Staff

James Cavuoto, editor and publisher

James Cavuoto is editor and publisher of Neurotech Business Report and the founder of Neurotech Reports. He is the lead author of "The Market for Neurotechnology," and "The Market for Bioelectronic Medicine," two market research reports published by Neurotech Reports. Cavuoto was the founder of Micro Publishing Press, Inc., a publishing company that helped pioneer the market for electronic publishing, digital imaging, and computer graphics. He earned a B.S. degree in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University, where he studied under pioneers in the field of functional electrical stimulation. He also pursued graduate studies in human factors engineering at University of Southern California. Cavuoto spent three years as a member of the technical staff at Hughes Aircraft Company in Los Angeles, where he worked on simulation, training, and publication products produced for the U.S. Department of Defense. Cavuoto was an adjunct professor at Rochester Institute of Technology and the author of eight books on computer graphics, electronic publishing, and digital imaging. He is a member of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. He has authored a chapter in the textbook Neuromodulation (Elsevier, 2009), as well as articles in Neuromodulation, Journal of Neural Engineering, Medical Device Daily, IEEE Spectrum, MX magazine, and the International Journal of Medical Marketing. He is coauthor, with Jennifer French, of Bionic Pioneers: Brave Neurotech Users Blaze the Trail to New Therapies (Neurotech Press, 2014). Cavuoto is the co-inventor, with Tony Gaitatzis, of U.S. patent 9545225B2, relating to device-independent sharing of EEG data.

Sharena Rice, Ph.D., contributing editor

Sharena Rice is a research scientist at a medical technology startup in neurotech that is operating in stealth mode. She earned her Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Michigan, where she was part of the team that discovered and characterized a new brain wave called “splines.” For three years, Sharena facilitated ethics discussions for incoming biomedical science trainees at the University of Michigan. For two years, Sharena served as co-founder and chief scientific officer of Intvo when the company was using computer vision to predict pedestrian behavior as a road safety solution. Sharena has a longtime fascination with the nervous system and the mind. She wrote a 45-page documentary on human behavior out of curiosity during eighth grade. She serves as scientific advisor for Valence Vibrations, Nerd (Advising Consultant) of Nobody Studios, and is on the advisory board of South by Southwest.

Adonis Gaitatzis, technology director

BrainsConnected.com’s director of technology Tony Gaitatzis is widely recognized as an expert in consumer neurotech. He was previously a cofounder of Personal Neuro Devices, a brain imaging and consumer neurotech company. He also founded an agency called BackupBrain that worked with professionals in industry and government. And he organized the ExG Consortium as an effort to produce standards in the EEG headset industry. He is the author of numerous articles for technology websites and the book Glass Programming in PHP. Tony studied software engineering, math, and psychology at the University of Ottawa. Tony is the inventor or co-inventor, of several patents relating to neurotechnology.

David Groves, business director

David Groves has a broad range of industry experiences. These include founding and selling a distribution company, working as a consultant in a turnaround capacity for several firms, and co-founding a medical foundation in Nepal. David worked as an independent representative of Biotronik, GmbH in the Cardiac Rhythm Management division for 10 years. He served as CEO and COO of SynTouch from 2015 through 2019, providing strategic and business expertise to company founders. He has an MBA from the University of Southern California along with undergraduate studies in Finance.

Advisors

Mike Edelhart, Managing Partner, Joyance Partners

Mike has been active in technology journalism, product testing, startups, and venture capital for four decades. In the 1980s, Mike helped found PC Magazine, PC Week, and other Ziff-Davis computer magazines, oversaw the Ziff product testing labs, and later was Ziff's Executive Vice President. At SoftBank, he directed content for the Seybold, Interop, and Comdex conferences and supported early investment activities. Mike has been CEO at many startups, including Olive Software, Inman News, and Zinio. In the early 2000s, Mike was a partner at Redleaf, a corporately-backed multi-stage VC fund. Mike has consulted for Bloomberg, Reuters, and AARP, authored more than 20 books, and currently hosts Inception, a podcast about how startups are created, funded, and ultimately, win. He is located in San Francisco.

Amy Kruse, Ph.D., Chief Investment Officer, Satori Capital

Dr. Amy Kruse is the chief investment officer of Satori Neuro, a stage-agnostic fund focused on mental health, neurotechnology, and human flourishing. Amy leverages her decades of experience as a neuroscientist, her prior roles as an operator and a government program manager, and her network of key relationships to discover transformational companies addressing the largest mental health, brain health, and wellness challenges and opportunities. She also draws on her expertise to support Satori Neuro’s portfolio companies as they evaluate and overcome scientific and implementation challenges, with a specific emphasis on deploying complex technology into real-world environments. Prior to leading Satori Neuro, Amy was a General Partner at Prime Movers Lab, where she led the fund’s life sciences investments in human augmentation and longevity. She serves on the boards of six Prime Movers Lab portfolio companies: Cognixion, Paradromics, Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, Attune Neurosciences, Morphoceuticals, and Dimension Inx. She serves on the board of Satori Neuro portfolio company TARA Mind and is a Board Observer to Satori Neuro portfolio companies Apollo Neuro and Feel Therapeutics. She previously served as the Chief Scientific Officer of Optios, an applied neuroscience research organization that translates cutting-edge neuroscience discoveries into practical tools to enhance the human experience. At Optios, Amy built the company’s scientific vision, initiated high-value projects, and completed acquisitions that resulted in a robust intellectual property portfolio for an early-stage company. Prior to joining Optios, Amy served as the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Cubic Global Defense, where she oversaw the company’s research and development (R&D) programs. Her efforts at Cubic dramatically accelerated and enhanced the company’s R&D capabilities, which in turn yielded an expanded product portfolio and increased sales. Amy joined Cubic through the acquisition of Intific, a small business focused on novel game-based solutions for the DoD and Intelligence Community. Early in her career, Amy served as a government civilian program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where she created and oversaw the Agency’s first performance-oriented neuroscience programs. Her efforts at DARPA generated scientific breakthroughs in areas that include augmented cognition, accelerated learning, optimized imagery analysis, team neurodynamics, and neuromodulation. This work was the result of multiple programs that measurably enhanced both individual and team performance in the U.S. military and Intelligence community. Amy is member of the External Oversight Committee for the NIH Blueprint MedTech program, an advisor to the BrainMind ecosystem, an advisor to the Capital Factory in Texas, and a mentor to the OneMind Accelerator. She is a frequent contributor to defense panels and advisory boards for organizations including DARPA, the National Academies, and the Defense Science Board. She is also the author of numerous scientific papers, chapters, and articles. Amy earned a Bachelor of Science in Cell and Structural Biology and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. Amy lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with her husband and is an avid gardener, kayaker, and traveler.

Amy Baxter, M.D., CEO, Harmonic Pain Solutions

Dr. Baxter pioneered the field of noninvasive neuromodulation using mechanical stimulation for pain relief. Her new company, Harmonic Pain Solutions, is a spin-out of Pain Care Labs, whose devices block pain in 28 countries for over 114 million procedures. After Yale, Emory Medical School, and two fellowships, Dr. Baxter founded Pain Care Labs while practicing emergency pediatrics and creating a research division. When her devices replaced opioid use for a TKA, with two additional Fast-Track SBIRs for low back pain opioid reduction she founded HPS. Accomplishments include pain and sedation textbook chapters, over 25 first-author papers, 12 issued patents, and successful 510(k) FDA clearances for postsurgical and procedural pain. Her academic service spans a decade of NIH Scientific Review Groups for multiple institutes, and the ACEP COVID-19 Field Guide Task Force. Recognition includes Forbes Ten Healthcare Disruptors, Inc. Top Women in Tech to Watch, a Wall Street Journal “Idea Person,” and the Most Innovative CEO from Georgia Bio. Speaking highlights include HHS testimony, Exponential Medicine “Future of Pain Management," TEDMED, and a recently released TED talk on pain neuroscience close to reaching one million views.