Michael Estes, Ph.D. has served as Chairman of the Board for the nContact Board of Directors since February 2007. Currently, Dr. Estes also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Medical Entrepreneurs II, Inc. and World Heart Corporation, companies developing cardiac surgical products. Previously, Dr. Estes was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Orquest, Inc., a company involved in bone replacement technology. Prior to Orquest, Dr. Estes held executive positions with American Hospital Supply Corporation and Baxter Healthcare Corporation, including responsibility for the worldwide Cardiovascular Group at Baxter HealthCare.
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John Funkhouser is a seasoned entrepreneur with more than 20 years specializing in building corporate value by applying strategic vision and incorporating significant financial experience and team oriented operational principles. Mr. Funkhouser previously served as President and CEO of two other venture-backed medical device companies including Pharmanetics, Inc. and Coeur Laboratories. Before beginning an operating career, he was a General Partner of Hillcrest Group, a boutique merchant bank, where he served as lead investor and an active board member of numerous venture-backed companies. Mr. Funkhouser obtained an MBA at Colgate Darden Graduate School, University of Virginia, and a Bachelor of Arts at Princeton University.
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Jim Whayne helped co-found two other medical device companies including Converge Medical, focused on design and development of implantable anastomotic couplers for coronary artery bypass grafting surgery, and Cayenne Medical, a manufacturer of orthopaedic products. Mr. Whayne has 15 years of medical device development experience: at EP Technologies, he helped spearhead the development of the first catheter based and surgical ablation devices for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. Mr. Whayne has more than 150 issued U.S. patents. Mr. Whayne obtained a Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia in 1993 and a Bachelors in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering from Duke University in 1990.
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Sidney Fleischman previously co-founded Converge Medical, Inc. where he was the Chief Technical Officer and a Director. Mr. Fleischman also helped co-found Cayenne Medical, a manufacturer of orthopaedic devices. Mr. Fleischman has 15 years of experience in bringing medical devices from concept to commercialization. Prior to Converge, Mr. Fleischman was a senior development medical device engineer for Boston Scientific/EP Technologies, where he was responsible for the design and development of catheters and related systems used to treat arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter. He is an inventor of more than 100 issued patents in the medical device area. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara in Mechanical Engineering.
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Edgar Rey has more than 24 years of extensive experience in the medical device industry specializing in cardiac surgery, interventional cardiology, and neurology sales, sales management, marketing, and business development. Mr. Rey has held positions as Vice President of Sales at ESTECH, Vasomedical, and Medivance Inc. in a variety of start-up environments. Previously held positions were with CTS/Guidant Cardiac Surgery, Cardiometrics, and ACS/Eli Lilly. Mr. Rey obtained a Bachelor of Science in Business from Nova Southeastern University.
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Nathalie Greene has more than 15 years of experience in finance and accounting is a licensed CPA. Prior to joining nContact, she was Executive Director of Finance and Administration for Amphora Discovery Corp., a venture-backed life sciences company. Prior to that she held a site controller position for Eli Lilly at their North Carolina research facility and started her career with Coopers & Lybrand. Ms. Greene has a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and Accounting from Hartwick College.
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Jane Ricupero has more than 25 years of progressive quality and regulatory experience working within the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. Prior to working at nContact, Jane worked as head of Quality for two venture-backed companies, Converge Medical and IsoStent, and previously held quality compliance positions with Johnson & Johnson Medical Products, Kendall Healthcare Products (Canada), and Richardson-Vicks. Ms. Ricupero graduated from Seneca College (Toronto) with a degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry.
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Jagruti Vyas has more than 15 years of clinical trials experience focused on medical devices and in-vitro diagnostic products. Her experience before joining nContact, includes providing clinical trial management and regulatory support to several medical device companies as well as providing technical support and conducting clinical trials for PharmaNetics’ in-vitro diagnostics products. Prior to that, she has 20 years of experience working as a medical technologist in hospital laboratories. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Technology from Ohio State University and is ASCP (American Society of Clinical Pathology) certified. She is an active member of ACRP (Association of Clinical Research Professionals).
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