with Special Distinction from the University of Oklahoma and earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Texas in Austin. Mr. Marshall is licensed as an attorney and a Certified Public Accountant in Texas and as a CPA in Florida.
Dave Stiles is a progressive, entrepreneurial, strategic contracting leader with highly refined sales and negotiation skills. Dave has over 25 years of Medical Device Industry experience with large companies like Medtronic and J&J as well as small companies and start-ups. Dave has honed an exceptionally broad span of leadership skills in sales, marketing, contracting, product development, business start-up and general management.
In recent years Dave has turned his focus to contracting. Having taken a consulting position with the nation’s largest GPO, he has crossed to the “dark-side”, negotiating Orthopedic and Cardiac device contracts on behalf of hospitals. Dave creates contracting strategies and then builds consensus and alignment with hospital management and physicians, thus creating the leverage of a united front in his negotiations with the largest device manufactures. This experience, combined with years of negotiating local and national agreements as a Supplier, gives Dave unique insights into Medical Device contracting. Dave is also very knowledgeable regarding the ACA and other healthcare trends.
For most medical devices, effective penetration of the U.S. market will require the successful implementation of a carefully thought out contracting and pricing strategy. As a Mentor, Dave hopes to offer you insights and ideas to attain contracting success.
David E. Albert, MD, an Oklahoma native, is a physician, inventor and serial entrepreneur who has developed medical and other life-saving technologies and products over the last 30 years, turning a number of those innovations into tech startups. Today, he is a founder of three technology companies, InnovAlarm, Lifetone Technology and AliveCor. His previous startups include Corazonix Corp (sold to Arrhythmia Research Technology) and Data Critical (sold to GE). Dr. Albert left GE in 2004 as Chief Scientist of GE Cardiology to disrupt several new markets.
His latest invention, AliveCor Heart Monitor, became a global sensation via a four-minute YouTube Video in January 2011 around the Consumer Electronics Show and was featured on ABC, CBS, CNN and Fox News among many other media outlets. Dr. Albert has 32 issued US patents, a large number pending and several new “secret inventions” in development. He has authored or co-authored over 50 scientific abstracts and publications principally in the Cardiology literature. Dr. Albert has lectured at the Entrepreneurship programs at the MIT Sloan School and the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Albert graduated with Honors from Harvard College and from Duke University Medical School.
David Baum is a corporate development executive at a fintech startup in stealth mode. Before that, David was in the corporate development group at Western Digital, focusing on M&A execution, post-merger integration, strategic investments and strategic planning. His previous experience was in investment banking and law. David earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Georgetown University. He lives in Southlake, TX with his wife Doeun and their two children.
David is an accomplished CEO and Board member in consumer products, consumer services, and franchising. His experience includes stints as CEO of Massage Envy (the world’s largest spa chain), CEO and Vice Chair of ECP-PF Holdings Group (which builds and operates 115 Planet Fitness gyms across the U.S. and Canada), and President of Tree of Life (a billion-dollar distributor of natural and gourmet foods). He ran a consumer products division of Philips Electronics in Latin America and then led their e-Business and Consumer Relationship Marketing activities worldwide.
David currently serves on the Boards of Massage Heights, Handel’s Ice Cream, and the International Franchise Association. He will be Chair of the IFA in 2023. A longtime angel investor, he has supported multiple startups in tech and tech-enabled fields, and he advises several private equity firms.
David is a successful healthcare investor and is actively involved in driving new strategic growth initiatives for Providence, helping to shape the future of one of America’s largest comprehensive health care organizations.
David joined Providence Ventures, an investment arm of Providence St. Joseph Health, as a Partner in 2018 where he has helped lead the formulation of the firm’s medical device, software, and digital health investment strategy. David previously served as President and Board Member of Mid-America Healthcare Investors Network, one of the largest healthcare venture capital industry groups in the U.S. Additionally, David served as a Principal helping to lead the healthcare practice of RC Capital and performed extensive sales, marketing, and financial training programs with Proctor & Gamble and Merrill Lynch.
As an investor, board member, and advisor, David has helped support talented healthcare entrepreneurs realize over $1 billion in value. Over his career, he has led or co-led investments in Bolder Surgical (sold), Veran Medical (sold), TissueTech (sold), Advanced Practice Strategies (sold), SurgiQuest (sold), TailorMed, MacroHealth, OrthAlign, and NICO Corporation. Additionally, David currently serves on the Board of Directors of DexCare, Wildflower Health, and AVIA Health.
As a serial entrepreneur, David has co-founded several successful companies in the areas of medical diagnostics, sports medicine, consumer package goods, wine accessories and ophthalmic medical devices. He is actively involved in multiple startup incubators in Florida and Texas, and is a frequent lecturer at the University of Florida, Engineering and Business Schools. David is actively involved in the Dallas based Health Wildcatter accelerator and has taken three companies through their intensive 12-week program. During his 25 year corporate career, he was a senior R&D executive for Novartis, Alcon Labs and Allergan where he led a wide range of research teams responsible for developing and commercializing many new pharmaceutical products and medical devices. With his broad experience, he brings an enthusiasm for innovation and entrepreneurism to his companies. As a self-described “tinkerer” and inventor he has over 50 patents and has authored almost 200 scientific publications.
David Orlandella is a Managing Director for ORIX Ventures. His primary focus is on new deal origination and strategic business development for Healthcare investments.
Prior to joining the ORIX USA team, Mr. Orlandella was a Managing Director for Fifth Street Asset Management, where he was responsible for origination and direct investments for the firm’s Technology Lending Group. In addition to his direct investing business, he also helped to drive new opportunities to access capital for additional asset management and growth. Before his time at Fifth Street Asset Management, he served as a Principal for ORIX USA’s Corporate Capital division, focused on debt and equity investments in Technology and Healthcare.
Prior to his time at ORIX USA, Mr. Orlandella was a direct venture investor and Managing Director at Enhanced Capital Partners and Redwood Ventures where he successfully executed investments, buyouts and growth financings focused in the Technology and Healthcare industries.
Mr. Orlandella earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Bates College, and later studied Telecommunications at the University of Denver.
Mr. Orlandella serves on the advisory council for the Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas and has been an active member of the Association for Corporate Growth and the National Venture Capital Association.
David W. Paul a Principal at Canal Partners. In this role, Mr. Paul is responsible for sourcing potential investments, developing relationships with referral sources, conducting market and financial due diligence, developing internal processes for staff and venture partners, sitting on the board of directors for select portfolio companies, portfolio governance and support, and investor relations. Paul currently sits on the board of directors of Lightpost Digital and is a board observer at MobileLogix and PetDesk.
Prior to his role at Canal Partners, Mr. Paul worked at Tallwave Capital, a Scottsdale-based $13M seed-stage fund. In his time there, Paul built capital relationships and strong deal flow in the areas of Southern California, Colorado, and Utah. Paul also ran his own single-family office, DWP Investments, and co-invested with Canal Partners prior to coming on full time in 2017.
Before his career in venture finance, Mr. Paul was the Founder and CEO of South Florida Home Care - a leading home health and geriatric care management agency in South Florida. South Florida Home Care was founded in 2011 and was acquired by Home Care Associates in 2015.
Mr. Paul earned his Masters in Business Administration from Northeastern University in Boston, where he specialized in entrepreneurship and innovation. Paul graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelors of Science in Human Services at Springfield College in Boston.
David Smith is an accomplished healthcare executive with a passion for helping companies achieve their full potential. David has a track record of growing revenue through internal development and acquisition, rapidly adapting organizations to address market and regulatory forces, and accelerating change with a pragmatic approach to execution.
David’s expertise in helping companies to better execute value-creating strategies was developed over a 25-year career that includes experience in public accounting, management consulting, private equity investment management, financial leadership of large and middle market companies, and executive leadership as CEO of a private-equity backed healthcare company.
David received his graduate education at the University of Pennsylvania’s The Wharton School, where he received a Master in Business Administration with a joint major in Marketing and Operations. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and International Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.
David Sym-Smith is a successful entrepreneur, proven CEO, motivational speaker, award winning executive. In his career, he has been the founder of multiple startups, he has been the CEO/President of both public and private companies, and he has served as a senior executive in many capacities. David has been part of a number of well-known successful startups, including Tele Atlas (acquired by Tom Tom) Innopath Software (acquired by Qualcomm), Areal Comm. (acquired by T-Mobile), American Personal Communications (acquired by Sprint), and more.
David serves on the boards of companies. He supports entrepreneurs and small businesses. He is the Chief Evangelist and a board member of Multiple Incubators which work with entrepreneurs.
David is a frequent speaker. He speaks on the topics of innovation, entrepreneurship, and business leadership.
David was honored with the Tech Titans Technology Advocate and Innovation Awards; TIA People Choice Award; PCIA Distinguished Citizen Award; and Compass Intelligence - Mobile & Wireless Award.
Outside of the world of technology, David has served on numerous charity and non-profit boards.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsymsmith
Mr. Dillard entered the investment industry in 1996 and joined Invesco in 2000. He served as a senior equities analyst before being promoted to portfolio manager in 2009. Prior to joining Invesco, Mr. Dillard served as a fixed-income analyst and trader for SouthTrust Asset Mgmt. His duties involved identifying and executing investment ideas within the corporate, government and municipal bond markets.He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in corporate fi nance from the University of Alabama. He earned an MBA from the Owen School of Business at Vanderbilt University. He is a CFA charterholder.
Dennis Dayman, CIPP/US, CIPP/E, CIPT, FIP
Dennis Dayman has more than 30 years of experience working on security/privacy issues, data governance issues, and protecting and improving data through industry policy, regulatory policy relations, and technical solutions and his currently the Resident Chief Information Security Officer for Proofpoint and is the Co-author of Startup CXO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Company’s Critical Functions and Teams at StartupCXO.com.
Previously he was Return Path’s Chief Privacy and Security Officer. At that time Dayman leverages his experience and key relationships to provide best practices to Return Path, its customers, and ensures the compliance of their communications data flows. He was also responsible for coordinating and managing Return Path’s international electronic commerce, privacy and Internet related policy issues. Return Path was acquired by Validity in 2019.
Prior to Return Path, he was Eloqua’s Chief Privacy and Security Officer. Eloqua was the leader in digital marketing when it invented and coined the first Marketing Automation platform, a real game-changer for marketers. Eloqua had a successful IPO and that same year was acquired by Oracle for $871 Million dollars in 2012.
Dennis was appointed by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary to the Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee (DPIAC) that provides input to DHS on programmatic, policy, operational, administrative and technical issues that relate to personal identifiable information, as well as data integrity and other privacy-related matters and is the Chair of the Policy subcommittee. Also appointed as a U.S. Delegate for the U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) within International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) supporting work on ISO/PC 317: Consumer protection: privacy by design for consumer goods and services.
As a longstanding member of several boards and advisory committees within the advertising and messaging industry, including helping found and serving on the Board of Director’s as the vice- chair for the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG), served on the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE) board, served on the International Association of Privacy Professional (IAPP) advisory boards, served as the Chairperson of the Email Sender and Provider Coalition (ESPC) now Chairperson Emeritus, served on the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Ethics committee, served as the Chairperson of the Email Experience Council (EEC) MAC now Chairperson Emeritus, and appointed an IAPP and Ponemon Institute Fellow. Dayman is actively involved in creating current Internet and digital communication regulations, privacy/security policies and anti-spam legislation laws for state and federal governments. He also sits on several advisory boards for Internet companies and is also a partner, mentor, and frequent investor in start-ups, mentorship-driven micro seed funds, and startup accelerators.
Dayman holds a B.A. in Criminal Justice from Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas.
Don is a practical, executive-level leader interested in making a difference within organizations and maximizing the potential collective impact of people. He has deep experience in corporate strategy, structuring and executing successful complex corporate initiatives, manufacturing, and mergers and acquisitions.
As a partner-level consultant Don has led six and seven figure engagements in strategy development, M&A integration and executing complex corporate initiatives. Sample clients include Rogers Corporation (NYSE: ROG), CME Group (NASDAQ: CME), $1B healthcare services company Vizient, $3B senior health provider Golden Living, Andrew Corporation (now part of CommScope), medical device manufacturer Guidant Corporation (now part of Boston Scientific), Morgan Stanley, and 3M’s Medical Division (NYSE: MMM) among others. Don is co-author of After the Merger: The Authoritative Guide to Integration Success published through McGraw Hill. He served on the executive team of $35M in annual revenue Project Leadership Associates (now FlexManage), a professional services firm in Chicago which the team sold to a Private Equity firm in 2011.
Don’s industry experience includes time as an Industrial Engineer with Texas Instruments’ Defense Systems Group and as an executive over industrial engineering, safety and quality systems with Decibel Products, a $35M in annual revenue manufacturer which grew into Allen Telecom.
Don has facilitated dozens of board and executive team strategy sessions. He served on the Chicago and North Texas chapter boards of the National Association of Corporate Directors, a national organization focused on providing information and education to corporate directors. Don is an investor and director for Coffee and Dunn, a marketing automation services company and for Zenylitcs, an early stage speech analytics services company.
Don served as a Business Leadership Center Instructor at the SMU Cox School of Business in Dallas, TX and is a two-time recipient of the Teaching Excellence Award. He holds an MBA from the University of Dallas and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University. He resides in Dallas, Texas.
Edward Meagher is a partner who joined the firm in 2002. He has expertise in all phases of U.S. and international patent, trademark, trade secret and copyright prosecution. Mr. Meagher advises clients who are primarily involved in building IP portfolios in the electromechanical/mechanical arts, software design, IOT and control systems. He also is directly involved in the management and licensing of IP assets for emerging business clients. In addition, Mr. Meagher prepares complex License Agreements, Research and Development Agreements, Freedom-to-Operate and Validity Opinions.
Mr. Meagher has over 24 years experience in securing the IP rights of U.S. and foreign businesses. His keen interest in science and mechanics led him to pursue a B.S. in applied physics from Providence College and a B.S.M.E. in applied physics and mechanical engineering from Columbia University. He decided to pursue a career in law, knowing that the patent field offered opportunities to leverage his unique scientific know-how. He went on to earn his J.D. from Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center. In 2010 Mr. Meagher became a Trustee at Molloy College Energeia Program and is now a frequent Lecturer at BioDesign Israel.
Elyse Stoltz Dickerson is CEO and Co-Founder of Eosera, Inc., a majority woman-owned biotech company committed to developing products that address underserved medical needs. Eosera operates by putting purpose before profits and is proud to be one of the pioneering companies in a movement called Conscious Capitalism.
Elyse spent 13 years at Alcon (a Novartis Company). She was a Global Director, managing brands around the world with revenue over $1.7 billion annually. Elyse actively mentors women who pursue careers in healthcare and technology. She is a strong advocate for gender equality and women in business. Among her numerous industry honors are the 2018 Top Woman Owned Business, the 2016 Women in Technology Award, and a 2017 D CEO finalist. In 2015, she won $50,000 as part of a business pitch competition sponsored by Comerica Bank and winner of the Mary Kay Pink Tank Business Pitch Competition.
Elyse serves on the Board of Trustees for Fort Worth Country Day School and serves on the school’s Finance Committee, as well as the Building and Grounds Committee. She also serves on the TCU Neely School of Business, Health Care Advisory Board.
Elyse holds a BA from the University of Notre Dame, and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. She has also completed the Integral Leadership Program and The Advanced Leadership Program at the Stagen Leadership Academy. Elyse is married with two children and resides in Fort Worth, Texas. She is also a lifelong athlete and has completed marathons, triathlons and an Ironman.
Eric W. Bennett, CPA*, CFA, is Chief Investment Officer and Chairman of the Investment Committee for Tolleson Wealth Management. He also serves on the firm’s CEO Council and Board of Directors. He brings more than 30 years of experience in wealth management, investment management, and philanthropy.
Eric began working with John Tolleson’s single-family office in 1998 before co-founding Tolleson Wealth Management in 2000. He was Chief Executive Officer for the firm’s private wealth management division until 2013, playing a key, decision-maker role for investment strategy, asset allocation, and manager selection. In 2013, Eric became the founding Executive Director of the Brain Performance Institute at the Center for BrainHealth, a University of Texas System organization. He was an active volunteer at the Center for BrainHealth for 10 years and joined full time in a leadership role to build and grow the Institute. Under his direction, the Institute substantially increased visibility and credibility in the community. He re-joined Tolleson Wealth Management full time in 2017 in his current role of Chief Investment Officer.
Eric began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 1987 after earning a bachelor’s degree in Finance with honors from the University of Missouri. He later joined Ernst & Young, where he served as Senior Manager for private clients and led the firm’s Southwest Area Investment Advisory Services team.
Eric is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Public Accountant* (CPA). He is a member of the advisory board and vice chairman of the Center for BrainHealth Capital Campaign as well as a Strategic Advisor to Impact Shares and an Operating Partner for Satori Capital. He is also a member of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), having served on the executive board of his YPO chapter for four years. He formerly served on the investment committees for the Baylor University Endowment, the Dallas Symphony Foundation, and Communities Foundation of Texas in addition to serving on the boards of several private companies, including the financing services, retail and media industries.
Dr. Eric G. Bing, MD, PhD, MBA is a physician and global health researcher committed to saving lives among the world’s most vulnerable populations using low cost, innovative, and financially sustainable solutions. For more than two decades he has provided care, developed programs and conducted research in some of the poorest areas of Africa, the Caribbean and the United States. Dr. Bing is Professor of Global Health at Southern Methodist University and spearheads the global health initiative at the George W. Bush Institute, serving as both Director and Senior Fellow. The focus of his efforts is stimulating innovative and entrepreneurial approaches to health in developing countries and in poor communities in developed countries. Dr. Bing received his MD from Harvard Medical School, MPH and PhD(Epidemiology) from UCLA and MBA from Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. His work has recently appeared on MSNBC at TedxSMU, and in Forbes. Dr. Bing is the co-author of Pharmacy on a Bicycle: Innovative Solutions for Global Health and Poverty.
Eric Rock has demonstrated repeat successes as an innovator and entrepreneur, having founded three highly successful software companies.
In 2009, Rock launched Vivify Health, delivering the first cloud-based Remote Care platform connecting providers with their patients via wireless mobile devices. Vivify has experienced rapid growth, now utilized by large healthcare organizations representing over 800 hospitals and health plans.
Prior to Vivify Health, Rock founded MEDHOST, the leading Emergency Department solution serving over 500 hospitals and 10 million patients annually. MEDHOST was the first touchscreen EMR, including other innovations such as geographic bed/facility views, patient self-service kiosks, multi-touch data visualization and an enterprise operational visibility engine.
Prior to MEDHOST, Rock founded ProHost, the first restaurant table management and reservations system, ultimately acquired by OpenTable.com.
Rock continues to focus on emerging technologies and business strategies for healthcare. He is a frequent speaker at events such as HIMSS, American Telemedicine Association, Connected Health Conference, Health Evolution Summit, Piper Jaffray and TED.
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Erik Williams** is a healthcare business leader with expertise in product management, product marketing and
commercialization with a passion to build and grow great products and services that improve the lives of patients.
Erik has 15-years’ experience in healthcare in multiple roles for several high growth-state organizations. In every role during his career, he has been responsible for leading new products and services to market. At Miraca Life Sciences (now Inform Diagnostics) he spearheaded development and go-to-market execution of a 72M dollar white-label (SaaS) product with a team over 20, resulting in an incremental 10M ARR for the business in just under two years. He also built and managed a new national product and service team responsible for customer growth strategies with an 80M client portfolio. He has worked across technology and business development roles and projects bringing a unique blend of operational and commercial expertise to MediBookr. Across the multiple growth stage organizations where he has held leadership positions, he has directly and indirectly contributed to an estimated $653M in value creation included 2 exits.
Erik currently serves as Vice President, Product Management at Catalyst Health Group – a population health services organization and the creator of Texas’ largest clinically integrated network for primary care providers, Catalyst’s team supports more than 1.5 million patients in every moment that matters.
Ethan Rigel is the CEO and a Founding Partner of Gore Range Capital. He has more than ten years of investing experience, spending most of his time actively working with small businesses with limited resources. During the course of his career he has invested more than $900M in companies with a combined enterprise value of greater than $2B across dozens of investments. Most of his investments have been very hands-on, with Ethan taking an extensive role in the operations of the business and helping to drive the company’s success.
Frank has nearly a decade of executive leadership experience in the implantable neurostimulation field. As the executive chairman and CEO of MicroTransponder, McEachern has led the financing efforts to raise over $22 Million in equity financing and over $9 Million in non-dilutive financing for the Company. McEachern has implemented a sophisticated international IP and licensing strategy and developed an international reimbursement strategy for each of the the Company’s products. McEachern has hired and led a top class team of internal and external scientists, engineers, and clinical and regulatory personnel through the development of multiple implantable stimulation systems and through several successful US and international clinical studies.
Previous to joining MicroTransponder, McEachern worked as a corporate securities attorney at Baker Botts where McEachern represented Advanced Neuromodulation Systems (ANS) in the merger of ANS with St. Jude Medical, the largest neurostimulation merger to date. McEachern also serves on the Board of the University of Texas Biomedical Device Center. McEachern received his BBA from the University of Texas Business Honors Program and completed his JD at the University of Texas at Austin.
Frank Roby is Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors for RevelationMD, a physician centered Healthcare technology collaborative. Mr. Roby joined the company as its second stage CEO to expand its capital and customer base with physicians and major self-funded employers. Without disrupting employer health care plans, revelationMD works with the physicians that employees use to integrate data, promote collaboration, and re-align incentives in order to reduce cost and improve quality in healthcare.
In 2009, Mr. Roby established Concero Global, Inc., an investment and advisory firm focused on emerging companies dedicated to improving healthcare and education outcomes. Mr. Roby remains Chairman of Concero Gllobal, who uses a conscious capital approach to selecting its clients, one of which is revelationMD.
From 1991 through 2008, Mr. Roby worked for Holmes Murphy and Associates, Inc. where he advanced to Chief Executive Officer for the Texas region and became an owner and member of the Board of Directors of the holding company. During his 17 years in leadership, the Dallas region experienced a compound annual growth rate of over 22% while the overall company grew to the top 1% of all brokerage and insurance advisory agencies in America. He has expertise in the management of rapid growth companies, business development, assimilation of complex de-centralized holding companies, and leadership creation.
In addition to his corporate duties, Mr. Roby has also lead numerous major not-for-profit organizations, including the North Texas Food Bank which provides over 50 million meals each year, where he served as Board Chairman; the D/FW World Affairs Council where he served as Vice Chairman; and the Dallas Regional Chamber where he served on the Executive Committee of the Board and Chaired the International Business Council and the prestigious Talent/Workforce/Education Committee that oversees Leadership Dallas. He was a founding board member for Champion Impact Capital, one of America’s first Social Impact Bond Organizations. Experiences include chairing numerous capital campaign committees.
He has led dozens of social service mission teams to Mexico, Costa Rica, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Nepal, India, and West Bank (Palestinian Territories). He was also a representative of the City of Dallas and the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce to trade missions in India and China. Beyond specific trade mission experiences, the focus of these experiences include building Habitat for Humanity homes, relationship building at the individual level, economic development, entrepreneurship, and community development. In addition to these outbound visits (always working with established local groups), Mr. Roby has hosted visiting delegations from over 20 countries from 5 continents.
Currently, Mr. Roby is involved both locally and nationally. Locally, he is a member of the Executive Board for the SMU Meadows School of the Arts. Globally, he serves the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, a Washington DC based organization working in Middle East and South American countries. He is also concluding his term as a member of the Board of Directors for Empower African Children (in Kampala Uganda) where he served as CEO for two years (concurrently with his Chairman role at Concero Global). In Old Delhi, India, Mr. Roby is a member of the Board of Directors for St. Stephens Hospital (a 125 year old Christian Charity Hospital serving the poor of all faiths in Old Delhi, India). He is also a member of the Dallas Assembly, the Tower Center at SMU and the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations.
Mr. Roby is a graduate of Southern Methodist University with a BFA degree in Journalism/Public Communications. He is married to Rev. Linda Roby and they have 3 children and 8 grandchildren. Beyond his career and service, his interests include fly fishing, hiking and helping children grow into productive leadership through teaching, coaching and mentoring.
Gayle R. Whitman PhD, RN, FAAN, FAHA is an accomplished executive with extensive experience in professional healthcare associations, healthcare systems and universities. As the Executive/ Senior Vice President for Science Operations at the American Heart Association she was responsible for aligning the strategic direction and execution of the research, science, publishing, lifelong learning and professional membership departments with the association’s mission and goals. Driving strategies included focus on science discovery, translation, dissemination of content to professional and lay audience and growing and maintaining a robust network of global cardiovascular and neuroscience clinicians and researchers who served as the core assets for the association. She was also the staff lead when the AHA developed and launch their inaugural Science Accelerator Program and their Health Technology and Innovation Research Network.
Dr. Whitman began her career as a cardiovascular critical care nurse at the Cleveland Clinic Hospital and Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio. She progressively advanced through that system to the role of Vice Chairman for Patient Care Operations where her responsibilities included oversight of 500+ acute care in-patient beds, ~ 800+ personnel, and a $200M annual budget. Throughout her career she has served on several academic faculties at the University of Pittsburgh, Case Western Research University and Ohio State University where she taught clinical, leadership and healthcare management to undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students and conducted NIH funded research.
Dr. Whitman obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Pittsburgh and her master’s and doctoral degree from Case Western Research University. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and the American Heart Association.
George Ellis joined Accumen as CFO in mid-November 2020 after having served in that role on an interim/parttime basis for six months. Mr. Ellis is responsible for Accounting and Finance, Legal, and Strategic Partnering for Accumen and its constituent companies.
Prior to this role, George served as a Managing Director with the Health Care Practice of Huron Consulting, with similar responsibilities its Leadership Development service line. He served in this role from 2011 via Studer Group, which was acquired by Huron Consulting in 2015.
Earlier experiences include over 40 years of general operating and financial management of software, telecommunication and semiconductor companies.
George has a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Texas Tech University and a JD from the SMU Law School. He is a licensed CPA and Attorney in the State of Texas and, also has certifications in Cyber Security.
Selected Experience
§Lead and transformed the software business at Huron Consulting. Creating a $40M business unit from a diverse portfolio of individual offerings.
§Grew The Studer Group from its acquisition by a private equity firm and successfully facilitated its sale in 2015 to Huron Consulting.
§Lead or facilitated over 30 acquisitions and restructurings over a 15-year period, primarily while serving as Chief Financial Officer of two NTSE registered companies.
§Built channel or other business partner relationships, primarily in software, for four companies, including Huron.
§Participated in or lead over $1.0B of financing and refinancing including three Initial Public Offerings.
§Served as Board Chair or Board Member of five companies, three of which were sold with above average returns and two of which remain public today.
Personal
George lives in Dallas, TX. He is married to Anne, a licensed CPA and Clinical Psychologist. Together they have five children, three dogs, and four horses. Spare time interests include community engagement, outdoor experience and reading. He is a partner with Social Venture Partners Dallas
Today, George Mavro is a serial entrepreneur, featured in the Dallas Morning News, HealthcareITNews, and MobiHealthNews. He has also contributed to online articles found on Mashable, INC.com, and Under 30 CEO through his involvement in the Young Entrepreneur Council (YES).
George served as a Lead Product Manager and Chief Marketing Officer to a digital startup that was acquired by a pharmaceutical company in 2018. He performed several roles, including: business development, operations, and marketing. Additionally, he led the branding, UI/UX and customer requirements for the product, specifically focusing his efforts around commercialization.
Prior to his recent acquisition, he launched a startup and created one of the first 1,000 apps in the Apple App Store which gave doctors the ability to communicate with their Spanish speaking patients. Later, the product was licensed by a pharmaceutical company.
George graduated with honors from the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) majoring in Biology. He performed research during and after college, co-authoring a publication in The Journal of Mass Spectrometry and completing his thesis around The Structure/Reactivity of Two Selected Antibiotics. Later, George completed The Masters in Negotiation Program at Harvard Law School and Drug and Medical Device Development for SaMD through MIT. In addition to having a strong core background in healthcare and technology, George is also a former Emergency Medicine and Pharmacy Technician.
Dr. Ibrahim is a board certified internal medicine physician with passion and experience in medical innovation and entrepreneurship.
His experience in entrepreneurship stems from being a startup founder, mentoring technology startups and from his involvement in innovation centers.
His specific interests include digital health, clinician POC resources, workflow solutions, artificial intelligence and clinical AI modeling. Clinical interests include cardiology and critical care.
Dr. Ibrahim is also interested in adventure sports, rollerblading, traveling and sportscars.
He can be reached at:
Greg Boyd is co-founder and retired President and majority shareholder of Jones & Boyd, Inc., a Dallas civil engineering, land planning, landscape architecture and land surveying firm. Jones & Boyd began in 1982, and Greg led the firm to become a leader in real estate development consulting in the DFW metroplex growing the firm to a staff of 100 employees in two offices. In 2008, Greg retired, securing a successful buyout by his partners. The successor firm, JBI Partners remains a leader in its market today.
Greg has served in many volunteer and elected leadership positions of professional societies, non-profits and most notably, his church, Park Cities Baptist, having served as Chairman of Deacons and as the overall leader of a successful $33 million capital campaign building project. He is an active investor in healthcare related real estate developments as well as in healthcare related start-ups.
Greg attended Texas Tech University (BSCE in 1976 with honors) and in 2005, was named a Distinguished Engineer of the College of Engineering. Prior to founding Jones & Boyd, he was employed by Continental Pipeline Company and an engineering firm in Dallas.
Gregg served as CEO of Linkwell Health, a leading consumer engagement company in the healthcare industry, where he built a proprietary content marketing system and significantly scaled the business during his three-year tenure. Prior to joining Linkwell, Gregg spent 10 years with Rodale, the worldwide leader and trusted content source in healthy active lifestyles. As President and CMO, he had full P&L responsibility for the company’s $450 million global media business leading more than 500 employees across multiple disciplines—B2C and B2B sales and marketing, business intelligence, and functional support groups among them. Under his direction, the company developed digital and mobile business strategies and infrastructures that expanded Rodale Digital to a $100+ million advertising and ecommerce business.
Gregory A. Hosler, MD, PhD joined ProPath in 2006 and is the Director of Dermatopathology. He is a Clinical Professor in the Departments of Dermatology and Pathology at the University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW). He has held numerous leadership roles in local and national societies, including serving on the Executive Board for the American Society of Dermatopathology (ASDP, 2021-present), as President of the Texas Society of Pathologists (2019), President of the North Texas Society of Pathologists (2015), and President of the Educational Foundation of the TSP (2020).
Dr. Hosler obtained his B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering at Princeton University and completed his medical degree and graduate work at UTSW in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Immunology (MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program). He completed his residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (JHMI), and his fellowship in dermatopathology, also at JHMI.
Dr. Hosler is very involved in education, teaching at the fellowship, residency, and medical school levels. He is the Director of the ACGME-accredited Dermatopathology Fellowship Program at ProPath. He actively speaks, writes, and directs courses on dermatopathology. He is the editor and co-author of two dermatopathology textbooks - Molecular Diagnostics in Dermatology: practical applications of molecular testing for the diagnosis and management of the dermatology patient (Springer) and Diagnostic dermatopathology: a guide to ancillary tests beyond the H&E (JP Medical Publishers). He is also the author of the melanocytic chapter in Weedon’s Skin Pathology (4th and 5th Eds, Elsevier) and many peer-reviewed journal articles and reviews.
Hal Rose understands growing a business. He has over 25 years’ experience in launching, growing and re-building businesses, business operations, development and investment in the fields of healthcare, personal care, technology, new & traditional media, business services, and manufacturing/distribution companies. He currently works with entrepreneurs in the healthcare space including dermatology, pathology, genomics, toxicology and related technologies and services, medical devices, medical service rollups, derm and skincare ingredients and finished products. He recently spent 6 years leading and as COO and General Counsel for multiple growth companies in the Dallas area. Rose has had direct responsibility for the launch and development of businesses, and for over $200 million in business acquisitions, technology development and sales, and all related legal matters. He has also served in leadership and counsel roles for e-business solutions, online media and internet fulfillment companies. Earlier in his career, Rose founded a firm providing outsourced general counsel services to high-growth companies and private equity groups throughout the U.S. Rose earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin, a J.D. from SMU, and completed the SMU Cox School of Business Executive Management Development Program. He began his career in the private practice of law for a top U.S.-based international law firm. Rose is engaged in numerous charitable activities including his current service with the Dallas Entrepreneur Center, Tech Wildcatters, University of Texas Venture Labs and the Perot Museum He enjoys outdoor activities with his wife and 2 children.
Harold (Hal) R Levine MD is a Diagnostic Radiologist with sub-specialization in Musculoskeletal and Spine imaging and Image guided pain management. He is a native Texan who has spent most of his life in the state, he has lived all over Texas while in school. After completing training, Dr. Levine recently joined a private practice group Angelina Diagnostic Radiology Associates in east Texas in Lufkin, Texas. He is also currently establishing a new minimally invasive pain management center as well. Dr. Levine graduated from Baylor University with a bachelors of science in biochemistry and minor in business administration. He then attended Texas Tech School of Medicine with subsequent residency training at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. He then moved to Boston, Massachusetts where he completed a fellowship in musculoskeletal and spine imaging as well as minimally invasive image guided pain management at New England Baptist Hospital, the official hospital for the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins. Dr. Levine is an avid angel investor in the healthcare space as well as other industries. He is a member of the American College of Physician Executives (recently renamed American Association of Physician Leaders). He is the head of the Musculoskeletal Division of his radiology practice and sits on multiple hospital administrative committees. He has a specific interest in healthcare entrepreneurship as well as business finance and investments.
Please feel free to reach out to Dr. Levine for any mentorship or collaborations in which he may be able to help or advise.
cell: (214) 403- 8118
email: haroldrlevine@gmail.com
Over a 30 year career as a software and SaaS vendor, I have sold, architected, and managed successful systems generating well over $1 Billion in revenue:
• Healthcare Revenue Cycle (IMaCS/ now MedAssets)
• Point-of-Service Healthcare Cost Estimation
• Data Center Scheduling & Reports Distribution (Sam Wyly’s UCC—the original software-only vendor)
• Master Limited Partnership Transaction Tax Reporting (Price Waterhouse)
• Propane Gas Market Deal Analysis and Transaction Accounting (Hadson Gas)
• Retail Bank Sales Tools (Hogan Systems)
In 1990, I founded a Software-as-a-Service Healthcare Revenue Cycle Solutions company, IMaCS. That business continues to be a key contributor to MedAssets’ (MDAS) revenues. Years of classic entrepreneurial struggles—from Bootstrap, to Angel money, to Private Equity Recapitalization, to Acquisitions, to successful business exit—yields an older, wiser Harriett, investing and advising entrepreneurs in the Healthcare and Technology sectors.
Recognizing the essential (and often missing) need for sales & marketing expertise in Technology-oriented businesses, I co-founded the consulting group, BaylonST (Sales Technology) to help clients find and stay on the shortest route to Revenue.
The Enumerist’s, motto, “Finite and Unbounded” speaks to my interest in novel solutions to old problems delivered via late-breaking technologies, funding prototypes of natural language processing, prediction, big data, and BYODC (Bring Your Own Data Center) to evaluate their business feasibility.
Harshal Broker, M.D., is a vascular surgeon practicing in Fort Worth. He is a member of the medical staffs at Baylor All Saints Medical Center, Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth and Huguley Memorial Hospital in Burleson. Dr. Broker joins Texas Health Care from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas where he attended medical school and later served as general surgery resident followed by a vascular surgery fellowship
Dr. Broker is a founder and partner at Ecoview homes, an eco friendly townhome/condo and land development company in Dallas. He is also an active investor and scientific advisor for many healthcare startups over the last 15 years
I’m an emergency room physician and healthcare leader who thrives on motivating teams by providing the most technologically advanced healthcare services to local and outlying communities throughout the state of Texas. My passion is in balancing innovative healthcare approaches with individualized patient care. I believe in building sincere trust with patients, doctors, staff, and community leaders by displaying unwavering compassion, care, and understanding.
My humble upbringing has kept me dedicated and persistent in all facets of my career as an emergency medicine physician, an entrepreneur, and a healthcare leader. I’ve always pursued “outside-the-box” thinking in all I do, from creating multiple healthcare apps for iPhone and Android smartphones, to serving as a consultant for several healthcare companies, authoring medical publications, and promoting community healthcare as a medical correspondent for Telemundo and Univision. I’m a doctor who understands medicine in the trenches of a busy ER and the business aspects of running multiple ERs and hospitals. I’ve started more than 20 successful businesses and served on medical boards to help drive patient care.
I quickly develop solutions to novel health and business problems, adapt well in times of crisis, and I’m never afraid to give more time to a patient who needs reassurance from a doctor who has that inner devotion to patient care. I truly believe in leading by example, inspiring and motivating my team to do their best, and bringing positive change to our healthcare systems.
I’ve been voted “Best Doctor” consecutively each year since 2014 by “D Magazine,” and I’m certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine and American College of Emergency Physicians. I’m frequently in the media and serve as a speaker to healthcare organizations and practice groups to inspire loyalty, drive compassionate patient care, and build professional growth.
Please feel free to connect with me using my email address harveycastro4@gmail.com
#successreinvention #Harveycastromd
Background in computational statistics. Years of experience in AI software/data product development. Helped commercialize predictive modeling expertise for Qlarant. Built and sold advanced analytics software that brought in tens of millions of dollars in revenue and it was used by 800+ Medicare Advantage health plans in US. Her current focus is Qlarant Capital operation, deal flow, due diligence, investor relations, fundraise etc. + take v2 of their analytics platform to market.
Homero Rivas, MD, MBA, FACS, is an Assistant Professor of Surgery, and the Director of Innovative Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine. He has been involved in Mobile Health for nearly five years. Co-Founder of Apps4Patients, small startup who has designed and created several mobile phone applications for patients. They have also undertaken research projects exploring software development of HTLM5 platforms to improve safety in the operating room and for technical assessment of surgeons and surgeons in training.
Dr. Rivas has also developed numerous pilot programs with mHealth and Tele-Medicine for non-insured Hispanics in the Bay Area. Dr. Rivas has been involved in all of these ventures either as an entrepreneur or as an academician. As a digestive surgeon, he has 13 years of experience, and has been part of Stanford’s General Surgery and Bariatric Surgery faculty since March 2010. Before then, he was an Assistant Professor of Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX for five years. He is certified by the American Board of Surgery. He is a pioneer and leader in numerous state-of-the art innovative techniques of minimal access surgery including: Single incision laparoscopic surgery; natural orifice surgery; robotic surgery, and more. He has been involved in minimal access surgery both nationally in the U.S. and internationally in nearly all continents, as a surgeon-in-training, a practicing surgeon and also as teacher of other surgeons. He holds an MBA from the Cox School of Business at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.
Hubert Zajicek is CEO & Co-founder of Health Wildcatters, a nationally top ranked healthcare accelerator and investment fund in Dallas. Health Wildcatters provides mentorship, capital and guidance to healthcare related startups. The accelerator raises an angel-investor backed health innovation fund that has invested in 68 healthcare startups - from over 25 states. These startups have attracted over $100M in capital in about 7 years with their value approaching half a billion dollars.
Dr. Zajicek has extensive experience with startups and is an active speaker, panelist and thought leader on healthcare startups, entrepreneurship, financing & healthcare. He serves as an advisor, mentor and board member on various organizations and startup companies.
He was managing director – medical technology at NTEC (North Texas Enterprise Center), where he ran what eventually became the Southwest’s largest medtech investment conference, showcasing startups that attracted in excess of $300M. Prior, he was on faculty at UT Southwestern, as an NIH funded principal investigator, in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Cell Biology.
He has an MD from the University of Vienna and an MBA from SMU.
Humberto C. Antunes is an entrepreneur in healthcare and wellness focused on finding ways to improve the lives of people all over the world. He worked in dermatology, ophthalmology, medical aesthetics, immunology, inflammation, cosmetics, medical devices, pharma and nutraceuticals. He has an active involvement in research to address the issues arising from the ageing demographics, providing holistic health solutions, helping technologies converge and the digital revolution.
He managed Galderma, a pharmaceutical company, for almost 20 years. In 2014, he created Nestlé Skin Health, a company committed to enhancing the quality of life by delivering science-based solutions for the health of skin, hair and nails over the course of people’s lives, that he led until end of 2016. Humberto promoted geographic expansion of the businesses he managed, created new channels and acquired new audiences, but he also led many successful acquisitions, integrations, joint-ventures, license deals and divestitures. Over the length of his career he raised almost US$ 10 billion of investment. Humberto led research teams in both sides of the Atlantic that achieved hundreds of New Drug Applications, patent filings and clinical trials. Among his many projects, several became successful digital enterprises. He is currently a partner at Gore Range Capital, a venture capital company focused on healthcare companies that are well-grounded in science.
An active member of the American Academy of Dermatology, the Women’s Dermatologic Society, he has also volunteered in several committees, task-forces and boards. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Skin Association. In addition, he often acts as speaker in business and scientific forums, earning him several industry service awards.
Humberto’s experience spans the globe, with positions that took him and his family through many countries, he lives today in Lausanne, Switzerland. He graduated in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and the IMD Lausanne, Switzerland. Humberto is fluent in six languages.
Mr. Garcia joined Green Park & Golf Ventures in June 2011. As a Principal of the firm, he is responsible for sourcing and evaluating startup and early-stage investments in the healthcare and technology sectors, performing due diligence, and portfolio company and fund management. Mr. Garcia has prior operational and financial management experience at FedEx, Bold Ventures, and Lone Star Investment Advisors.
Mr. Garcia received his MBA from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas with concentrations in both Finance and Strategy and Entrepreneurship as well as a specialization in Alternative Asset Management. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree in Finance and a second major in Sociology.
Jake Frost is an executive leader with over 14 years of experience in health care, technology and as an investment adviser and entrepreneur. He has served in a variety of leadership roles with McKesson Corporation and as a management consultant to biotechnology, healthcare providers, and healthcare technology companies. Jake has led programs involving large health care agencies including, the Center for Disease Control, Veterans Administration, flagship biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, top ranked health systems and provider operators. His experience includes pre and post deal involvement through multiple acquisitions with multi-billion dollars in total asset value. He has developed strategic programs, performed due diligence, provided valuation assessment and secured capital to fund growth strategies with corporate and early stage firms.
Jake enjoys serving others, leading by example and helping people grow and develop. He is uniquely positioned to lead firms through strategic planning, business development, operational improvement, change management, valuation, assessment and capital sourcing. He holds a bachelors degree in Finance, with a minor in Spanish, from Austin College and an Executive MBA from Southern Methodist University. He enjoys running, cycling, yoga, the outdoors and working with local charitable organizations
A passionate healthcare technologist, James is a Forbes Next 1000, National OZY Genius Award Winner, and former North Texas 25 Under 25 recipient. He began university at age 16, graduating from the University of Texas at Dallas with a B.S. in Computer Science on a full-ride academic scholarship. Founding Invene shortly afterward, his company has grown to become a leader in custom software development for rapidly growing healthtech companies. Invene engages in all facets of the healthcare industry including medical devices, insurance, billing, payment processing, regulatory compliance, data security, and web/mobile applications. James is considered a subject matter expert (SME) in healthcare technology and compliance, and is regularly sought after for healthcare news commentary and interviews.
James Loomstein is the founder and leader of Digital Space Consulting. James is a former agency strategist with over 10 years of experience inside Agency.com, Directive, and Targetbase. Passionate for the online and always connected world we live in and the tools used to create and engage consumers, James has spent his professional career working within the strategic planning and digital marketing environment with Alcon, Kia, Lone Star Park, P&G, UTSW, and ZTE USA.
James is a native Texan, member of the Dallas Social Media Club, current VP of Programing for D/FW Search Engine Marketing Association, national SEO speaker (Pubcon), and graduate of the Southern Methodist University MBA program. James lives in Dallas with his wife and two children.
As a founding partner and CEO for Caddis Partners, LLC, Mr. Signor is responsible for the day-to-day management and operations of Caddis Partners’ real estate portfolio. During the recent recession, Caddis has grown into the largest pure-play medical developer in DFW (as named by Dallas Business Journal) and nationally ranked by Modern Healthcare. In 2011, Caddis was also named one of the 100 fastest growing companies in North Texas by the SMU Cox School of Business.
Over the past ten years, Mr. Signor has developed or acquired over $400 million in medical real estate assets in five states totaling more than one million square feet. Prior to starting Caddis Partners, Mr. Signor had a diversified real estate background including his tenure as Vice President for The Cirrus Group. In addition to his development responsibilities, Mr. Signor led the leasing department and oversaw the management of Cirrus’ portfolio of nearly 3 million square feet of medical assets across the nation. Mr. Signor started his career as a civil engineer with Gresham Smith and Partners in Nashville, Tennessee where he designed various healthcare assets.
Mr. Signor graduated with a BS in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University and an MBA from Southern Methodist University where he served as president of his class and graduated with honors. He is an active member of several real estate organizations and holds a Texas real estate broker’s license.
Jay An is the VP of Business Development at Perspectum, a high growth medtech software company that discovers, develops, and commercializes innovative solutions for the identification and monitoring of metabolic disease and cancer, delivered through software-as-a-service (SaaS). He is responsible for the commercial growth and strategic partnerships of Perspectum’s Clinical Solutions in North America and Asia, with an emphasis on market expansion and new market entry strategy.
Prior to Perspectum, Jay was a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group, where he led commercial due diligence, go-to-market strategy, and cost transformation strategy projects for PEs and Fortune 500 companies. Jay was also the co-founder and president of a non-profit organization, Overseas Chinese Healthcare Innovator Society.
Jay holds a BSc in Electronic Engineering from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, focusing on the development of MRI technologies.
Jay is the founder of auNext which provides innovative healthcare technology solutions in Clinical Research, Oncology, Pharmacy, Data Science and Clinical Analytics. auNext’s clients include Duke University, UCLA, Cedars Sinai, UNC and many other academic hospitals.
Jay holds degrees of Doctor in Pharmacy and Master in Informatics with postdoctoral fellowship experience in pharmaceutical industry. Prior to venturing on his own, he worked for over 9 years at Johns Hopkins and Yale in various clinical settings. He is active in angel investment community and his portfolio contains startups in mobile health, telemedicine, big data analytics and patient education fields among others. Jay is an entrepreneur at heart with varied interests in real estate, medical and technology staffing.
Jay is actively associated with Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and held offices at American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). He also regularly mentors health informatics and pharmacy students. In his spare time he enjoys travel, photography, tennis and viticulture.
| Expertise: Health IT / Technology | Electronic Health Record | Pharmacy/ Pharmaceuticals |
Jay Oyakawa has spent the last 20 years in various venture backed and PE backed organization in various industries with a focus on healthcare, restructurings and start-ups. Currently Jay is the Managing Director of DermPRO a software as a service (SaaS) business model which provides online shopping capabilities to the aesthetic field, including dermatologist, plastic surgeons and Medspas. Prior to DermPRO Jay served as President and CEO of US Dermatology a PE backed roll-up in dermatology primarily in a restructuring role. Prior to US Dermatology, Jay served as COO and CDO of ReMedPar a Berkshire Partners portfolio company which was one of the largest refurbished medical imaging parts dealers in the US which was sold to ARAMARK in 2010. Prior to ReMedPar Jay served as President and CEO of EdenTree Technologies which was a software automation company focused in the test and measurement space. In 2008 EdenTree was sold to Gale Technologies which was later bought by Dell in 2012. Other work endeavors include 2 years at LEK Management Consulting where Jay focused on Healthcare and Mergers and Acquisitions, VP of Operations at Pacific EyeNet a Ophthalmology roll-up in Los Angeles and very early in his career Jay started a medical billing company while at UCLA which served 15 Ophthalmologists. Jay has an undergraduate degree from University California Los Angeles and a MBA from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business where Jay majored in Healthcare and Finance.
Jeffrey A. Haithcock, MD is a full-time practicing interventional neuroradiologist in the Dallas area, currently serving as Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) for his sub-specialized radiology practice of 60+ physicians. He also holds a faculty appointment as Clinical Assistant Professor of Radiology at Texas A&M Health Science Center.
Dr. Haithcock received his BS degree from Michigan State University and his MD degree from The Ohio State University. He completed his internal medicine internship and diagnostic radiology residency at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, and subsequently completed fellowships in diagnostic neuroradiology and endovascular surgical neuroradiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Haithcock is board certified in both Diagnostic Radiology and Neuroradiology, and holds senior memberships in the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery and the American Society of Neuroradiology.
Outside of clinical practice, Dr. Haithcock enjoys mentoring, advising, and investing in healthcare start-ups. His interests include physician entrepreneurship, medical device development, imaging informatics, digital health, and technology commercialization.
Jeff Reich, Vice President of Member Success at the Cloud Security Alliance, has developed a history of entering situations where little to no security or risk management infrastructure exists, or an existing system needs updating. He has been actively involved in the Information Security community for well over 40 years. He is the Founding Chair of the Security Leaders Forum and Past President of the Alamo (ISC)2 Chapter. Jeff is the president of the Provisional Board of Directors for the San Antonio InfraGard Member Alliance, is a past president of the ISSA Capitol of Texas Chapter, and was the Vice President of the ISSA Metropolitan Atlanta Chapter. Jeff has held a Top Secret clearance and has presented hundreds of educational sessions and industry presentations.
In 2011, the Information Systems Security Association honored Jeff with the designation of Distinguished Fellow. This designation is awarded to no more than 1% of the ISSA membership population. Jeff holds CISSP certification from (ISC)2, and CRISC certification from ISACA. He was a Nominee for 2005 National Information Security Executive of the Year and 2006 Southeast Information Security Executive of the Year, both sponsored by Executive Alliance. In September 2006, he was granted a Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management from The Council for Service Management Education and The Information Systems Examination Board. He has conducted training and served as a guest speaker at numerous conferences and seminars.
Dr. Adelglass is the founder and medical director at Skintastic Cosmetic Surgery and Laser Skincare Centers and has recently acquired Smooth Solutions. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, a member of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and has 30 plus years of cosmetic surgical experience. Dr. Adelglass completed his undergraduate degree at Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara. He continued his education at State University of New York Stony Brook and completed his residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.
Dr. Adelglass was selected by Allergen to serve on the National Education Committee to teach other physicians his technique for safely administering BOTOX® Cosmetic to achieve the most effective, long-lasting results. He serves on the scientific advisory boards for most U.S. dermal filler companies, including Medicsis, the company that produces Restyalne® and Perlane®.
Dr. Adelglass is also a prominent researcher, and is the Founder and President of a renowned clinical research organization. He is periodically called upon by local and national media and scientific groups to inform the public on topics of medical and surgical aesthetic correction.
Past-President of the Nursing Institute of Healthcare Design and award winner of the HCD 10 in 2014, Jennie is passionate about the environment of care in cities, homes, and workplaces. An innovator and change agent, Jennie’s desire is to see people and organizations reach their full potential.
Jennie uses a human-centered design approach to promote operationally efficient environments, cohesiveness of services and actively involve the family in decision-making to enhance the services provided to them.
Her passion for social consciousness for health and well-being believes opportunities exist to integrate the approaches of the health system and the community to improve health disparities.
A Canadian and American citizen, Jennie enjoys being outdoors, exploring, and traveling.
Jennifer serves as Vice President of Operations, Ancillary Services for Texas Health Resources, a 28 hospital system. Ancillary services include management of clinical and pathology labs, sleep lab management, mobile echocardiogram and vascular programs, nuclear and stress echocardiaogram programs, and imaging services (including 3 women’s centers).
Jennifer also manages the Patient Navigator Program, Nurse Navigator Program, and Population Health Management Program. She is particularly adept at EHR and ACO integration as it relates to the services she manages. She has been in healthcare for her entire career of 23 years
Jay works for Texas Health Resources, one of the largest faith-based, nonprofit health systems in the US, as their VP of Strategic Marketing. He has responsibilities in the product/network space and care model redesign. This includes B2B2C initiatives, Medicare/Medicaid focus, employer clinics, pharmacy and uninsured strategies. Prior to joining Texas Health, Jay was an Account Director with Towers Watson, a leading global management consulting firm. Mr. Beck has also held executive roles for global insurance carriers, domestic third party administrators and benefit brokerage/consulting firms. He has co-founded two healthcare technology start-up companies and has also been highly involved in the community: He was Chairman of the Dallas Children’s Museum and helped oversee its merger with the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. Jay holds a Bachelor of Science and MBA from Southern Methodist University.
Joe Cunningham is a Founding Partner and Managing Director of Santé Ventures, an early stage life science and healthcare venture capital company based in Austin, Texas. Prior to this Joe was a healthcare Venture Partner with Austin Ventures and was previously the Vice Chair of the Ascension Health Ventures investment committee. He is also the former Chief Medical Officer of the Providence Health System and Executive Director of the 300-physician Providence Health Alliance, both of which belong to the Ascension Health system. He has extensive management experience and is recognized nationally for his expertise in healthcare delivery systems, physician associations and compensation models. Joe serves on Advisory Boards for both United Healthcare and for Health Services Corporation (BC/BS). He is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Quality Assurance and Peer Review. Dr. Cunningham received his BS and MD degrees from Texas A&M University and his MBA from Baylor University.
“Hard-charging senior executive and serial entrepreneur with 25+ years experience introducing and executing the strategies to grow revenue in intensively competitive and innovative markets. Expert in creating the vision, identifying opportunities and delivering strong revenues with increased profit, while positioning solutions and services for new and existing business with sustained growth.
Joe has the unique blend of entrepreneur, Fortune 100 and Midcap company background, leading change and innovation at firms such as DuPont, Nokia, EDS and Hewlett-Packard. In addition, he founded several start-ups in the mobile data and content space (Connect 1.2.1 Mobile and EnMoDa) and led others in cloud and security (iForem, iModa).
Known for strong innovation, transformation, and growth leadership, with proven success introducing innovative solutions to solve complex problems; utilizing technology (Enterprise Mobility, Wireless data security and privacy, SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS) to rapidly scale new business opportunities. He has a history of transforming traditional business and delivery models to drive innovation and value creation in the market.”
Joe is also a long time Board Member and supporter of local charities focused on Children and Education.
Mr. Boaz founded McKinney Assisted Living in 1998 and Reliant Home Health in 2004. He currently serves as Chairman and CEO of both companies while maintaining an active role in the Dallas startup community. He is a board member of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), Allen Foundation, and most recently accepted a board position at Helping Restore Ability (non-profit serving low income seniors).
Mr. Boaz has provided seed capital and participated in an advisory role for many local startups. His most recent project is Legacy Builder, an online tool to digitize your life in a private family oriented community, which will have its public launch in May of 2013. Mr. Boaz has also served on the board of the Collin County Committee on Aging and has given in excess of $200 thousand to fund the local meals on wheels program throughout Collin County. He has a great passion for our aging population and has spent the past 15 years working on ways to improve the lives of all around him.
Mr. Boaz believes that people vastly underestimate their ability to cause disruptive change in today’s healthcare space. He believes that good people with good coaching will produce great results and that the Healthcare Wildcatters is a proven model to accelerate these innovative ideas.
John joined Dundee VC in 2017 after 20+ years building and exiting three highly successful businesses. After getting kicked out of his first sales job, John built and sold his first company, AlterBen, a regional employee benefits brokerage firm. Next, he launched COBRA Outsourcing Company, which became the largest stand-alone COBRA and direct billing administrator serving over 4,000 employers nationally, before exiting to a strategic buyer in 2007.
John didn’t stop there. He founded Benaissance in 2007, a cloud based advanced billing solution for benefit administrators, insurance carriers, insurance exchanges and governmental entities. Benaissance was purchased in 2015 for $80M by public company WEX Health.
John lives and breathes the start-up journey, having built companies in partnership with investors and by brute force bootstrapping. He knows where the landmines are, he knows the shortcuts and loves building high quality companies who deliver amazing outcomes. John is expanding Dundee’s presence in Healthcare IT, fintech and insurance tech worlds, focusing on those three sectors, while also being a resource to all existing portfolio founders. JJ’s favorite place in the world? Jackson Hole, where he was during the 2017 total solar eclipse.
Oberg brings 20+ years of executive sales, business development and marketing leadership experience at both large enterprise organizations and startups, one of which was acquired by CBS Sports and later had a successful IPO. He currently serves as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for OMMDOM, a software development, commercialization, and technology sales company whose core competency is healthcare software. The company’s flagship product is CancerGene Connect, the most complete and modern family history cloud-based platform on the market. Most recently, he held the position of Director of National Sales at Valassis, a recognized worldwide leader in intelligent media delivery, where he lead a large sales and support team and was responsible for over $40 million in annualized sales revenue contribution. Oberg holds a B.B.A. in Business Studies, with a concentration in Business Communications, from Pace University. Oberg and his wife reside in Colleyville with their one daughter.
John Pizza is the Founder and Managing Partner of Pine Grove Advisors. John is an executive with 25 years experience matching healthcare solutions with customer needs. His focus is in healthcare services, healthcare technology, and corporate benefits for employers, payers, health systems, and ecosystem vendors. John’s experience includes sales, Principal and executive positions at a variety of healthcare-focused companies such as Wellright, Zipongo, Castlight, Interactive Health, and Mercer. John has been recognized by his industry as an innovative leader and consistent performer.
Jon Mertz served as vice president of marketing at Corepoint Health for over ten years and also led the HIMSS Social Media Task Force. His background consists of working for companies like Deloitte, IBM, and BMC Software, along with serving in Washington, DC, in various political appointments.
| Expertise: Marketing | Product Management | Strategy |
Jonathan Clarke, MD, FACEP / CEO & Founder
Dr. Clarke is board certified in Emergency Medicine, is a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and has been practicing medicine since 2002. A decorated veteran, he served in the US Navy for over 14 years, with wartime tours as a physician in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is currently a Major in the US Air Force Reserves, where he serves as Chief of Flight Medicine for the 301st MDS and as a Flight Surgeon for the 457th Fighter Squadron. He is also a medical consultant to federal law enforcement.
Dr. Clarke founded Mend (now Family Health On Call) in late 2014 and launched the first on-demand healthcare platform in Texas in March 2015. In October 2015, Mend became the first on-demand health/tech startup in the country to partner with an integrated health system, Children’s Health, raising over $4M in the first 7 months of business.
Dr. Clarke is married and has two children. He and his family are proud residents of east Dallas, where they enjoy a variety of outdoor activities around White Rock Lake, including running, cycling, and sailing. He is passionate about improving our community by making healthcare more convenient and affordable for residents of Dallas and beyond.
Jose Tabuena is an experienced compliance officer, fraud specialist and attorney with a healthcare legal and compliance management background in health system, software technology, physician management, private law firm, and Big 4 consulting environments. He is an active thought leader, published author, and regular columnist with Compliance Week, and an Adjunct Faculty member at Widener University Delaware Law School for their Masters of Jurisprudence programs. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Pan American Health Organization Foundation which mobilizes regional resources and technical expertise for the World Health Organization.
| Mr. Tabuena held major compliance management roles at Kaiser Permanente, Texas Health Resources, Orion Health, and Concentra | Humana. His legal practice comprised health regulatory matters primarily representing hospital systems and health insurers with liability cases including medical malpractice, medical staff proceedings, and health plan coverage and payment disputes. |
Mr. Tabuena attained his Bachelor and Masters of Arts from the University of California, San Diego, and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He holds an active law license with the California state bar. Mr. Tabuena is an Open Compliance & Ethics Group (OCEG) Fellow, Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), and Certified in Healthcare Compliance (CHC).
Mr. Theodore is Vice President of Global Health at LEO A DALY, a top-ranked multi-disciplinary strategic consulting, advisory, architectural and engineering firm. Through design thinking, Joshua seeks to transform lives and enrich the human spirit. From strategy and planning, to marketing and branding, to architectural and engineering implementation, Mr. Theodore transforms perspectives and inspires others. Joshua focuses much of his time on building networks, creating a vision to improve market sector delivery, and engaging the right resources to support sustainable growth.
At LEO A DALY, Mr. Theodore develops and guides the firm’s health-practice strategy, building teams to strategically pursue partnerships with clients committed to improving community health and wellness, providing bespoke solutions to the toughest challenges health clients face – whether finding funding sources, strategic master planning campuses or designing customer-focused facilities. All of this happens with an emphasis on speed of delivery, collaboration and inspired design. Joshua has honed this craft not only on health projects, but across a portfolio of complex projects – including programs with government agencies, the military, ecclesiastical, and university systems.
Throughout his nearly 30-plus years in the industry, Joshua developed a broad perspective through master planning and implementing every type of health facility across the USA, the United Kingdom, Middle East and Caribbean. A frequent speaker in the US and abroad, Mr. Theodore has lectured at universities, facilitated panels and presented with clients and partners at programs ranging from local conferences to international forums. Joshua has a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Design, is an Associate Member of the AIA, is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), member of the International Facility Management Forum and Health Care Institute (IFMA HCI), and is an Evidence-Based Design Accredited (EDAC) professional.
Prior to joining LEO A DALY, Joshua led Health Industries at Page, worked in management consulting for Metis Associates (now Navigant), and spent time on the health system owner’s side at VHA (now Vizient). A Dallas-native, Joshua became involved with Health Wildcatters in 2015, and is committed to making the north Texas region the third Health Innovation Hub in the country.
Juliana is the Managing Director Houston Angel Network (most active US network in 2016), Senior Advisor of the Portfolia Consumer Fund and Rising Tide Fund, Investment Committee Member of the Texas Medical Center fund and a Kauffman Fellow. Juliana was the Manager of the Sophia Business Angels network (best European network in 2010) and of Antipolis Innovation Campus, the Business Innovation Centre in in the French Riviera, as well as Project Manager of several International Projects funded by the European Commission. Previously, Juliana worked for 5 years in Singapore: first as an International Trade Consultant for the Trade Commission of Spain in a broad range of industry sectors and then as a Project Manager for the Asia Technology Office of Citigroup, leading projects at international level in Europe, Latin America and Japan.
Juliana obtained an MBA at the London Business School and Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, specializing in Entrepreneurship. She is President of one of Sophia Business Angels sidecar funds SBA ISF Holding and Expert Committee Member of Success Europe and a member of the UT Horizons Fund External Advisory Committee. Juliana is a member of the Angel Capital Association Membership Committee and the Angel Education Chair for of Houston Exponential’s Steering Committee as well as an International Founding Member of Istanbul’s Galata Business Angels and of WEangels, focusing on investing in Latin American Women Entrepreneurs.
Kathy Chiu is a managing partner of DeepWork Capital, a Florida based venture capital firm focused on early-stage technology and life science companies. Kathy and two partners started their first fund in 2015 after their experiences in angel investing led them to believe a professionally managed fund is not only feasible but beneficial for both investors and the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region. Their first investment returned over 20X upon exit and proved their thesis. Prior to DeepWork, Kathy’s career spanned multiple disciplines. She was the first product manager of a network storage company that ultimately sold to HP, and a quantitative analyst in an economic consulting firm. She launched a voice-over-IP product at a Fortune 500 telecom company, and was an investment associate at a wireless technology venture capital firm. During her time as an independent consultant, she specialized in emerging market assignments, advising client companies in new market entry and international business development. She has a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Kathy can be reached through LinkedIn and inbound@deepworkcapital.com.
Keith started his career at Ernst & Young and Sapient and then left to found his first consulting firm, which he merged with a competitor and helped sell the combined business in 2007. He then co-founded and led a second consulting firm which grew even faster than the first. Both companies had a focus on software user experience and delivered projects to the largest companies in America. Keith also founded a healthcare company that used technology to help over 3 million families in the US afford their prescription medicine. A guest lecturer at his alma mater UT-Austin McCombs School of Business and at SMU Cox School of Business, Keith is passionate about sharing his knowledge and giving back to his communities.
Ken is an experienced IT executive, having lived and worked internationally for many years, running software consulting programs for telecom carriers. His engagements took him to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, visiting six of the seven continents and over 40 countries. He is Director of Business Development for the SensorLogic organization within Gemalto, a technology security company based in France. He works daily with telecommunication companies, software development firms, and mobile device manufacturers to create solutions to help businesses capture and manage critical operational data, reduce risk, and monitor critical assets.
Ken began his career with Accenture, and since then has worked with a variety of startups in the US and internationally. His background includes software design, hardware design, and product management. He holds a BSEE from the University of Maryland College Park, and participated with successful competition teams for solar and hybrid vehicles. During his studies, he also served in the U.S. Army Reserves as a paratrooper and communications specialist. His personal interests include snowboarding, running, and, of course, travel. Ken is on the board of directors for Artreach, a Dallas non-profit organization focused on providing access to the arts for underprivileged youth and seniors in managed-care facilities.
Over the past 10+ years, Ken Nelson has led commercial efforts for disruptive technologies in the digital health, wearables, and cardiac remote patient monitoring industries, playing a significant role in building the teams, cultures, and infrastructures for 3 of the top 4 market share players in cardiac digital health and remote patient monitoring, including #1 (BioTelemetry as VP of Sales), #2 (iRhythm as VP of Sales & Marketing), and #4 (Bardy Diagnostics as Chief Commercial Officer).
Overall, he is a 20 year digital health, medical device, and remote patient monitoring executive and innovator with successful senior leadership experience ranging from a Fortune 500 company (Boston Scientific, Cardiac Rhythm Management) to a #1 market share leading medium sized company (Biotelemetry, acquisition by Philips for $2.8 Billion announced in December ‘20) to 3 start-ups, 1 of which eventually led to an extremely successful IPO (iRhythm) and another which was acquired by HillRom/ Baxter (Bardy Diagnostics) in August 2021 for what will end up being $400M+ after milestone payments.
Currently, Ken serves as Head of Digital Health, Diagnostics, and Monitoring for Biotronik, a leading digital health and medical device company that has been developing trusted and innovative cardiac digital health solutions and implantable cardiac devices for more than 60 years.
Ken earned a B.A. in Economics from Vanderbilt University and resides in Dallas, TX with his wife and 3 children.
Native Texan
MBA, CPA
8 years in Public Accounting
VP Finance of $1.2B, publicly traded telecom equipment company
CFO of startup company that went public on NASDAQ
CFO of $100m publicly traded supply chain management software company
CFO of $100m, private equity financed, company
CFO of $130m, private equity financed, company
Experience includes:
For over 20 years, Kerry Rupp has launched, developed and grown startup companies and new lines of business for established firms.
As CEO and General Partner at DreamIt, a Top Ten US startup accelerator and early-stage venture fund, Kerry was directly involved with the launch of over 150 companies. During her 5-year tenure with DreamIt, she grew its programs to five cities, raised a $20M follow-on fund, and initiated the DreamIt Access (minority entrepreneur), DreamIt Athena (female entrepreneur), and DreamIt Health programs. DreamIt companies in aggregate now have a market value of over $1B.
Before DreamIt, Kerry was herself the founder of an online travel service, Holiday Golightly, which organized unique group travel excursions for women. She has also advised senior executives at Allrecipes.com, ReadersDigest, LexisNexis, Payscale, and Taleo on strategy, business development and marketing. Kerry began her career as a consultant with McKinsey and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). In addition to consulting, Kerry serves as a mentor at Capital Factory and International Accelerator and on the advisory board of Medical Innovation Labs, a platform for commercializing innovations in the medical device field.
Kerry holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Biology from Duke University. Kerry volunteers on the leadership teams of Women@Austin, The Angel Forum, and the Austin chapters of Harvard Business School Alumni Club, Harvard Business School Alumni Angels and the DukeGEN Global Entrepreneurship Network. Kerry is also a judge or coach on many local and national start-up competitions (e.g., athenahealth, Harvard Business School, Rice University Business Plan Competition, TiE Texas, Energizing Health Houston, Texas Venture Labs, AARP Health Innovation). She is also a nationally-certified instructor for the National Science Foundation’s Innovations Corps (I-Corps) program. Kerry is also an avid adventurer that has visited over 50 countries and 49 US states.
With more than 13 years’ experience in leading sales and marketing teams for national healthcare technology companies, Mr. Freeman brings with him a successful track record in building dynamic teams to effectively drive company growth initiatives. Mr. Freeman’s healthcare IT career started in 2000 with Innovative Manage Care System (IMaCS), where he quickly made his way up the ranks from an individual contributor on the sales team to Regional Vice President of the western U.S. in 2004. IMaCS was acquired by Welsh Carson Anderson and Stowe (WCAS) in 2004, where Mr. Freeman served as the Senior Vice President of Sales until the acquisition of Accuro by MedAssets. Mr. Freeman was an essential collaborator with company executives on the strategic direction and M&A discussions during this transaction.
Following the acquisition, Kevin remained at MedAssets serving as the Senior Vice President, Revenue Technology Sales, Western U.S. In 2011 he joined Net.Orange, Inc., as the Executive Vice President, Business Development and Marketing building a sales and marketing organization from the ground up leading Net.Orange to a successful acquisition by NantHealth. Just prior to joining VitalWare, Kevin was responsible for all sales and marketing activities at GAFFEY Healthcare as their Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing.
Mr. Anderson is seasoned health care investor with over 15 years of investment experience in the public equity markets. Mr. Anderson grew up in Pasadena, Texas and attended Texas A&M University from 1987-1992 where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. After graduating, Mr. Anderson joined the United Way where he was a fund raiser. He then joined AIM Investments in 1994 as a Client Services representative and worked his way onto the equity investments floor in 1997 as an analyst. Mr. Anderson was promoted to Senior Analyst in 2000 and charged with overseeing the health care investment research for a team with over $10 Billion in assets. During this time he attended the University of Houston at night and received his Masters of Science in Finance. He also served as an advisor to their student investment fund from 2003-2010. Mr. Anderson was promoted to Portfolio Manager in 2003 and served in that role until 2008. Mr. Anderson moved to Dallas in 2008 and joined Carlson Capital as a health care analyst for 2 years on their relative value hedge fund portfolio. He then joined Highland Capital as a senior analyst responsible for health care research on the long/short equity portfolio. Mr. Anderson enjoys running, bike riding, hunting, fishing and gardening.
Kishore Khandavalli founded iTech in 2002 and he remains the group’s Chairman & CEO today. Under Mr. Khandavalli’s leadership, the group has evolved into a global conglomerate, established key partnerships, and acquired numerous clients, many of which are Fortune 100 organizations (Microsoft, DirecTV, Pepsi to name a few). He had been the CEO and Director of the Board of a publicly traded global software solutions company. Currently managing over 1,200 employees, three offices outside the U.S., and five within the United States and Canada, he steered iTech to be the fastest growing technology company in New England. Over the last few years, he made strategic acquisitions to make iTech into a consortium of companies with global delivery centers offering solutions in mobile technologies (www.SevenTablets.com), software solutions and data management (www.iTechBPO.com). SevenTablets is a B2B mobile solutions company that focuses on mobile strategy, security as well as Application development.
Before founding iTech, Mr. Khandavalli was President of Primesoft which he founded in 1997. Primesoft grew substantially by 2000 when it merged with Goldstone Technologies. He spearheaded the merger and subsequently led the combined organization until 2002. As the CEO of the combined companies, he expanded its operations into three continents with over 400 employees in three different continents.
Prior to venturing into the IT industry, Mr. Khandavalli worked as a research and development engineer at Enerfex, a technology think tank in Vermont. At Enerfex, he developed a unique patented technology to capture greenhouse gases and reuse them as industrial refrigerants.
He was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year finalist for two years in a row in 2009 & 2010. He was also recipient of Wells Fargo Asian Business leader finalist award in 2010. He is an avid flying enthusiast and private pilot. He is an active member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO). He holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Akron, OH.
Kris has over 44 years of progressive experience in the IT sector, in various industries spanning technology, including EFT, telecom, health care, staffing, loyalty, manufacturing, professional services, retail, banking, public sector and higher education.
As the former Chief Technology Officer for NTT DATA Inc., Kris led NTT DATA’s R&D and innovation programs, leveraging NTT Group R&D and related investment to deliver client impact. This included hosting NTT DATA’s annual Open Innovation Program aligning startups with NTT DATA’s clients. This included strategy development, innovation and solutions for:
•Large healthcare payer / Private University/ Oldest Bank in the Americas / Global Manufacturer / Global Professional Services Firm / Global Staffing Company / Large Bottler and others.
Additionally, Kris has had held numerous executive delivery roles throughout his career allowing him to provide unique perspective to dynamic client environments including:
•Chief Development Officer for Manpower
•Partner The Feld Group
•Head of eBusiness for Alliance Data
•Chief Development Officer for Office Max
•CIO – Octel
•SVP of Product Management for large Point of Sale company
Kris takes great pride and enjoyment in helping senior IT and business executives realize the promise of todays and tomorrow’s IT to achieve their business and personal goals.
Additionally, Kris is Chairman of the Executive Council for the UTD Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, member of the Computer Science Advisor board, and a guest lecturer with topics including AI for Healthcare, Innovation, Strategy, Tech Trends and Business Impact and Leading Global Teams.
Kris is also an advisor to several start-up companies in the Global Staffing AI/ML Ops and AI powered healthcare markets.
Kris also builds houses for Habitat for Humanity
Dr. Tyra joined Green Park & Golf in 2017 and serves as Chief Scientific Officer. Prior to joining Green Park & Golf, she completed graduate studies in the Neuroscience program at UT Southwestern Medical Center. During her doctoral studies, she was awarded the prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation to support her research and broader impact activities on the UTSW campus and in the local community. Through her research, she developed an expertise in the mechanisms organisms use for recycling and growth, as well as a deep understanding of the fields of neuroscience and developmental biology. Dr. Tyra is a published scientific author, with publications in Developmental Cell, eLife, Development, and the Journal of Cell Biology.
At GPG, Dr. Tyra leads diligence efforts and has participated in more than 60 of the firm’s healthcare and technology investments. She serves as an active board observer for Genomenon, Prima Temp, and Gregor Diagnostics.
In 2021, Dr. Tyra was elected to Place 1 of the Plano Independent School District Board of Trustees. She is excited to serve students in PISD, where she and her husband both received their K-12 education and their children are receiving their primary education. She is married to Jason Tyra, an attorney and certified public accountant in private practice in the Dallas area.
Dr. Tyra earned a B.A in German and B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of North Texas prior to her PhD studies at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Her advocacy and philanthropic work are focused on public education and improving resources for families of deaf children. She and her husband are also active supporters of 29 Acres.
Lea A. Ellermeier is the President of SheepMedical USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of SheepMedical Ltd, the #1 Japanese orthodontic aligner manufacturer. She is a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded and served as CEO of three dental technology companies 2C MedTech, REPLICATE Dental Technologies and Lingualcare, Inc. Lingualcare was purchased by 3M Company in November, 2007. Post-acquisition, she was president of 3M’s Lingualcare subsidiary and a member of the management operating committee of 3M Unitek.
Lea has spent her career building disruptive technologies with executive roles at OraMetrix, acquired by Dentsply (NYSE:XRAY) AutoTester, partially acquired by Compuware, now BMC Compuware and marketing and international sales roles at XTRA On-Line, Micrografx and GeoWorks.
Lea earned a B.A. in Political Science (Cum Laude) from the University of Texas El Paso and an M.B.A. from Thunderbird, School of Global Management in Glendale, AZ.
Lea is a mentor at Tech Wildcatters and Health Wildcatters and has served on the board of TeXchange. She frequently speaks at start-up technology and healthcare forums and is a guest lecturer at SMU’s Cox School of Business, University of Texas Dallas and Dallas public schools. Lea is also a painter and a writer. Her first book, Finding the Exit; It’s Not Where You Start, It’s Where You Finish, was published in 2018. Lea’s art can be viewed on Instagram.
Linda Stimmel is currently a Partner at Wilson Elser leading the firm’s Healthcare practice in Louisville and Dallas. Prior to Wilson Elser, Ms. Stimmel was the founding Partner Stewart Stimmel LLP with offices in Dallas and Louisville. Founded in 2000 Ms. Stimmel and her team at Stewart Stimmel LLP provided representation to hospitals, physicians and various non-physician healthcare providers in operational, regulatory, transactional and litigation matters. Her healthcare practice also encompasses risk management, liability defense, peer review and credentialing, as well as employment contract matters. In addition, hospitals frequently seek Ms. Stimmel’s guidance on issues involving their day-to-day operations and delivery of care. She is also Co-Chairman of the law firm’s National Healthcare practice.
Clients benefit from Ms. Stimmel’s 20 years as a healthcare lawyer and from the business acumen she developed in her former career as a corporate executive for a global company. Having experience as both attorney and client, Ms. Stimmel maintains an uncommon ability to analyze as well as anticipate the needs of healthcare providers and institutions. Ms. Stimmel received her JD in Healthcare Law from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.
Liz is a Director of Corporate Development at Vizient Inc., where she is responsible for driving execution of company strategy through acquisitions and partnerships. Prior to Vizient, Liz held various roles in corporate development and strategy, private equity and investment banking.
Liz graduated from Texas Christian University with a B.B.A. in finance, accounting and business information systems.
Lori Kate Smith is an award-winning, sales-driven marketing executive who shifts market opinion. Ms. Smith is a veteran of building strategic relationships from startups to Fortune 100 companies which increase market awareness and sales across many verticals.
In her most recent role, Ms. Smith served as Director of Marketing Programs, Machine Learning group at Arm where she led a global team who transformed Arm’s AI presence from none to consistent coverage. In a previous role, Ms. Smith grew Arm’s partnership program 300% from a logo fest losing money to a cash-positive program of business value with 1000+ partners.
Lori Kate’s prior experiences includes achieving the top salesperson for consecutive years and generating 10% of company revenue. Lori Kate had successful roles in multiple industries from cellular to B2B software to chips.Ms. Smith earned her MBA from Santa Clara University and her BA in Economics from Middlebury College.
Dr. Lucas Rodriguez co-founded and was CEO of CerSci Therapeutics from 2015 till August 2020 when CerSci was acquired by ACADIA Pharmaceuticals for a total deal value of ~$940 million. CerSci is a clinical non-opioid drug development firm concentrating its efforts on developing analgesic drug products without the deleterious side effects of current pain treatments on the market. Since inception, CerSci has received approval of their first Investigational New Drug Application from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This milestone allowed the organization to transition into clinical development through the FDA, and continued on to complete its Phase I clinical trial evaluating safety and tolerability in healthy human volunteers under his leadership. During his tenure, Lucas led the acquisition of their lead pharmaceutical program, the continued pre-clinical development of the asset, equity fundraising to support the organization, the IND-enablement of the program to support clinical trials, and the clinical development through Phase I prior to successful acquisition by ACADIA.
Lucas received his MS and PhD degrees in Biomedical Engineering from The University of Texas at Dallas studying novel bioactive bone cement for orthopedic and craniofacial surgery and new vented dental implant abutments for the mitigation of residual excess dental luting cement in cement-retained crown prosthetics after receiving his BS in biology with a minor in chemistry from Baylor University in 2010. During graduate school Dr. Rodriguez pursued a concentration in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at The University of Texas at Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management. He has over 10 years of project management experience in high-tech biomedical and biotherapeutic industries. He has developed his career in business development concentrating on strategy, business model development, fundraising and funding strategies, negotiation, corporate legal acumen, sales, and licensing/acquisitions.
Lydia Kinkade joined Cohen-Esrey Capital Partners, LLC (“CECP”) as a director in 2015. CECP is an affiliate of Cohen-Esrey that focuses on fundraising and equity syndication. In this role, she identifies and cultivates equity sources for apartment acquisition funds and coordinates the flow of information needed to negotiate and deliver a term sheet for individual projects.
Lydia is also the Managing Director for iiM, LLC (Innovation in Motion). iiM is an angel investment group that targets seed stage companies in the areas of animal health, human health and agribusiness. Her role is to identify and evaluate investment opportunities, facilitate the due diligence process, and manage the process of closing financings. Lydia assists with equity raising for iiM and represents iiM in strategic relationships with universities, business accelerators, angel groups, venture capital firms and other sources of deal flow.
Lydia is a graduate of Kansas State University, and spent three years teaching secondary math in Washington, D.C. Public Schools through Teach For America. While at K-State, she served as Student Body President, representing more than 23,000 students to local, state and national leaders. In this role, she helped manage more than $14 million in student fees and chaired the Kansas Board of Regents Student Advisory Committee.
She also co-chaired the Long Term Tuition Strategies Committee, which analyzed the University’s current financial condition in relation to the tuition structure, and was instrumental in creating Powercat Financial Counseling, a nationally recognized program that provides free personal finance assistance and counseling for students.
Mark is a Senior Partner at O2Works, a premier Oracle E-Business Suite services provider headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Mr. Clark started his career with Oracle Corporation as one of their first Applications consultants, and later founded two globally focused consulting firms concentrating on Oracle Applications. He has worked with enterprise customers across a wide variety of industries and geographies since 1990.
Mr. Clark was recently involved as a co-founder and Board member of both the North Central Oracle Applications user group and the South Central Oracle User group. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Oracle Applications User Group for several terms, and recently completed a two -year term as their president. Additionally he serves on a number advisory boards to Oracle product management. He has worked with a number of startups and software companies in their efforts to reach the wide and varied Oracle customer community, and has leveraged solutions to the benefits of his customer base. Recent technology investments include SAAS applications, biotech, retail, ed-tech, various B2C and B2B2C companies, e-commerce in emerging markets, energy, and other tech based investments.
Mr. Clark holds a Bachelors Degree in Engineering from the University of Illinois, as well as a Masters Degree in Finance from the same institution. He is currently a mentor, investor, and advisor for a number of Dallas based accelerators and venture firms.
Mark retired from Texas Instruments as Vice President of World Wide Strategic Marketing in 2014.
He is a highly accomplished, results-driven sales and marketing leader with extensive experience in business development, joint venture creation, product launch and development, key accounts, project management, and strategic planning. Continually develops high-level strategy, effectively communicates strategy, builds teams, and executes through sales and into revenue. Utilizes an extensive knowledge base and skill set to provide an organization with competitive insights. An integral leader who lays the foundation for the long-term success and profitability of an organization.
Mark is Assistant General Counsel for the Alcon division of Novartis and is based at Alcon’s Fort Worth headquarters, where his pharmaceutical IP practice includes domestic and foreign prosecution of chemical and formulation patents and associated licensing and transactional work. Prior to going in-house with Alcon, Mark was an associate attorney with Fulbright and Jaworski LLP (now Norton Rose Fulbright) at Fulbright’s Washington D.C. and Dallas offices, where his practice included patent litigation and prosecution with a life science and medical device focus. Mark also provides patent and trademark counseling for emerging companies in the IT and consumer products/services areas. His volunteer activities include pro bono legal services at the appellate and agency level for U.S. military veterans in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado.
Mark received his J.D. with honors from the University of Houston and his undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech with majors in chemistry and biochemistry. Before choosing to pursue a legal career, Mark held science-related positions at Georgetown University, the National Institutes of Health, and Perkin-Elmer Applied Biosystems, and received additional technical training at the University of Miami and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Mark resides in Fort Worth with his wife Christina and their two school-aged children. He is an instrument-rated pilot and a snow and endurance sports enthusiast.
Mark is a business strategy consultant and user experience architect with over 20 years experience working with Fortune 500 clients. Mark established the User Experience practice at Credera where he applies his strategy skills and visual design talent for his clients to create experiences that attract, engage, and retain customers.
Prior to Credera, Mark was the national leader for EMC Consulting’s User Experience practice where he provided sales and delivery leadership for user experience projects with clients in healthcare, professional services, finance, technology, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and several other industries.
Mark earned his bachelors business administration degree in management information systems from the University of Texas at Austin and he regularly returns to campus to lecture for undergraduate classes.
Dr. Kruzel has extensive scientific research and business experience. He has worked in clinical research in the fields of infectious disease, microbiology and immunology. He has also served as Director of Product Development and Research for a startup Vitaerx Pharmaceutical Inc. Dr. Kruzel has extensive experience with patent filing and copyright management as well as performing 510K studies for FDA approval. His interest lies primarily in applying Lean and Six Sigma principles to healthcare. Dr. Kruzel obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Dallas in Biology and went on to obtain his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Texas at Houston. He is currently pursuing his MBA from Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business.
Mark Stachiw helps companies grow through shaping and driving strategy and by building high performance boards and teams. With a from the front, no-nonsense leadership style, Mark has a unique ability to solve complex problems and tackle crisis situations. A former colleague has described Mark as one of the smartest persons he has known. Mark also is an ethical and skilled dealmaker and an effective advocate with regulators and public officials. Mark thrives in businesses which are undergoing change. Mark has been repeatedly recognized by the business community for his substantial contributions to the organizations he has been privileged to help lead.
Mark is currently the Managing Partner, General Counsel and Secretary and Founder of Artic Partners, a private equity firm focused primarily on assisting small and medium size technology companies in the process of transformation, or having industry consolidation opportunities, by providing access to management and capital. Mark is also a Managing Director of Alden Advisors, a mid-cap investment banking firm based in Dallas, Texas focused on assisting investors and management of mid-cap companies monetize thier investments. Mark is also Of Counsel with Klemchuk, LLP, a Dallas based law firm where Mark focuses on corporate transactions, M&A, securities and corporate governance.
Previously Mark was a Managing Partner, General Counsel and Secretary of NxGen Partners, a boutique equity firm investing in technology based companies. Mark was responsible for finding, evaluating and making investments, serving on portfolio company boards of directors, and legal and compliance matters, and corporate governance. In this role, Mark has found and evaluated over 300 investment opportunities in the first six months since founding NxGen Partners and has directed five investments in companies valued over $20 million.
Prior to joining NxGen Partners, Mark held various leadership roles at MetroPCS Communications, Inc. (NYSE:PCS), ultimately becoming the Vice Chairman, General Counsel and Secretary, a $6 billion dollar Fortune 500 public wireless communications company, where he was responsible for board governance, legal, regulatory and external affairs and, at times, human resources and corporate development. Mark took the company public in 2007 and was instrumental in expanding the company’s addressable market over five times. Mark was also played a key role in leading the company’s combination with T-Mobile. Earlier, Mark was a senior executive and chief legal, external affairs and regulatory officer for divisions of several other publicly traded communications companies and an entrepreneur who started several technology companies.
Mark received his Juris Doctor, and his Bachelor of Arts both from the University of California, Davis. Mark also is a member of the Order of the Coif, Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi and the bars of California, Texas, District of Columbia, and the United States Supreme Court. Mark has been honored with numerous awards throughout his career, including being named three times as a finalist for board governance.
Ms. Geroulo is currently a Partner with Wilson Elser with a focus on healthcare reimbursement, regulatory compliance and transactional issues. Prior to Wilson Elser Ms. Geroulo was a Partner at Stewart Stimmel, LLP in Dallas. Today her clients range from individual hospitals and multi-hospital corporations, physician groups and solo practitioners, home health agencies, nursing homes, and a variety of other health care providers. In the regulatory/operational side, Ms. Geroulo advises providers with respect to HIPAA, EMTALA, Stark, Anti-kickback, Conditions of Participation, State Licensing rules and regulations, and other federal and state law compliance matters. Prior in her career Ms. Geroulo also served as a CEO for a hospital where she gained invaluable insight from an operational perspective. Ms. Geroulo has an undergraduate degree in Microbiology and Chemistry from Texas Tech University, a MBA from University of Dallas and her JD from University of Houston Law Center.
Dr. Bush is Chief Operating Officer of Questcare Partners, an EmCare acquisition partner that has delivered quality medical services since 1996. Under Dr. Bush’s direction, Questcare has grown into a multi-specialty practice providing services in over 90 facilities in multiple states. Questcare has demonstrated success in combining excellent practitioners with sound management and business expertise to achieve outstanding results for patients, medical staff colleagues, and hospital administration.
Dr. Bush is passionate about developing networks to enhance access to high-quality care in both rural and urban communities. In 2010, Dr. Bush led the development of Questcare’s telemedicine practice. Since inception, Dr. Bush has provided medical oversight and established multi-specialty programs at forty-three facilities in Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. Dr. Bush has a reputation for his innovative healthcare delivery models and continues to build sustainable multi-specialty telehealth programs that provide quality and efficient care for patients and their community. He currently serves as the Medical Director of the North Texas Transfer Center and Telemedicine Network.
Dr. Bush believes in making a difference, one patient at a time. In 2012, Dr. Bush provided clinical and operational oversight in opening a charity clinic in Dallas through Questcare’s partnership with a local Dallas community church. In 2015, the charity clinic served over 5,000 patients and expanded services to include dental care. He continues to serve as the project lead for all volunteer and fundraising events to support the charity clinic and the Dallas community.
Though Dr. Bush holds many leadership roles in Questcare, he continues to serve his community as an Emergency Medicine physician. Dr. Bush earned his MD at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in 1996, and completed residency in emergency medicine at Carolinas Medical Center. He has served as both staff physician, ED Medical Director, and President of the Medical Staff at Medical City Dallas Hospital and Medical City Children’s Hospital. He joined Questcare’s Medical Management Company as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development in 2012, and presently serves as the company’s COO. Dr. Bush in board certified in emergency medicine and is an active member of the American College of Emergency Physician, the Texas College of Emergency Physicians American Medical Association, and the Texas Medical Association Dallas County Medical Society.
Matt is an entrepreneur, start-up founder and product management professional with a passion for working with start-ups and other entrepreneurs to support market research, product development and management.
With bachelor degrees in Information Systems and Information Security, as well as an MBA in Management of Technology, Matt has amassed a varied wealth of knowledge and experience. From internships at the Library of Congress and regional security groups, to working at tech start-ups, as well as competing internationally in tech venture competitions, Matt has gained a broad understanding and extensive interest in tech entrepreneurship and development spanning across both private and public sectors; he has been twice-nominated for the Texas Business Hall of Fame. More than anything, Matt looks forward to using his skills and expertise to work with others to support them in materializing their products and innovations.
Matt, a San Antonio native and amateur taco aficionado, has been breaking hearts and blowing minds at Kickbox since 2015. In his free time, he enjoys embarrassing his wife, traveling, spoiling his dogs, playing video games, and bootcamp-style workouts.
Go Spurs Go!
Matt is a managing partner at Dallas Venture Partners. He was formerly a Senior Associate at Trailblazer Capital. At Trailblazer, he managed the firm’s deal flow process and was an instrumental part of the sale of Spawn Labs to GameStop in February of 2011. Matt is a member of the State Bar of Texas, a former President and current Board Member of DFW TeXchange, and a board member of Yvolver, Inc and AgSolver, Inc. Matt received both his law and business degrees from Southern Methodist University with a concentration in Finance. While in graduate school, Matt founded a digital music company where he was successful in both raising capital for his company and attracting local talent. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Colgate University.
With over 25 years of experience working with companies, individuals, and law firms, Matt has provided management expertise and oversight, business advice, and legal counsel to a wide array of companies, corporate managers, and investors. Through the course of his career he has worked in law firms of all sizes and has founded and operated his own firm. Matt also has served in a wide range of roles on the corporate front, including CEO, COO, President, Vice President of Sales, Director, Board Chairman, corporate secretary, and General Counsel. These roles have included companies of all sizes and in many disparate industries, with a primary focus on the healthcare space. His healthcare experience includes physician group practice and joint venture development, healthcare real estate development, medical group management and operations, medical device development/commercialization and drug discovery.
Matt has provided advice and counsel concerning corporate strategy, business development, marketing and sales, private fundraising, mergers and acquisitions, private placements of both debt and equity, healthcare issues (including, but not limited to, Medicare/Medicaid fraud and abuse and Stark issues) and corporate governance. His experiences have included start-up companies as well as entities in the healthcare space and those owned by private equity.
Matt received his Juris Doctor from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University.
Matthew joined Silverton Partners as a Senior Associate in 2020. Before joining Silverton, Matt was an Associate at Providence Equity Partners in Boston, MA where he led growth and buyout investments in leading technology and payments companies. Early in his career, he worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Morgan Stanley. Originally from Long Island, NY, Matt earned B.S. degrees in both finance and psychology from Northeastern University. Outside of work you can find him running or biking the local Austin trails.
Soumya ‘Mia’ is currently a Sr. Medical Liaison in the Hematology/Oncology division of Amgen Inc. and is passionate about mentoring start-ups in Oncology, precision medicine & wearable devices space.
She has 10+ years of experience in healthcare/research, having graduated from UNT Health Science Center with a Ph.D. in Breast Cancer along with a postdoctoral research experience in Drug Discovery & Development at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She won a prestigious fellowship from Dept. of Defense, fully funding her pre-doctoral research on breast cancer molecular signaling. She has previously worked with several start-up companies as well as technology transfer teams.
An avid gamer, she is also interested in exploring adventure sports, cooking and traveling.
Mr Michael Arvin brings over 30 years of experience as a leading healthcare executive to the Sanders Trust. Prior to forming his own firm in 2011, Arvin held senior level business development and strategic planning roles with Methodist Health on a multi-year strategic growth plan which included doubling the size of the company through new hospital development, hospital acquisition, primary care network development, additional sites of service. Mr.Arvin previously founded Alliance Strategic Health Advisors, LLC based in Dallas, Texas, providing strategic advisory services to healthcare clients seeking to grow their asset bas e and position their organizations to compete in a changing healthcare environment. Mr. Arvin is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin, the Graduate Executive Education Program at UNC Chapel Hill and named a Fellow at the Rice Building Institute at Rice University.
Michael Cope is founder and retired CEO and Chairman of Interphase Corporation, a Dallas computer hardware manufacturer. After founding Interphase in 1974, Michael established it as the preeminent player in its market niche, lead it through a successful IPO in 1984 and a secondary public offering in 1991, as well as a strategic investment by Motorola. During his 20 year tenure, Interphase grew from a self-funded Dallas startup to a public technology company with over 350 employees and an international presence, was named to the INC 500, the INC 200, the FORBES 200 Best Run Small Companies in America and Mike was twice honored as an Entrepreneur-of-the-Year finalist.
Since 1994, he helped launch numerous start-ups, including multiple times as a founder. As an Angel investor he has enjoyed multiple successful exits, including acquisitions by major companies as well as Private Equity groups. Combining his technical background with market positioning, corporate infrastructure and financing experience, he often serves as a coach/advisor to CEOs, or a technical advisor to investors. He is associated with a variety of Angel groups and accelerators based in Texas and elsewhere, including Health Wildcatters, Tech Wildcatters, Southwest Angel Impact Investing Network (SWAN), The Capital Factory and Dallas Social Venture Partner and others.
Michael attended Vanderbilt University (BSEE) , is a Registered Professional Engineer and holds 46 US and international patents in the area of networking technology. Prior to founding Interphase, he Co-founded Avicon Development Group. As an early and influential player in the computer industry, he is considered a friend and colleague by many computer industry luminaries.
He and his wife live part of the year in Southlake, Texas and part of the year in Bonaire (a Dutch Caribbean island) where they pursue their mutual passion of Scuba Diving and international travel. Michael is also an avid sailor and enjoys music, cooking, racquetball and trail running.
Michael Gorton, BS Engineering, MS Physics, Juris Doctorate. CEO, Chairman, Principal Solar
Over the last twenty years, Mr. Gorton has founded and co-founded seven companies and become the quintessential entrepreneur, mentor and company builder. He has had the unique opportunity to impact three industries: telecommunications, music and healthcare. Gorton has earned 3 college degrees while working full time.
In 2009, Gorton founded Principal Solar, a company dedicated to the task of driving grid parity for solar electric rates. The Company has built a business model which has attracted some of the Country’s best known luminaries in electric utilities and finance. Currently, the company is executing a national roll-up of solar assets. Principal Solar has also founded the Principal Solar Institute, an entity which has published a dozen white papers, written articles for industry publications and released the Industry’s first ratings and standards for solar modules and systems.
In 2002, Mr. Gorton was the founding CEO of TelaDoc, a company which solved the efficiency paradigm for a subsection of healthcare. Under the TelaDoc model, members had access to telephonic physicians who could review medical records, treat and prescribe medication. When Mr. Gorton founded the company, it was considered controversial, and when he left in 2009, it had over a million paying members nationwide, advocacy from the very top of healthcare, and studies/white papers from many of the think tanks. In 2013, TelaDoc was names one of the Top Ten Most Innovative Companies in Healthcare
In 2000, as the tech bubble was popping, Mr. Gorton became a founding partner of the Texas Acceleration Group, an entity formed to assist startup companies. Because of the imminent fall of the technology sector, Gorton and other TAG partners founded Palo Duro Records to promote unknown country artist: Shelley Laine. During the next three years, Laine became the number one ranked Independent artist in Country Music, was nominated for best female artist in 2002, and put six songs on the charts.
In 1993, Mr. Gorton founded Internet Global, an entity designed to deliver Internet access. At that time, almost no one knew what the Internet was or how it would impact the world. In the early days, Michael would travel and lecture on subjects as simple as: what is an email address? Ultimately, iGlobal would deliver the world’s first DSL network and one of the nation’s first VOIP networks. In the late 90s, the Dallas Business Journal ranked iGlobal as North Texas #1 provider. Mr. Gorton negotiated a $122 million buyout of iGlobal in 1Q 2000.
In 1981, Mr. Gorton joined Dallas Power and Light, which later merged into Texas Utilities. During his term there, he worked as a project engineer dealing with power plants, distribution, transformer management, and integration of renewable energy into the grid. Over the course of several projects, he moved from lead engineer to management. After completing law school at night, Michael began working on regulatory issues and other non-engineering management projects. Mr. Gorton left TXU in 1992.
Mr. Gorton enjoys writing both fiction, and nonfiction. He has published three novels and dozens of articles on topics ranging from physics to healthcare. He has run 18 marathons, climbed mountains on several continents, ridden his bicycle on several long distance rides, one of which was just under 5,000 miles. Michael and his family are working a goal of climbing the highest mountain in each of the 50 States.
Now in the role of entrepreneur building a new Dallas-based solar energy company (Principal Solar), Michael spent the first 20+ years of his career in the information technology industry in diverse business development roles. He began at Unisys Corporation where he succeeded in systems sales to the manufacturing industry. Michael then worked in the systems integration and consulting field primarily with SHL Systemhouse (now a part of HP/EDS). Next, he entered the emerging enterprise software sector, in supply chain management, with i2 Technologies where he was a leader for i2’s largest strategic partnerships that were instrumental to the company’s dramatic growth to market leadership. More recently, Michael led the sales of Aquire’s strategic workforce solutions to its largest customers.
During this successful tenure in information technology, Michael has passionately and consistently provided high-value solutions to large enterprises for strategic aspects of their operations. A key to his success has been creative and value-driven problem solving with senior management of large corporate customers.
Michael, an avid cyclist, graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 1983 with a BBA in International Business. His undergraduate program included a year of study in Paris, France. Michael and his wife have four children and reside in his native Dallas. Michael is active in many community affairs with particular interests in renewable energy, education, cancer support and social enterprises.
Michael mentors and advises start-ups and early-stage companies. He works with founders to build results-focused investor and customer pitches and go-to-market strategies, which are specifically designed to create audience engagement within 90 seconds.
● Advisory Boards: Glass Media, Command Hound and KnKt’d Mental Health – plus a stealth initiative
● Mentor: Health Wildcatters, Capital Factory, UTD Blackstone Lab, UT Virtual Mentoring Service
Michael is a bootstrap start-up founder, CMO, and advisory board member. He monetizes innovation, creates market disruption and brand & product differentiation in start-up, turn-around and high-growth environments. A hands-on leader, Michael has a builder and fixer’s DNA and thrives on productivity. He leads from the front and has a track record of building highly productive goal-oriented teams.
In 2009 Michael developed, funded and launched Open Circle, LLC, a Patent Pending online donor acquisition, sales and social retention marketing platform, which was specifically built to increase the donor base while reducing acquisition and gift costs. Prior to Open Circle, Michael spent 20 years in executive leadership roles. Organizations such as Yahoo!, Interpublic /TM Advertising, Warnaco and VF Corp recruited Michael to deliver finance-centric Marketing ROI.
A New Orleans native and aficionado, Michael created NewOrleansAficionado.com, a guide to eats, drinks and music in the ‘City That Care Forgot.’ He lives in Dallas, TX and is a graduate of Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management (MBA/Marketing), Tulane University’s College of Arts & Sciences (BA w/Honors) and Culver Military Academy.
Michael Stoltz, M.D., joined Texas Health Resources in January 2008 as executive vice president of Texas Health and president of Texas Health Physicians Group.
Prior to joining Texas Health in a full-time leadership position, Dr. Stoltz was a partner with Dialysis Associates and a member of the medical staff of many hospitals in the Fort Worth area, including Chief of Staff of Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth. Dr. Stoltz served as Chairman of the Texas Health Physicians Leadership Committee and member of the Texas Health Board of Trustees before assuming his current position.
Dr. Stoltz completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Notre Dame. He earned his medical degree and completed his internship at the University of Missouri Medical Center in Columbia, Mo. After his internal medicine residency at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dr. Stoltz completed his academic career with a clinical fellowship in nephrology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Dr. Stoltz was a flight surgeon in the United States Army and served with the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea.
Texas Health Physicians Group under his leadership has grown to 819 clinicians delivering primary and specialty care services throughout the DFW metroplex. Texas Health Physicians Group has received multiple rewards for quality and innovation during 2012 and 2013.
Since 2016 till present Dr Stolz has been a board member of Cariloop Inc., a HealthWildcatters graduate company, as well as an active investor with Green Park and Golf, Cowtown Angels and Tech Ft. Worth.
Michael graduated from Purdue University in 2007 with a BS in Industrial Management and minors in Finance and Honors Economics. After graduation, Michael went home to Chicago and took a job with a business risk consulting firm called Protiviti where he had the privilege of working with several large health systems and behavioral health organizations. In 2011, Michael moved to Dallas and co-founded Cariloop, who was part of the first Health Wildcatter class of 2013. Since graduating, Cariloop has raised $500,000 in seed capital, released the first two versions of their web application, and is working towards their first $100,000+ in customer contracts for 2015. Michael is also very passionate about the Dallas startup community and personal fitness. He is the Founder of Health 2.0 Dallas, the 2015 Health lead for Dallas Startup Week, and a National Academy of Sport Medicine (NASM) certified personal trainer.
Mike Bartlett is currently the President of Vital Art and Science, Inc. (VAS) an early stage medical equipment start-up company focused on providing home-based vision function monitoring for tracking of degenerative diseases of the eye, including Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy. VAS has won NIH/National Eye Institute SBIR Phase I and Phase II Grants. VAS has also been funded by the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (ETF) and completed a large clinical trial to validate myVisionTrack™ which was funded by a major Drug Company. Vital Art and Science Incorporated has most recently received FDA 510(k) release for their myVisionTrack™ home vision monitor supplied on the iPhone.
Mr. Bartlett currently serves on many boards including Cymbet, Inc., a VC funded maker of micro-batteries for Industrial and Medical applications; ErgoNurse, Inc. an Angel funded provider of “Safe Patient Handling” solutions for Hospitals; Vidatronic, Inc. an early stage Friends & Family funded semiconductor company providing optimized power management solutions for Processor and ASIC chips.
Previously Mike spent a 28 year career with Texas Instruments, Inc. (TI) in Dallas, TX. He started with TI in 1976 and worked in many different positions with the company, and for his last 5 years he was Vice President – High Speed Communications Products. He requested and received an “early retirement” from TI in 2004.
Mr. Bartlett has a BEE from Georgia Institute of Technology and MSEE from Southern Methodist University.
Currently a Director at RSM US LLP, the leading provider of audit, tax and consulting services focused on the middle market, Mike Harbut has over 15 years of capital markets experience with both private and public companies. Prior to joining RSM, he was Vice President at BDR Research, a healthcare-focused research, financing and operations boutique, where he worked directly with many of America’s premier healthcare investors to conduct product, market, and investment diligence. He has commercialized more than two dozen research and advisory services; sourced over 35 strategic partnerships; and served more than 200 investment management clients including hedge funds, mutual funds, private equity funds and venture funds. Mike earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Boston University, a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from UT Dallas, and a Master of Science in Accounting (MSA) from UT Dallas.
Mitun is a Vice President at Spindletop Capital, an Austin-based investment firm focused on expansion and growth capital for rapidly growing healthcare companies. Mitun is responsible for identifying and evaluating new healthcare investments. Additionally, he works with the management teams of existing portfolio companies to identify and implement growth strategies that will build long term value in the healthcare and life science sectors.
Prior to Spindletop, Mitun worked at The Frankel Group, a boutique management consulting firm focused on the life science industry. While at The Frankel Group, Mitun worked on various types of analyses, such as drug valuations, growth strategies, and market assessments in a number of therapeutic areas with both pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Prior to consulting, Mitun was a research associate for the Plastic Surgery and Orthopedic Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. His research involved analyzing various stem cell differentiation techniques for use in cartilage repair.
Mitun earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, with a double minor in Biomedical Engineering and Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mitun also holds a Masters in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University and a MBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas.
Nate Burns is a managing director and healthcare portfolio manager at Highland Capital Management, L.P. In his role, he oversees the healthcare investments across Highland’s multibillion-dollar investment platform, covering a range of asset classes and investment strategies. He also serves as a portfolio manager for all dedicated healthcare vehicles, including a long/short equity fund, a private credit vehicle, and a private equity fund. Mr. Burns joined Highland from Ripplewood Holdings, a global private equity firm focused on control-oriented buyout, distressed, and special situations investments across a variety of industries. At Ripplewood, Mr. Burns was responsible for sourcing and executing investment transactions, as well as actively leading portfolio company operational and financial restructuring initiatives. Prior to joining Ripplewood, he was an analyst in the Global Technology Mergers & Acquisitions group at Lehman Brothers. Mr. Burns received a B.S. in analytical finance and economics, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Wake Forest University and an MBA, with Dean’s Honors and Distinction, from Columbia Business School. Mr. Burns is a holder of the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Professor Cortez, the inaugural Adelfa Botello Callejo Endowed Professor of Law in Leadership and Latino Studies, teaches and writes in the areas of health law, administrative law, and FDA law. His research focuses on emerging markets in health care and biotechnology. Prof. Cortez has become one of the world’s leading legal scholars on medical tourism and other cross-border health markets, and has published several articles and book chapters on the legal and ethical implications of these phenomena. His research also addresses mobile health technologies, how to regulate innovation under aging regulatory frameworks, the First Amendment constraints on FDA regulation (including FDA’s graphic tobacco warnings), immigration federalism, and alternative modes of regulation.
Professor Cortez has presented his research around the world, including to professional societies, at industry conferences, to regulators, and at several universities, including Colorado, Harvard, North Carolina, the University of Paris, Radboud University (Netherlands), Stanford, Texas, Wisconsin, and Yale. He also provides frequent legal commentary to the media, including the Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, CNN, the Huffington Post, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, WIRED, and Slate.com (including his essay for Slate, The FDA Needs to Regulate Digital Snake Oil).
Before joining the SMU faculty, Professor Cortez practiced with the Washington D.C. law firm Arnold & Porter, as part of its pharmaceutical, health care, and biotech practice. He represented clients in health care regulatory matters, with a special emphasis on health care fraud and abuse, FDA enforcement, privacy, and the Medicare and Medicaid programs. He represented clients during litigation, in corporate transactions, during agency enforcement actions, and during congressional investigations and hearings. While at Arnold & Porter, Professor Cortez litigated pro bono cases with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), and was a Board Member of the D.C. Hispanic Bar Foundation. In 2006, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Rutgers-Camden Law School.
In 2013, Professor Cortez and Glenn Cohen received a grant from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University to host an Exploratory Seminar on Mobile Health.
Neil J. Littman, M.S. is the Founder and Managing Director at Bioverge, a venture capital firm exclusively dedicated to investing in early-stage, cutting-edge healthcare companies. Neil is primary interested in precision-medicine companies at the intersection of biology and technology that are utilizing advances in technology to modernize healthcare, from bench-to- bedside.
Previously, Neil was Vice President of Business Development at Notable Labs, an oncology focused startup and Bioverge portfolio company, where he leads the development of global corporate partnerships and contributed to the strategic vision of Notable as part of the Senior Leadership Team. Neil oversaw business development at Notable through the successful completion of the company’s $40 million Series B and was instrumental in negotiating multiple terms sheets to in-license clinical stage oncology assets.
Previously, Neil was a member of the Executive Leadership Team and Director of Business Development at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). As part of CIRM’s leadership team, Neil helped develop the five-year strategic plan for managing and deploying CIRM’s $3 billion across the organization’s discovery, translational, and clinical stage stem cell and regenerative medicines programs. Neil was responsible for establishing collaborations with industry partners and investors to accelerate the development of CIRM-funded
programs. During his time at CIRM, Neil was responsible for managing the Therapeutics Group and oversaw a team of Ph.D. scientists responsible for >40 clinical stage therapies totaling over $500 million worth of CIRM investment. Prior to managing the Therapeutics Group, Neil oversaw the Strategic Infrastructure Group and was for managing over $125 million worth of supporting infrastructure programs, including: $30 million Stem Cell Center (partnership with IQVIA); $24 million Alpha Stem Cell Clinical Network (partnership with UCLA, UCSD, City of Hope, UC Irvine); $32 million iPSC Bank (partnership with Fujifilm); $40 million Genomics Center of Excellence (partnership with Stanford).
Prior to CIRM, Neil was a healthcare investment banker at Thomas Weisel Partners and Deutsche Bank and worked on transactions totaling over $1 billion. His primary focus was on strategic advisory and public and private financings.
Neil received a Master of Science in Biotechnology from The Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Molecular, Cellular and Development Biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Dr. Neil N. Patel joined Spine Team Texas as a board certified orthopedic surgeon, specializing in minimally invasive spine surgery techniques. With outstanding credentials, training at prestigious medical institutions and extensive leadership and research experience, Dr. Patel is an asset to Spine Team Texas.
During his residency, Dr. Patel trained with premier orthopedic spine surgeons and neurosurgeons to gain a comprehensive understanding of operative and non-operative management techniques. He also served as a clinical instructor for USC’s Department of Orthopedic Surgery.
Dr. Patel stays at the forefront of his field and informed of medical and procedural advances through active involvement in organizations like the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, North American Spine Society, and AO Spine International. In addition, he has shared his surgical expertise via local, regional, national and international presentations at annual meetings, which include Global Spine Congress, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and the North American Spine Society.
Dr. Patel also serves as a reviewer for The Global Spine Journal and has contributed to articles in leading publications such as Neurosurgery Focus, Journal of Arthroplasty and The Spine Journal. Dr. Patel is the recipient of many honors and distinctions, including the Herbert E. Pedersen M.D. Orthopedic Research Award and the Resident Outstanding Achievement Award.
Dr. Patel has published numerous research papers and articles featured in medical publications. He is also a contributing author to the number one textbook on the anatomy of the spine, spinal diseases and disorders currently utilized in teaching at the majority of medical schools nationwide.
Neil Shah, MD, MBA, FACP is an internal medicine physician and Clinical Services Director at Kyruus where he supports hospital systems with provider data management/analytics, patient navigation, and SaaS digital front door solutions. He serves on the faculty of Dell Medical School at the University of Texas and the TCU/UNTHSC School of Medicine. He is an expert in value-based healthcare, and his primary focus is using technology to improve patient outcomes and experience.
Dr. Shah was previously Medical Director at Versalus Health and Quality Improvement Officer at CareMore Health where he also served as a primary care physician. His prior clinical experiences include hospital physician roles at Ascension/Seton, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Dr. Shah is from Scranton, PA and went to college and medical school at Boston University. He completed residency training at Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School and received his MBA from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania with dual majors in finance and operations. He lives in Fort Worth with his wife, Jackie.
Neil Smiley is the founder and CEO of Loopback Analytics, a pioneer in leveraging data analytics to empower health systems and community-based organizations to more effectively manage care and reimbursement challenges in a “pay-for-outcomes” environment. Smiley started Loopback Analytics in 2009 after serving for 12 years as the founder and CEO of Phytel, a provider-led population health improvement company that grew to serve more than 30 million patients before it was acquired by IBM as part of the launch of Watson Health in 2015. Smiley started his professional career in management consulting with Accenture and later as a partner with EY, working with Fortune 1000 clients across a variety of industries. Smiley also serves as President of the Charles H. Hood Foundation supporting child health research in partnership with leading institutions across New England. He also serves on the board of the Carson Leslie Foundation, which seeks to advance new cures for children with Medulloblastoma. In 2013 Smiley was one of four finalists nominated for the Tech Titans Award for Emerging Technology Innovation in Dallas and was selected as one of the top 25 most influential persons in health care by the Dallas Business Journal. Smiley holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Dartmouth College.
Nick is the founder of Home Care Book, a premier home care provider of quality, compassionate care for the elderly. Nick is active throughout all functions within Home Care Book.
He has more than a decade of experience investing in and operating lower-middle market agencies across the healthcare, manufacturing, distribution and service industries.
Nick graduated cum laude with degrees in Finance and Accounting from Boston College and earned a Master in Professional Accounting from The University of Texas at Austin.
PJ is an entrepreneurial, results-oriented general counsel and business executive with extensive experience analyzing, structuring, negotiation and closing sophisticated domestic and international transactions in both high-tech and low-tech industries. He has worked as an attorney for a nationally ranked large law firm, and was president of the In-House Bar Association (i.e., Association of Corporate Counsel) for the Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter. He is both a writer and a film producer, PJ’s latest film Hiding in Plain Sight has won many film festival awards with its call to end transient homelessness.
Page P. Tucker has over 25 years of experience launching, establishing, and managing medical practices and medically-related businesses. Having started three businesses of her own, and being the COO of another, her focus has always been on corporate growth and continual improvement for both start-ups and established businesses.
She is skilled in generating pro formas, overseeing all financial aspects of a business, implementing market strategies and campaigns, initiating new business development, formulating human resource guidelines, including policy and procedures manuals, assisting in contract negotiations, and overseeing employee 401k, SEP, and insurance plans. Page excels at organizational and project-management tasks and is passionate about networking and coalition-building.
She has been actively involved with many non-profits and community organizations, serving on boards and in leadership positions. Page obtained her Bachelor’s Degree, in Journalism, from Texas A&M University, and her Master’s Degree, in Health Care Administration, from Texas Woman’s University.
Paolo, proud husband and father, MIT MBA, is a Silicon Valley-based global entrepreneur and strategist with a passion for innovation and growth using the power of data, strategic analysis, creativity, and teamwork.
Born and raised in Venice Italy, he founded his first Internet company in 1994 when he was 16 years old.
Paolo has been a U.S. resident since 2002. He has more than 25 years of experience in tech and internet-based businesses.
During this time, he has founded 6 companies, investor in more than 70, and advised hundreds, including LP in 7 funds.
Paolo has received 10 career awards and 4 of the companies he founded had an exit
The last company he was CEO and co-founder of Evensi, the world’s largest events discovery and promotion network, with more than 200 million events, 60 million users, 10 million event organizers. The company initially approved for an IPO in Q2 2020, has been acquired by Events.com, now working with the CEO to take the company public at Nasdaq by 2023.
Paolo is also passionately involved with M&A activities and Corporate Development endeavors, helping companies to grow, fundraise and scale globally.
Paolo is also General Partner at ME Ventures and 1521 Ventures and a Visiting Partner at Lombardstreet Ventures, investing in startups with strong moat and with tangible impact on improving the quality of people’s life.
He is also an active mentor and advisor at 500 Startups, Google Launchpad, China Accelerator, Alchemist, Start-Up Chile, Health Wildcatters, Nana Bianca, The Vault Korea, Galvanize, and Future Food Institute.
He loves to give back and help other people and companies.
Resilience is his best asset.
Find him here:
Patrick is a Principal at River Cities Capital Funds, where he focuses on growth investments in the technology and healthcare industries. Prior to joining RCCF, Patrick worked for the CEO and CFO of a sponsor-backed company and was a senior associate with Ballast Point Ventures, where he worked on healthcare and tech-enabled business services growth-stage investments. Previously, Patrick worked in investment banking at Raymond James & Associates, where he was actively involved in advising companies regarding initial public offerings, raising capital in both the public and private markets and merger and acquisition opportunities.
Patrick graduated with a BS in finance with honors from the University of Florida and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University with the Health Sector Management (HSM) certificate.
Paul Herchman, CEO, Thermi, an Almirall Company
Paul’s latest venture, Thermi, marked the reuniting of Principals Paul Herchman and Kevin O’Brien who together in 1989 founded, developed and operated Medical Alliance, Inc., a nationwide pioneer in mobile surgical and aesthetic technology services.
Thermi- 2012- present
MedSurge Advances, Inc. 2003-2007
MedSurge Advances, developed into the nation’s largest independent provider of aesthetic medicine products and services to physicians.
Medical Alliance, Inc. 1989-2001
Mentor- Health Wildcatters 2013-present
Paul Herchman is an entrepreneurial executive offering years of experience in the conception, development and management of medical and aesthetic ventures. He has lead several well know and successful medical/aesthetic start-up companies and brings solid business insights with the ability to raise capital, analyze market needs, envision new program concepts and strategies. Paul excels in devising non-traditional solutions that exploit emerging technologies or trends.
Paul Szablowski is an independent consultant and thought leader and former
senior vice president of brand experience for Texas Health Resources. He previously served as service area vice president of marketing, communications, public relations and business strategy for Dignity Health in the Phoenix market.
Szablowski has a strong background in driving and collaborating on the successful execution of strategies, initiatives, innovations and developing multi-stage customer experience transformations. He is known to be an active listener with a vivid imaginative conception for future trends and developments.
He is a frequent speaker and author on marketing, brand, consumer insights, social science and a self-described “Positive Deviant.” Szablowski received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Southern Illinois University.
Peter Franconi is the Vice President of Business Development with Fulcrum Equity Partners and joined the team in 2017. He is responsible for sourcing new investment opportunities by building relationships with founders and CEOs of high growth companies, industry service providers, and other funds.
Prior to joining Fulcrum, Mr. Franconi was a member of the senior leadership team at General Assembly, a global education institution focusing on technology, business, data and design. He launched the Atlanta campus in 2014, where he oversaw all aspects of the Atlanta organization including marketing, admissions, operations, career services and business development.
Before General Assembly, Peter worked for other fast-growing startups. He was the Director of Account Management & Client Services at BrightWhistle (acquired by Influence Health) here in Atlanta, and was a member of the original founding team at Tasting Table in New York City doing sales and business development. Mr. Franconi began his career as an Associate with Triage Consulting group.
Peter R. Gottlieb co-founded the Surgery Center of Richardson in 2003. This was the first surgery center in the United States built, equipped and staffed specifically for the lap band procedure. In 2004, Mr. Gottlieb co-founded the American Institute of Gastric Banding which then acquired the Surgery Center of Richardson and developed additional lap band surgery centers in Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. A leader in the bariatric space, Mr. Gottlieb in conjunction with leading bariatric surgeons, demonstrated that bariatric surgery could be done safely and efficiently in an outpatient environment. The American Institute of Gastric Banding was acquired by a private equity firm in 2006. Mr. Gottlieb returned as the CEO and President of AIGB in 2009. From 2009 through 2012, EBITDA more than tripled leading to the acquisition of the company by United Surgical Partners.
After starting his career in commercial banking, Mr. Gottlieb was the chief operating officer for the Dallas Medical and Surgical Clinic. As the largest multi-specialty physician group in the Dallas Fort Worth area, Dallas Medical had a wide range of ancillary service areas including an ambulatory surgery center, extensive radiological services and clinical trial departments. He has worked for healthcare industry leaders in a variety of managerial and development roles. He has held executive positions with AHI Healthcare Systems and MedPartners. From 1997 through 2001, Peter was the CEO of Delos WomensHealth, a venture capital backed physician practice Management Company. Peter has also done extensive consulting work with surgery centers, physician practices and hospitals.
Quintin Cassady has been a licensed attorney since 1991, providing legal and compliance related advice and management services primarily for health care businesses. Most recently, he was the Vice President, General Counsel and Compliance Officer for the North American operations of Galderma Laboratories and was in that capacity for over 21 years.
Quintin is a nationally recognized health care leader with expertise spanning pharmaceutical and medical devices in dermatology, injectable fillers, and consumer products with a broad array of therapeutic targets and modalities. His strategic expertise includes mergers and acquisitions, litigation management, intellectual property evaluation, due diligence, antitrust analysis, acquisitions, post-acquisition integration, and marketing support.
Over his career, he has served on several leadership teams and directed organizational departments responsible for legal, risk management, communications, compliance, and facilities. Among other specialized matters, Quintin has managed 30+ M&A and licensing transitions for products generating over $10B in global revenues, overseen 50+ successful patent litigations and other transactional intellectual property disputes, and facilitated a wide array of commercial real estate transactions across the US and Canada.
Quintin is an active member of various legal and compliance associations and has served on numerous boards of directors of private and nonprofit organizations. In addition, he is a frequent speaker at heath care industry meetings and continuing legal education programs. He has a Juris Doctorate and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Oklahoma and is a member of the State Bar of Texas and the Oklahoma Bar Association.
Raki Shah is currently CEO of VisionWeb, a SAAS technology provider that provides solutions to doctors, retailers, payers, and the supply chain in the vision care industry. Prior to VisionWeb, he was VP, Corporate Development for Essilor International, SA, the worldwide leader in corrective lenses for eyeglasses. He was responsible for M&A, partnerships, joint ventures, strategy and growth initiatives. He directly managed over $1B of transactions and sits on several boards of portfolio companies.
Prior to Essilor, Mr. Shah held various roles in technology and consulting concerns. Mr. Shah received his BBA and MA in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a CPA and business blogger (www.atmabus.blogspot.com) in which he writes on topics such as innovation, entrepreneurial finance, and “business with a purpose”. His articles have been published on several local and national websites.
Dr. Ramano Sprueil, MD is an Emergency Medicine Specialist in Dallas, TX. He is affiliated with medical facilities Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Allen and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. Dr. Sprueil’s specialties include emergency medicine, specialist diagnosing and treating patients with life-threatening conditions like heart attack, drug overdose, shock or massive bleeding.
Ray Estep serves as Managing Principal of RJE Partners, an advisory and consulting firm focused on achieving investor and management team goals for high growth technology, healthcare, hospitality and consumer product companies. He is also Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Transmira, Inc., a rapid growth B2B software company headquartered in the RTP area of North Carolina.
Ray is a long-standing coach and mentor to innovative and emerging companies on topics from start up through exit. In this capacity he partners with leadership teams and boards as interim CFO and strategic advisor helping guide and shape commercial offerings, competitive differentiation, capital raising, rapid growth, scale and talent development.
His background of 30 years includes CFO and M&A roles with venture backed companies, private equity sponsored entities and global leading organizations including Nokia, Bertelsmann and PwC. He has led company expansions for growth and development of 5 middle market companies that achieved successful exits for shareholders. Additionally, Ray has orchestrated M&A transaction value closings in excess of $1B.
Ray, an active CPA, holds an MBA in Finance and International Business from the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. He currently resides in the DFW area and is an accomplished musician and drummer.
Ray brings clarity and focus to business situations. His ability to concentrate on what’s truly important and help his team members do the same has helped his companies evolve and succeed as they grew over twenty years. Ray started and led Clarus Health Solutions, a Dallas based health care IT firm and the country’s top health plan provider search company. After the company reached a critical mass, Clarus was sold in 2014 to Cambia Health Solutions, part of the Blue Cross Blue Shield family in the Northwest. He now leads Prism Media Group, a boutique custom media company he started in 2000 that brings effective content and advertising solutions to its clients. Ray also invests in real estate and business start-ups. He in lives in Coppell with his wife of twenty-eight years and they have two grown children.
After focusing on women’s health and ObGyn in her medical training, Rebecca worked at McKinsey & Company (working with pharma, biotech and medical device companies), The Advisory Board Company (providing strategic and operational guidance to hospitals and health systems), VHA (helping hospital clinical programs) and HealthPoints (developing disease management and wellness programs). She is President of the Board of the North Texas American Diabetes Association and President of the Harvard Club of Dallas. She has a BA in Biology from Harvard University, MD from Yale University School of Medicine and MBA with a concentration in finance from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Reggie is a Managing Director for JENGA Capital Funds an acquisition company that invests in lower and middle market companies, and its strategy is to partner with talented executives and entrepreneurs to build industry-leading companies. Companies and executives have chosen to partner with JENGA Capital Funds because of the deep industry experience, strong network of business relationships, and track record of success. JENGA Capital Funds seeks investments where the bulk of the value creation opportunity is derived from the growth of a scalable business model. Reggie leads the firm’s overall strategy, developing targeted investment themes, supervising and closing the transaction.
Reggie began his career at GE Capital in the Financial Management Program where he held various Finance roles within multiple GE businesses (GE Assurance, GE Mortgage Insurance, GE Corporate Technology and GE Real Estate). His healthcare career started at GE Healthcare in the Commercial Leadership Program. While at GE Healthcare, he held roles that included leading product and regional commercial teams. Reggie was GE Healthcare’s first Deal Architect on the Commercial Operations team focusing on deal pursuits of $10M- $100M in size. Prior to his leaving GE Healthcare, Reggie served as the Region Vice President and General Manager for Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma where he led all GE Healthcare segments: Diagnostic Imaging, Ultrasound, Life Care Solutions, Health Information Technology, Life Sciences and Service businesses. The scope of his responsibilities included leading the sales and service organization by building a culture of collaboration and growing the portfolio to $400M in sales revenue.
Reggie transitioned into biotechnology to build a commercial team within Biogen leading the West Division for the Alzheimer’s Account Liaison Team. He led a layered organization with responsibilities for aligning and driving the commercial strategy and execution for Biogen’s Alzheimer’s Business Unit. He partnered with cross-functional leaders (e.g., Marketing, Sales, Reimbursement, Patient Services and Medical) to deploy solutions that drive business opportunities while ensuring team alignment in the overall execution of strategy.
Reggie is from Plano, TX and attended Langston University where he obtained Bachelor of Science degrees in Finance and Business Management and is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
While spending 10 years in the automotive industry, Richard helped his wife launch her handbag and apparel company Ashard Richley and founded a company to successfully take a mobile app called Charade Date to market.
He left his day job in early 2015 to found OMMDOM, Inc. / CancerGene Connect which was acquired by Invitae (NVTA) in June of 2017.
Richard has broad general knowledge in sales, management, and software development and extensive knowledge in selling software into the healthcare space. He hopes to add value by sharing what was learned in taking a small startup through to successful acquisition.
Richard is President of Katalact Group, a nationally focused healthcare management consulting company and has 18+ years of experience in the industry. Recently he served on the leadership team for Yaro Health, a healthcare navigation app based out of Chicago.
Previously, he served in several leadership roles including Operations Director for Blue Cross Blue Shield, Director of Product Management for Aetna, and Product Manager for both ADP and Humana. His passion is designing and implementing products & services supporting consumerism.
Currently his attention focuses on setting up a new data collection and distribution business designed to support Emergency Room Redirection programs. It will be a B2B model that supplies other organizations cost data to help individuals understand the financial and time costs of calling EMS and using emergency rooms as well as other medical alternatives.
Mr. Welch is a founder of both Best Practices Insurance Services, LLC (BPIS) and Applied Medico-Legal Solutions Risk Retention Group, Inc. (AMS RRG). He currently serves as President & Chief Executive Officer of BPIS and President of AMS RRG. Since 2003, AMS RRG has been providing medical liability insurance to physicians throughout the country across a broad range of specialties, and is now one of the nation’s premier physician risk retention groups.
Mr. Welch is a leader in the healthcare industry and has served in executive positions throughout his career. Prior to his current positions, Mr. Welch was a founder, President & CEO of Applied Medical Solutions, Inc. (AMS), a hospitalist company located in South Florida. Mr. Welch merged AMS into one of the nation’s leading hospitalist companies. After the merger, he served as Vice President, Business Development and Vice President, Operations for the South where his markets accounted for over 50% of the volume and revenue. Prior to AMS, Mr. Welch served as the Vice President, Operations for a multi-hospital system located in South Florida. Mr. Welch was responsible for system-wide operations, outpatient facilities, and professional services contracting. Additionally, Mr. Welch was the President of the Third Party Administrator (TPA), founding Board Member of the Management Services Organization (MSO), and initiated the Quality Assessment and Oversight Committee of the Board of Commissioners.
Mr. Welch received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Florida State University and his Master of Health Administration from Duke University. Mr. Welch has served on numerous charitable boards as well as several professional healthcare organizations.
Rishi is a technologist, inventor, operator and angel investor. Rishi has expertise in Blockchain, Machine Learning, Big Data, Cloud Computing and SaaS Solutions for Healthcare Integration, Healthcare Payers, Providers, PBMs, Specialty Pharmacies, Pharmacies, and Retailers. Having worked for Fortune 20, and startup companies, Rishi has a very diverse background, which includes hands on innovation (multiple patents granted) as well as product development and product leadership.
He currently leads Unusual Insights Inc, a boutique product development and advisory firm supporting startups, venture capital and private equity clients.
Most recently, Rishi worked with PSG to launch and grow Artemetrx Monitor™ (a Big Data / AI based, SaaS Drug Spend Management solution) to 25 million members and scale 340B Link (a SaaS Drug Procurement solution) from MVP to 80 plus hospitals and 20M+ revenue in 3 yrs. Previously, as the Chief Architect and VP of Tech. Products at UHG, Rishi’s team developed “Optum Sync™” (Integrated Medical + Pharmacy Care & Patient Engagement Platform) and supported OptumRx’s growth from a $19B captive a $ 48B commercial PBM. Other products developed include “ReadyDose™”, a precursor to PillPack and PharmacyOS (acquired by Amazon for $1B) and CVS “Specialty Connect™” (winner of 2014 2014 Rx Benefit Innovation Award)
Rishi earned a B.S. in Computer Sciences & Engineering at the National Institute of Technology, India. He also actively supports efforts to provide underprivileged kids access to quality education at the Khullar Charitable Trust
Ritika joined Radian Capital in 2017 where she focuses on growth equity investing in the healthcare and technology verticals. She is excited about back-office and workflow solutions that make health systems and payers more effective and efficient, especially as it relates to increased pressure to manage margins in a value-based care environment.
Prior to joining Radian, she focused on enterprise technology investments at Advent International (including HCIT) and did strategy consulting at McKinsey & Co. Ritika received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her B.B.A from the University of Michigan.
Robert Brownd is an experienced entrepreneur in the healthcare landscape with taking software, managed service organizations, and high performance medical groups to market. He places an emphasis on developing out the organization’s go-to-market strategy, building sales teams, and leveraging technology to more closely align with customers. He excels with creating a vision to identify proper target markets and assess various marketing channels available to efficiently allocate resources. More specifically the physician practice, ambulatory surgery center, and population health spaces are areas where Robert has been highly successful with introducing solutions and creating significant revenue streams for startups. Robert holds a Professional MBA in strategy and entrepreneurship from Southern Methodist University, and a bachelor’s degree in marketing and general business from Stephen F. Austin State University. He’s also founded and runs a B2B sales and marketing community called Dallas Enterprise Sales Forum with over 500 members.
Robert Faber works for St. Petersburg, FL-based Ballast Point Ventures, a venture capital fund providing expansion capital to rapidly growing private companies located primarily in the Southeast and Texas. Ballast Point Ventures manages $200 million across two venture capital funds and focuses on investments in health care, communications, business services, technology, financial services, and consumer industries. Prior to joining Ballast Point Ventures in 2010, Robert worked for three years as an Associate for Wachovia Capital Partners, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based private equity fund affiliated with Wachovia Corporation. While at Wachovia Capital Partners, now known as Pamlico Capital, Robert focused on investments in the media, communications, business services, and energy sectors. He also worked previously as an Analyst for two years in the Leveraged Finance Group of Wachovia Securities, also in Charlotte. He graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree and from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth with an MBA. Robert is originally from Memphis, TN. At Ballast Point Ventures, Robert focuses on investments in the business services, technology, health care and consumer sectors. Robert currently serves on the board of directors of KeyView Labs, which is based in Sarasota, FL, and Advanced Processing and Imaging, based in Boca Raton, FL
Dr. Forsythe has an extensive background in management, resource development, innovation, analytics, and risk management. In addition, Dr. Forsythe currently serves on the Board of Directors for Chesapeake Utilities (NYSE:CPK). As Qlarant CEO, he has led the company onto a high growth pattern with significantly increased cash position, net assets, investments, revenue as well as YoY net income. He has significantly elevated the organization-wide operational efficiency and led the commercialization of technology and advanced analytics expertise that has highly strengthened the competitive advantage position to industry peers. His vision of Qlarant Capital leads us onto the path of providing capital and strategic values to early stage startups in healthcare industry. His deep expertise in corporate development, executive recruiting, government contracting, mergers and acquisitions as well as product/software development will be great strategic value add to any startups that are looking to break into a market.
Prior to joining Qlarant, Dr. Forsythe served as the Vice President for Technology and Commercialization at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. He made substantial contributions towards raising the profile of the organization as a regional economic powerhouse. His support for new innovations in health care, aerospace, renewable energy, unmanned aerial systems, and sustainable agriculture spurred unprecedented regional high-tech business development and job creation.
Dr. Forsythe earned his Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Delaware and earned both his master’s and doctoral degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland.
Ron has over 25 years of experience in technology, healthcare and business services and has been CFO of companies across the lifecycle spectrum from venture to private equity to publicly listed. He currently serves as CFO of Pieces Technologies, a venture-backed healthcare software company using artificial intelligence and social determinants of health to improve patient outcomes. Ron was previously CFO for private equity backed FairPay Solutions, a healthcare technology company focused on payment integrity and cost containment, and prior to that, CFO of BPO Management Services and Healthaxis. He has also been a consulting CFO for VirtualCFO, providing fractional CFO and other financial services for companies including venture-backed startups, small public companies, and spin-outs of international public companies. He began his career as a public accountant with Ernst & Young and is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Texas.
Ryan is currently the Vice President of Product Management at OneDay where he leads Product Strategy, Go-to-Market Planning and Market Research. Ryan has spent his career in various leadership roles extending across both marketing and product management which provides him with a unique perspective and approach on product and market strategy.
Ryan Scripps has worked as a technology and business leader and as a startup consultant for over 15 years. His primary industry experience is in healthcare, but he has also worked in the construction and heavy equipment industry and in professional services supporting architects, engineers, lawyers and physicians.
Scripps has recently worked as a consultant to startup firms and enterprises launching new ventures. He also serves as a mentor and advisor for the nationally recognized business accelerators Tech Wildcatters and Health Wildcatters. Additionally, he is an active investor in many early stage firms. At his job with a national healthcare company, Scripps consistently ranked in the top quartile of his peers for overall performance and was repeatedly recognized for maintaining leading customer and employee satisfaction levels.
Scripps graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science in Physics degree. In 2011, Scripps earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Southern Methodist University. He completed concentrations in Finance and in Strategy & Entrepreneurship with representative coursework including valuation, venture finance, game theory and strategic mergers and acquisitions.
Scripps currently lives in Dallas, TX with his wife and two children. He performs volunteer work for various agencies in and around Dallas and serves on the board of directors for a local non-profit agency. He enjoys golf, hiking, cycling, skiing and often spends vacation time in Colorado. Scripps also plans to obtain a private pilot license and has logged over 25 hours of flight training to date.
Sarosh Nayar is founder and CEO of Persuasive Pixel, a company that combines creativity with technology to produce big ideas (www.persuasivepixel.com) for companies such as HP, Samsung Mobile and Texas Health Resources. With 15 years of prior brand management experience at a number of Fortune 100 companies, including Frito-Lay, American Express and Philip Morris, Sarosh is well equipped to help you position your startup and manage and grow your brand. He is an alumnus of Columbia Business School and Brown University and now lives in Dallas with his wife and 2 daughters. He is an avid tennis player, a world traveler and an amateur wildlife photographer.
A practicing medical doctor for over 30 years, Dr. Conard works at the intersection of health system effectiveness, organizational leadership, and individual well-being. Founder of TienaHealth Medical Group, a proactive medical home in 2003, he has founded, developed and sold eight companies including medical practices, research, sleep labs, and medical management organizations. During this time he was an Associate Professor at UT Health Science Center in Dallas for 21 years, wrote five books, had his own radio and television show, gave over 1000 key note and educational programs, was a principle investigator in over 60 clinical trials. After selling his medical practice he served as Chief Medical & Strategy Officer of Medical Edge, a 510 provider, 1.3M patient health care system. When this was sold to Texas Health Resources he became the Chief Medical Officer for Holmes & Murphy Insurance Brokerage Firm and then Compass Professional Health Services – a technology enabled transparency, concierge engagement, and population health company.
Currently he works with Vistra Energy, Hilti, Pioneer Energy, Essilor, and other employers improve value and save millions of dollars by creating an accountable, high performance system for employees. In addition, he is co-founder and CEO of a new startup - Converging Health that is integrating the clinical, health brokerage, healthcare system, data analytic, health literacy, and behavioral economics experience and understanding to create an integrated system of support for individuals and corporations on their health journey. Using the principles of Conscious Healthcare he, and the team he works with, are creating operations systems to create systems that achieve sustainable high performance.
Scott has 30 years in the medical device space leading blue-chip organizations, mid-cap growth companies and venture backed firms up through successful IPO’s and exits. He thrives in the fast paced, ever changing market of medical technology and company consolidation and has established and grown businesses in every region of the world.
By developing strong management teams, he has succeeded in bringing in and developing functional competency to the organizations that he has led while focusing the companies on creating the vision that they and their teams can help create, get behind and execute against. Throughout his career, Scott has been attracted to technology that makes a difference in the marketplace and can be combined with other technologies to form a portfolio that creates real value in highly differentiated market segments.
In his most recent assignment at Holson Consulting, which he helped found, Scott has partnered with Correlation Ventures to leverage his vast experience in identifying medical device companies that are targets for incremental investments from the private equity community. Additionally, Scott assists established companies to identify new ‘revenue ready ‘technologies and opportunities to complement their existing organic portfolios. This effort has resulted in multiple acquisitions, partnerships and licensing agreements.
Prior to this, Scott led AirXpanders, Inc., a device company that designs, manufactures and distributes a technology for breast cancer reconstruction as their President, CEO and Board Member. During his tenure, AirXpanders secured their regulatory approval for Europe, Australia and the United States while completing the largest randomized trial for implanted devices in the plastic surgery sector which helped to secure a de novo approval in the United States and bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for the Breast Cancer Patient Education Act.
Scott led the company through an oversubscribed IPO process and converted the business to a publicly traded entity on the ASX in June, 2015 where the business quickly gained traction and secured a 30% market share within the first six months of commercialization. Scott also simultaneously scaled sales organizations in the United States and Australia while securing distribution partners throughout Europe. Overall, Scott raised over $40M in the PE market and over $70M in institutional funding in the US, Asia and Australia while transferring manufacturing to Costa Rica to achieve a 75% reduction in COGs.
Before AirXpanders, Scott led Avanits Medical, a medical device company in the GI Medicine space as their President, CEO and Board Member. During his tenure, Avantis secured two FDA approvals, reimbursement through CMS and a successful manufacturing transfer for an 80% reduction in COGs. Scott raised more than $40M in private equity funding for Avantis in arguably the most difficult market environment in 2009 / 2010.
Prior to AirXpanders, Scott led the Orthopedic Business Segment of Orthofix Intl. as their Global Business Unit President. With manufacturing locations in Dallas, TX and Verona, Italy, The Orthopedic GBU grew at 300% over the industry average at a 30% CAGR with a focused effort around consolidation and a unifying vision around functional competency and accountability throughout the organization.
Scott began his medical device career at The Boston Scientific Corporation where he spent 14 years in roles of increasing responsibility in the different business segments of Urology, Women’s Health, Gastroenterology, Interventional Radiology and International. While at Boston, Scott led teams in Sales, Marketing, Operations, Business Development, Commercialization, R&D and Communications as the company grew from a privately held $30M medical start-up to a multi-billion-dollar global player in the medical device sector.
Prior to Boston Scientific, Scott began his career with the Black and Decker Corporation in sales and sales management within the Industrial Construction segment which initiated the DeWalt Division.
Dedicated to working with Cigna’s Strategy and Business Development leadership and US Market Presidents and their leadership teams to strategize and execute deeper partner relationships within their provider, client and investment communities. Experienced executive leadership with private entrepreneurial and public companies Scott is focused on strategy, operations, execution, accountability, customer service, and innovation. He also brings perspective through experiences in clinical nursing from critical care through the continuum of care delivery including risk management oversight of commercial and government patient populations. He is based in Dallas, Texas.
Dr. Scott McClure is a board certified Emergency Medicine Physician practicing in Dallas since 2015. A native Texan, he completed his undergraduate course work at the University of Texas at Austin graduating Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelors of Science in Biology. He has been a Dallas resident since 2008 completing both medical school and emergency medicine residency at UT Southwestern. He works primarily at Parkland Memorial Hospital, a level one trauma center which yearly ranks among the busiest emergency departments in the country. Outside of the emergency department, Dr. McClure works both in Telehealth as well as serving as a physician advisor for medical start up companies. He has a growing interest in medical start ups as well as angel investing.
Scott Sims leads alliance sales for IBM Global Technology Services. He works with a broad range of technology firms to bring the latest digital innovations to IBM’s clients, including in the fast growing fields of data analytics, augmented intelligence and cloud computing. Scott leads sales, services and technical professionals to help clients transform their businesses and IT operations to gain market advantage. Having served clients in the life sciences, medical device, and health provider segments, he has direct experience in how data is driving rapid change across the healthcare industry. As a mentor to healthcare startups, Scott provides guidance on accelerating new technology adoption, creating successful business models and raising capital. Scott earned a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Scott Smith is the founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Socrates Health Solutions, a company committed to applying innovative technology in order to provide affordable healthcare and fitness products. In this role, Smith has secured investment capital, recruited a world class Board of Directors with healthcare experience, and attracted a stellar executive team. Building on 20+ years of healthcare technology experience, he has driven the development of Socrates’ proprietary technology solutions for non-invasive glucose monitoring, including research and development, international patent filings and approvals, and collaboration with global companies.
Scott brings extensive business expertise to Socrates, with a strong track record for leading start-up, emerging organizations to profitability and securing opportunities for acquisition and mergers with public companies. His management experience also includes sales and marketing leadership roles at publicly traded Fortune 100 companies.
Prior to launching Socrates, Scott led Global Sales and Marketing for MDG Medical, a medication management device and software company where he built annual revenues from the ground up – accelerating from zero to $15 million in annual sales – and opened worldwide distribution channels. At VISICU, a leading intensive care software firm, Scott was part of the team that completed a successful Initial Public Offering and eventual sale of the firm.
Throughout his career, Scott has taken responsibility for driving sales and marketing of healthcare products and services with consistent attainment of revenue and operational goals.
Scott earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, Louisiana.
Sean is currently a cofounder of Healthfundr and has a background in software startups and securities law. He was an early employee at a successfully exited SAAS startup. He has represented companies in complex securities litigation, in SEC compliance, and was a trial team member in a $30 billion securities lawsuit. He has also managed products, worked as a front-end/UX developer, developed marketing programs and sales strategies, and negotiated strategic relationships.
Shlomo Harnas is a seasoned commercial strategist and BD evaluation/diligence/deal support professional with extensive experience in biopharma, medtech, and healthcare across consulting and industry. In recent years he has started working with early-stage startups, as an accelerator mentor/judge with Health Wildcatters and MassChallenge, as an advisor to several medtech and health tech companies, and as an angel investor.
He is the Managing Director of Akrolyth Advisory, working both buy-side and sell-side with industry, VC and PE investors, and translational research groups. He was previously the North America Commercial Director for Grünenthal, a Germany-based global pharma, where he was responsible for commercial development and BD assessments, and was Commercial lead for a mid-late stage rare disease program.
Prior to that, he was the go-to diligence/LM&A lead with Navigant Consulting’s global Life Science practice, and a member of Leerink Swann’s advisory group and of Clarion Healthcare’s strategy practice.
Shlomo holds a Master’s degree in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Presidential Doctoral Fellow, and a Master’s/Bachelor’s in Biochemistry and Mathematics from Brandeis University, summa cum laude, with highest honors, where he was a Goldwater Scholar and Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellow.
He has lived in 4 countries, is fluent in English and Portuguese, and is conversant in 3 more languages.
Solome Tibebu is an experienced health IT business development leader, mental health advocate and entrepreneur. As part of the Affiniti VC team, she is a champion for early-stage digital health and innovative technology startups led by underrepresent entrepreneurs.
Solome was Founder and CEO of Cognific, a behavioral health startup offering solutions for healthcare providers to increase efficiency and patient satisfaction through evidence-based, patient-driven mobile applications. Solome raised angel funding, hired and managed a team of developers, designers and clinicians, and developed first-of-a-kind mental health applications for clinical settings in the Midwest. She is the recipient of the 1st place Minnesota Cup division prize and served as MentorMate Entrepreneur-In-Residence.
As a leader of the enterprise sales team at Netsmart, Solome led and implemented statewide strategy for EHR care coordination in the New England region. In partnership with the state, large health systems, behavioral health providers and substance use facilities, she expanded the adoption of a broad array of health IT solutions in Massachusetts including cloud, care coordination, population management, benchmarking, value-based care consulting and revenue cycle management.
Solome is the Founder of Anxiety In Teens 501(c)3 non-profit organization, the first online mental health resource for young adults, by young adults. In 2006, Solome started the organization after struggling with OCD and anxiety as a teenager. Today, Anxiety In Teens supports young adults across the country with nationwide expressive writing programs and offline events for families. Solome served as Ashoka YouthVenture Entrepreneur-In-Residence to help advance the development of youth-led social ventures. Prior to running Cognific, Solome served on the initial team of Project Skyway, the first tech accelerator in Minnesota.
Stephen Curtis is responsible for assessing potential life science investments and supporting emerging portfolio companies for 2M Companies, the Dallas-based family office of Morton H. Meyerson. Prior to joining 2M, Steve led cross-functional efforts to identify, evaluate, and in-license novel biopharmaceutical technologies across a wide range of therapeutic areas for Reata Pharmaceuticals. Before relocating to Dallas, Steve completed his PhD in biological and biomedical sciences at Harvard Medical School in Boston. His doctoral studies focused on the cellular biology of lung cancer development, propagation, and progression. Steve graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University, earning a dual BS degree in molecular biology and applied economics and management.
Steven Boyd is the Operating Partner for Varsity Healthcare Partners. Varsity Healthcare Partners is a healthcare-focused private equity firm. VHP seeks to partner with founders / entrepreneurs of lower middle-market healthcare companies and dedicate substantial time and resources to accelerate growth and value creation. VHP is currently investing out of its $300 million second fund. Prior to joining VHP, Steve has over 35 years of operating experience in healthcare services companies, most recently having held numerous senior executive roles with Envision (NYSE: EVHC), including CEO of Evolution Health and CEO of Ascension Health at Home. Prior to its successful sale to Envision, Mr. Boyd was the CEO of Guardian Healthcare, one of the nation’s largest providers of home nursing services (backed by Enhanced Equity Funds). He also successfully led OrthoRx (a national orthopedic durable medical equipment management company backed by Ferrer Freeman & Company) and Magella Healthcare (a national group practice of neonatology physicians backed by Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe). Mr. Boyd started his career, becoming Vice President of Operations, at Lincare, the nation’s largest provider of home respiratory equipment and therapy services.
Dr. Shapiro is a practicing pulmonologist and intensivist and is an experienced leader in the medical community. Prior to serving in his current capacity, he was Chief of Staff at North Broward Medical Center; Chairman of the Joint Conference Committee for the North Broward Hospital District; Medical Director of Quality Management; Past Chief, Department of Medicine; Director of Respiratory Care Services and Medical Director at Boca Raton Community Hospital. He has served in numerous other medical leadership positions. Dr. Shapiro was a founder and Chief Medical Officer for Applied Medical Solutions, Inc. (AMS) a Hospitalist company located in South Florida. In that capacity, Dr. Shapiro was responsible for the medical management of over 90 physicians throughout the South Florida region. Following the AMS merger with one of the nation’s leading hospitalist companies, Dr. Shapiro continued as the Regional Medical Director.
Dr. Shapiro received his B.S. degree from SUNY at Buffalo and his Doctor of Medicine at SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse. He completed his Pulmonary and Critical Care training at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at New York. Dr. Shapiro holds five Board certifications in the following specialties: Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, Sleep Medicine, and Quality Assurance and Utilization Review.
Sunny Nadolsky is the Founder and CEO of MediBookr.com, which is the pioneer in healthcare VBN (value-based navigation) which helps self-insured employers contain and reduce healthcare costs by helping employees/patients navigate healthcare plans and the healthcare selection processes through mobile and web platforms powered by AI and digital technologies, data analytics, and transparency of healthcare providers.
Sunny is an alumni of Health Wildcatters 2016 Class. MediBookr is currently serving clients in the DFW area, and is poised to expand its growth to Houston, San Antonio, Austin and other states. MediBookr has successfully raised over $1.5 million in angel funding.
MediBookr has won many awards for its innovative solutions, such as the Top Innovator award by Premierinc, Rising Startup by TechWeek, Healthcare Excellence by the D CEO Magazine, etc..
Sunny is a serial entrepreneur who has built multiple successful companies.
Sunny gives back to our community by mentoring other startup entrepreneurs in Health Wildcatters and RevTech. She is also an active angel investor in Health Wildcatters, RevTech, and Dallas Angel Network.
She received her MBA from Arizona State University. She also studied in the doctoral programs in Business Management at Michigan State University.
She can be reached at:
Mobile: 214 577 0066
Email: snadolsky@MediBookr.com
Supriya Sinha, Ph.D. serves as the Assistant Director, Commercialization Relations at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She joined UT Southwestern in 2019 after almost 3 years with Bios Partners, a local biotech venture fund. Dr. Sinha brings more than 5 years’ experience facilitating the translation of scientific discoveries into patient and commercial benefits. Dr. Sinha has leveraged her Ph.D training as a translator, or liaison, between scientists and non-scientists, communicating effectively about the potential of science. Her roles have included technology commercialization; improving patient outcomes through quality based initiatives; working with disease-specific nonprofits; and biotech and life science investing through venture capital. Dr. Sinha has contributed towards the translation of academic research to the real world and commercialization of scientific innovation so that it can help solve problems and benefit people. She possesses in-depth understanding of both scientific and commercial aspects associated with the life science industry. She is adept in developing strategic partnerships, communicating with entrepreneurs and providing growth direction to new early stage life sciences companies. Dr. Sinha received her Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine from University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and M.S in Biotechnology from Sri Ramachandra University.
Susan is a change and transformation leader with extensive global expertise leading complex organizational transformation delivering increased agility, capability and efficiency for large multi-national corporations.
As an executive coach, she partners with emerging and seasoned leaders to build and enhance their leadership behaviors and impact.
Ms. Barnicoat’s professional career includes 20+ years in Human Resources, Change Leadership and Business Transformation in the consumer packaged goods, energy and services sectors.
After growing up in Mexico she obtained a BSc. in Psychology from Trinity University and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.
She is the proud mother of two sons, ages 20 and 17, and enjoys long walks with her rescue dog, good wine and interesting company. She believes in community involvement, through giving and serving with the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, participating in local service and international mission trips with her church as well as supporting non-profit organizations.
Susan has over 20 years’ experience in the Healthcare sector with Fortune 10, Fortune 500 and most Start-up companies. Her experience ranges from direct sales through executive management in the pharmaceutical, medical device and insurance-related businesses, including 10 product launches and building the business (from $00) into Multi-$MM revenue. Susan began her career with a decade at Merck, and in record time became the youngest person promoted into sales leadership at the #1 Company on the S&P. During her tenure she was in the 4% of elite managers selected as part of an innovative new product pilot, later implemented across America. She led her hand-picked team to #2 in the US and participated in the launch of many blockbuster products, recognized for Teamwork, and Sales Management, including the #1 Management Team. Her next decade was with ATS Medical with various roles from inception to exit, as the “Fastest Growing Cardiac Surgery Company in the World”.
Upon acquisition by Medtronic she was US Business Development Manager for their Tissue Heart Valve franchise. Susan was a major contributor to ATS’ top line, and designed implant tools to create reproducible results for their novel heart valve prior to leading their US product launch. She led the 1st US implants, and served as the technical expert creating the FDA-mandated surgeon training. Further, she conceived a medical device and partnered with a heart surgeon to develop it, which became part of the Medtronic acquisition. Their idea was published in Annals for Thoracic Surgery, and implanted into patients worldwide. She was tenured in at Medtronic for her two years as Director of Market Development for their Structural Heart Executive Team.
Susan has been a resource to heart surgeons worldwide and hosted forums to train fellows, which became protocol at Columbia University. At ClaimReturn, she was Vice President of Sales & Marketing, launching a novel fiscal solution for fiduciaries into the marketplace for self-funded insurers. Susan joined SpineView in June of 2014 as Chief Commercial Officer responsible for Sales, Marketing and Clinical Affairs. She is implementing the vision to address an unmet need in the spine market with their disruptive technology. She is actively challenging the standard-of-care to provide access for patients and providers, to least invasive surgery: Options Patients Want. Susan earned her BFA at the University of Oklahoma, and was recognized in the Alpha Omega honor society.
Contessa “Tessa” Hoskin is a Business Executive Leader with more than 19 years of experience and leadership responsibilities in Program Management (P&L), Business Development & Capture Management, Operations, Engineering, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Strategy. Hoskin’s career spans industries of Petrochemical, Industrial and Commercial Manufacturing, Telecommunications, Defense & Aerospace, Healthcare, Distributed Control Systems & Automation, and Integration. She has matured her career from individual contributor to Divisional Executive (VP).
Tessa holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from McNeese State University and a Master degree in Business Administration from Southern Methodist University (SMU), Cox School of Business. She is a globally certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Lean Six Sigma Certified Black Belt.
She has earned multiple awards for Mentoring Excellence, Technical Honors, Service, Corporate Performance, Leadership, and more. She has been profiled in numerous publications for companies, engineering, and business, including US Black Engineer and Beta Gamma Sigma. She is currently on the Board of Directors for Southern Methodist Cox School of Business Alumni Board.
Tessa continues to be a motivational speaker and featured panelist for various events and organizations in the areas of diversity, careers, and leadership.
In addition to her motivational speaking, she is also an entrepreneur, a published author, a runner, and has been successful in inspiring others in the areas of health and fitness.
Senior Vice President, Information Technology, Chief Information Officer
Tim Thomasson joined U.S. Renal Care in February of 2010. Mr. Thomasson has 20 years of experience in the healthcare information technology field. Most recently, he served as Chief Information Officer for Medical Edge Healthcare, a multi-disciplinary medical practice management group. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Information Technology at Magella Healthcare, a national group of Neonatal and Maternal Fetal Medicine providers. He has also held senior IT management positions with Pediatrix Medical Group and the Metroplex Emergency Physicians group.
Tim leads market research and strategy for Stella’s Innovation Lab, a small team that invests in and builds healthcare products and services. Stella is the parent company to a diverse set of health companies including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Further, Learn to Live, and Livio Health, which affords a unique opportunity to accelerate the growth of health innovations through these channels. Tim is an active advisor to healthcare start-ups and brings a wealth of knowledge regarding market sizing & segmentation, payer value prop development and commercialization strategies. Prior to working at Stella, Tim worked as a MedTech consultant, advising start-ups and Fortune 500 companies on market opportunities, barriers to adoption, and growth strategies and holds a B.S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering.
Tom White, the founder and CEO of PHYND Technologies, has 20 years of start-up experience. PHYND is a new and innovative healthcare software platform enabling hospitals to better manage provider data within their IT environment (www.phynd.com). Prior to PHYND, Mr. White co-founded and sold two software companies.
Started in 2001, Vocada, Inc was the creator of Critical Test Result Management (CTRM) in the health care market. Mr. White co-founded the business and managed all aspects of business development, marketing, lead generation and sales. Vocada was purchased by the healthcare division of Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN) in November 2007. Mr. White was the general manager of the Vocada business for five years at Nuance post-acquisition until October, 2012.
Started in 1993, Carthage, Inc. was the creator of the first real-time news service launched on the web in partnership with Ziff-Davis. Carthage sold digital real-time news subscriptions to Fortune 500 companies, capturing 185 of the 500. Mr. White co-founded the business and managed business development, marketing, lead generation and sales. Carthage was purchased by WAVO Corporation (NASDAQ: WAVO) in 1997. Mr. White stayed on until 2000.
Tom is an advocate for entrepreneurship. He has spoken to the Nebraska Senate (Phynd’s company headquarters) on improving and extending incentives for start-up companies in Nebraska. He has participated on panels (Passport Nebraska) promoting entrepreneurship to other states and businesses as a guest of the governor of Nebraska.
Tom has an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management (1993). He also holds a BA from Austin College (1989). Tom lives in Dallas with his wife and 3 kids. He is a fan of golf, running, tennis and live music.
Tomoko is a Partner at Kicker Ventures and a board member of Co-Studio. She specializes in cross-cultural communications and partnerships and leads the I/O and Global Fit Programs at Kicker. She mentors global entrepreneurs and is especially skilled at creating impactful connections and providing thoughtful, proactive support.
Before founding Kicker Ventures, Tomoko served as Business Development Advisor to Nipro, a global medical device company. In the past, she worked for Axios International in France, UNICEF in Rwanda, PwC’s PRTM and Aqumen Biopharmaceutical—a biotech startup in Japan. In addition to her role at Kicker Ventures, Tomoko teaches meditation classes in San Francisco and brings thoughtful and practical approaches back to her work. Tomoko is a pharmacist by training and holds an MBA from INSEAD.
Travis is a venture capital partner at Bios Partners and is the co-founder of several biotech and healthcare companies. Travis serves on the board of several companies, and he also is the Senior Analyst at Bios Research, which provides consulting and short-focused healthcare market research to hedge funds. Travis also holds a faculty appointment at the Yale School of Medicine in Pediatrics as an active researcher and serves on the executive board of INSPIRE, which is a large, international pediatric research organization devoted to improving pediatric care. He holds dozens of grants, publications, and patents. Travis received scientific training at several leading academic institutions, including M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Duke University, and Yale University. He has a Masters of Public Health from Yale with an emphasis on molecular epidemiology.
As CEO of Elite Facility Systems, Tricia Holderman creates environments that allow people to work, meet, and live in safe environments. A 43-year veteran of the infection prevention service industry, Tricia’s company has served hospitals, offices, educational and NBA and NFL facilities. Ms. Holderman is internationally recognized as one of the leading authorities in the facility infection prevention and control industry and has provided best practices training and consultation throughout the United States, Europe, Russia, India, and the Middle East.
Tricia holds a Certificate of Mastery in Infection Prevention (CMIP) from the Association for the Health Care Environment (AHE), a Professional Membership Group of the American Hospital Association.
With over four decades of experience, Tricia Holderman has uniquely positioned herself to meet the demands of a germ-conscious society. A nationally recognized speaker and author, she has presented in many webinars and conventions as well as PTA’s and Civic clubs. She has appeared frequently in print media and on numerous television and radio shows.
Tricia wrote GERMINATOR: The Germ Girl’s Guide To Simple Solutions In A Germ Filled World, reaching number 1 Best Seller’s list in five categories on Amazon .
Success magazine awarded Ms. Holderman the Greatest Business Comeback and featured her on its cover; By Age 33, Tricia’s expertise earned her a position developing new, safer, more effective cleaning solutions as a member of Procter and Gamble’s advisory board for commercial products. In 2009 she was awarded the Spirit of Texas Small Business Award by the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce.
In April 2022, Tricia was awarded the International Sanitary and Supply’s Advocate of the Year In Washington, D. C. for her work educating the public and officials during the pandemic.
Tricia is a Crohn’s disease and cancer survivor, withstanding over 65 surgeries (in addition to minor heart attacks): 6 (six) hip replacements and several ileostomy and intestinal surgeries. She has put her health issues to good use by helping her clients understand the patient point of view which is becoming increasingly more important in healthcare settings. She has been involved politically, campaigning for state office and helping elected officials understand small business and healthcare issues.
Ms. Holderman has been self employed since she was 17 years old.
Vinny’s professional interests are centered upon innovations in healthcare and technology. Vinny was trained a biological scientist, earning Masters degrees in Endocrinology and Pharmacology from U.C. Berkeley and Cornell University, respectively. He followed the healthcare industry as sell-side analyst and buy-side investor at Lehman Brothers, ThinkEquity Capital, and Origin Capital Management, among other firms. He became an entrepreneur in 2010 by co-founding and serving as the CEO of Stockr, a social media platform for the stock market. Subsequently, he was the interim CEO of QuikFlo Health (TSX: QF), a healthcare information technology company developing artificial intelligence software for reading CT scans of stroke patients. Having re-located recently to Dallas, he currently serves as a Mentor at Health Wildcatters, an Advisor to Take Command Health, and as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the UT Southwestern Medical Center. Vinny lives in Allen, TX with his wife and two kiddos.
Vishal Ahuja is an Associate Professor of Operations Management at Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business and an Adjunct Faculty of Clinical Sciences at UT Southwestern Medical Center. His research focuses on developing decision analytic tools that can be implemented easily by healthcare professionals and policymakers to improve patient health, advance the quality of care, and enhance the efficiency of delivery of care. For his research, Vishal partners with various organizations such as the Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) where he has a faculty affiliation with the Primary Care High Risk Investigator Network. Vishal also collaborates with Parkland Hospital, Baylor Heart Hospital, Children’s Hospital, and Good Rx. His research has either won or has been a finalist for several awards and honors from both in business and medicine socities, including Pierskalla Award for the Best Paper in Healthcare Management Science, Innovation in Analytics Award, and Sanjay and Panna Mehrotra Research Excellence Award, which recognizes a mid-career research award for significant contributions to the practice of health applications through operations research and management science. Most recently, he won the Dlin/Fischer Clinical Research Award from the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. Vishal’s research has been cited by the FDA in their workshop on “Assessing the Public Health Impact of Prescription Drug Postmarketing Safety Labeling Changes,” in which he invited as an expert panelist. In 2020, Vishal was a finalist for the D Magazine’s outstanding healthcare advocate award. At the Cox School, Vishal teaches MBA courses in operations management and service operations. To bring relevance to his research and teaching, Vishal attempts to draw from his diverse work experience in the corporate sector that spans several years.
Walt Humann is a results oriented Chief Executive with considerable experience and a proven track record for building and growing successful global companies and leading high-performance teams in high tech environments, particularly medical devices. Most recently, Walt served as President and CEO of OsteoMed, LLC, a leading surgical device manufacturer based in Dallas, Texas. He successfully led this fast-growing, highly profitable global enterprise for almost twenty years, focused on small bone orthopedics, craniomaxillofacial, neurosurgical and spine surgical implant devices as well as powered and non-powered specialty surgical instruments and biotechnology product offerings. Walt’s leadership at OsteoMed recently culminated in the successful sale and transition of the company to Berkshire Hathaway.
Prior to joining OsteoMed, Walt led Leibinger, LP, a surgical device manufacturer and grew this company to the market dominant position where he successfully helped the German owner sell the company to Pfizer Inc. and subsequently to Stryker Inc. while managing the company through all ownership transitions in progressive leadership positions including CFO, COO and General Manager. After beginning his career at Bank of America and predecessor banks, Mr. Humann helped start RealPage, Inc. a market leading, real estate property management software and internet development company where he served as CFO and helped facilitate the spin off from its parent company, led all growth activities, completed several acquisitions, and pre-IPO financing activities including a $20MM private equity placement.
Walt has also been active on various profit and not-for-profit boards, including the Medical Device Manufacturing Association in Washington D.C., Skeletal Kinetic LLC in Cupertino, CA, Perot Museum of Science and Nature, Momentous Institute and as a founding director of the Frontiers of Flight Museum. Walt serves as Chairman of the Executive Advisory Committee of the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Engineering, Biomedical Department and participates on the Venture Mentoring Service for North Texas (VMS NTX) associated with UT Southwestern Medical School, UT Dallas and UT Arlington as well as UT Southwestern’s Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) program. Walt is an active member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), Salesmanship Club of Dallas, Dallas Assembly and Highland Park Presbyterian Church.
Wendy Smith brings extensive Healthcare leadership experience in the Commercial/Exchange, Medicare Advantage, Managed Medicaid and Indigent populations. Her background includes working with the nation’s largest health plans- UnitedHealthcare, Bravo Health (now Cigna HealthSpring), Aetna, and PacifiCare. Wendy joined Seton Health Plan as Executive Director in late 2013 with the purpose of taking the enterprise in a new direction toward value based reimbursement, clinically integrated population health management and broadening the product offerings of the insurance division.
Along with her health plan knowledge, Wendy has a passion for healthcare technology and became a Capital Factory investor and partner in January 2014. She advises healthcare technology start-ups in her spare time serving on their advisory board and as a lead mentor.
Wendy’s personal hobbies include cycling, live theatre and traveling.
Mr. Will Bunker is a co-founder at GrowthX. He is also a partner at Silicon Valley Growth Syndicate. Mr. Bunker serves as an advisor at Hackers/Founders. He was the Founder at One-and-Only.com (now known as Match.com). He has launched several consumer Internet projects, including vChatter.com and YoYoBrain.com and is an active coder and prefers to invest in projects that he can also contributes to him personally.
Will Rosellini is the CEO of Perimeter Medical, Inc. He has previously founded Nexeon Medsystems, Inc., a medical device manufacturing company that went public in 2017. He previously founded and led Lexington Technology Group, LLC, a database company commercializing an electronic health record database solution to an exit (“DSS” NYSE). He also founded Sarif Biomedical LLC, a stereotactic cancer microsurgery company with IP spun-out of Medtronic and led the company to an exit with Marathon Patent Group, Inc. (“MARA” NSDQ). He subsequently served on the Marathon board of directors and chaired the Audit committee. Rosellini completed 2 acquisitions to form Telemend Medical, Inc. a clinical engineering services company and led that company to an exit in 2016. Rosellini also founded Microtransponder, an implantable neurostimulation developer with solutions for stroke rehabiliation in 2006, in 2012, Rosellini left his position as CEO at Microtransponder after temporarily losing his voice to thyroid cancer, which likely wouldn’t have happened if the surgeon had access to the Perimeter imaging system. He is a former pitcher with the Arizona Diamondbacks holds a JD, MBA, MS of Accounting, MS of Computational Biology, MS of Neuroscience and MS of Regulatory Science
Sproull is President and CEO of the Richardson Chamber of Commerce (RCC), its North Texas membership affiliate called Tech Titans, and the Richardson Economic Development Partnership (REDP). This unique and complex set of organizations he runs has two separate Board of Directors and a City who he supports.
For each organization he leads, Sproull has achieved transformative successs. He has led the Richardson’s revitalization strategy of the Telecom Corridor® area with a focus on industry diversification and creation of the Richardson Innovation Quarter (aka,”The IQ”). He built Tech Titans into the technology industry membership association for the North Texas technology community. And, he has led the Richardson Chamber’s successful effort to achieve top-level 5 Star accreditation from the rigorous US Chamber Accreditation Program 3 times in the last ten years, an achievement that only 1% of all 7,000+ Chambers in the US earn.
Sproull has also been a leader in state and national economic development, public policy and technology innovation. He served for 6 years on the board of the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, a half-billion public investment fund, which he Chaired during 2010-2011. He was elected Chairman of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), the world’s largest association for professional economic developers, in 2014, and served on its board for 10 years. He was appointed by Governor Abbott in 2020 as Chair of the Texas Governor’s Broadband Development Council. He also Chairs the Texas Research Alliance, a program of the Alliance for Higher Education.
He previously held senior economic development positions at the Dallas Regional Chamber, the McKinney Economic Development Corporation, and at the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City, Missouri.
Sproull is a graduate of Baylor University, where he received a BA degree with a double major in Economics and Political Science.
He serves or has served on the boards of the Texas Association of Business, the Technology Councils of North America, the North Texas Commission, and the Dallas Regional Chamber.
IEDC has conferred upon him the distinction of being a Fellow Member of the Council and an Honorary Life Member. Tech Titans inducted Sproull into Hall of Fame in 2010. In January 2022, he was named Innovation Advocate of the Year by D CEO Magazine and Dallas Innovates.
William D. Paiva, PhD, is manager of the Oklahoma Life Science Fund which makes investments in medical diagnostic and device, technology enabled health care service, and therapeutic companies. In addition, Dr. Paiva is Executive Director of Oklahoma State University’s Center for Health Systems Innovation (CHSI). The Center is focused on transforming rural and Native America health through the implementation of innovative care delivery and IT solutions. Within CHSI, the Institute for Care Delivery focuses on developing new and innovative care delivery and business models for rural and Native American markets and the Institute for Predictive Medicine is applying advanced analytics to the largest health care database which includes clinical information for over 63 million patients covering 16 years.
Prior to his current positions, William was a partner with Sevin Rosen Funds where he specialized in identifying early-stage venture opportunities at the intersection of traditional technology sectors and healthcare. He was also a partner at Chisholm Private Capital Partners, where he managed a $100 million fund focused on healthcare and IT. In addition, William served as a management consultant for the Life Sciences Industry Group at Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath, later acquired by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he consulted with the top five pharmaceutical companies on product-development and technology-management projects. He also served as an investment banking associate at JP Morgan in New York, providing strategic and investment banking advisory services to Fortune 100 healthcare companies.
William holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Oklahoma; an MBA from Dartmouth College’s Amos Tuck School of Business; an MS in microbiology and immunology from the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center; and a BS in microbiology from the University of Oklahoma.
Dr. Gandy started his career in the field of emergency medicine and soon became the department chairman of Emergency Medicine Baylor Medical Center at Irving in 1986 and continued to serve until 1998. In 1996, Dr. Gandy co-founded T-System which is a software solution to help optimize emergency room coding which was successfully sold to Francisco Partners in 2010. Dr. Gandy still is a large shareholder in T-System and spends much of his time managing a portfolio of companies, investing and providing guidance as a board member for many portfolio companies.
A client-centered innovation and entrepreneurship expert.
20 years’ experience in managing user research and marketing strategy in global B2C firms,
Distinguished MBA Professor, specializing in entrepreneurship and innovation at the Collage School of Management, Tel Aviv University.
Work closely with TAU VENTURES start-ups and company managers in the areas of marketing, user segment identification and G2M.
I am the Innovation Ecosystem Principal for VSP Global, where it is my responsibility to create an ecosystem of innovation to ultimately improve the health of our 90 million+ Members. Previously, I led US Healthcare Business Development for Plug and Play Health, a healthcare venture capital fund and partnered with over 30 healthcare companies for healthtech strategy implementation. I graduated from The University of Cambridge, University of Arizona, and University of Pennsylvania.
I’m passionate about improving the lives of millions and believe progressing healthcare technology is the way to make that happen. The easiest way to interest me is solutions on mental health issues
Zubair has 25+ years of Leadership experience in the Healthcare Industry as well as serves as Advisory Board to startups in HealthTech. His career span working for the American Heart Association to one of the largest Health Insurance companies HCSC which manages five Blue Cross Blue Shield Health Plan across the country and serving 16 million members. Performed various leadership roles focused on enterprise transformative projects ranging from digital transformation to customer service/engagement platforms and processes. Overall provided strategic and tactical leadership while focusing on bringing innovative technology and products to market and helped the organizations to significantly scale operational capabilities. Played a key role in M&A activities and establishing the health exchanges business. I am very passionate about developing and mentoring high performing teams to deliver results. He resides in the Dallas area and serves on various local and international non-profit organizations and mentor area health and technology entrepreneurs.
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