Leadership

Aaron Kaplan is an active medical device entrepreneur who has been on the founding team of a number of venture-backed medical device companies including Conformal Medical, Tryton Medical, LocalMed and Perclose (acquired by Abbott). He has consulted to many medical device companies and was an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Three Arch Partners. Aaron is a practicing interventional cardiologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and a Professor of Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. In addition, he directs the Synergy Clinician-Entrepreneur Fellowship and chairs the Dartmouth Device Development Symposium. Prior to joining the Dartmouth Faculty, Dr. Kaplan was Director of Interventional Cardiology at the Palo Alto VA and served on the Faculty at Stanford University. Aaron has more than 65 peer-reviewed papers, 45 U.S. Patents, and was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors (Class of 2015). He received a B.S. in Engineering Sciences (Cum Laude) from Tufts University, M.D. from Wake Forest University, medical training at Northwestern University and cardiology training at Stanford University.

Andy Levine is an entrepreneur with over 35 years of engineering, marketing and general business experience developing medical devices and starting companies. He is a co-founder of Conformal Medical. He previously held a position in business development for medical devices at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. In 2003, Andy founded GI Dynamics, which developed an endoscopic device for the treatment of diabetes. In 2000 he was a co-founder of Seedling Enterprises, a medical device incubator that started GI Dynamics, Lumerx and Angstrom Medical and licensed out two technologies; IsoCool (J&J) and a Multipurpose Laparoscopic Instrument (Aesculap). Additional start-ups include EnteraStim (GI motility), EndoCellutions (regenerative medicine devices), Microsurge (laparoscopic instruments) and Bard’s Reproductive Systems (fertility devices). Andy’s diverse experience includes work to conceptualize, design, develop and commercialize products with applications in cardiovascular medicine, gastroenterology, gynecology, general surgery, thoracic surgery and urology. He possesses technical expertise in biomaterials, mechanism design, fluid mechanics and heat transfer, holds over 70 patents and has authored over 20 technical publications. He holds a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University.

Chris is a medical device industry veteran who has spent more than 20 years supporting the development of Class II and III medical devices. Chris joined Conformal Medical in 2018 and serves as Vice President of Clinical & Regulatory Affairs for the company. Most recently he was Vice President of Clinical & Regulatory Affairs at Corindus Vascular Robotics. He has held global clinical and regulatory positions at ZOLL, Edwards Lifesciences, VNUS, CVRx and Medtronic. Prior to entering the medical device industry, Chris was an Intensive Care and Cardiac Cath Lab nurse. While in nursing school, Chris served in the Army Reserves as an Army Aviator. Chris holds a B.S.N. in Nursing from Central Missouri State University, and an MBA from the University of Missouri – Kansas City.

Carol has over 30 years of experience in the development of medical devices, primarily transcatheter cardiovascular implants. She has extensive experience in emerging technologies, with a focus on structural heart repair, including devices for closure of intracardiac defects, LAA occlusion, and heart failure. Carol has taken several cardiovascular implants from concept through commercialization including a drug/biologic/device combination, and is also experienced in intellectual property strategy and development. Carol has been a consultant in the medical device field since 2011 and the Chief Scientific Officer of Conformal Medical since 2016. Prior to that, for 16 years she served as Vice President of R&D for NMT Medical, a publicly held company focused on the transcatheter repair of intracardiac defects. She started her medical device career at C.R. Bard, where she held several technical and management positions over the course of 10 years. Carol is an inventor on over 30 issued US patents, has authored several articles and book chapters, and lectured on medical device design. Carol holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an M.S. in Plastics Engineering, both from the University of Massachusetts/Lowell.

David has over 25 years of experience in the design, development and manufacture of medical devices, and has successfully demonstrated the early problem-solving skills necessary to launch companies and bring new technologies to the market. He has been employed in increasingly senior engineering positions at CR Bard, Focal, Boston Scientific, Confluent Surgical, GI Dynamics and Conformal Medical. His experience includes the development of products for cardiology, radiology, general, thoracic, spinal and cranial surgery, gastroenterology, urology and gynecology. David holds over 40 US issued patents and has co-authored several technical publications. He has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Joshua Phillips is a Managing Partner of Catalyst Health Ventures (CHV), an early-stage healthcare and life science-focused venture firm. He represents CHV on the boards of Sera Prognostics, Conformal Medical, Saphena Medical, and Cruzar Medsystems.  Previously, he led CHV’s investments in SevenOaks Biosystems (acquired by Medline), Allegro Diagnostics (acquired by Veracyte), Vortex Medical (acquired by AngioDynamics), BioTrove Inc. (acquired by Life Technologies), Biocius Life Sciences (acquired by Agilent), and Novazyme Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Genzyme). Prior to joining CHV in 2000, he was a manager at the Lucas Group, a strategy consulting firm where he focused on engagements in the pharmaceutical, medical device, and technology industries, often involving a transaction. Phillips holds a B.E. in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Scott Ward has been a Managing Director at Sightline Partners, an alternative investment manager providing custom equity financing for differentiated, growth-stage healthcare companies, since 2013. He is also President and Chief Executive Officer at Cardiovascular Systems, Inc. Mr. Ward serves on the boards of several private companies. Until April 4, 2016, Mr. Ward was the Chairman of the Board of Creganna Medical. Mr. Ward served as a member of the Board of Surmodics, Inc., from September 2010 to March 2015. From 1981 to 2010, Mr. Ward was employed by Medtronic, Inc., and held a number of senior leadership positions. Mr. Ward was Senior Vice President and President of Medtronic’s CardioVascular business from May 2007 to November 2010. Prior to that he was Senior Vice President and President of Medtronic’s Vascular business from May 2004 to May 2007, Senior Vice President and President of Medtronic’s Neurological and Diabetes business, from February 2002 to May 2004, and was President of Medtronic’s Neurological business from January 2000 to January 2002. He was Vice President and General Manager of Medtronic’s Drug Delivery business from 1995 to 2000. Prior to that, Mr. Ward led Medtronic’s Neurological Ventures in the successful development of new therapies.