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| Keynote
Speaker |
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Jennifer
French, executive director, STIM Society
Jennifer French is executive director of
the Society to Increase Mobility (STIM), a nonprofit organization
founded in Florida in 2003. Jennifer acquired her C6-7 incomplete
spinal cord injury in 1998. Prior to her injury, she was recreationally
active with such sports as canoeing, snowboarding/skiing, sailing,
fly fishing, biking. After her injury, she still participates in all
those activities. She is an active user of an FES system. Now residing
in Tampa, Florida, Jen is active in the community accessible sailing
program, Sailing Alternatives as well as the national US Sailing,
Sailors with Special Needs. French has helped launch successful divisions
is such organizations as Bombardier Capital and PC Connection, Inc.
With an MBA specializing in marketing & strategy, she works with
for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, large and small, emerge
into new markets, profile target customers and create and build systems
to support sales efforts. She is currently freelancing her talents
through TJF Consulting, Inc. |
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| Neurotech
Reports Editors |
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James Cavuoto, editor
and publisher
James Cavuoto is editor and publisher of Neurotech Business Report
and the founder of Neurotech Reports. He was the lead author of "The
Market for Neurotechnology," a market research report 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
holds a degree in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve
University, where he studied under pioneers in the new field of functional
electrical stimulation. He has also studied human factors engineering
at University of Southern California in Los Angeles. 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 is an adjunct professor of publishing 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.
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Warren Grill, Ph.D.,
senior technology editor
Warren M. Grill is one of the nation's leading experts in neural stimulation
and neural prostheses. Dr. Grill is Associate Professor of Biomedical
Engineering at Case Western Reserve University and a Principal Investigator
at the Cleveland FES Center. He is a founding member of the International
Functional Electrical Stimulation Society and serves on the editorial
board of Neuromodulation and as Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions
on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. He has authored
35 peer-reviewed publications and is holder of five patents.
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Glenn Cornett, M.D.,
Ph.D., senior financial editor
Glenn Cornett is an experienced neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and
financial consultant, with a background in research and business development.
After earning his Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA and his M.D. from
University of Michigan Medical School, Glenn spent several years as
a technology and healthcare consultant with McKinsey & Company.
He has also held marketing and business development positions at Lilly
& Company and Razorfish. He currently runs his own consulting
firm, Metastrat, in Palo Alto, CA, providing strategic advisory services
to biotechnology and medical device firms.
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| Panelists |
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Konstantinos Alataris,
PhD, Bay City Capital
Konstantinos Alataris is an Associate at Bay City Capital in San Francisco,
focusing on investment and strategic advisory services. Dr. Alataris
was previously a Business Development Manager with Compass, Guidant's
Corporate Venturing Group, where he analyzed and structured medical
device/healthcare investments and evaluated acquisition targets. He
was also a Research Fellow at the House Ear Institute, a research
center and clinic in Los Angeles. Dr. Alataris holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical
Engineering, an MBA, and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the
University of Southern California. He received a BS in Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science from the National Technical University
of Athens, Greece. |
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Roger Quy, Ph.D., Technology
Partners
Roger Quy is partner with Technology Partners. He joined Technology
Partners in 1989, where he has been responsible for building the life
science practice of the firm. Previously, he led an artificial intelligence
research group at Hewlett Packard Laboratories. Prior to that, he
managed the development of medical devices at Oxford Instruments Group
in England. He is a Director of several private companies including
InnerCool Therapies, Rinat Neuroscience, and Spinal Dynamics. Roger
began his career as a post-doctoral Research Fellow of the Medical
Research Council at the Institute of Neurology in London, where he
developed new techniques and devices for the diagnosis and treatment
of neurological, cardiac and sleep disorders. He has published a number
of scientific papers and contributed to a textbook on epilepsy. He
has four patents issued and one pending. Roger earned a BA with honors
in psychology and law and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University
of Keele, England. He received an MBA from the Haas School of Business
at the University of California, Berkeley.
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Heath Lukatch, Ph.D.,
Piper Jaffray Ventures
Heath Lukatch is managing director with Piper Jaffray Ventures, a
venture capital firm in San Francisco. Heath focuses on emerging companies
in the biotechnology and medical technologies sectors. Prior to joining
Piper Jaffray Ventures in January 2001, Heath was an Engagement Manager
in McKinsey & Company's San Francisco Office where he focused
on the biotechnology and genomics industries. Prior to McKinsey, he
was co-founder and CEO of AutoMate Scientific, a biotechnology instrumention
company, and he held scientific positions with Chiron Corporation
and Roche Bioscience. Heath received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from
Stanford University and his B.A. in Biochemistry from the University
of California at Berkeley. |
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Daniel O'Connell, NeuroVentures
Fund
Daniel O'Connell is a Director of NeuroVentures Fund LP, a venture
capital firm specializing in the neuroscience field. Mr. O’Connell
originally worked with founding members of NeuroVentures to launch
the Fund while he was attending business school. In 2000, he joined
as a Director. In addition to his experience at NeuroVentures, Mr.
O’Connell’s involvement with venture-stage medical technology
companies includes co-founding MedSpecialists, Inc., a clinical ASP
for medical specialists, and Surgical Solutions, LLC, a company dedicated
to commercializing innovative neurosurgical products from leading
research universities. Prior to business school, Mr. O’Connell
spent four years in investment banking with Advest, Inc. He holds
a B.A. from Brown University and M.B.A. from the University of Virginia.
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Gerald Loeb, M.D., Ph.D.,
AMI/University of Southern California
Gerald Loeb is professor of biomedical engineering at the University
of Southern California and director of the medical device development
facility at the Alfred Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at
USC. Dr. Loeb received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University, and
trained in surgery at the University of Arizona. He spent 15 years
in the Laboratory of Neural Control at the National Institutes of
Health and 12 years at Queen's University where he was professor of
physiology and director of the Bio-Medical Engineering Unit. He was
one of the developers of the cochlear implant now used to restore
functional hearing to the deaf and continues to pursue improvements
in this mature technology. He serves as Chief Scientist (consulting)
for Advanced Bionics Corp. of Sylmar, California. Dr. Loeb has published
over 150 journal articles, a book on electromyography, and holds 18
patents.
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Yitzhak Zilberman, Ph.D.,
Alfred Mann Foundation
Yitzhak Zilberman is vice president, business development with the
Alfred Mann Foundation (AMF) in Valencia, CA. He has conceived and
leads BionTech(tm), a collaborative R&D program aimed at developing
clinical applications based on the BION(r) microstimulator. Prior
to joining AMF, Yitzhak held various managerial positions at MiniMed,
Advanced Bionics Corp. and its European subsidiary, Advanced Bionics
SARL. Yitzhak also has been consulting for various Alfred Mann companies
including Quallion, Medical Research Products and Second Sight. He
holds degrees in Computer Science and Archeology and is a graduate
of the UCLA Anderson School Executive Program. Yitzhak served 14 years
as an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces Intelligence Corps, during
which he won the Israel Defense Award, Israel's most prestigious recognition
for research and development. |
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Chris Berka, CEO, Advanced
Brain Monitoring, Inc.
Chris Berka has over 22 years experience managing clinical research
and developing and commercializing new technologies. She is Chief
Executive Officer and co-founder of Advanced Brain Monitoring, Inc.,
(ABM) a Carlsbad, CA company that develops data acquisition technologies
that enable the creation of low cost, easy-to-use, portable systems
that monitor and interpret physiological signals, including the brain's
electrical activity (EEG). She is co-inventor of three patented and
two patent-pending technologies and is the principal investigator
or co-investigator for grants awarded by the National Institutes of
Health and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that provide
more than $6 million of research funds to ABM. Ms. Berka has 10 years
experience as a research scientist with publications on the analysis
of EEG in patients with sleep and neurological disorders. She received
her B.A. with distinction in Psychology/Biology at Ohio State University
and completed graduate studies in Neuroscience at the University of
California, San Diego. |
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Alan Gevins, Ph.D., SAM Technology
Alan Gevins first began working on measuring cognitive brain function
as an undergraduate at MIT. He says it was a harder problem than
he first thought. He is the founder (in 1981) and Executive Director
of the San Francisco Brain Research Institute and the founder (in
1986) and President of SAM Technology, both in San Francisco. Prior
to that, he was the Director of the EEG Systems Laboratory at UCSF.
Dr. Gevins is internationally known for developing algorithms and
systems for analyzing human brain function, and for basic science
studies of cognitive brain function. He is the author of over 150
scientific papers and of 16 U.S. patents. His research is currently
supported by seven NIH institutes, the Office of Naval Research,
and DARPA.
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Robert Pickar, TechMarket
Research
Robert Pickar is a consultant specializing in technical marketing
and product management for medical technology firms. He has performed
contract work for the Alfred Mann Institute at University of Southern
California, Eradlink, General Elctric Medical Systens, and Ecliptic
Enterprises, Inc. He received an M.Sci. from Columbia University &
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, in New York, NY, an M.S. from
Columbia University, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, in
Optics & Lasers, and a B.S. in Physics from the University of
California, San Diego. |
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Philip Kennedy, M.D., Ph.D., Neural
Signals Inc.
Philip Kennedy is the president and founder of Neural Signals, Inc.,
and a pioneer in the field of brain computer interfaces. He also
holds an appointment in the department of neurology at Emory University
medical school in Atlanta, GA. Dr. Kennedy received the Discover
Award for technical innovation in assistive technologies in June
1999 and the World Technology Award for health and medicine in 2000
for inventing the neurotrophic electrode. He received his medical
degree from the National University of Ireland.
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| Luncheon
Speaker |
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Paul Beach, Quallion,
LLC
Paul Beach is the Director of Business Development and General Counsel
of Quallion LLC, a Los Angeles based company developing custom-made
lithium ion rechargeable batteries. Mr. Beach leads Quallion's efforts
to penetrate new markets and expand opportunities in its existing
space. Mr. Beach has over seven years of experience working with varied
technologies, including hybrid disk drives, Internet based business
applications, and bioinformatics. Prior to coming to Quallion, Mr.
Beach served as General Counsel and Vice-President of Business Development
for Infoloan, Inc., a Silicon Valley based online mortgage broker
with an emphasis in the Chinese market. Mr. Beach assisted in launching
Infoloan in Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as expanding operations domestically.
Before joining Infoloan, Mr. Beach served as an attorney with Taylor
& Co. Law Offices in San Francisco, CA. Clients included PeopleSoft
Software and TeraStor Corporation.
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| Entrepreneur
Panel |
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Alan Olsen, CEO, Robomedica,
Inc.
Alan Olsen has been an independent business consultant for the past
eight years and serves on the board of several public, private and
charitable organizations. Mr. Olsen has over 28 years of medical device
sales and marketing experience at Smith & Nephew Richards, Danek
Medical, and Sofamor Danek Group. He was founder and President of
Danek Medical, a pioneer in the spinal fixation device market, which
later became part of Sofamore Danek Group. He served as a Director
of Sofamor Danek Group from 1985 to 1993. |
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Timothy Surgenor, President
and CEO, Cyberkinetics, Inc.
Timothy Surgenor joined Cyberkinetics, Inc. as President and
CEO in January 2003, after serving as Executive Vice President of
Haemonetics Corp., a company commercializing automated blood processing
systems, where he was responsible for global marketing, business development,
regulatory, affairs and quality assurance. While at Haemonetics, Surgenor
significantly strengthened the company’s product portfolio and
grew revenues by focusing internal development programs and by completing
several technology acquisitions. Prior to Haemonetics, Surgenor was
a Division President and Senior Executive of Genzyme Corp. At Genzyme,
Surgenor led the development of several key cell therapy programs,
which are now incorporated in the Genzyme BioSurgery division. Mr.
Surgenor has an MBA from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree
from Williams College.
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Jason Harry, Ph.D.,
CEO, Afferent Corp.
Jason Harry has worked in biomedical engineering and medical device
entrepreneurial environments for over 20 years. Prior to founding
and capitalizing Afferent in 2000, he was VP of Research Engineering
at NMT Medical, Boston, MA, a company specializing in minimally invasive
cardiovascular implants. Having joined NMT in 1994 as its fifth employee,
he built the infrastructure and team responsible for new product development.
He led due diligence efforts on product and company acquisitions,
and managed technology transfer with corporate partners. He received
his doctorate from Harvard University in 1988 and was on the faculty
of Brown University for five years, where his research focus was functional
neural stimulation and muscle mechanics. |
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Scott Corbett, President
and CEO, Advanced Cochlear Systems
Scott Corbett is president, CEO, and co-founder of Advanced Cochlear
Systems. He has been active in the biomedical field for over 20 years
as an entrepreneur and technologist. He is the former president of
PI Medical (now MicroHelix), former vice president of R&D for
Precision Interconnect (now a Tyco International Ltd. Healthcare Group)
and a former Advanced Development Engineer with GE Medical Systems,
Ultrasound Division. He is also a co-founder of MicroConnex, Inc.
Mr. Corbett's expertise includes high-density micro-fabricated electrodes,
acoustics, signal processing and biomedical packaging. Mr. Corbett
has an undergraduate degree in Physics from Occidental College and
a Master's degree in Acoustics from Penn State University. |
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Lee Cuthbert, President,
Intelli-Scents
Lee Cuthbert is the president and chief innovation officer of Intelli-Scents,
a scent technology firm in San Francisco, CA. In addition to commercializing
a new invention in the fragrance and scent sampling field, he has
also served as vice president of business development for CPI Labs,
which creates and produces scented personal care and household products
for specialty retailers. Previously, he was vice president of business
development at ScentAir Technologies, which markets an environmental
scent device for use in a wide variety of retail applications. Lee
also ran business development for Emerging Technologies at DigiScents,
Inc, a digital scent technology company in the Bay Area. Lee co-founded
Coinstar, a publicly traded company that owns and operates a network
of interactive self-service kiosks located in major supermarkets that
convert consumer's coins into cash. He received a BA from Colgate
University and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business
Administration.
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Jamal Fakhoury, DC,
Director of Regulatory Affairs,
Cyclotec Medical Industries, Inc.
Jamal Fakhoury is a board-certified chiropractic orthopedist with
a Masters Certification from the San Diego Spinal Research Institute.
He has practiced in the State of Florida for the past 20 years. Dr.
Fakhoury is director of two Florida clinical treatment centers with
six resident physicians in Ocala and Crystal River. His primary clinical
practice consists of traumatic injuries, many of which require Cyclotec's
CT1 TENS applications. Dr Fakhoury serves as the First Vice President
on the American College of Chiropractic Orthopedics, and is very involved
in dedicating time to charitable organizations within his community.
Dr Fakhoury serves both as vice president of Cyclotec's Board of Directors
and Chairman of Cyclotec's Advisory Board. |
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Stephen Michleson, CEO,
Cyclotec Medical Industries, Inc.
Stephen Michelson is the CEO and founder of Cyclotec Medical Industries,
Inc. He has extensive and relevant experience in the cross disciplines
of pharmacology, orthotics, and electrotherapy. Mr. Michelson has
developed products in both the Splint and TENS industries, focusing
on innovative concepts for non-invasive acute pain care. In 1964,
Mr. Michelson founded All Orthopedic Appliances, Inc. (AOA) and began
for the first time the design, production, and distribution of 'quick
(applied) splints' with Velcro. He served as Chairman and CEO of AOA,
managing 300 employees in three plants located in Florida, Oklahoma,
and California. From 1964 to 1975, over 160 new products were developed
and marketed. AOA was sold to the Parke Davis Medical-Surgical Division
of Warner Lambert Corp. in 1975. In 1978, Mr. Michelson founded Cyclotechnical
Medical Industries, Inc. (CMI), and organized a team of physicians
and engineers to investigate the efficacy of combining simplified
low cost electrostimulation devices for the management of acute pain.
CMI ultimately licensed patents and proprietary TENS Pain Suppression
technology to Dow Corning Wright Corp.
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