Tag Archive for: CEO

Edward Cannon to join the AerovectRx Corporation as Chief Executive Officer

Life Science Partner recruits former CEO of AdipoGenix, Inc.

Life Science Partner announces the recruitment of Ed Cannon, an entrepreneurial pharmaceutical executive, to AerovectRx Corporation. 

AerovectRx is an early-stage aerosol therapeutic development company capitalizing upon its unique AeroCell™ disposable drug cartridge to improve patient compliance, eliminate multi-user cross contamination, and deliver a wide variety of vaccine and therapies.   Licensed from the Centers for Disease Control, the delivery platform has the potential to improve vaccines, pulmonary drugs, and lung-delivered therapeutics for systemic diseases.

Cannon was the founder and CEO of AdipoGenix, Inc., an early stage biopharmaceutical company utilizing a novel drug discovery technology to isolate fat precursor cells and identify small molecule drug candidates that treat obesity and its co-morbidities.  He was responsible for building a management and scientific team, creating strategy around the technology platform, and raising capital for the company.  Earlier, Cannon was the founding CEO of Elixir Pharmaceuticals, where he successfully led the team through Series A and B funding and three major discovery programs, each with a lead series of compounds.  In addition, Cannon was co-founder of Dyax Corporation where he was president of the therapeutics and diagnostics division.

“Ed is the consummate start-up biotech executive who understands the complexity of drug discovery and development, while executing on fundraising and business development activities,” noted Tom Callaway, MD, founder and president of Life Science Partner.  “Working with founder Matthew Kim, Cannon will move the company’s platform to create new aerosol therapeutics through partnerships and the company’s own molecules.”

Cannon will build a start-up team overseeing research and product development, clinical and regulatory, operations and sales and marketing.

Cannon received a Bachelor of Science degree, a Masters in Statistics and Computer Sciences and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Georgia.  He completed his postdoctoral training in Molecular Immunology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

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Rob Shaw to join Georgia Arthritis Foundation as President and CEO

Life Science Partner recruits Rob Shaw, Former Executive Director of the Georgia Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Life Science Partner announces the recruitment of Rob Shaw, a not-for-profit healthcare focused executive, to the Georgia Arthritis Foundation. 

The Arthritis Foundation is a nationwide nonprofit organization leading efforts to prevent, control and cure arthritis and related diseases with more than 500,000 volunteers, 46 chapters and 150 community service sites.  The Georgia Arthritis Foundation works to improve the quality of life for children and adults with rheumatic diseases and their families.  The Arthritis Foundation works to improve medical care, provide collective and individual advocacy, stimulate research, and provide education and support for a disease that affects people of all ages.

Shaw is an experienced fundraiser and health advocate.  In Shaw’s most recent role at the Georgia Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), he successfully led the organization in raising millions of dollars each year for the JDRF program through a wide variety of community fundraising events and a major gifts program.

A native Floridian, Rob moved to the coast of Georgia in 1992 and then relocated to Atlanta in 1994.  Over the past thirteen years, Rob has been actively working with not-for-profits including: Project Open Hand, AIDS Walk Atlanta and the American Heart Association.

“In addition to being a seasoned and successful fundraising executive, Rob exhibits a genuine passion and commitment that is magnet for enthusiastic volunteers and board members,” noted Tom Callaway, MD, founder and president of Life Science Partner.

Rob received his Bachelors degree in Science and Journalism from the University of Florida in Gainesville.

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Ray Cohen Appointed CEO of Symphony Medical

Former CEO of Cardiac Science to Build New Atrial Fibrillation Company

Life Science Partner announced today the recruitment of Ray Cohen to become Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors of Symphony Medical, a clinical development stage company commercializing biopolymer-based products for cardiovascular conduction abnormalities, including atrial fibrillation.

A Cleveland Clinic spin-off company, Symphony Medical recently raised more than $6 million in equity funding to develop treatments for atrial fibrillation and other ailments.

Symphony Medical was founded in 2002 with technologies that focus on the development and commercialization of novel treatments of cardiovascular conduction abnormalities. Using practical and cost-effective approaches, Symphony’s products are designed to correct cardiac conduction disorders through safe biologic, non-ablative means.

Presently, Symphony is engaged in the clinical development phase of its first product for the prevention of post-operative atrial fibrillation.

Tom Callaway, MD, President of Life Science Partner noted, “Cohen is an acknowledged leader in the field of the early-stage company in cardiac disease – having revived Cardiac Science, the early leader in the field of Automatic Atrial Defibrillators.” Joining Cardiac Science in 1997, he identified the vision, hired the scientific and sales leadership team, raised over $130 million in equity and debt capital, and captured 25% the world market share in AEDs.

Cohen led a very aggressive acquisition strategy, acquiring and integrating four companies – Cadent Medical, Survivalink, Comlient and Artema), that enabled the company to continue its rapid growth and build its technology portfolio.  Versed in international business, Cohen’s team established OEM relationships with Medtronic Physio-Control, GE and Japan’s Nihon Kohden Corporation. 

In September 2005, Cohen merged Cardiac Science with Quinton Cardiology Systems, Inc., where he remains as Chairman of the Board and strategic advisor of the merged company still operating under the Cardiac Science name (www.cardiacscience.com).

Cohen’s experience in building companies based upon novel technologies did not begin with Cardiac Science. He was previously the owner of a cardiac diagnostic monitoring and device company, Diagnostic Monitoring, and the President of BioAnalogics, a developer of bio electrical impedence devices.  His early career is marked by a successful track record as a sales leader in the field of medical devices rising to the level Vice President, Sales and Marketing of Brentwood Instruments in Torrance, California.

Under Cohen’s leadership, Symphony expects to commercialize its atrial fibrillation technologies and other products through corporate partners with global marketing and sales capabilities. The company has established a culture of rapid product development, continuous expansion of intellectual property, minimization of capital and personnel expenses, and superior science and clinical know-how.

In addition to his leadership as Chairman of the Board of Cardiac Science, Cohen is a member of the Young President Organization, the IndUS Entrepreneurs and a lecturer at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Merage School of Business at UC Irvine.

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PrognostiX Welcomes Mark Willig as new CEO

Life Science Partner places entrepreneurial-minded sales exec to lead Cleveland Clinic’s diagnostic services spin-off

Life Science Partner announces the placement of Mark R.Willig, as CEO, at Cleveland-based PrognostiX, Inc. As the company’s chief executive, Willig will lead product development and commercialization of technology while overseeing finance and marketing strategy.

A medical diagnostics company founded by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, PrognostiX’s testing kits and laboratory services focus on inflammatory processes in major disease areas including cardiovascular, respiratory, neurodegenerative disease and obesity.

“It’s been invigorating to watch this come together for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation’s first homegrown spin off,” says Thomas H. Callaway, Life Science Partner’s founder and president. “PrognostiX has won product approval, defined a strategy, and prepared for production. What they needed was an entrepreneur to catalyze sales and organizational development. Mark fits that bill very well.”

Willig joins another Life Science Partner placement at PrognostiX, Vijay Aggarwal, who is a member of the board of directors.

At both established and specialized diagnostic firms, as well as companies serving other healthcare fields, Willig has demonstrated his ability to devise successful go-to-market strategies while planning, assembling and managing effective sales forces. Previously with Specialty Labs, a clinical reference laboratory and diagnostic research company, he was senior vice president of sales and marketing. There, he set strategy for the sales and marketing organization, guiding transitions to a customer-driven focus, a vertical-markets approach, and greater international revenues. Under Willig, Specialty was the only national reference lab to record eight consecutive quarters of organic revenue growth.

As vice president of sales at Myriad Genetics, a biopharmaceutical company, Willig led an organization that saw sales increase by an average of 200 percent annually over a four-year period. Willig managed a total in-house staff of 106 people in addition to an alliance partner’s sales force of 700. He also held responsibility for sales infrastructure and process improvements including a customer relationship management software implementation.

With software developer Orca Medical Systems, as vice president of sales and marketing, Willig devised the start-up’s first marketing strategies, which targeted hospital emergency departments worldwide. He also recruited and trained a national sales force. Within 18 months, Orca won $3 million in new business and added some of the most prestigious provider organizations in the US to its client roster.

Willig began his career in the diagnostics division of Abbott Laboratories, a provider of diagnostic instrumentation and reagents to hospitals, clinics and reference labs. Most recently at Abbott, as integrated health systems manager, Willig had responsibility over a staff of 42 sales reps selling to and serving large healthcare systems.

Willig holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri.

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Shelley Hartman Tapped To Lead GMP Companies

Life Science Partner places healthcare industry strategist and investment banker to guide medical device company.

Life Science Partner announces the placement of Shelley Hartman as president and chief executive officer for GMP Companies, Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In addition to her overall responsibilities for global strategy, finance, and operations, Hartman will direct GMP Companies’ continued expansion and transformation toward a greater emphasis on commercialization of its innovative products. GMP Companies’ pharmaceutical, diagnostic and medical device technologies help treat medical conditions including diabetes, glaucoma, genetic diseases, cardiovascular diseases, immunologic diseases, cancer and neurological disorders.

“Shelley will be able to put her broad talents and knowledge of the industry to great use for a company with such farreaching complexity like GMP,” says Thomas H. Callaway, Life Science Partner’s founder and president. “As a financier who has worked with some of the biggest names in the medical device and healthcare services fields, she’ll impact GMP’s strategic partnership portfolio and commercialization efforts.”

Hartman is an experienced investment banker with a background in corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions.

Before joining GMP Companies, Hartman was vice president and managing director of Goldman Sachs’ medical technology investment banking division, a group she created to serve both emerging and established medical device companies. Also at Goldman Sachs, Hartman held the same title at the healthcare services division. In these roles, she
has helped senior executive teams define strategy at some of the nation’s largest healthcare companies.

Hartman began her career at First Boston, where she held several positions, including vice president of the mergers and acquisitions division in the firm’s healthcare division.

Hartman is a graduate of Wellesley College, with a degree in economics and math.

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