Mark Adler, MBA Joins Canary Medical as Vice President of Product Development

Life Science Partner is pleased to announce the recruitment of Mark Adler, MBA to Canary Medical, where he will serve as Vice President of Product Development.

Canary Medical is an innovative medical technology company commercializing smart implants in the orthopedic, cardiovascular, and aesthetic markets. The company integrates a sensor and microprocessor system into FDA-cleared implantable medical devices to generate real-time insights about the performance and safety of these products.

Adler will be driving further miniaturization and reduction of power for Canary’s implantable technology, advancing commercialization efforts in the orthopedic space, and providing technical support and management direction for the company’s cross function leadership to support its business objectives.

Mark was previously the Vice President at JenaValve Technologies, where he managed the development of the company’s next-gen aortic valve delivery system. He has consulted for companies such as Glucovation, Aortica, Nano-Structures, Medina Medical, Proteus Digital Health, and Micell Technologies. Among his many leadership positions, he was the Director of Sensor Engineering at Medtronic Diabetes, where he focused on the company’s glucose sensor. Also notable was his role at Dexcom as the Senior Director of Developmental Engineering and Operations, where he worked on their Class III continuous glucose monitoring system.

“Adler is well-versed in the transformation of early-stage to commercial ready technology,” notes Tom Callaway, Founder and President of Life Science Partner. “He has managed large and small research and development teams, with a heavy emphasis on later stage product development and manufacturing.”

Mark Adler earned a Bachelor of Technology Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MBA from Argosy University in Seattle, WA.

About Life Science Partner

Life Science Partner is a specialized executive search firm that recruits transformational leaders for healthcare and life sciences companies. Our high-touch, partner-led process ensures an exceptional level of service, while our backgrounds as physicians and industry executives enable us to efficiently deliver the brightest candidates in the medical device, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and healthcare technology fields.

Mark Phelps, PhD Joins Canary Medical as Vice President of Technology Development

Life Science Partner is pleased to announce the recruitment of Mark Phelps, PhD to Canary Medical, where he will serve as Vice President of Technology Development.

Canary Medical is an innovative medical technology company commercializing smart implants in the orthopedic, cardiovascular, and aesthetic markets. The company integrates a sensor and microprocessor system into FDA-cleared implantable medical devices to generate real-time insights

about the performance and safety of these products.

Phelps will be driving technology reduction to practice for Canary’s cardiovascular applications, delineating smart implant technologic and business opportunities, providing technical leadership to the Canary Management team, and providing strategic input into building Canary’s infrastructure and business.

Previously at Medtronic, Phelps managed the Research and Development team as the Vice President of R&D for Patient Monitoring & Diagnostics. Before that, he was the Senior Program Director for Diagnostics & Monitoring where he worked on a new product line for Medtronic’s wireless implantable cardiac monitor.

“Phelps has shown his ability to be a technology innovator and forward-thinker,” notes Tom Callaway, Founder and President of Life Science Partner. “Given his background at companies such as Medtronic, TASER and LifeSync, Phelps has a proven track record of building innovative technologies to enable future improvements in healthcare.”

Phelps earned his Bachelor of Science, Masters, and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) in Melbourne, Florida.

About Life Science Partner

Life Science Partner is a specialized executive search firm that recruits transformational leaders for healthcare and life sciences companies. Our high-touch, partner-led process ensures an exceptional level of service, while our backgrounds as physicians and industry executives enable us to efficiently deliver the brightest candidates in the medical device, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and healthcare technology fields.

Peter Wehrly Joins Vivex Biologics as Chief Executive Officer

Life Science Partner is pleased to announce the recruitment of Peter Wehrly as Chief Executive Officer with Vivex Biologics.

Vivex Biologics is a leading regenerative medicine company that markets tissue technology products and cellular therapies focused on orthopaedic applications with an emphasis on spine related therapies. They have a diverse portfolio of current products including cellular bone matrices, amniotic tissue, general orthopaedics, and sports medicine products to meet the therapeutic demand in the areas of spine, dental, sport medicine, and wound care. Vivex is preparing for its next stage of growth with the launch of its VIA Disc product, a paradigm-changing treatment for Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD). As the company moves into the biologics space, it sought a seasoned Chief Executive to lead the company through its next stage of growth.

Wehrly is a leader in the spine and orthobiologics industries and will help lead Vivex Biologics’ expansion of their sales force and guide the company through continued growth. He is a strategic leader with a broad background in growth and operational efficiencies within public and private companies in the medical device industry. Prior to joining Vivex, Wehrly served as Chief Executive Officer with Synaptive Medical, where he led a global team launching the 2nd generation disruptive surgical robotic technology portfolio across North America, Western Europe, and Asia.

He was also Chief Executive at PQ Bypass, where he led a cross-functional team in gaining CE Mark for their Detour System, a technology designed to advance the treatment of long-segment peripheral artery disease, and approval to embark on their PMA trial in the US and Europe.

Previously, Wehrly served as Group President for Covidien where he turned around the Respiratory and Monitoring Solutions business and was later responsible for the Vascular Therapies business. Wehrly is a seasoned executive in the spine industry having led several divisions of Medtronic including Spinal and Biologics for 8 years. He played an integral role in their global market leadership positions and saw them grow from $500M to over $2.8B in compound annual growth rate.

Wehrly will play a pivotal role in helping Vivex Biologics during its next stage of growth and development as they launch a new product in the biologics space, leveraging his expertise in the spine industry and his commercial and operational strengths to ensure continued growth and preparation for a future financing event.

About Life Science Partner

Life Science Partner is a specialized executive search firm that recruits transformational leaders for healthcare and life sciences companies. Our high-touch, partner-led process ensures an exceptional level of service, while our backgrounds as physicians and industry executives enable us to efficiently deliver the brightest candidates in the medical device, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and healthcare technology fields.

Rosalind Fabunmi, PhD Joins Edwards Lifesciences as Senior Director, Medical Affairs

Life Science Partner is pleased to announce the recruitment of Rosalind Fabunmi, PhD as Senior Director, Medical Affairs with Edwards Lifesciences.

Edwards is committed to focusing on the patient journey from diagnosis to treatment to lifetime outcome, and Fabunmi has a rare combination of skills and experiences which make her highly qualified for her new role. With compelling data on the high individual and societal costs of valvular disease, Edwards is seeking to address the significant unmet need for care.

Fabunmi will lead Edwards’ evidence development and publication strategy in order to call attention to the prevalence and costs of valvular disease. Importantly, she will also serve as the public face of the company on these issues, engaging key opinion leaders to address the broad lack of awareness.

Fabunmi joins Edwards already possessing subject matter expertise in structural heart disease. Earlier in her career, she served in medical affairs roles for transcatheter aortic valve replacement technologies with Medtronic. Notably, she has also served in medical affairs roles in the pharmaceutical industry, working on heart failure products with Merck and Amylin Pharmaceuticals.

Most recently, Fabunmi served as Senior Director, Medical Affairs with the diabetes company Zafgen. The pharmaceutical industry has blazed the trail on burden of disease data and its use, so Fabunmi’s combination of medical device and pharmaceutical experience in Edwards’ disease space makes her exceptionally qualified for this role. In a career primarily focused on medical affairs, Fabunmi’s experience also encompasses health economics and outcomes research, rendering her almost unique in terms of the skills she brings to Edwards.

About Life Science Partner

Life Science Partner is a specialized executive search firm that recruits transformational leaders for healthcare and life sciences companies. Our high-touch, partner-led process ensures an exceptional level of service, while our backgrounds as physicians and industry executives enable us to efficiently deliver the brightest candidates in the medical device, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and healthcare technology fields.

Dave Booth Joins Be The Match as Vice President of Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs

Life Science Partner is pleased to announce the recruitment of Dave Booth as Vice President of Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs with Be The Match.

Booth is a seasoned quality executive with a broad background in building and leading global quality teams within the medical device industry. At Smiths Medical, Booth was Head of Quality for the Infusion Systems Business Unit, responsible for both Pre-market and Post-market Quality, overseeing customer-facing quality concerns, and establishing a new product quality leadership function.

At Greatbatch Medical, he created new processes and an organization for Design Assurance and Product Monitoring for their Orthopedic business. Previously, Booth led the Quality Systems and Compliance organization within Medtronic’s Cardiac Disease Rhythm Management business.

Booth understands how to build and lead a quality organization and to prepare a company to enter a new regulatory environment. Throughout his career, Booth has overseen teams ranging from small post-market groups to large, multi-site Operations Quality teams. Trained as a statistician, Booth often approaches problem solving by applying his analytical skills in conjunction with insights stemming from his extensive experience in the industry.

Booth will play a pivotal role in helping Be The Match during its next stage of growth and development. The organization is best known as the world’s largest provider of unrelated matched bone marrow donors for life-saving therapies. As allogenic-derived cell therapies are revolutionizing the treatment of cancer and genetic illnesses, Be The Match is preparing to become the preferred supplier of hematopoietic cells to enable these therapies. Booth’s leadership skills and his years of experience managing interactions with the FDA render him well-suited to prepare Be The Match for the regulatory rigors of FDA oversight they will face as they move into the cell therapy space.

About Life Science Partner

Life Science Partner is a specialized executive search firm that recruits transformational leaders for healthcare and life sciences companies. Our high-touch, partner-led process ensures an exceptional level of service, while our backgrounds as physicians and industry executives enable us to efficiently deliver the brightest candidates in the medical device, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and healthcare technology fields.

Press Release PDF

Chris Fang joins Humacyte as Chief Medical Officer

Life Science Partner is pleased to announce the recruitment of Chris Fang, MD, MBA, MHSc as Chief Medical Officer of Humacyte.

Fang’s expertise in biologics and medical devices will be an invaluable asset for Humacyte, a pioneering regenerative medicine company. Humacyte’s lab-grown, acellular blood vessels have been awarded FDA fast-track status for their use in dialysis grafts. The company is launching a series of trials to demonstrate their efficacy in general vascular repair/replacement, including in coronary, peripheral, and saphenous veins. With a strong background in clinical trials, health economics and product development, Fang will spearhead Humacyte’s pursuit of additional indications for their flagship product, HUMACYL®.

Fang has over twenty years of experience as a physician leader in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. Prior to joining Humacyte, Fang founded Amaris Partners, an international consultancy which facilitated investment from principally Asia-based partners into U.S.-based companies that develop and implement novel medical technologies. Before founding Amaris, Fang served as a Board Member and Worldwide Vice President, Strategic Medical Affairs and Medical Sciences for Johnson & Johnson DePuy for the Asia Pacific Region. In this role, Fang managed the clinical evidence strategy and product safety worldwide with responsibilities for new product development, reimbursement and business development. Fang also served as the Medical Adviser to the Regenerative Medicine Business Unit and chaired the Worldwide Pipeline Committee responsible for the approval of investigator-initiated studies.

“Fang has a broad understanding of clinical trial management and development in pharmaceuticals, medical devices and regenerative medicine, combined with deep expertise in the regulatory approval process” notes Tom Callaway, MD, MBA, Founder of Life Science Partner. “His experience working in the Asian Pacific region will also be an asset to Humacyte as the company expands into these markets.”

About Life Science Partner Executive Search

Life Science Partner is a specialized executive search firm that recruits transformational leaders for healthcare and life sciences companies. Our high-touch, partner-led process ensures an exceptional level of service, while our backgrounds as physicians and industry executives enable us to efficiently deliver the brightest candidates in the medical device, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and healthcare technology fields.

Chie Iwaishi Joins Edwards Lifesciences as Vice President, International Regulatory & Clinical Affairs

Life Science Partner is pleased to announce the recruitment of Chie Iwaishi to Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) as Vice President, International Regulatory and Clinical Affairs, where she will lead the expansion of this Irvine-based company in the Japan and Asia-Pacific region.

Iwaishi’s three decades of leadership in regulatory and clinical affairs will be an invaluable asset for Edwards Lifesciences, a global leader in in patient-focused medical innovations for structural heart disease, critical care and surgical monitoring. The company’s heart valve offerings encompass both surgical and transcatheter therapies for heart valve replacement and repair. In addition, Edwards’ pipeline of future technologies is focused on the less invasive repair or replacement of the mitral and tricuspid valves of the heart, which are more complex and more challenging to treat than the aortic valve that is currently the focus of many of the commercially approved valve technologies.

Iwaishi is a distinguished expert in regulatory and clinical affairs, with particular expertise in Japan, China, and the broader Asia-Pacific region. She possesses keen knowledge of the regulatory and cultural paradigms, launched the first drug eluting stent in China, and has considerable senior global leadership experience and business acumen. In her new role, she will spearhead Edwards Lifesciences’ regulatory and clinical programs in Asia, which the company has identified as a key strategic initiative.

“Iwaishi’s deep understanding of regulatory affairs, with many successful PMAs and 510ks, and her well-practiced leadership of large globally-dispersed teams will be a tremendous asset to Edwards Lifesciences as they continue to expand on a global stage,” notes Tom Callaway, President and Founder of Life Science Partner.

Iwaishi joins Edwards Lifesciences from Abbott (formerly Alere Inc.), a rapid point-of-care diagnostic tests manufacturer, where she served as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs Asia Pacific and led their global strategy development and regulatory compliance in Japan, China, Korea and India. She also led the regulatory diligence for Alere’s $1.3 billion acquisition. Earlier in her career, Iwaishi served in regulatory affairs roles of escalating responsibility, working primarily with Class II and Class III medical devices in the cardiovascular space.

About Life Science Partner Executive Search

Life Science Partner is a specialized executive search firm that recruits transformational leaders for healthcare and life sciences companies. Our high-touch, partner-led process ensures an exceptional level of service, while our backgrounds as physicians and industry executives enable us to efficiently deliver the brightest candidates in the medical device, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and healthcare technology fields.

Megan Eckerman Joins CryoLife as Vice President, Global Marketing

Life Science Partner is pleased to announce the recruitment of Megan Eckerman to CryoLife (NYSE:CRY) as Vice President of Global Marketing, where she will lead the unification of this Atlanta-based company’s US and European marketing efforts under a common worldwide strategy as CryoLife continues its transformation from an allographic human tissue provider to a global aortic cardiovascular device leader.

CryoLife is a leader in cryogenically preserved human tissues for cardiovascular applications, as well as heart valves and other medical devices for blood vessel repair. With a focus on aortic technologies, the company has recently expanded their offerings to heart valves and stent grafts with the acquisition of On-X Life Technologies and JOTEC stent graft systems, respectively.

Ms. Eckerman joins CryoLife from Bolton Medical, an aortic stent graft manufacturer, where she served as Vice President of Global Marketing and was instrumental in the merger of Bolton Medical and Terumo’s subsidiary Vascutek under the brand Terumo Aortic following Bolton’s 2017 acquisition by the Japanese medical equipment company. Her earlier career features progressive sales and marketing roles with Medtronic and Intuitive Surgical, as well as service as Chief of Satellite Launch Operations in the United States Air Force.

“Megan’s deep understanding of cardiovascular technologies and their various worldwide customer bases will be a tremendous asset to CryoLife as they continue to reinvent themselves on a global stage,” notes Tom Callaway, MD, MBA, Founder of Life Science Partner. “I am confident her high emotional intelligence and thoughtful leadership philosophy will help her mobilize her team toward this ambitious goal.”

Ms. Eckerman earned her BS in Kinesiology from Indiana University and her MBA from the University of Colorado.

About Life Science Partner Executive Search

Life Science Partner is a specialized executive search firm that recruits transformational leaders for healthcare and life sciences companies. Our high-touch, partner-led process ensures an exceptional level of service, while our backgrounds as physicians and industry executives enable us to efficiently deliver the brightest candidates in the medical device, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and healthcare technology fields.

About CryoLife

Headquartered in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, CryoLife is a leader in the manufacturing, processing, and distribution of medical devices and implantable living tissues used in cardiac and vascular surgical procedures.  CryoLife markets and sells a highly competitive product portfolio focused on treating aortic disease in more than 80 countries worldwide.

Press Release PDF

Peter Schiller, PhD Joins Canary Medical as Vice President, Research & Development

Life Science Partner Executive Search is pleased to announce the recruitment of Peter Schiller, PhD to Canary Medical, where he will serve as Vice President of Research and Development.

Canary Medical is an innovative medical technology company commercializing smart implants in the orthopedic, cardiovascular, and aesthetic markets. The company integrates a sensor and microprocessor system into FDA-cleared implantable medical devices to generate real-time insights about the performance and safety of these products.

In his new role, Schiller will spearhead continued product development and commercialization, provide scientific and strategic leadership for this growing team, and serve as the face of the research and development organization to internal and external audiences.

An engineer with a PhD focused on smart sensor systems, Schiller has spent 20 years developing and commercializing novel medical technologies, including a MEMS sensor company he founded and led as CEO.

Schiller previously served as Director of Device Development at San Diego-based Progenity, where he led the design and development of a combination device and connected drug delivery system for gastrointestinal health.

“Peter has well-demonstrated his ability to design and develop novel, forward-thinking electromechanical solutions to complex medical problems,” notes Tom Callaway, Founder and President of Life Science Partner. “His decades in young companies speaks to his entrepreneurial spirit, risk tolerance, and real-world education in the challenges facing implantable medical device startups and how to best navigate them.”

Schiller earned his PhD in Electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, and his Masters and Bachelors degrees in Electrical Engineering from the same.

About Life Science Partner Executive Search

Life Science Partner is a specialized executive search firm that recruits transformational leaders for healthcare and life sciences companies. Our high-touch, partner-led process ensures an exceptional level of service, while our backgrounds as physicians and industry executives enable us to efficiently deliver the brightest candidates in the medical device, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and healthcare technology fields.

Heather Creran Joins Lineagen as Chief Operating Officer

Life Science Partner has recruited Heather Creran to become the Chief Operating Officer for Lineagen, an innovative genetics diagnostics company for neurodevelopmental disorders.

Creran’s depth of operational leadership experience will be a great asset for Lineagen, whose painless cheek swab test can detect hundreds of genetic conditions which can give rise to developmental delay and autism spectrum disorder. Lineagen’s test results are customized to help patients, parents and providers fully understand diagnoses and develop a healthcare management program which is tailored to the individual patient’s needs.

“Throughout her career, Creran has demonstrated a knack for strategic thinking and operational success,” emphasized Tom Callaway, President and Founder of Life Science Partner. Creran comes to Lineagen with extensive experience in highly relevant leadership roles. Most recently, she served as President and Board Director for Emory Genetics Laboratory, a joint venture between Emory University and the US Clinical Diagnostics Division of Eurofins Scientific, an international provider of bioanalytical testing and genomics services. Also of note is Creran’s experience as President and CEO of the cancer diagnostics company SCI Laboratories.

Creran looks forward to leveraging her passion for operational excellence to pursue accelerating growth and success at Lineagen.

About Life Science Partner Executive Search

Life Science Partner is a specialized executive search firm that recruits transformational leaders for healthcare and life sciences companies. Our high-touch, partner-led process ensures an exceptional level of service, while our backgrounds as physicians and industry executives enable us to efficiently deliver the brightest candidates in the medical device, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and healthcare technology fields.