Gerry Brunk

Managing Director, Lumira Ventures

With over 28 years of investment, consulting and entrepreneurial experience in the health care industry, Gerry has helped build life sciences companies at all stages of development. He focuses on investments in a range of therapeutic areas in the biotechnology and medical device sectors, including infectious diseases, neurology, cardiovascular disease, gene therapy and medical robotics. Gerry manages Lumira Ventures’ Boston office, which he established when he joined the firm in 2002.

Prior to joining Lumira Ventures, Gerry was an entrepreneur in the life sciences sector, founding and serving in a variety of management and board capacities at several venture capital-funded companies. Earlier in his career he was an engagement manager in the health care practice of The Boston Consulting Group, where he advised pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms on strategic issues including portfolio management, corporate partnering, R&D productivity, new product launches, disease management initiatives, acquisitions and post-merger integration. Gerry began his career as a member of the investment banking group of Credit Suisse First Boston in New York where his clients included public and private health care companies.

Read More…

David Celermajer, MD, PhD

Founder

Professor David Celermajer is the Scandrett Professor of Cardiology and Head of the Discipline of Cardiology at The University of Sydney. David is also an Academic Cardiologist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he is Director of Adult Congenital Heart Services and Director of Echocardiography. He is also a Staff Cardiologist at the Children’s Hospital in Westmead. In addition to these roles, David is also the Clinical Director of the Heart Research Institutes and serves on the Board of Directors of Heart Kids Australia. He is currently the Chairman of the Congenital Heart Alliance of Australia and New Zealand. He has been a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science since 2006 and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science since 2018. In 2014, He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).

Professor Celermajer sits on the Editorial Boards of many of the world’s leading Cardiology Journals, including the European Heart Journal, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Heart. He has published over 400 papers, with career citations of over 60 000 and an H-index of over 100. In recognition of this, he was awarded the inaugural Charles Blackburn Medal from the University of Sydney, for outstanding Clinical Research. With established research teams at the Heart Research Institute and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, he applies basic and clinical science to investigate his main research interests; Atherosclerosis, Congenital Heart Disease and Pulmonary vascular disease.

Read More…

George Fazio

President & CEO

George has been Chief Executive Officer and President at Corvia Medical since 2010. Prior to Corvia Medical, George held numerous leadership positions at St. Jude Medical from October 1992 through December 2009.

His roles at St. Jude Medical included: President of the U.S. Division, President of the Cardiovascular Division, President of the Cardiac Surgery Division, and President of Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) residing in Belgium. George also served as President of Health Care Services where he built the National Accounts function for managing cross-divisional contracting and General Manager of Canadian Operations where he brought St. Jude Medical’s operations direct from a distributor-based distribution model while residing in Toronto, Canada. Prior to St. Jude Medical, George held several positions of increasing responsibility at the Davis & Geck Division of American Home Products from 1984 to 1992 including Marketing-Product Manager, Regional Sales Manager, Sales Training Manager and Sales Representative. George is currently serving on the Board of Directors for BioVentrix Inc. He holds a B.S. from the State University of New York at Albany and an MBA from the Fordham University Graduate School of Business.

Read More…

Kevin Gillis

COO / Partner, Third Rock Ventures

With over 25 years of financial leadership and management experience, Kevin leads Third Rock’s non-investment activities, which include running internal operations and overseeing the firm’s finance, legal, communications and administrative functions. He also leads fundraising activities and manages the firm’s limited partner relationships.

Kevin appreciates that TRV has been able to stay true to our founders’ focus, transforming the lives of patients, while continuing to welcome team members with new energy and diverse ideas as we evolve as a firm. He is particularly excited about initiatives at the firm surrounding preventive medicine, which he believes have the opportunity to revolutionize the treatment paradigm for cancer and other serious diseases. The progress our portfolio companies have made excites Kevin, and seeing their work over the past decade now come to fruition in the form of approved products drives him to continue building expert teams with a passion for making a difference.

 

Kevin is incredibly proud of his wife and two children, and feels grateful to be part of a wonderful extended family.

Read More…

Paul LaViolette

Chairman, 
Partner, SV Health Investors

Paul brings over 35 years of global medical technology management experience to SV. He joined SV in 2009 as a Venture Partner and in 2011 was made a Partner. Paul was promoted to Managing Partner & COO in 2014 and heads our medical device investments.

Prior to SV, Paul built and ran medical device businesses for 29 years before joining SV Health Investors. Most recently he was Chief Operating Officer at Boston Scientific (BSC), an $8 billion medical device leader. During his 15 years at BSC, Paul served as Chief Operating Officer; Group President, Cardiovascular; President, Cardiology; Group President, Endosurgery; and President, International. During his tenure, the company grew revenue over 20 times. Paul integrated two dozen acquisitions and led extensive product development, manufacturing and worldwide commercial organizations. Previously, Paul held marketing and general management positions at CR Bard and various marketing roles at Kendall (Medtronic).

 

Outside of SV, Paul serves on the board of Edwards Lifesciences Corporation and the Medical Device Manufacturers Association, and is Chairman of the Innovation Growth Board at the Mass General Brigham health system. In addition, Paul serves on the board of Vibrato Medical, Inc. as a Director. He also served on the board of Advamed for 10 years and is a routine speaker at industry meetings.

Read More…

Hemant Taneja

Managing Director, General Catalyst

I am an investor, founder, and author. I am also the managing partner of General Catalyst.

I am an early investor in market-leading companies like Stripe, Livongo (acquired by Teladoc in an $18.5B merger, the largest in digital health history to-date), Samsara (NYSE: IOT), Snap (NYSE: SNAP), Fundbox, Grammarly, Gusto, Applied Intuition, and Anduril.

 

I am an advocate for Responsible Innovation, aligning innovation with the long-term interests of society by engineering for growth and good with greater intention, fewer unintended consequences, and increased inclusivity. In my 2022 book Intended Consequences: How to Build Market-Leading Companies with Responsible InnovationI lay out an actionable framework for founders and executives on how to create innovative companies built for growth and for societal good that withstand the test of time. As part of this, I am also co-founder and chairman of Responsible Innovation Labs, a non-profit consortium of leaders aiming to create standards of innovation to serve the needs of a global society, and to help build enduring companies that re-center technology as a force for good.

 

My 2020 book, UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance, co-authored with Dr. Stephen Klasko, CEO of Jefferson Health, details our thesis for how the healthcare system needs to transform a “sick care” system into a Health Assurance system designed to help people stay well, bend the cost curve, and make quality care more affordable and more accessible to all. In Unscaled, released in 2018, I articulate the need for accountability, transparency and explainability as AI permeates every aspect of our daily lives.

 

I wound up with five degrees from MIT because I was hoping to pursue an academic career: M.Eng. EECS, S.M. Operations Research, S.B. Biology, S.B. Mathematics, and S.B. EECS. In hindsight, that was excellent training for being a venture capitalist because I am always curious about new areas of innovation.

 

Alongside my work here at General Catalyst, I serve on the Stanford School of Medicine Board of Fellows, have worked on climate and energy issues as the co-founder and Chairman of Advanced Energy Economy, and I am a founding board member of Khan Lab School, an innovative K-12 school.

Read More…

Irit Yaniv, MD


Partner, Accelmed

Dr. Irit Yaniv is an experienced HealthTech investor and executive. She plays an important role in leading Accelmed Ventures’ portfolio companies, serving either as Chairperson or as an active board member. She is a co-founder of Digma Medical and NitiNotes.

In addition to Managing Accelmed’s Venture fund, Dr. Yaniv is the CEO and Co-Founder of Almeda Ventures. Dr. Yaniv holds an MD degree from the Ben-Gurion University and an MBA from the Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.

Read More…