Paul Citron retired in 2003 from Medtronic, Inc., a pioneer in the medical device industry and the largest developer of implantable therapeutic devices.  He was Vice President of Technology Policy and Academic Relations. Previously he was Medtronic’s Vice President of Science and Technology for over 15 years, responsible for corporate-wide assessment and coordination of technology initiatives and for prioritization and funding of corporate research. These executive positions followed a progression of R&D assignments over his 32-year career at Medtronic where he developed and helped bring to the bedside technologies that advanced the utility, safety, and effectiveness of innovative implanted medical devices. He has authored numerous medical technology peer reviewed publications and has been an invited speaker at biomedical engineering conferences, workshops, symposia, and university classrooms. Citron holds nine U.S. medical device patents, including one that was designated “Patent of Distinction” by Medtronic for its positive impact on patient wellbeing. It permitted for the first-time reliable long-term cardiac stimulation without the need for an open-chest surgical procedure. Consequently, this innovation rapidly became the “treatment of choice” in the medical community. It sharply reduced the incidence of interruption of pacemaker stimulation because of electrode dislodgement and the need for urgent reoperation to restore effective stimulation. Market growth for pacemakers was accelerated because implantation could be performed on an out-patient basis and made it possible for frail patients to receive pacemaker therapy. Every pacemaker company adopted this innovation and it continues to be sold 40 years after it first entered the market.      

Citron has a B.S.E.E (1969) from Drexel University and an M.S.E.E. (1972) from the University of Minnesota. In 2013 he received an honorary Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Drexel University. He was elected a Founding Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) in 1993 and in 2018 was chosen as president-elect of its College of Fellows. Citron was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2003 where he has served on its Peer Committee, Committee on Membership, and the Draper Prize Committee as its Chair in 2012. He served two terms as an NAE Councilor and was a member of the National Academies’ Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy. He served on three National Academy of Medicine consensus studies: Safe Medical Devices for Children (2005); Rare Diseases and Orphan Products: Accelerating Research and Development (2011); and, Identifying and Prioritizing New Preventive Vaccines for Development: Phase I, II, and III. In 2015 he was appointed to the Academy of Medicine’s Health and Medicine Division advisory committee. Citron has taught a graduate course on corporate entrepreneurship at Georgia Tech and the University of California San Diego as well as invited lectures to undergraduate bioengineering students at UCSD.  He is an advisor to start-up firms in the medical device and biotechnology sector.  He is also a member of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (La Jolla, CA) Leadership Institute, an external advisory body. He currently serves on the UC San Diego Health Board of Advisors as well as the UCSD Bioengineering Board of Trustees.

Erin Dasher is an attorney and business professional with over 15 years of experience in venture, private equity, M&A, and investment management. Dasher has advised seed and early stage venture funds, entrepreneurs, startups, and emerging growth companies. Dasher served as General Counsel of STW Fixed Income Management for seven years and helped to grow assets under management to over $12 billion. Before leaving the firm, she co-led the sale of STW to Schroders. Prior to STW, Dasher was as an attorney at O’Melveny & Myers and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, where she led transactions in venture capital, public and private offerings, M&A, joint ventures, and commercial transactions.

Dasher is a board member of the Atlanta chapter of the ARCS Foundation which provides funding to students completing degrees in science, engineering, and medical research. Dasher and her husband Karl are actively involved in the Georgia Tech community and strong supporters of local scientific research and scholarship. Dasher is a graduate of University of California, Santa Cruz and graduated magna cum laude from Cornell Law School.

Chris Fair has over 25 years of senior executive management and entrepreneurial experience focused in medical device and biologic platforms. Fair’s operational experience covers areas such as strategic market plans, product development, sales, marketing, finance, and the ability to take platform technologies from creation through commercialization in the most efficient pathway possible.
 
Fair began his medical device career at DePuy, where alongside a small team of personnel, helped to build the spine franchise from a $10M business to a $350M business within a 9 year timeframe. Fair then served as Vice President Sales and Marketing, St. Francis Medical Technologies where he was responsible for the U.S. launch of the XSTOP device. The launch of the XSTOP achieved $43M in U.S. revenue in the first 11 months and resulted in the largest medical device multiple with an acquisition price of $725M to Kyphon. After St. Francis, Fair served as the COO of MedShape Solutions, an innovative shape memory polymer and nitinol company, where he remains an active investor. Fair went on to start Amniox Medical, a spin out company based on amniotic tissue therapies for markets outside of ophthalmology. In the company’s first year of operation, Amniox surpassed all revenue targets and achieved profitability. Most recently, Fair served as President and CEO of a private equity backed spine venture, Amendia/Spinal Elements, a $100M + spinal implant company based in Carlsbad, CA. 
 
Fair serves on the boards of Spinal Elements, CellectCell, and 510Kardiac. Fair received his BS Business Administration from the University of Richmond. 

Linda G. Griffith, Ph.D., is the School of Engineering Teaching Innovation Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering and MacVicar Fellow at MIT, where she directs the Center for Gynepathology Research and the DARPA/NIH-funded Human Physiome on a Chip Program. Griffith received a bachelor's degree from Georgia Tech and a Ph.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley, both in chemical engineering. Griffith’s research is in the field of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Her laboratory, in collaboration with J. Upton and C. Vacanti, was the first to combine a degradable scaffold with donor cells to create tissue-engineered cartilage in the shape of a human ear. The 3D printing process she co-invented for creation of complex scaffolds is used for manufacture of FDA-approved scaffolds for bone regeneration. She is also a pioneer in devising ways to control nano-scale stimulation of cells by molecular cues, and in creation of 3D tissue models for drug development. Her work has been featured on television documentary shows including Scientific American Frontiers. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the Popular Science Brilliant 10 Award, NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, the MIT Class of 1960 Teaching Innovation Award, Radcliffe Fellow, and several awards from professional societies. She has served as a member of the advisory councils for the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research and the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases at NIH. As chair of the undergraduate curriculum committee for biological engineering at MIT, she led development of the new Biological Engineering SB degree program, which was approved in 2005 as MIT’s first new undergraduate major in 39 years.

Bruce Lavin, M.D. has 25 years of clinical experience and more than 15 years of industry experience, leading medical affairs and clinical development programs and divisions for major pharmaceutical companies in the areas of immunology, virology and anti-infectives. Most recently, Lavin was head of external engagement and policy within the neurology unit of UCB, Inc. Lavin was the vice president and therapeutic head for Bristol-Myers Squibb where he led the U.S. clinical and launch preparations for anti-virals in HIV, HCV, rheumatology, and transplant. Prior to Bristol-Myers Squibb, he held senior medical roles for both Novartis and Sanofi-Aventis in the areas of infectious disease, immunology, transplantation, virology and the central nervous system. Additionally, Lavin has a vast military career, currently serving as a medical doctor for the U.S. Navy Reserve. From 2009-2010, he provided medical care and support in a combat area during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Lavin holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California Irvine and a master’s of public health from the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his medical degree from the F. Herbert School of Medicine at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.

Anthony Lee has over 18 years of experience in the medical device business. He is currently the president of Eyegenix LLC, a venture backed start-up developing a biosynthetic cornea for the treatment of corneal blindness.  In 2011, Eyegenix and sister company Skai Ventures were awarded the statewide winner of the APEC 2011 Business Innovation Showcase.  Prior to Eyegenix, Lee led the research and development team at Coalescent Surgical, Inc., a venture funded medical device startup focused on minimally invasive cardiovascular bypass and valve fixation. Coalescent Surgical was acquired by Medtronic, Inc. in 2004. Prior to his work at Coalescent, Lee led R&D efforts at two venture financed companies: Vivant Medical, which was acquired by Valley Lab/Tyco, and AneuRx, which was acquired by Medtronic Inc. Lee is a registered professional engineer in the state of California. He holds numerous U.S. and international patents with several pending. Lee received his BME and MSME from Georgia Tech in 1993 and 1995, respectively. He currently splits his time between San Francisco, CA and Honolulu, HI.

Russell M. Medford, M.D., Ph.D. has served, since April 1, 2009, as chairman and president of Salutria Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company. From 1995 to April 1, 2009, Medford served as president, chief executive officer and director of AtheroGenics, Inc., a publicly-held pharmaceutical company.

Medford serves on the Biotechnology Industry Organization Board of Directors and BIO Emerging Companies Section Governing Body, and he served as Chairman of the Georgia BioMedical Partnership from 2004 to 2007 and the Georgia Biotechnology Industry Organization Board of Directors. Medford was an associate professor of medicine and director of molecular cardiology at the Emory University School of Medicine, and currently holds the appointment of adjunct clinical professor of medicine. Medford received a B.A. from Cornell University, and a M.D. with Distinction and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Pete Petit is a successful entrepreneurial executive who has also managed several public companies as chairman and CEO. Therefore, his experience and perspectives are brought to the Petit Group’s investments.

Petit joined the MiMedx Group, Inc. as chairman of the board of directors, chief executive officer and president in February 2009. From May 2008 until he joined the company, Petit was the president of The Petit Group, LLC, a private investment company. Prior to that, Petit was the chairman and CEO of Matria Healthcare, Inc.

Matria Healthcare was a former subsidiary of Healthdyne, Inc., which Petit founded in 1971. Petit served as chairman and CEO of Healthdyne and some of its publicly traded subsidiaries after Healthdyne became a publicly traded company in 1981. Petit received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and master of science degree in engineering mechanics from Georgia Tech, and an MBA degree in finance from Georgia State University. At Georgia Tech, Petit funded a professorial chair for "Engineering in Medicine," endowed the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and assisted with the funding of the Biotechnology Building which bears his name. At Georgia State University, he assisted with the funding of the Science Center building which also bears his name. In 1994, he was inducted into the Technology Hall of Fame of Georgia. In 2007, he was inducted into the Georgia State Business Hall of Fame. Petit has previously served as a member of the board of directors of the Georgia Research Alliance, which is chartered by the state of Georgia to promote high technology and scientific development in the state.

Petit fully understands the entrepreneurial spirit and the associated trials and tribulations of growing businesses. The Petit Group seeks investment relationships in private corporations where its management and business expertise may be utilized in addition to its financial resources.

Brock Reeve is CEO and Co-founder of Eos BioInnovation, an investment company focused on incubating and launching companies in the regenerative medicine field.  Prior to Eos, Brock was the Executive Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, a research center comprised of the schools of Harvard University and its affiliated hospitals and research institutions. Brock’s prior experience was in the commercial sector in both management consulting and operations for technology-based companies, with a focus on life sciences.

Brock was the former CEO of IVIVA Medical where he is now on the Board of Directors.  He is a co-founder of Elevian, on the Board of Directors of Thrive Bioscience and also on the Board of Trustees for the Pioneer Charter School of Science in Everett, MA.

Brock received a BA and MPhil from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Fred Sanfilippo, M.D., Ph.D., received his B.A. and MSc in physics from the University of Pennsylvania, and his M.D. and Ph.D. from Duke University, where he also did his residency training and joined the faculty from 1979-1992, rising to professor of Pathology, Immunology, and Experimental Surgery.

From 1993-2000, Sanfilippo was the Baxley Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology at Johns Hopkins, and led the formation of the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center, for which he was the director of research. In 2000, he joined Ohio State University as CEO of the Medical Center, Senior VP for Health Sciences, and Dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health. With over 280 publications and $20 million in personal research grant support, he has received numerous awards and recognition for his research and leadership in transplantation, pathology, and academic medicine, has served on the editorial board of 13 professional journals, and been elected president of seven academic and professional organizations.