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Officers |
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President: Lisa Sasso
lsasso@meddevgroup.org |
Lisa currently serves MDG as President. She is CEO and Co-founder of Medical Development Partners, LLC. (MDP). Established in 2005, MDP is a Medical Product Development & Medical Technology consulting company that helps “start-up’s, startup.” The company connects doctors, engineers and other companies in a collaborative way and serves a unique niche by helping International companies market and sell in the US.
Lisa is US founder and past President/CEO of Radi Medical Systems, Inc., a medical device distributor specializing in innovative cardiology products. With Lisa’s vision, Radi grew explosively, with annual triple digit revenue since its 1998 inception and profitability for five of six years. By understanding the impact of new technology and the philosophic change required of customers, Lisa was able to market the company and products directly to physicians, hospital staff and hospital administration.
While working in Marketing at USCI (a division of CR Bard), Lisa earned her M.B.A. in Management from Bentley College, Graduate School of Business, and graduated with honors. Lisa received her B.B.A. degree in Marketing and B.A. degree in Economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In December 2004, she was ranked #28 out of 100 Women Led businesses in Massachusetts. |
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Vice President: Ed Berger
eberger@meddevgroup.org |
Ed Berger has been an active member of MDG for four years and currently serves as Vice President. He has taken a leadership role on association governance issues, and has been an active member of the programming committee.
Ed founded Larchmont Strategic Advisors in 2005 to help life sciences companies deal effectively with the challenges and opportunities posed by the coverage and reimbursement requirements of public and private payers and a rapidly evolving healthcare regulatory and policy environment. As a consultant, he has provided reimbursement analysis and strategy development consultation to a variety of clients developing new technologies in fields including neural monitoring and neuro-modulation, gastrointestinal surgery, severe pulmonary dysfunction, clinical laboratory testing, and personalized medicine.
Ed’s total of more than 25 years of experience in the health care industry includes service on the senior management teams of ABIOMED, Inc. (2001-2004), Thermo Cardiosystems, Inc. (2000), Navix Radiology Services, Inc. (1998-99), and Fresenius Medical Care – North America (1983-1997). He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from Boston University, where he taught and held administrative positions from 1969-1980, and received his B.A. in government from Harvard College in 1966. |
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| Secretary: Dick O'Brien |
Dick O’Brien has been an active member of the MDG organization since 2004. Since that time he has served on the Program Committee as an event Chair and/or event Co-Chair each year for at lease one individual forum event. His focus has been to bring scientific and technical trends of interest to MDG members and to reach out to presenters who might not otherwise have come to the Programs. Dick regularly volunteers to support the physical set-up of the Forum, and, occasionally, the networking events, and frequently has attended Board functions when appropriate.
Dick has been involved in the life sciences and medical/biotech markets throughout his professional career primarily in development and management of new product development activities – in-house and out-house. His current position as Director, Business Development, Optimum Technologies, Inc., an optics driven product development company, dovetails nicely with work at MDG. He is also Founder, Nagog Hill Partners, a business development consulting group focused on assisting medical device and other service companies to grow their businesses, and continues to hold membership and Board positions in other medical and venture forum volunteer organizations. |
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Treasurer: Jim Goell
jgoell@meddevgroup.org |
Jim Goell has been an active member of MDG for the past four years and currently serves as Treasurer. He has led many of our efforts to make MDG and efficient organization and been instrumental in the buildup of our financial reserves. Jim is an engineering management consultant. His practice is focused on helping medical and other electronic and optical product companies improve their product development processes and resolve development problems. He also focuses on acquisition assessment.
His industrial experience includes producing the first FDA 510K qualified photonic bandgap fibers. He has held a variety of positions related to the development and sale of optical, electronic and microwave equipment, integrated circuits and devices. As a researcher, he produced the first planar optical circuits. Jim has served as VP, Managing Director and Director for engineering groups in both large and small companies. Companies he has worked for include OmniGuide, Tyco Submarine Systems (undersea fiber optic systems), AMP, Ericsson, PCO, ITT and AT&T.
In addition to being a senior engineering manager, he was president of a start-up, managed two company divisions and ran a sales and marketing organization. He started his industrial career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Research Division. Jim earned a B.E.E. in Electrical Engineering and an M.S. and Ph.D. in microwaves from Cornell. He is a fellow of the IEEE. |
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| At-Large Board Members |
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Barbara Bix
bbix@meddevgroup.org |
Barbara Bix is the Managing Principal of BB Marketing Plus (www.bbmarketingplus.com)—and has been an active member of MDG almost from its inception. Drawing on her demonstrated strengths in problem articulation, cost-effective marketing research, and market development, Barbara has helped more than 50 local health care and technology companies uncover desirable market opportunities, launch products, and attract profitable business
Key to her success has been identifying the product features and marketing programs required to encourage rapid product adoption by physicians and other clinicians. A seasoned marketing strategist, Barbara earned her stripes at EMC, Motorola, GE, and Wang. She has an MBA from The Wharton School and completed postgraduate work at the Harvard School of Public Health. Barbara has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and her articles have appeared in Effective Clinical Practices, The Boston Business Journal, Mass High-Tech, Health Care Review, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Women's Business, and online at www.marketingprofs.com and www.raintoday.com. |
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Joyce College
jcollege@meddevgroup.org |
A long time member of MDG, Joyce College served as Secretary from 2005 to 2008. In addition, she has lead MDG’s Strategic Planning efforts and has served on the Program and Marketing Committees. Joyce is currently working as a Clinical Marketing Consultant to medical device companies and is a Partner of Medical Development Partners, LLC, a medical product development and commercialization company.
Joyce has expertise in strategic planning, clinical marketing, program/product management, disease management, quality improvement and development of educational programs. For over 16 years, she was a product/program manager for Fresenius Medical Care North America, the world leader in the manufacture and delivery of dialysis products and services. Prior to Fresenius, Joyce was employed by Boston Medical Center, Massachusetts Osteopathic Hospital as well as by visiting nurse associations serving Nassau County, N.Y. and the South Shore of Massachusetts.
She is active with the Boston Haifa Life Sciences Initiative, an organization to help Israeli companies commercialize their products in the U.S. Joyce presented to a delegation of eight Israeli companies on Market Analysis in October 2006. She is a member of WEST (Women Entrepreneurs in Science and Technology), Women in Healthcare Management, and the American Nephrology Nurses Association. Joyce holds a B.S. with a Major in Nursing and an M.B.A. in Healthcare Management, both from Boston University. |
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| Ralph Grabowski |
During thirty-eight years’ experience as a startup CEO, VP of Marketing, Marketing Consultant, and temporary executive, Mr. Grabowski has helped launch new products, companies, and more than seven fields, which have become worth over ten billion dollars. For Cytyc, his early market research identified profound changes from the initial product concept; leading to the first significant improvement in cervical cancer screening in fifty years, to funding, to CLIA legislation, and growth to a $6.2 billion acquisition by Hologic.
He specializes in front-end Marketing leadership; the fact-gathering, analytical Marketing process to steer the enterprise. Ralph is an MIT-degreed Electrical Engineer. |
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| Michael Gram |
Michael Gram has over 30 years of experience in managing technology-based businesses. His background includes design and manufacturing of medical telemetry systems as well as providing business and systems consulting to a variety of medical device and biotech companies. Mike’s credentials include a BS in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University as well as an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. He has been an active member of MDG, a fixture on the Programming Committee, and a frequent contributor to panel meetings. |
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Jerry Shapiro
jshapiro@meddevgroup.org |
Great programs, discounts at other organizations' meetings and medical device company input to the Statehouse are some of what Jerry Shapiro and his colleagues on the committees he links to the MDG Board have brought you this year. In addition to serving on the Program Committee to select the 22 programs scheduled this past year, Jerry and Richard Halpern put together the December program on "Voice of the Customer" that was so well attended. Working with the Alliances Committee chaired by Alan Kivnik, Jerry arranged member discounts for you at several alliance partners' meetings. One year ago, he was asked by the CEO of a biotech company to get involved with the legislature to be sure there was a voice for small medical device companies in Governor Patrick's proposed billion-dollar ten-year Life Sciences Bill. Jerry recruited MDG founder Marty Sklar and MDG Vice-President-elect Ed Berger to work with him and twenty four other life science company CEOs to petition the Governor last July to this effect. Starting last November, a core group including Jerry began meeting with individual legislators in the House and Senate, culminating in the House including over forty million dollars in funding for small life sciences companies in the bill they passed. An active MDG member for six years, Jerry is well known for his efforts to help MDGers new to the industry connect and find jobs.
In the 39 years he has been in the medical device industry, Jerrold M. Shapiro, Ph.D. has been both an intrapreneur within larger organizations and an entrepreneur in small and startup companies. He developed more than a dozen surgical devices, invented and patented four diagnostic devices and specializes in fast-track development of concepts into products. After many years working as a laboratory director, senior scientist, program manager, director of engineering and director of operations for medical device companies and universities, he founded Fem-Medical LLC in 2003 to introduce into the U.S. market an unconventional integrated medical product from Finland called FemiScan, which trains incontinent women to become continent. He has also invented two devices to treat FSD, or female sexual dissatisfaction. |
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Marty Sklar
msklar@meddevgroup.org |
Marty Sklar was the first president of Medical Development Group (“MDG”) and one of its co-founders, doing so in 2001, and currently serves on the MDG Board. He is also a founder and CTO of Medical Development Partners (MDP). In 1992, he founded Automated Medical Instruments, Inc. to develop remote-controlled and automated surgical devices. In 2002, with MDG colleagues, he co-founded AlvaMed, LLC, a Quality and Regulatory consulting company. In 2004, also with MDG colleagues, he co-founded MDP.
Martin has over twenty five years of successful experience in business development, project management, invention, design/development engineering, analysis, quality, regulatory, manufacturing engineering and product introduction of various medical products. He has experience in surgical, image guidance, automated laboratory, implant and other medical devices and systems. These products have been utilized for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in cardiology, orthopedics, neurology, and other key areas.
Earlier commercial experience includes work with Corning Glass Works, Dade Behring, Hewlett Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Millipore Corporation, Orion Research, Visualization Technology, Inc. (now part of GE Medical). More recent work has included development of micro technologies for drug delivery and pain management devices. Martin’s work has led to approximately $800 million in revenues for employers and clients. He continues to search for and develop new business opportunities, product concepts, and intellectual property to satisfy unmet medical needs, which will also provide an optimal ROI. |
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| John Wlassich |
This past year, John Wlassich started and led the first SIG (Special Interest Group) within the MDG, the Product Development & Manufacturing Outsourcing SIG. This SIG organized a team charter and formalized a SIG committee structure. The SIG Committee produced a unique event for the MDG, the Business Matchmaking Event 2008, which drew 93 participants. John leads product development with Nomir Medical Technologies. Nomir is commercializing new, noninvasive medical devices to treat bacterial and fungal diseases that are poorly treated today. For 12 years prior to Nomir, John was with the Blade & Razor Division of The Gillette Company. At Gillette he held management positions in Process Equipment Engineering, Program Management, and R&D and led teams across nationalities and geographies. These teams contributed to the launch of the MACH3, M3Power, Activator 360, and Fusion products. As a manager in R&D, John also led the clinical studies group for a medical device that has been the subject of press releases by Gillette. Prior to joining Gillette, John started a materials equipment company that successfully made parts for millions of Ford vehicles. He has been elected to membership in Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Tau Sigma, and Tau Beta Pi. John graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of Rhode Island and he graduated with an MS and PhD from MIT, each in Mechanical Engineering. |
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Committee
Chairs |
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Programming
Olga Taylor
otaylor@meddevgroup.org |
Olga Taylor is a Vice President of Marketing and Business Development with Quartesian LLC, a clinical stage CRO serving small and mid-size biopharma and device companies. Prior to joining Quartesian, she worked in marketing, sales, finance, and project management roles in consulting, insurance and biotechnology sectors. Olga holds a BS in Mathematics and an MBA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. |
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Networking
Regina Au
rau@meddevgroup.org |
Regina is a senior marketing professional with extensive experience in the Biotech, Medical Device and Pharmaceutical industries. Her specialty is collaborating with companies to assess the potential for new products and services and then developing initiatives to help ensure a successful market launch. |
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Membership
Brian Shoemaker
bshoemaker@meddevgroup.org |
Brian Shoemaker consults for FDA-regulated companies on software validation, software quality processes, and electronic records and signatures. He worked in clinical diagnostics for over fifteen years, and as quality assurance manager in clinical trial data management software. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois. |
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Marketing
Judy Isaacson
jisaacson@meddevgroup.org |
Judy Isaacson is the Director of Vital Now!, a medical marketing and event management company. She specializes in medical sales, marketing, communications, investor relations, and public relations and often works with start-up organizations. Judy is also an adjunct faculty member at five Boston-area colleges. Judy holds a Master’s of Science in Communications Management. |
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Sponsorship
Mel Prenovitz
mprenovitz@meddevgroup.org |
Mel Prenovitz is a seasoned business advisor with a long career in entrepreneurial ventures providing interim management and consulting services from the strength of sales, marketing and business development. Mr. Prenovitz was the founder of MP Video, a manufacturer of endoscopy surgical products. His areas of expertise are healthcare, medical device, life sciences. |
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Sponsorship
David Kaufman
dkaufman@meddevgroup.org |
David Kaufman is VP Strategic Alliances & Development for Hemetrics Development Corporation and has 25 years experience in senior level sales, business development, and marketing positions in technology-focused solutions companies in the medical technology, communications, and information technology and software industries. |
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Alliances
Alan Kivnik
akivnik@meddevgroup.org |
Alan Kivnik is a serial entrepreneur in the medical device arena and is currently the President and CEO of Corum Medical which is developing an instrument for the non-invasive, diagnostic quality, real time measurement of hemoglobin. |
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Alliances
Olga Cherniavsky
ocherniavsky@meddevgroup.org |
Olga Cherniavsky is the Chief Marketing Officer and co-founder of Corum Medical, Inc. and the founder of Griggs Strategy Group. She has more than 20 years of experience in global business management, strategic marketing and new product development. Olga holds a B.Sc. degree in Computer Science and a M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, and is a graduate of the CSS program in marketing and management at Harvard University. |
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Operations
David Miller
dmiller@meddevgroup.org |
David Miller is Director of Mechanical Engineering at Novelis, Inc. a medical device startup company developing catheter based therapies. Prior to joining Novelis, he had a 30 year career with Hewlett-Packard, Agilent Technologies and Phillips where he was a Project Manager of a the transducer development team and Member of the Technical Staff mainly with the medical ultrasound imaging division. Favorite projects include the development of an oximeter and ultrasound transducers. |
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