William Walker, PhD (President) has 19 years of experience in the development of medical ultrasound technology, with expertise in instrumentation, ultrasound physics, clinical applications, intellectual property, and market assessment. He has been an active founder in three ultrasound-based medical device companies. Walker has applied his entrepreneurial temperament as a faculty member at the University of Virginia since 1997. He has a proven ability to build and motivate world-class technology development teams, garner the resources to support them, and achieve dramatic breakthroughs. Dr. Walker holds both the B.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University.
Francesco Viola, PhD (Vice President of Engineering and Technology) has over 10 years of experience in the area of medical ultrasound imaging, advanced digital signal processing, and development of medical instrumentation. Dr. Viola has published his research in numerous engineering and biomedical peer-reviewed journals and he is the co-inventor in a number of patents in the field of ultrasound imaging and sensing. He is also the first recipient of the TETHIC (The Emerging Technologies and Healthcare Innovations Congress) Award for achievements in scholarship and contributions to healthcare technology translation. Dr. Viola holds a Laurea in Biomedical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia.
G. William Brown, Jr. is a major investor and serves as a formal, board-level advisor. He is cofounder of Palmer Labs, LLC, and 8 Rivers Capital, LLC, companies that focus on financing and commercializing technologies related to biomedical devices, traditional and alternative energy, and the telecom and automotive industries. A distinguished lawyer with an extensive career in financial services, Brown has held leadership positions at Goldman Sachs & Co., AIG International, and Morgan Stanley. He is a graduate of the Duke University School of Law and holds a BS in Biology and Political Science from MIT.
Mark Wheeler, MD is a retired physician with twenty five years experience in medical investments. He has authored a biotechnology newsletter for high net worth individuals and participated in the creation of numerous start ups in both the pharmaceutical and medical device arenas. He founded WT Investment Advisors LP in 2003 which has holdings in privately held American biotechnology companies.
John F. Riccardi serves as a part-time Chief Financial Officer. As interim-CFO for Modern Visualization, a Silicon Valley start-up, he successfully prepared the company for its sale to a strategic buyer. As a principal with Duchossois Technology Partners (DTP), he was on the buy side of early stage venture financing and sat on the boards of numerous invested companies. Prior to his work with DTP, he was Director of General Motors Business Building Group where he led that company’s effort to create a boundary spanning corporate venture fund to help commercialize and better appropriate promising technologies. Also at General Motors, he held several executive-level positions, including Director of Strategy for OnStar, Director of Finance for DirecTV International, and Treasurer of GM China and operations. Jack earned an MS in Operations Science from the London School of Economics, and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
Matthew Hantzmon serves as a formal, board-level advisor. He also serves as VP of Business Development for Diffusion Pharmaceuticals, holding responsibility for strategic partnerships and investor relations. Prior to joining Diffusion, he was Managing Director of Greenlight Energy, Inc., an independent power producer focused on wind energy projects. He was with Greenlight from 2001 until 2006 when the company was sold to British Petroleum (BP). Mr. Hantzmon was a co-founder and President of GeNeuron Therapeutics, Inc., a medical device company, which developed biologically enhanced endovascular devices for the treatment of neurovascular diseases. Prior to founding GeNeuron, Mr. Hantzmon was Director of International Market Development for Varian Medical Systems. In this role, he was responsible for marketing, sales, and business development for all geographies outside North America. Prior to its acquisition by Varian in 1999, he had been Vice President and COO at Multimedia Medical Systems, Inc., a medical device company focusing on radiation treatment planning systems. He founded or cofounded 7 medical device and renewable energy companies and is an investor and Board member on severaladditional medical device companies, including Cavidi AB. Mr. Hantzmon holds a B.A. degree from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern.
David Christie, BSc., MBA is a well-rounded and experienced business executive who has focused on the medical device industry since 1982, but also has significant experience in information and communication technologies and environmental services. David began his medical device career with American Hospital Supply where he rose from Critical Care Product Specialist to Area Manager. Over the past decade David has been instrumental in leading early stage device companies through development and in to successful commercialization, rising from Vice President Sales and Marketing to President and Chief Executive Officer of a publicly traded medical device company. Today David is busy providing executive consulting and mentoring services to early-stage life science companies in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, in vitro diagnostics and hospital services. David holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Montana.
