Jeffery Bleich, M.D.

Founder, Baxano, Inc.

Jeff co-founded Baxano® in 2005. He was President and CEO of the company for four years. Dr. Bleich has over 20 years of clinical experience, with board certification in Pain Management, as well as in Anesthesiology. He currently practices anesthesiology at Stanford University Medical Center; is an executive in residence with Prospect Venture Partners, a healthcare dedicated venture capital firm; and contributes to medical device development at IDEO, a company that specializes in innovation and design.

Jeff completed a Masters Degree as a Sloan Fellow at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a Pain Management fellowship at the University of Washington, an anesthesiology residency at UCLA, an M.D. from the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School, and a B.S. in Biology from Stanford University.

John F. Feilders, Ph.D.

Venture Partner, CMEA Capital

John is an advisor to medical device and investment firms based on over 20 years managing international biomedical and financial companies. He resides with his family in San Francisco, has lived and worked extensively in Europe and Canada, and managed medical device company operations worldwide. Currently, he represents CMEA Capital on the boards of device companies Baxano,  SurgiQuest and VeraLight.  John is also on the western regional board of MedShare, providing surplus medical supplies to hospitals in developing countries; and he assists the Chancellor at UCSF in developing an R&D private-public partnership to enhance drug discovery.  Previously, focused on worldwide business development and sales distribution, he was part of the executive teams at orthopaedic companies that co-built NYSE-listed Biomatrix (sold to Genzyme), TSE-listed OrthoSoft (sold to Zimmer), and Praxim in France.

Formerly, John was a Senior Vice President at Merrill Lynch, and his Ph.D. is from Stanford University.

Russell Hirsch, M.D., Ph.D.

Managing Director, Prospect Venture Partners

Russell co-founded Prospect Venture Partners II and III. Prior to establishing Prospect Venture Partners II and III, Dr. Hirsch was a member of the Health Care Technology Group at Mayfield. Russell played a key role in Mayfield’s investment activities in the biotechnology and medical device sectors. Prior to Mayfield, Russell was at the University of California San Francisco, where he was engaged in biomedical research. In addition to serving on Baxano’s board, Russell serves or has served on the Board of Directors of Intuitive Surgical, Hansen Medical, Opus Medical, Orquest, AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Visiogen, DFine, SentreHEART, Portola Pharmaceuticals, and several other privately-held companies.

Russell holds an M.D. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco and a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago.

Frank M. Phillips, M.D.

Midwest Orthopaedics

Professor, Director, Section of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery

Rush UniversityMedical Center

Dr. Phillips specializes in the spine and has special interests in cervical and lumbar reconstructive surgery. He also has expertise in motion preserving and minimally invasive spinal procedures. Dr. Phillips has participated in the development of a number of minimally invasive spinal techniques and also motion preservation technologies. Dr. Phillips’ basic science research efforts have focused on biomechanics of the spinal reconstruction as well as biologic strategies including gene therapy to promote spinal fusion and intervertebral disc regeneration. 

Before joining Midwest Orthopaedics, Dr. Phillips served as the Director of The Spine Center at The University of Chicago. Dr. Phillips is currently a Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Head of the Section of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery at Rush University Medical Center. He has published and lectured extensively on spinal topics. He also frequently directs spinal educational courses for other spinal surgeons. Dr. Phillips is currently the Vice President of the Society for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery and is on various committees of the North American Spine Society and the Spine Arthroplasty Society. He has also received numerous research grants. Dr. Phillips is the Principal Investigator of various national US FDA clinical trials evaluating cervical and lumbar disc replacement procedures.

A medical graduate from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, Dr. Phillips completed his orthopaedic residency at The University of Chicago Medical Center. In addition, he served a spine fellowship at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.  He is Board Certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. 

Dave Schulte

Director, Kaiser Permanente Ventures

Dave has extensive experience working with entrepreneurs and growth companies as a venture capitalist and investment banker. He joined Kaiser Permanente Ventures in 2003 and focuses primarily on investments in medical device technology in the cardiovascular, orthopedics, respiratory and diabetes markets. He has also completed investments in health care services companies. 

Dave serves on the Board of Directors of Atheromed, GMD, Hemosphere and Vapotherm. He is or was actively involved with KP’s investments in Glumetrics, Proteus Biomedical, Pulmonx, ValenTx, Valeritas, CHF Solutions (sold to Gambro) and Nursefinders (sold to Goldman Sachs). 

Prior to Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Dave executed health care and technology equity, debt and M&A transactions for JPMorgan, UBS, and Piper Jaffray. Dave earned a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts from St. John’s University.

Jim Shapiro

General Partner, Kearny Venture Partners

Jim has been a general partner of Kearny Venture Partners and its predecessor funds since January 2000. He focuses on investments in the Medical Device industry. Jim currently serves on the boards of directors of CVRx, Hansen Medical, SpinalMotion, TranS1 and TriVascular2. He is a co-founder of SpinalMotion. Mr. Shapiro has previously served on the boards of directors of companies including Appriva (acquired by eV3), Eyeonics (acquired by Bausch & Lomb), Fox Hollow Technologies (acquired by ev3), LuMend (acquired by Johnson and Johnson), TriVascular (acquired by Boston Scientific), and X Technologies (acquired by Guidant). From 1984 to 1999, Jim led Alex. Brown’s healthcare investment banking practice on the West Coast, providing financing and M&A advisory services to both emerging growth and established healthcare companies. Before joining Brown, Jim was an associate at Goldman Sachs and a financial analyst at Bank of America.

Jim holds an A.B. with laboratory research honors from Princeton University, and an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Rodrick Young

Venture Partner, Three Arch Partners

Rod has been a Venture Partner at Three Arch Partners since 2006 where he focuses on investments in medical device and healthcare service opportunities. Prior to Three Arch Partners, Rod was President and CEO of Vivant Medical, a Three Arch Partners medical device portfolio company that was acquired by Tyco.  Prior to Vivant, Rod was President & CEO of Targesome, Chairman & CEO of General Surgical Innovations, also a Three Arch Partners medical device portfolio company that was acquired by Tyco, President & CEO of Focus Surgery, President of Toshiba America MRI, and President & COO of Diasonics. He has been closely involved in the formation and growth of many Three Arch portfolio companies.

Rod holds a BS degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from The Harvard Business School.