CORVIA MEDICAL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Operations
Ben brings over 15 years of medical device manufacturing experience, with a focus on cardiovascular devices. At Corvia Medical, Ben has been responsible for leading strategies to grow the Manufacturing and Operations team.
Professor David Celermajer is the Scandrett Professor of Cardiology and Head of the Discipline of Cardiology at The University of Sydney. David is also an Academic Cardiologist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he is Director of Adult Congenital Heart Services and Director of Echocardiography. He is also a Staff Cardiologist at the Children's Hospital in Westmead. In addition to these roles, David is also the Clinical Director of the Heart Research Institutes and serves on the Board of Directors of Heart Kids Australia. He is currently the Chairman of the Congenital Heart Alliance of Australia and New Zealand. He has been a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science since 2006 and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science since 2018. In 2014, He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).
Professor Celermajer sits on the Editorial Boards of many of the world's leading Cardiology Journals, including the European Heart Journal, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Heart. He has published over 400 papers, with career citations of over 60 000 and an H-index of over 100. In recognition of this, he was awarded the inaugural Charles Blackburn Medal from the University of Sydney, for outstanding Clinical Research. With established research teams at the Heart Research Institute and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, he applies basic and clinical science to investigate his main research interests; Atherosclerosis, Congenital Heart Disease and Pulmonary vascular disease.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Investor
- CEO and Co - Founder of Almeda Ventures
- Partner, Accelmed
Dr. Irit Yaniv is an experienced HealthTech investor and executive. She plays an important role in leading Accelmed Ventures' portfolio companies, serving either as Chairperson or as an active board member. She is a co-founder of Digma Medical and NitiNotes.
In addition to Managing Accelmed's Venture fund, Dr. Yaniv is the CEO and Co-Founder of Almeda Ventures. Dr. Yaniv holds an MD degree from the Ben-Gurion University and an MBA from the Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.
Ed brings more than 25 years of experience in medical device development with a focus on emerging technologies in the cardiovascular space. His experience includes early prototype development through commercialization, including clinical strategy, regulatory approvals, and patent portfolio development.
Ed came to Corvia Medical from Mitralign, a percutaneous mitral valve repair company where he was Vice President of Engineering. Prior to Mitralign, Ed was the Director of Biomedical Engineering for Lightlab Imaging and was instrumental in its successful sale to Goodman. Ed also held several engineering management positions at two divisions of C.R. Bard, Inc., Bard Interventional Products and the USCI (Cardiology) division. Previously, Ed founded Custom Medical Design Concepts, an OEM research, development and design house. Ed holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts/Lowell.
George has been Chief Executive Officer and President at Corvia Medical since 2010. Prior to Corvia Medical, George held numerous leadership positions at St. Jude Medical from October 1992 through December 2009.
His roles at St. Jude Medical included: President of the U.S. Division, President of the Cardiovascular Division, President of the Cardiac Surgery Division, and President of Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) residing in Belgium. George also served as President of Health Care Services where he built the National Accounts function for managing cross-divisional contracting and General Manager of Canadian Operations where he brought St. Jude Medical's operations direct from a distributor-based distribution model while residing in Toronto, Canada. Prior to St. Jude Medical, George held several positions of increasing responsibility at the Davis & Geck Division of American Home Products from 1984 to 1992 including Marketing-Product Manager, Regional Sales Manager, Sales Training Manager and Sales Representative. George is currently serving on the Board of Directors for BioVentrix Inc. He holds a B.S. from the State University of New York at Albany and an MBA from the Fordham University Graduate School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, Lumira Ventures
With over 28 years of investment, consulting and entrepreneurial experience in the health care industry, Gerry has helped build life sciences companies at all stages of development. He focuses on investments in a range of therapeutic areas in the biotechnology and medical device sectors, including infectious diseases, neurology, cardiovascular disease, gene therapy and medical robotics. Gerry manages Lumira Ventures' Boston office, which he established when he joined the firm in 2002.
Prior to joining Lumira Ventures, Gerry was an entrepreneur in the life sciences sector, founding and serving in a variety of management and board capacities at several venture capital-funded companies. Earlier in his career he was an engagement manager in the health care practice of The Boston Consulting Group, where he advised pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms on strategic issues including portfolio management, corporate partnering, R&D productivity, new product launches, disease management initiatives, acquisitions and post-merger integration. Gerry began his career as a member of the investment banking group of Credit Suisse First Boston in New York where his clients included public and private health care companies.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, General Catalyst
I am an investor, founder, and author. I am also the managing partner of General Catalyst.
I am an early investor in market-leading companies like Stripe, Livongo (acquired by Teladoc in an $18.5B merger, the largest in digital health history to-date), Samsara (NYSE: IOT), Snap (NYSE: SNAP), Fundbox, Grammarly, Gusto, Applied Intuition, and Anduril.
I am an advocate for Responsible Innovation, aligning innovation with the long-term interests of society by engineering for growth and good with greater intention, fewer unintended consequences, and increased inclusivity. In my 2022 book Intended Consequences: How to Build Market-Leading Companies with Responsible Innovation, I lay out an actionable framework for founders and executives on how to create innovative companies built for growth and for societal good that withstand the test of time. As part of this, I am also co-founder and chairman of Responsible Innovation Labs, a non-profit consortium of leaders aiming to create standards of innovation to serve the needs of a global society, and to help build enduring companies that re-center technology as a force for good.
Job Titles:
- Chief Medical Officer
- Senior Vice President
Jan brings more than 25 years of medical device experience to Corvia Medical. Prior to joining Corvia Medical, Jan was Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Guided Delivery Systems, responsible for Clinical, Regulatory, and Quality Assurance.
Prior to Guided Delivery Systems, Jan was Director of Valve Therapy for Abbott Vascular's structural heart business unit. His career includes executive positions at Evalve, where he was VP of Marketing and Business Development, and subsequently Valve Therapy. In this role, Jan was responsible for technology and procedure development, IDE study enrollment, training and reimbursement, and initial commercial launch. Jan is a veterinary surgeon by training with over 10 years of academic and practice experience. He holds a DVM degree from The University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs
Kate brings to Corvia Medical more than 15 years of experience successfully developing and executing regulatory, clinical and quality control strategies for new interventional cardiology devices. Most recently Kate co-founded and held the position of Vice President Regulatory and Clinical Affairs for MitraSpan, a minimally invasive mitral valve repair technology.
Prior to MitraSpan, Kate was the COO for Thermedical, developing a ventricular tachycardia treatment, and VP Clinical and Regulatory Affairs for Viacor, treating mitral regurgitation percutaneously. Previously Kate held factory and global management positions with Hewlett-Packard Company Medical Products and Agilent Technologies with functional responsibilities in manufacturing, product development, and engineering, and a clinical focus on cardiac ultrasound imaging. Kate holds a BS Materials Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and MBA from Harvard Business School.
Job Titles:
- COO / Partner, Third Rock Ventures
With over 25 years of financial leadership and management experience, Kevin leads Third Rock's non-investment activities, which include running internal operations and overseeing the firm's finance, legal, communications and administrative functions. He also leads fundraising activities and manages the firm's limited partner relationships.
Kevin appreciates that TRV has been able to stay true to our founders' focus, transforming the lives of patients, while continuing to welcome team members with new energy and diverse ideas as we evolve as a firm. He is particularly excited about initiatives at the firm surrounding preventive medicine, which he believes have the opportunity to revolutionize the treatment paradigm for cancer and other serious diseases. The progress our portfolio companies have made excites Kevin, and seeing their work over the past decade now come to fruition in the form of approved products drives him to continue building expert teams with a passion for making a difference.
Kevin is incredibly proud of his wife and two children, and feels grateful to be part of a wonderful extended family.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Marketing
Lisa brings over 15 years of medical device marketing and strategy experience, including expertise in scale up of novel therapies and emerging technologies in the cardiovascular space. She joins Corvia Medical from Medtronic as a result of the successful acquisition of HeartWare, where she most recently served as Senior Director, Portfolio Strategy & Business Development for Mechanical Circulatory Support.
Prior to HeartWare's acquisition, Lisa served as Senior Marketing Director where she led both strategic and product marketing activities, including definition of overall marketing and portfolio strategy, development and commercialization of new technologies, and creation of global initiatives to expand and grow the mechanical circulatory support market. Previously, Lisa held marketing and market development positions at Boston Scientific Corporation within the Peripheral Vascular Division. Lisa received a BS in Biology from the University of Richmond, holds an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Job Titles:
- Chairman,
Partner, SV Health Investors
Paul brings over 35 years of global medical technology management experience to SV. He joined SV in 2009 as a Venture Partner and in 2011 was made a Partner. Paul was promoted to Managing Partner & COO in 2014 and heads our medical device investments.
Prior to SV, Paul built and ran medical device businesses for 29 years before joining SV Health Investors. Most recently he was Chief Operating Officer at Boston Scientific (BSC), an $8 billion medical device leader. During his 15 years at BSC, Paul served as Chief Operating Officer; Group President, Cardiovascular; President, Cardiology; Group President, Endosurgery; and President, International. During his tenure, the company grew revenue over 20 times. Paul integrated two dozen acquisitions and led extensive product development, manufacturing and worldwide commercial organizations. Previously, Paul held marketing and general management positions at CR Bard and various marketing roles at Kendall (Medtronic).
Outside of SV, Paul serves on the board of Edwards Lifesciences Corporation and the Medical Device Manufacturers Association, and is Chairman of the Innovation Growth Board at the Mass General Brigham health system. In addition, Paul serves on the board of Vibrato Medical, Inc. as a Director. He also served on the board of Advamed for 10 years and is a routine speaker at industry meetings.