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Our Team

Leadership Team

Serafin Samson

Serafin (Fin) Samson

Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Director

Fin has over thirty years of combined medical industry start-up and healthcare venture capital experience. He has served in various management roles for healthcare start-ups and as a Venture Partner for Affinity Capital, which is a healthcare dedicated VC firm. Prior to Affinity, he was a biomedical engineer in the orthopedic industry where he led the product design and development of knee and spine implants. Fin also serves on the Boards of NeuroMedic and the Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute.

Alberto Figueroa

C. Alberto Figueroa, Ph.D.

Co-Founder, Chief Science Officer, Director

Alberto is a University of Michigan Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Vascular Surgery. His research focuses on image-based simulation of hemodynamics. His research focuses on image-based computational simulation of hemodynamics. Alberto’s research has been published extensively in the fields of Biomedical Engineering, Applied Mechanics, Life Sciences, and Vascular and Endovascular Surgery.

Brahmajee Nallamothu

Brahmajee Nallamothu, MD

Co-Founder and Medical Advisor

Brahmajee is a Professor at the University of Michigan Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and Department of Internal Medicine. His research focuses on improving the use and performance of coronary stenting and developing new tools measuring quality and costs of cardiovascular services. His work has been published in New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, British Medical Journal, Circulation and JACC.

Board of Directors

Mark Summers

Mark Summers

Director and Industry Advisor

Mark is a successful entrepreneur and medtech executive with over 35 years of experience in the healthcare industry and expertise in commercializing novel medical products and services. He is the CEO of Dosentrx, which is a digital health start-up commercializing a smart device for medication adherence. He was the Founder and CEO of ThreeWire, a technology-enabled clinical research organization, which he grew to over $100M in sales and led to successful M&A transactions. Mark is an Angel investor and entrepreneurial catalyst within the Twin Cities life sciences community.

Larry Betterley

Larry Betterley

Director

Larry is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of experience in public and private technology companies, including medical technology. Most recently, he was the CFO of Cardiovascular Systems, Inc., from where he brings over 10 years of interventional cardiovascular industry experience. Larry was instrumental in raising more than $200 million in financing, growing annual revenues to over $200 million and achieving a market capitalization of over $1Billion. Prior to CSI, Larry was a senior executive in several organizations ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

Serafin (Fin) Samson

Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Director

C. Alberto Figueroa, Ph.D.

Co-Founder, Chief Science Officer, Director

Advisory Board

Leslie Bottorff

Leslie Bottorff

Industry Advisor

Leslie is the Owner/Principal at Bottorff Advisors with over 40 years of experience in building companies as a venture capital investor, and a senior sales and marketing executive for start-up and large medical companies. Previously, Leslie was Sr. Managing Director of GE Ventures, where she led the healthcare investing team, investing primarily in digital health, big data analytics, and IT/tech enabled devices and services companies. She was also a General Partner with ONSET Ventures, a private institutional venture capital firm. Leslie’s management experience includes VP of Sales & Marketing at a division of Medtronic, and senior marketing roles at three successful VC backed start-ups.

Victor Miranda

Victor Miranda, MD

Industry Advisor

Victor has over 25 years of healthcare industry experience with extensive knowledge in medical affairs, clinical affairs, and marketing. He is the former Chief Medical & Compliance Officer of 3M Health Care where he led 3M’s efforts in the integration of Medical/Clinical inputs within the product development process, Value Base Care, Market Access & Evidence, KOL utilization, and Scientific Affairs and Education. Prior to 3M, he served as Chief Medical Officer (Neurology) for GE Healthcare where he led the Head Health Initiative between GE and the National Football League. Victor also serves on the Board of Directors for Twin Cities Public Television (PBS) and The Ordway Center for Performing Arts.

Kevin Ronneberg

Kevin Ronneberg, MD

Industry Advisor

Kevin is a physician executive with experience developing strategy, brokering partnerships, leading operations and driving innovation in his roles in the healthcare industry. He has worked in leadership positions in health care delivery, health plan, retail clinics and pharmacy organizations. He has served as a committee member and advisor for several regional and national organizations including the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, Duke’s Margolis Center for Health Policy and Business Group on Health.

David Cohen

David Cohen, MD

Medical Advisor

David is a practicing interventional cardiologist and Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He served as Director of Cardiovascular Research at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, where he also was Director of the Health Economics and Technology Assessment Group. David’s research focuses on the application of formal cost-effectiveness methodology to novel interventions for diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease, extension of traditional cardiovascular outcomes research to include collection of patient-centered outcomes among patients undergoing cardiovascular treatment, the development and evaluation of instruments for assessment cardiovascular disease status.

Gil Omenn

Gil Omenn, MD

Medical Advisor

Gil is the Director of the University of Michigan Center of Computational Medicine. He served as the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs of University of Michigan Health System. He was the former Dean of the School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine and Environmental Health with the University of Washington. Gil also served as the Associate Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Executive Office of the President during the President Carter Administration.

Mullasari Sankardas

Mullasari Ajit Sankardas, MD

Medical Advisor

Ajit is the Director of Cardiology at the Institute of Cardio-Vascular Diseases at Madras Medical Mission in Chennai, India. He has over 150 peer-reviewed journal publications and serves as Chief Editor for the Journal of the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases. Within the last 5 years, he has served as Primary Investigator for over 21 major National and International clinical trials. He is an active Faculty and Course Director for various international cardiology medical society meetings. Ajit has also won numerous awards in recognition for his contributions in advancing the field of cardiology, including a Lifetime Achievement Award 2011 from the Dr. MGR Medical University.

Kevin Ward

Kevin Ward, MD

Strategic Advisor

Kevin is a Professor in the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan. He is the Director of the Michigan Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care (MCIRCC). He has a passion in creating programs which encourage integration across the disciplines of medicine, engineering, data sciences and entrepreneurship that accelerate discovery to true patient impact. Kevin led the design and implementation of the University’s Fast Forward Medical Innovation and is a serial innovator and entrepreneur in the field of emergency and critical care medicine.

Kayvan Najarian

Kayvan Najarian, Ph.D.

Co-Founder and Scientific Advisor

Kayvan is a Professor at the University of Michigan Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics. His research focuses on signal/image processing and machine learning to create computer-assisted clinical decision support systems that improve patient care and reduce the costs of healthcare. His research has been funded by NIH, NSF and the Department of Defense and he serves as Editor-in-Chief for Biomedical Engineering & Computational Biology.

Mark Summers

Director and Industry Advisor