Openwater Welcomes New CEO

Openwater has a new leader, having recently appointed Aaron Timm as CEO. The former Vivalink executive with more than two decades in clinical leadership brings the strategic acumen and operational expertise to scale Openwater through its next phase of global growth, executives said.

Company founder Mary Lou Jepsen will continue to serve as board chair, maintaining her focus on advancing Openwater’s mission of providing hospital-grade care to more patients.

Openwater has rapidly grown its worldwide reach by combining sound and light-based therapies with open-source principles, enabling faster product development and broader availability of high-grade medical technology. With pre-order interest for the Open-Motion 3.0 imaging unit and Open-LIFU 2.0 therapeutic devices, the company is moving from research partnerships into larger-scale commercialization.

Timm has served in executive roles spanning medical imaging, remote monitoring, and digital health. At Vivalink, he led commercial strategy, building alliances that accelerated the global adoption of wearable clinical solutions. He also previously guided imaging firm Synarc through acquisition and merger, shaping a pipeline of multi-country clinical trials. His experience in navigating regulatory compliance, patent law, and product-scale supply chain will strengthen Openwater’s ability to place its devices in the hands of researchers, hospitals, and clinicians worldwide.

“Throughout my career, I’ve helped integrate advanced technology into clinical workflows without pushing costs beyond patients’ reach,” Timm noted in his first official statement as CEO. “Openwater’s open-source foundations and focus on non-invasive therapy match what the global healthcare market urgently needs: practical, high-quality solutions that anyone can access. My priority is scaling our operations while keeping a clear focus on affordable, game-changing care.”

As company founder and board chair, Jepsen will focus on product vision, major partnerships, and expanding Openwater’s platform, which integrates consumer electronics manufacturing with medical-grade precision.

“Improving healthcare for everyone is what inspired me to start Openwater,” Jepsen said. “By expanding our leadership, we can reach people faster in more places, whether they’re battling cancer, stroke, or neurodegenerative diseases. I will remain fully engaged in driving our overarching mission: make hospital-level care attainable at a fraction of traditional costs.”

Openwater recently established an office in Taiwan to coordinate manufacturing, reflecting the company’s transition from R&D to broader distribution. Timm will oversee expansion both domestically and globally, ensuring the portable, open-source devices can address gaps in imaging, neuromodulation, and targeted ultrasound treatments. The company’s momentum is further energized by ongoing collaborations with major research universities and clinical centers worldwide.

Openwater’s early trials have shown it can non-invasively treat certain cancers at the cellular level, precisely modulate neuronal activity to address severe depression, and offer imaging comparable to hospital-grade machines. By marrying open-source development with consumer-level semiconductor production, Openwater lowers hurdles to regulatory approval and drives down device costs.

Openwater is a medical technology company that strives to make hospital-grade care universally accessible. Backed by supporters including Khosla Ventures, Plum Alley, BOLD Capital Partners, Vitalik Buterin, Esther Dyson, and Peter Gabriel, Openwater employs open-source development and consumer electronics manufacturing to lower the cost and speed the delivery of non-invasive medical devices. The company collaborates with various institutions worldwide to research, validate, and distribute these technologies, aiming to reach patients across borders and income levels.