Board of Directors

Richard Ferrari joined our Board in 2019 and was appointed Executive Director of the Board of Directors in June 2021. Mr. Ferrari combines over 40 years of experience in Medical Device Start-ups as CEO, and entrepreneur. Also Mr. Ferrari is co-founder of De Novo Ventures which has $650M under management and has been Managing Director since 2000. Mr. Ferrari has also co-founded 6 more companies, two of which have been successful IPO’s and subsequent acquisitions, CTS one of the companies he co-founded was the fastest start-up to an IPO in the last 22 years in the medical device industry. Mr. Ferrari most recently from 2018 to 2021 was Chairman and CEO of PQ Bypass which was recently acquired by Endologix. Mr. Ferrari sits on the board of Pulmonx, a public company and is the Chairman of the Compensation Committee. Additionally, he is Executive Chairman of Tenon Medical, Vice-Chairman of ABS Interventional, Executive Chairman of Medlumics, and holds board positions with several other medical device start-ups. Mr. Ferrari has an undergraduate degree from Ashland University and an MBA from University of South Florida.

Branislav Vajdic, PhD, President 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.

Willem Elfrink was Chairman of the Board since our founding and in June 2021 stepped down from this position but remains a Board member. Mr. Elfrink has over 40 years of experience in bringing new technologies to the market. Mr. Elfrink actively contributes to portfolio companies via board participation, strategic marketing, governance and capital structure. Mr. Elfrink is also the Founder and President of WPE Ventures Digitized Solutions, a security and digitization solutions investment firm. Mr. Elfrink joined Cisco in 1997 and was Cisco’s Executive Vice President of Industry Solutions and Chief Globalization Officer from 2000 to 2006 and 2007 to 2015 respectively, where Mr. Elfrink made and contributed to key strategic and operational decisions of the Company. Widely recognized as Cisco’s Corporate Entrepreneur in residence, his global charter was to identify significant technology opportunities. Mr. Elfrink also led an industry initiative — called the Internet of Things World Forum (IOTWF). Before joining Cisco, Mr. Elfrink held management and senior management positions at Olivetti, Xerox, HP, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Philips. Mr. Elfrink earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the Institute of Technology in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Dr. Michael R. Jaff is currently Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Clinical Affairs, Technology and Innovation of the Peripheral Interventions division at Boston Scientific Corporation. Previously, he was a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and he served as President of Newton-Wellesley Hospital. Prior to that, Dr. Jaff was the inaugural Paul and Phyllis Fireman Endowed Chair of Vascular Medicine and Medical Director of the Fireman Vascular Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a recognized expert in all aspects of vascular medicine and is the founder of VasCore, the Vascular Ultrasound Core Laboratory. Dr. Jaff has published over 300 peer-reviewed publications and 10 textbooks and is the Past-President of the Society for Vascular Medicine. Dr. Jaff received a B.S. from Dickinson College, a D.O. from Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, a Business degree from Harvard Business School and an honorary Doctorate of Arts from Harvard Medical School.

Ken Nelson is a 20-year digital health, medical device, and remote patient monitoring executive and innovator. Over the past 10 years, Mr. Nelson has led commercial efforts for disruptive technologies in the digital health, wearables, and cardiac remote patient monitoring industries for three of the top four market share players in cardiac digital health and remote patient monitoring including BioTelemetry as VP of Sales, iRhythm as VP of Sales & Marketing, and Bardy Diagnostics as Chief Commercial Officer. Most recently, he served as Head of Digital Health, Diagnostics, and Monitoring for Biotronik, a leading cardiac digital health and medical device company. Mr. Nelson currently serves as partner in the Medtech Advantage Fund, which has an exclusive partnership with Medtech Innovator, the largest medtech and digital health startup accelerator globally. In addition, he serves as Chairman of the Board for CardiaCare, and is an active board member in a handful of other disruptive cardiac digital health and medtech startups. Ken earned a B.A. in Economics from Vanderbilt University.

Marga Ortigas-Wedekind, Board member combines over 30 years of experience in health technology senior management. Ms. Ortigas-Wedekind has been Chief Commercial Officer of Fogarty Innovation, a non-profit educational incubator for early stage medtech companies since December 2019. From July 2015 through July 2019, Ms. Ortigas-Wedekind was the Executive Vice President of Marketing and Payer Relations for iRhythm Technologies Inc., a publicly-traded digital healthcare company. From 2009 to 2015, Ms. Ortigas-Wedekind was Executive Vice President, Global Marketing and Product Development of Omnicell Inc., a publicly-traded developer of automated medication dispensing and analytics systems where she led the Marketing, International and Engineering departments. From 2002 to December 2008, Ms. Ortigas-Wedekind was the Senior Vice President, Marketing, Development, and Clinical Affairs and Xoft, Inc, a developer of disruptive technology to deliver radiation therapy with capital equipment and high-end disposables. Ms. Ortigas-Wedekind is on the board of Itamar Medical (NASDAQ: ITMR), which provides digitally-enabled systems for sleep apnea management, Total Flow Cannula, an early stage company developing a mechanism to improve safety during on-pump open heart surgery and, the Bay Area Cancer Coalition, a non-profit organization that supports those affected by breast or ovarian cancer. Ms. Ortigas-Wedekind is a limited partner and advisory board member for Launchpad digital health, a venture fund focused on digital heath technologies and is also an angel investor with Health Tech Capital. Ms. Ortigas-Wedekind has an undergraduate degree from Wellesley College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Mark Strome combines over 40 years of experience in the investment management and securities industry. Mr. Strome is the Founder, Chief Investment Officer, and Chairman at Strome Investment Management, L.P. and Strome Group, Inc. Under his leadership, Mr. Strome’s investment management company has managed private placement hedge fund investments focusing on non-traditional investments including commodities, currencies, bankruptcy reorganizations, and numerous venture capital and private equity investments. Previously, he was a Portfolio Manager at Kayne Anderson. He has also been involved in the founding and incubation of numerous publicly traded companies and several successful private companies. These include Pulse Biosciences, and iWood Studios, a company that creates original content for film and TV. Mr. Strome has been a member of the Board of Directors of multiple companies over the last three decades. He has served as a Director at Endurance Ventures, National Water and Power, Eco-Duro Corporation, NWP Services Corporation and Mobil Satellite Ventures. He serves as Member of Advisory Board at Global Analytics, Inc. He is a Trustee for New Roads School and Big Bear Foundation and serves on the Board of Advisors of John Hopkins Medical Center.

George de Urioste combines over 30 years of experience in High Technology industry senior management. Previously, he had been involved in over 10 companies, holding positions including Board Director, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. From 1992 to 1998, he was Chief Financial Officer of Remedy Corporation (software), from 2000 to 2003, he was Chief Executive Officer of Aeroprise, Inc. (software), from 2004 to 2006 he was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for Chordiant Software, Inc. (software) In 2008, he was interim Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for Marvell Technology, Inc.(semiconductors). From 2014 through 2018, he was Chief Financial Officer for Pluribus Networks, Inc. (software). From 2019 to 2020 he was Chief Financial Officer for 4iQ, Inc. (software) and is currently interim Chief Financial Officer for Mozilla, Inc. (software). Mr. de Urioste’s Board Director experience includes Audit Committee chairman roles for the following companies: Rainmaker Systems, Inc. (business outsourcing), from 2003 to 2005, Saba Software, Inc. (software) from 2008 to 2010, GCT, Inc. (semiconductors), from 2009 to 2011 Villa Montalvo (performing arts center), from 2011 to 2013, Bridgelux, Inc., from 2011 to 2016 (LED lighting), and Vendavo, Inc., from 2013 to 2014 (software). He was also chairman of the Board of Directors for Aeroprise, Inc. from 2000 to 2005 (software). He is currently a Board Director at Silicon Valley Directors Exchange, (a not-for-profit for Board education events). He has an undergraduate degree from University of Southern California and an MBA from University of California at Berkeley. Mr. de Urioste is also a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) in the State of California.