Advanced Bifurcation Systems Appoints Industry Veteran to Board of Directors

Advanced Bifurcation Systems (ABS), a clinical stage medical device company developing a stenting platform which overcomes the limitations of current approaches for the treatment of bifurcation lesions in coronary angioplasties, has added Thomas O’Neill to the Board of Directors.
 
O’Neill is an industry veteran who brings more than 30 years of board and executive-level experience in the financial markets and medical devices to ABS. During his financial career, O’Neill was a founder of Sandler O’Neill + Partners and headed up practice groups for notable financial institutions including Rothschild and Bear Stearns. He also amassed extensive board-level experience for institutions such as Nasdaq and First Allied, and has valuable industry expertise having been an independent director at medical device company, Misonix, for over a decade.
 
O’Neill currently serves as co-chairman of First Empire, a U.S. broker dealer. He has served as an independent director of Bank Financial Corp. since 2012 and is a director at Crypto Metrics. Previously, O’Neill was as an independent director at Archer Daniels Midland Company from 2004 until 2016, and The Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (now Nasdaq Inc.) from 2003 to 2015. He also served as director of The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC and as an independent director at Misonix, a medical device company, from 2003 until 2015.
 
“We are thrilled to have Tom join the ABS team. As a financial services industry veteran, he brings deep industry knowledge and financial market relationships to ABS. In addition, his experience in medical devices makes Thomas particularly well-qualified to join our board. Tom is a sought-after advisor and we look forward to his contributions as we work to achieve our corporate goals,” said Charles Laverty, CEO of Advanced Bifurcation Systems.
 
In earlier roles, O’Neill co-founded investment bank Sandler O’Neill + Partners in 1988 and remained with the firm through 2010. He also served as a managing director and co-manager of Bear Stearns and as its co-manager of the Financial Services Group from 1985-1988. He previously acted as chairman of the holding company of First Allied, a U.S. broker-dealer. O’Neill joined Ranieri Partners in 2010 as the chairman of the Financial Services Group. He began his career at L.F. Rothschild & Co. and served as managing director of the Bank Service Group at Rothschild from 1983 to 1988.
 
“I am excited to join ABS at this important juncture in the company’s growth trajectory, as it prepares to apply for FDA approval,” said O’Neill. “Advanced Bifurcation is an innovative leader and I believe could deliver significant strides in coronary treatments through its unique patented technology. I look forward to working with the team to achieve ABS’s financial and strategic objectives.”
 
O’Neill is a veteran of the United States Air Force and a graduate of New York University.
 
ABS has created a new stenting platform designed to treat bifurcation lesions in coronary patients. Current methods are complex and unreliable, but the ABS platform has simplified the process and it is hoped that their method with become the standard of care and reduce the number of open-heart surgeries.
 
O’Neil is the latest senior executive to join the ABS team. In the last six months, the company has secured additional funding and added an experienced group of professionals to its leadership team. Scott King has been appointed as chief compliance officer, Ken Richards has joined the organization as chief financial officer, and Drew Foster has been named vice president of Global Business Development.
 
Advanced Bifurcation Systems is a clinical stage medical device company developing a stenting platform for simple treatment of all bifurcation lesions in coronary angioplasties. ABS has developed a technology that overcomes the limitations of current approaches while simplifying the procedure. The company’s system consists of numerous differentiating features, including a modular independently movable dual-catheter system for provisional side-branch stenting as well as full bifurcation stenting with a proprietary crimping technology allowing for partial crimping of the main stent.