05.22.13
The American College of Cardiology (ACC) has elected John Gordon Harold, M.D., M.A.C.C., as its newest president.
Harold is a clinical professor of medicine with the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, Calif. He previously served as chief of staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as well as the clinical chief of cardiology.
An active member of the ACC, Harold has served as president of the ACC’s California Chapter, ACC governor for Southern California, and Chair of the ACC Board of Governors. Through collaboration with the ACC California chapter and the British Cardiovascular Society, he also helped develop the International Twinning program, which pairs an ACC state chapter with a national cardiovascular society. The twinning program allows ACC chapters to collaborate on opportunities to improve overall heart health and cardiovascular care around the world.
During his presidency, Harold will focus on innovation in education and technology and attempt to further develop and expand the organization’s digital strategy in order to unify and enhance the college’s digital platforms and offerings.
“I am honored to lead the ACC as we begin to navigate the digital landscape in the coming year,” Harold said following his appointment. “Through this new digital strategy, the College will improve member experience and engagement, enhance the doctor patient/relationship, and improve quality. I will promote ACC’s mission to transform cardiovascular care and to improve heart health as a global knowledge organization that will continue to innovate and engage with its members in a mutually beneficial way. Forty years ago in San Francisco, my mentor Jeremy Swan, M.D., took over as president of the ACC. Serving as ACC president is in itself an amazing honor, but to assume the same role in the same city as the one person who started me on my journey with the ACC is even more rewarding.”
Harold earned a Bachelor of Science degree at the City College of New York, where he was a member of the first graduating class of the Sophie Davis Center for Biomedical Education. He received his medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, which named him Alumnus of the Year in 2007. Harold completed a three-year residency in internal medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York under the mentorship of Richard Gorlin, M.D., and Simon Dack, M.D. He returned to California for fellowship training in cardiovascular disease at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and began his practice in internal medicine and cardiology in 1985.
Harold has received the American Heart Association’s Passion of the Heart award and has been honored with the Master designation from both the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Physicians. He recently completed a six-year tenure on the American Board of Internal Medicine’s board of directors. Harold is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, critical care medicine and geriatrics.
The American College of Cardiology is a 43,000-member medical society comprised of physicians, surgeons, nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists and practice managers. The Washington, D.C.-based organization helps shape health policy, standards and guidelines; it also provides professional education, operates national registries to measure and improve quality of care, disseminates cardiovascular research, and bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists who meet stringent qualifications.
Uroplasty Loses CEO, Launches Search for Replacement
David B. Kaysen has resigned his post as president, CEO and board member of Uroplasty Inc., a Minneapolis, Minn.-based manufacturer of medical devices for the treatment of voiding dysfunctions. Independent director Robert C. Kill has been named interim CEO while the Board of Directors conducts a search for a permanent replacement.
“Dave Kaysen has served as our president and CEO since May 2006 and has guided the company through the introduction of its UrgentPC product, including the successful completion of clinical trials that resulted in a category 1 CPT code as well as Medicare reimbursement for that product in most jurisdictions,” said Board Chairman James Stauner. “Dave assumed the CEO role when Uroplasty had virtually all of its operations in Europe and generated only $6.4 million in revenue. He departs with the company generating over $22 million in annual sales, largely fueled by growth in Urgent PC sales. We truly appreciate all of Dave’s contributions.”
Kill, who has been a director with Uroplasty since 2010, currently is an operating partner with Altamont Capital Partners, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based private equity firm. Prior to joining Altamont, Kill was president and CEO of Virtual Radiologic Corporation, an Eden Prairie, Minn.-headquartered provider of technology-enabled outsourced radiology solutions. Before Virtual Radiologic, he was President of Misys Physician Systems, a developer of electronic medical record and practice management software. Kill was with Baxter Healthcare for the first 10 years of his career, where he held senior leadership roles in operations, marketing and sales.
Microline Expands Leadership Team
Beverly, Mass.-based Microline Surgical Inc., maker of reposable surgical laparoscopic instruments, has named Sharad H. Joshi as its new president and CEO. The appointment is part of a new leadership initiative; the company also gave Board Chairman Jean-Luc Boulnois, Ph.D., the title of executive chairman. He previously served as chairman and CEO for the past eight years.
Joshi has been a member of the Microline executive team since 2007, most recently serving as president and chief operating officer. He brings more than 25 years of medical device industry experience to his new position, including leadership roles in business development, marketing, sales, operations and research and development. Prior to joining Microline, Joshi was founder, president and CEO of Blue Torch Medical Technologies. Previously, he held positions with Boston Scientific Inc. and Alliant Medical Technologies.
According to Boulnois, the Microline executive board has brought in new leadership to re-engineer the company’s operational functions and better serve its partners, physician customers and their patients, while further expanding into worldwide markets.
“Joshi has played an integral part in Microline’s growth as we’ve extended our reach into the surgical marketplace both organically and through the introduction of the Mifusion energy product line,” said Boulnois, pointing out the company’s 17 percent annual growth average.
“This is a time of tremendous promise and change in the healthcare industry as surgeons expand minimally invasive surgical techniques into new procedural areas in an effort to reduce complications and improve outcomes for their patients,” said Joshi. “Microline is positioned for growth in the field of laparoscopy with our management team, global resources, business development strategy and products.”
According to Microline, Joshi will work closely with his recently expanded senior management team and board of directors. In his new role, Boulnois will concentrate on long term strategic objectives, while creating and developing partnerships that complement Microline’s core business and enhance shareholder value.
Sonoma Orthopedic Products Hires Three New Executives
Sonoma Orthopedic Products Inc. has appointed three new executives in the clinical affairs, marketing and research and development (R&D) departments.
“These proven performers were hired to drive our value proposition of revolutionizing fracture healing approaches to deliver a substantially better quality of life for patients than current treatment options,” said Rick Epstein, CEO of Sonoma. “As part of our already strong team, they will help fulfill the proposition through strategy, solid clinical evidence and inspired product design.”
Victoria Good, Ph.D., joined Sonoma as director of clinical affairs. She will be responsible for orchestrating clinical studies and publication efforts to demonstrate the unique advantages of Sonoma’s intramedullary implants. Good comes to Sonoma with more than 16 years of experience in orthopedics and clinical studies. Additionally, she has authored more than 50 medical device publications. She has also worked with Smith & Nephew plc, Covidien plc, and Carl Zeiss Meditec.
Alex Winber has accepted the position of vice president of marketing. He will communicate the various benefits the 8-year-old company’s products and minimally invasive procedures offer to fracture patients; he also will create patient education programs for surgeon customers. Winber joins Sonoma from Wright Medical Technology, where he spent 16 years. There, he led the commercialization of several important and successful technologies, ranging from computer-derived surgical navigation to a micro-invasive hip replacement technique.
Kyle Lappin was named Sonoma’s new director of R&D. He is charged with leading new product development activities for forthcoming implants and procedures, and optimizing existing product offerings. Lappin has been an orthopedic design engineer for the past 10 years, and has amassed more than 20 patents and patent applications at Wright Medical, Biomet Inc. and DePuy Companies. He has spent the past five and a half years working on shoulder technology at DePuy.
All three executives are relocating to Sonoma’s headquarters in Chicago, Ill.
Sonoma Orthopedic Products manufactures minimally invasive fracture healing products.
Former Abaxis Employee Settles SEC Charges of Insider Trading
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has settled charges with a former employer of Abaxis Inc., a Union City, Calif.-based medical device company for both human and animal care, who was found guilty of insider trading by the commission. ThanhHa Bao leaked illegal tips to her younger brother Tai Nguyen, who in turn sold the information to Noah Freeman and Samar Barai. Freeman worked at Sonar Capital Management LLC and later at the hedge fund SAC Capital Advisers; Barai is the founder of Barai Capiral Management LP.
The SEC charged Bao with regularly passing over information about Axis to Nguyen between 2006 and 2009. She worked in the finance department.
On March 14, Nguyen was sentenced to one year and one day in prison. In June 2012, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. He also agreed to a $400,000 criminal forfeiture.
Bao was not criminally charged, but she agreed in the SEC accord to a five-year ban from serving as an officer or director of a public company. Abaxis, as a company, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Freeman and Barai have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with federal prosecutors in a wide-ranging hedge fund insider-trading probe that began in 2009. More than 70 people have been convicted or pleaded guilty.
Harold is a clinical professor of medicine with the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, Calif. He previously served as chief of staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as well as the clinical chief of cardiology.
An active member of the ACC, Harold has served as president of the ACC’s California Chapter, ACC governor for Southern California, and Chair of the ACC Board of Governors. Through collaboration with the ACC California chapter and the British Cardiovascular Society, he also helped develop the International Twinning program, which pairs an ACC state chapter with a national cardiovascular society. The twinning program allows ACC chapters to collaborate on opportunities to improve overall heart health and cardiovascular care around the world.
During his presidency, Harold will focus on innovation in education and technology and attempt to further develop and expand the organization’s digital strategy in order to unify and enhance the college’s digital platforms and offerings.
“I am honored to lead the ACC as we begin to navigate the digital landscape in the coming year,” Harold said following his appointment. “Through this new digital strategy, the College will improve member experience and engagement, enhance the doctor patient/relationship, and improve quality. I will promote ACC’s mission to transform cardiovascular care and to improve heart health as a global knowledge organization that will continue to innovate and engage with its members in a mutually beneficial way. Forty years ago in San Francisco, my mentor Jeremy Swan, M.D., took over as president of the ACC. Serving as ACC president is in itself an amazing honor, but to assume the same role in the same city as the one person who started me on my journey with the ACC is even more rewarding.”
Harold earned a Bachelor of Science degree at the City College of New York, where he was a member of the first graduating class of the Sophie Davis Center for Biomedical Education. He received his medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, which named him Alumnus of the Year in 2007. Harold completed a three-year residency in internal medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York under the mentorship of Richard Gorlin, M.D., and Simon Dack, M.D. He returned to California for fellowship training in cardiovascular disease at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and began his practice in internal medicine and cardiology in 1985.
Harold has received the American Heart Association’s Passion of the Heart award and has been honored with the Master designation from both the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Physicians. He recently completed a six-year tenure on the American Board of Internal Medicine’s board of directors. Harold is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, critical care medicine and geriatrics.
The American College of Cardiology is a 43,000-member medical society comprised of physicians, surgeons, nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists and practice managers. The Washington, D.C.-based organization helps shape health policy, standards and guidelines; it also provides professional education, operates national registries to measure and improve quality of care, disseminates cardiovascular research, and bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists who meet stringent qualifications.
Uroplasty Loses CEO, Launches Search for Replacement
David B. Kaysen has resigned his post as president, CEO and board member of Uroplasty Inc., a Minneapolis, Minn.-based manufacturer of medical devices for the treatment of voiding dysfunctions. Independent director Robert C. Kill has been named interim CEO while the Board of Directors conducts a search for a permanent replacement.
“Dave Kaysen has served as our president and CEO since May 2006 and has guided the company through the introduction of its UrgentPC product, including the successful completion of clinical trials that resulted in a category 1 CPT code as well as Medicare reimbursement for that product in most jurisdictions,” said Board Chairman James Stauner. “Dave assumed the CEO role when Uroplasty had virtually all of its operations in Europe and generated only $6.4 million in revenue. He departs with the company generating over $22 million in annual sales, largely fueled by growth in Urgent PC sales. We truly appreciate all of Dave’s contributions.”
Kill, who has been a director with Uroplasty since 2010, currently is an operating partner with Altamont Capital Partners, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based private equity firm. Prior to joining Altamont, Kill was president and CEO of Virtual Radiologic Corporation, an Eden Prairie, Minn.-headquartered provider of technology-enabled outsourced radiology solutions. Before Virtual Radiologic, he was President of Misys Physician Systems, a developer of electronic medical record and practice management software. Kill was with Baxter Healthcare for the first 10 years of his career, where he held senior leadership roles in operations, marketing and sales.
Microline Expands Leadership Team
Beverly, Mass.-based Microline Surgical Inc., maker of reposable surgical laparoscopic instruments, has named Sharad H. Joshi as its new president and CEO. The appointment is part of a new leadership initiative; the company also gave Board Chairman Jean-Luc Boulnois, Ph.D., the title of executive chairman. He previously served as chairman and CEO for the past eight years.
Joshi has been a member of the Microline executive team since 2007, most recently serving as president and chief operating officer. He brings more than 25 years of medical device industry experience to his new position, including leadership roles in business development, marketing, sales, operations and research and development. Prior to joining Microline, Joshi was founder, president and CEO of Blue Torch Medical Technologies. Previously, he held positions with Boston Scientific Inc. and Alliant Medical Technologies.
According to Boulnois, the Microline executive board has brought in new leadership to re-engineer the company’s operational functions and better serve its partners, physician customers and their patients, while further expanding into worldwide markets.
“Joshi has played an integral part in Microline’s growth as we’ve extended our reach into the surgical marketplace both organically and through the introduction of the Mifusion energy product line,” said Boulnois, pointing out the company’s 17 percent annual growth average.
“This is a time of tremendous promise and change in the healthcare industry as surgeons expand minimally invasive surgical techniques into new procedural areas in an effort to reduce complications and improve outcomes for their patients,” said Joshi. “Microline is positioned for growth in the field of laparoscopy with our management team, global resources, business development strategy and products.”
According to Microline, Joshi will work closely with his recently expanded senior management team and board of directors. In his new role, Boulnois will concentrate on long term strategic objectives, while creating and developing partnerships that complement Microline’s core business and enhance shareholder value.
Sonoma Orthopedic Products Hires Three New Executives
Sonoma Orthopedic Products Inc. has appointed three new executives in the clinical affairs, marketing and research and development (R&D) departments.
“These proven performers were hired to drive our value proposition of revolutionizing fracture healing approaches to deliver a substantially better quality of life for patients than current treatment options,” said Rick Epstein, CEO of Sonoma. “As part of our already strong team, they will help fulfill the proposition through strategy, solid clinical evidence and inspired product design.”
Victoria Good, Ph.D., joined Sonoma as director of clinical affairs. She will be responsible for orchestrating clinical studies and publication efforts to demonstrate the unique advantages of Sonoma’s intramedullary implants. Good comes to Sonoma with more than 16 years of experience in orthopedics and clinical studies. Additionally, she has authored more than 50 medical device publications. She has also worked with Smith & Nephew plc, Covidien plc, and Carl Zeiss Meditec.
Alex Winber has accepted the position of vice president of marketing. He will communicate the various benefits the 8-year-old company’s products and minimally invasive procedures offer to fracture patients; he also will create patient education programs for surgeon customers. Winber joins Sonoma from Wright Medical Technology, where he spent 16 years. There, he led the commercialization of several important and successful technologies, ranging from computer-derived surgical navigation to a micro-invasive hip replacement technique.
Kyle Lappin was named Sonoma’s new director of R&D. He is charged with leading new product development activities for forthcoming implants and procedures, and optimizing existing product offerings. Lappin has been an orthopedic design engineer for the past 10 years, and has amassed more than 20 patents and patent applications at Wright Medical, Biomet Inc. and DePuy Companies. He has spent the past five and a half years working on shoulder technology at DePuy.
All three executives are relocating to Sonoma’s headquarters in Chicago, Ill.
Sonoma Orthopedic Products manufactures minimally invasive fracture healing products.
Former Abaxis Employee Settles SEC Charges of Insider Trading
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has settled charges with a former employer of Abaxis Inc., a Union City, Calif.-based medical device company for both human and animal care, who was found guilty of insider trading by the commission. ThanhHa Bao leaked illegal tips to her younger brother Tai Nguyen, who in turn sold the information to Noah Freeman and Samar Barai. Freeman worked at Sonar Capital Management LLC and later at the hedge fund SAC Capital Advisers; Barai is the founder of Barai Capiral Management LP.
The SEC charged Bao with regularly passing over information about Axis to Nguyen between 2006 and 2009. She worked in the finance department.
On March 14, Nguyen was sentenced to one year and one day in prison. In June 2012, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. He also agreed to a $400,000 criminal forfeiture.
Bao was not criminally charged, but she agreed in the SEC accord to a five-year ban from serving as an officer or director of a public company. Abaxis, as a company, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Freeman and Barai have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with federal prosecutors in a wide-ranging hedge fund insider-trading probe that began in 2009. More than 70 people have been convicted or pleaded guilty.