Board of Directors
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Robert McNeil, Ph.D.
Chairman of the Board
Managing Director, Sanderling VenturesRobert McNeil has over twenty-seven years experience as an active investor and management participant in seed and early-stage biomedical companies. He founded Sanderling in 1979 and has served since then as the General Partner of Sanderling's investment partnerships.
Dr. McNeil was a seed-stage investor in Advanced Cardiovascular Systems (acquired by Guidant Corp.) and Ventitrex (acquired by St. Jude Medical), two highly successful medical device companies. He was a founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Stereotaxis, the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of ReGen Biologics, and the Chairman of Ista Pharmaceuticals, as well as other entities. Dr. McNeil earned his Ph.D. in the fields of molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics in 1972 from the University of California, Irvine. Following his graduation, he pursued a long-time interest in investing by joining a San Francisco investment firm, where he worked as a portfolio manager and investment analyst prior to founding Andron McNeil & Co., the predecessor to Sanderling.
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Abhi Acharya, Ph.D.
Director since 2005
Abhi Acharya has 30 years experience in the scientific, clinical and business aspects of bringing medical devices to market, including expertise in U.S. and international device laws and regulations, clinical trial design and interpretation; regulatory and clinical strategies, and product development strategies and processes.
Until 1999, Dr. Acharya served as Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Research and Quality at EndoTex Interventional Systems, a carotid stent company. Previously he was Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Quality Assurance and Clinical Research at Target Therapeutics, an interventional neurology company; and Senior Technical Advisor at Biometric Research Institute, Inc. Dr. Acharya served at the Office of Device Evaluation, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 1977 to 1993 where he was Director, Division of Cardiovascular, Neurology and Anesthesiology Devices from 1985 to 1993.
He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Bio- Engineering from Northwestern University and a B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Dr. Acharya currently serves on the Boards of Regen Biologics (RGBI), Stereotaxis (STXS), Neomend, Inc, and InfraReDx.
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Kenneth E. Jones
Chairman, Globe Wireless
Ken is a 1968 graduate of the University of Nebraska with a degree in Chemical Engineering. He served in the United States Navy from 1968 to 1972. He earned his MBA from Harvard University in 1974 and started his business career with Touche Ross & Co. certified public accountants in San Francisco. Two years later he joined Hills Bros. Coffee as Chief Financial Officer where he gained substantial experience in international finance and Latin America. Ken’s first entrepreneurial activity began in 1980 when he became CEO of Clausen-Koch Company.
Ken formed Automated Call Processing Corporation (ACP) in 1983. ACP spawned many of today’s familiar voice response and voice mail applications. It drew the attention of MCI Communications first as an investor and was ultimately sold to MCI in 1990. ACP was an early adaptor of digital signal processing (DSP) technology and spawned Ditech Communications, which Ken founded in 1990 and took public in 1999. Ken’s current Company, Globe Wireless, was also an outgrowth of DSP technology. Globe Wireless uses a global network of digital high frequency radio stations to provide communications to ships at sea.
Ken is the lead director of Landec Copporation (Nasdaq:LNDC) and a member of the St Francis Yacht Club of San Francisco.
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Timothy C. Mills, Ph.D.
Managing Director, Sanderling Ventures
With nearly twenty years of experience in biomedical research and corporate management, Dr. Timothy Mills joined Sanderling as an Operating Partner in July 1998, and was promoted to Managing Director in 2000. At Sanderling, Dr. Mills has focused on early stage investments in Medical Devices, Biotherapeutics, and i-Health. He serves Sanderling portfolio companies as Director, Chief Executive Officer or management team member.
Prior to joining Sanderling, Dr. Mills served as the Corporate Vice President of New Business Development and Chief Scientific Officer of Target Therapeutics, a medical device company that was acquired by Boston Scientific in 1997. From July 1994 to July 1997, he was a director for Prograft Medical, a Target affiliate that was acquired by W.L Gore.
Prior to joining Target in 1994, Dr. Mills served as Director of Business Development and Advanced Research & Development in the Interventional Cardiology Division of Baxter Healthcare. Dr. Mills' previous academic appointments included service as the Director of the Artificial Heart Program at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center and membership in the University of California, San Francisco Radiology Department.
Dr. Mills received his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley & San Francisco School of Medicine, his M.S. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
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James E. Muller, M.D.
Founder, CEO, President, and Chief Medical Officer
Dr. James E. Muller serves as CEO of InfraReDx, Inc as it conducts its clinical studies and prepares for commercialization. Dr. Muller formerly served as a Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School where he conducted research for over 25 years on the causes of heart attacks. In 1994, he introduced the term "vulnerable plaque" to describe those plaques likely to disrupt and cause disease onset. He co-founded InfraReDx in 1998 after a detailed search to find the optimal technology to identify lipid-rich coronary artery plaques. He is the author of a recent invited review article in Circulation* in which he and colleagues reviewed the field and all technical approaches that are under study for the identification of vulnerable plaque, the leading cause of death in developed countries.
Dr. Muller was one of three American Co-founders of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) the organization awarded the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize. He has extensive management experience from this work, and his prior leadership of cardiovascular organizations and clinical trials.
* Reprints available upon request.
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William W. Priest
Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer & Portfolio Manager Epoch Investment Partners
William Priest is CIO of Epoch Investment Partners and CEO of its parent firm Epoch Holding Company, a NASDAQ listed company. Prior to joining Epoch, he was Co-Managing Partner and portfolio manager of Steinberg, Priest and Sloane Capital Management for three years. Previously, he was Chairman and CEO of Credit Suisse Asset Management Americas and its predecessor firm, BEA Associates, which he co-founded in the early 1970's. During his 30 year tenure at BEA and CSAM, he developed the company into a widely respected investment management firm with over $100 billion under management.
He is a Director of Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. A graduate of Duke University and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Graduate School of Business, he also holds a CPA and is a CFA charterholder.