Speakers

Featured Speakers

Ronald W. Dollens
Former President and Chief Executive Officer, Guidant Corporation

Ronald W. Dollens is the retired President and Chief Executive Officer of Guidant Corporation, a Fortune 500 company acquired in 2006 in a $27 Billion transaction. Mr. Dollens assumed the post as President and Chief Executive Officer of Guidant when the company was formed in 1994 from a split off from Eli Lilly and Company, where he held the position as President, Medical Devices and Diagnostics. Mr. Dollens is currently the non-executive Chairman of the Board, Kinetic Concepts Inc. and a Director of ABIOMED Corporation. Mr. Dollens has held the Harold Poling Chair of Business and Government, Indiana University, and is the past Chairman of the Board of Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), and Chairman of the Healthcare Leadership Council.

Additional policy involvement has included The Advisory Committee on Regulatory Reform, appointed by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, Tommy G. Thompson, and a member of the New York Stock Exchange Listed Company Advisory Board. Mr. Dollens is a Director for the Alliance for Aging Research, Butler University, the Eiteljorg Museum, the Regenstrief Foundation, and past Chairman of the 2003 United Way of Central Indiana. Mr. Dollens has an advisory role for Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, Stanford Advisory Council on Interdisciplinary Biosciences, and Purdue University’s School of Pharmacy.

Mr. Dollens received his B.S. in Pharmacy and Pharmacal Sciences, Purdue University and MBA, Indiana University and has received two honorary doctorate degrees.

 

Jeff Hoffman
Managing Director and Head of West Coast Healthcare Investment Banking
J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.

Jeff Hoffman is a Managing Director and Head of West Coast Healthcare Investment Banking. He has more than 16 years experience in the full range of investment banking activities including financial advisory services, mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt financings, and venture capital investments. Prior to joining JP Morgan, Mr. Hoffman was Head of Healthcare Investment Banking at Piper Jaffray, with execution focus on life sciences and medical technology clients.

Mr. Hoffman received a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

 

 

Richard S. Stack, M.D., F.A.C.C.
President, Synecor, LLC

Dr. Richard S. Stack is President of Synecor, LLC (Synecor) a business generator and financial incubator of new medical device companies based in the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, Santa Rosa, California, and Silicon Valley, California. He is also General Partner of Synergy Life Science Partners, LP (www.synergylsp.com) a life science venture fund. In the past six years, Richard has co-founded and invested in five major medical device companies, including Synecor itself, with a combined current valuation of over $675M. Richard chairs the scientific advisory board, leads the pre-clinical testing services provided at Synecor and is the interim President of each of the Synecor spinout companies.

Richard has long been recognized as an international thought leader in the medical technology field. He has authored over 360 manuscripts, book chapters and scientific abstracts. He has been a principal and co-principal investigator of three NIH grants and received numerous research awards during his career including the International Award for Best Interventional Cardiology Experimental Research (1995, Netherlands). Richard has invented and/or invested in numerous technologies that have become adopted by physicians the world over. He has over 70 worldwide patents issued or pending on a wide variety of medical devices.

Richard is Professor Emeritus of Medicine in Cardiology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where he spent his entire academic medical career, since 1981, as Founder and Director of Duke Interventional Cardiology. Richard retired early from his academic career to join the investment community with the formation of Synecor, LLC in the year 2000 and Synergy LSP in 2006.

Panel Speakers (partial list)

• James F. Buck, Vice President, Marketing & Business Development, InnerPulse, Inc.
• Kevin Connors, General Partner, Spray Venture Partners
• H. Richard Davis, Chief Technology Officer, Tryton Medical, Inc.
• Geoffrey Erickson, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Humacyte, Inc.
• John Funkhouser, President & Chief Executive Officer, nContact Surgical, Inc.
• Garheng Kong, M.D., Ph.D., Partner, Intersouth Partners
• R. Frederick McCoy, Jr., Vice Chairman, Synecor, LLC
• David Milne, Managing Partner, SV Life Sciences
• Don Munoz, Managing Director, Head of Medical Technology Investment Banking, Leerink Swann
• Barry S. Myers, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, Anderson-Rupp Professor, Senior Associate Dean for Industrial Partnerships and Research Commercialization and Director, Duke University Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization
• John J. Smith, M.D., J.D., Partner, Hogan & Hartson LLP
• Richard West, Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Liquid Logic, Inc.
• Tim Willis, President, Chief Executive Officer and co-Founder, Kolis Scientific, Inc.