SpectraWAVE Appoints Two New Vice Presidents to Executive Team

SpectraWAVE Inc. has added two new members to its C-Suite.

The company has appointed Vivek Walimbe, Ph.D., as vice president of Research and Development, and Farzad Parsaie as vice president of Quality and Regulatory Affairs. The pair is charged with expanding SpectraWAVE’s product portfolio and attaining regulatory approval of its flagship intracoronary imaging technology.

Dr. Walimbe most recently worked at Baxter Healthcare as vice president of Research and Development, and was responsible for innovation, new product development, and lifecycle management for the company’s $2.8 billion Medication Delivery business unit, including broadening the focus from a single product to a portfolio of connected infusion systems, monitoring technologies, and digital software applications. Prior to Baxter Healthcare, Dr. Walimbe spent seven years at GE Healthcare in technical and leadership roles of increasing scope to help launch multiple imaging products and applications in global markets, followed by a role at Medtronic managing new product development programs.

Dr. Walimbe earned his Ph.D. from Ohio State University, and performed his graduate research at Cleveland Clinic, where he led the investigation of multimodality imaging application for improved diagnosis of coronary artery disease. He is the author or co-author of more than 15 patents and 25 scientific publications.

“The intracoronary imaging product that SpectraWAVE is developing is an amazing engineering feat, combining multiple imaging modalities without sacrificing the quality of either, all wrapped up in an incredible form factor coupled with an elegant, intuitive workflow,” said Dr. Walimbe. “Joining a fast-paced and skilled team like this and taking part in the innovation process is incredibly exciting. I’m looking forward to working with the team to ensure we have the maximum impact on patients, both with the flagship product and our plans for expanding the portfolio.”

Parsaie’s last job was at Johnson & Johnson’s Robotics and Digital Solutions, where he supervised program management of hardware subsystems, advanced visualization, and new product introduction. Before J&J, Parsaie served at Levitronix initially as vice president of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance, and then chief operating officer. He also worked as chief operating officer at GeNO, and was president and CEO of Nido Surgical.

Parsaie earned an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
 
“This past year has been an incredible period of growth and productivity for our company,” said Eman Namati, Ph.D., CEO of SpectraWAVE. “The additions of Vivek and Farzad to our executive team represent our ambition to solidify our platform and further innovate and transform this space. Vivek’s background in imaging, along with a track record in leading high-performing teams, will ensure our flagship product completes the development process efficiently while working to expand our portfolio. Farzad’s extensive medical device background in quality, regulatory affairs, and operations, are essential as we scale towards global medical device manufacturing.” 
 
Based in Bedford, Mass, SpectraWAVE is a privately held medical device company founded in 2017 to provide unrivaled optical and computational insights for the treatment and prevention of coronary artery disease (CAD). CAD, the buildup of plaque in the wall of the arteries that supply blood to the heart, affects 18.2 million adults age 20 and older. In CAD patients that undergo percutaneous stent placement, it is estimated that one in five patients experience adverse events, with half of those adverse events caused by high risk plaques that were previously left untreated. The SpectraWAVE medical imaging platform is a state-of-the-art integration of proven imaging technologies designed to help interventional cardiologists understand their patients and optimize interventions.