Management Team

Branislav Vajdic, PhD, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of HeartBeam, Inc, combines over 30 years of experience in technology development and senior management positions. Dr. Vajdic has been deeply involved with the development of HeartBeam’s technology to fit his vision for the Company. Prior to HeartBeam from 2007 to 2010, Dr. Vajdic was CEO and Founder of NewCardio, a publicly traded company in the cardiovascular devices space. From 1984 to 2007, Dr. Vajdic was at Intel, where he held various senior management position. At Intel, Dr. Vajdic and was the designer of first Flash memory and two key inventions that enabled Flash as a product and led engineering groups responsible for Pentium 1 through Pentium 4 designs. Dr. Vajdic was awarded two Intel Achievement Awards, the highest level of award for outstanding contributions to Intel. Dr. Vajdic is author of numerous patents and publications in the fields of cardiovascular devices as well as chip design. Dr. Vajdic holds a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Robert P. Eno, President, brings over 28 years of experience with a proven track record of developing markets and commercializing disruptive medical technologies.  He has created go-to-market strategies for multiple breakthrough products including noninvasive FFRCT diagnostic for coronary artery disease, laser cataract surgery, scanning laser photocoagulation and intravascular brachytherapy.  Before joining HeartBeam, Mr. Eno was Chief Executive Officer of Preview Medical, Inc., a diagnostic equipment company creating a new category of real-time, in vivo tissue classification for solid tumor cancers using machine learning and proprietary optical signals.  Previously, he served as Senior Vice President of Marketing for HeartFlow, Inc. leading all aspects of the marketing and product functions for a new category of personalized, noninvasive testing for heart disease, including its initial product, HeartFlow FFRCT.  He has also held senior marketing and sales leadership roles at OptiMedica (acquired by Abbott), NeoGuide Systems (acquired by Intuitive) an Avantec Vacular (acquired by Goodman Co. Ltd).  Mr. Eno began his career at Guidant, where he held a series of marketing and strategic planning roles in the Vascular Intervention business. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA, with Honors and Distinction, from Stanford University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa.

Richard D. Brounstein, Chief Financial Officer, combines over 30 years of experience in health technology senior management. Since 2017 Mr. Brounstein has been and is currently a partner of Hardesty, LLC, a financial services firm, and Mr. Brounstein is currently a managing director of CTRLCFO, LLC, a firm Mr. Brounstein founded in 2016 to support funded start-ups in life science and technology. Previously, from 2008 to 2011, Mr. Brounstein was Chief Financial Officer and Secretary on a part-time basis of NewCardio, Inc., a microcap public company in the Cardiology space, and over his career has been with nine other companies in life science or technology, holding positions including Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Treasurer and Accounting Manager. From June 2001 through November 2007, Mr. Brounstein held several positions at Calypte Biomedical Corporation, a publicly traded medical device company, including Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President. Mr. Brounstein served on the Board of CIMR (California Institute of Medical Research) from 2012 to 2018. Since 2000 Mr. Brounstein has been on the Board of Financial Executives International (FEI)’s Silicon Valley Chapter. In January 2007, Mr. Brounstein was appointed as the National Member Representative for the 2007 COSO Monitoring Project, which published new guidelines for monitoring internal financial controls in February 2009; Mr. Brounstein subsequently was a member of the FEI task force that issued the updated COSO Internal Control Framework in 2013. In March 2005, Mr. Brounstein was appointed to the SEC Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies. Mr. Brounstein earned his Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certification while working at Arthur Andersen LLP, formerly a public accounting firm. Mr. Brounstein holds a B.A. in accounting and an M.B.A. in finance, both from Michigan State University.

Peter Fitzgerald, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, is the Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Technology and Director of the Cardiovascular Core Analysis Laboratory at Stanford University Medical School. He is an interventional cardiologist and holds a PhD in electrical engineering. Dr. Fitzgerald is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Medicine (Cardiology) at Stanford University and has led or participated in over 175 clinical trials, published over 650 manuscripts/chapters, and lectures worldwide. Over the past two decades, he has trained over 150 post-doctoral candidates in engineering and medicine. Dr. Fitzgerald has been principle and founder of 24 medical device companies in the San Francisco Bay area, transitioning 18 of these start-ups to medium/large-cap life science companies. In 2009, he co-founded TriVentures, an Israeli-based incubator/venture fund for early-stage medical technology and digital health. He has also been a consultant to the US Food and Drug Administration for the past 20 years, focused on medical technology and data driven health analytics.

Ken Persen, Chief Technology Officer, has over 25 years of experience in the digital healthcare and cardiac device industries. Most recently, Mr. Persen founded LIVMOR, Inc. a digital health company, where he served as Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Persen began his career in the cardiac rhythm device industry in software engineering and development roles with Guidant Corporation and Cameron Health, both subsequently acquired by Boston Scientific, and then held leadership roles with medical informatics instruments and systems delivering electronic medical care, before founding LIVMOR.

Richa Gujarati, Senior Vice President, Product, has over 13 years of experience collecting market-level insights and translating them into business needs, driving overall product portfolio and go-to-market strategy. Prior to joining HeartBeam, Ms. Gujarati was Vice President of Product & Go-To-Market Strategy at NextSense. Previously, she was Head of Health Products, Apple Watch, at Apple, building and launching applications in the wearable sensor space, including exploring new revenue models through payer and pharma partnerships. She was also Senior Manager, Product Management & Marketing at iRhythm Technologies, focused on building and selling the Zio line of digital cardiac monitoring products and associated patient apps and Electronic Health Records integration services. Ms. Gujarati holds a Bachelor of Science, Biomedical and Electrical Engineering from University Of Rhode Island; a Master of Science, Biomedical Device Design & Innovation from Johns Hopkins University; and an MBA, Product Innovation & Design, from Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.

Deborah Castillo, PhD, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, is an experienced biomedical engineer with extensive knowledge of Food and Drug Administration (FDA), EU, and Health Canada regulations. She has significant expertise in cardiovascular diseases and neuroscience, and medical devices that support these functions. Prior to joining HeartBeam, Dr. Castillo was Director of Regulatory Affairs Neuromodulation, at LivaNova, a global medical device company creating neuromodulation devices and cardiopulmonary products, developing and implementing the regulatory strategies for various Class III devices. From 2012 to 2018, Dr. Castillo held various roles at the FDA including Acting Branch Chief, Senior Lead Reviewer, and Lead Scientific Reviewer overseeing and conducting various file reviews of program-specific projects including original 510(k)s, PMAs, IDEs, HDEs, De Novo, Pre-cert and Digital Health submissions encompassing a wide-range of cardiovascular and neurological medical devices. She holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University and a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Miami.

Pooja Chatterjee, Vice President, Clinical, brings over 15 years of extensive clinical leadership experience in the medical device industry. Her expertise spans a wide range of clinical responsibilities, including field engineering, clinical portfolio strategy and study execution resulting in multiple FDA approvals. She has hands-on experience with a wide range of medical technologies including heart failure, electrophysiology, cardiac rhythm management, diagnostics, and sleep therapy. Previously she held several positions at Abbott Medical Devices, most recently as Global Clinical Project Director, where she defined and executed clinical goals leading to product approvals, indication expansion and publications in key journals. Ms. Chatterjee holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Pune; a Master of Science, Biomedical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology; and an MBA, Marketing & Strategy from New York University Stern School of Business.