Experience
I grew up in rural California to a family that had roots in the oil industry. With that in mind, I chose to major in Chemical Engineering at Stanford. After a couple of summers in the oil fields, I shifted gears to the life sciences. I started my career as a shift supervisor at Chiron, a high flyer in the early days of biotech. I was the second supervisor hired at Chiron and it was very much an entry-level leadership position. I loved the leadership element – something that has followed me throughout my career. After two more years of work, I enrolled in the MBA program at the Harvard Business School with a focus on leadership and general management.
I have always been attracted to medical technology and the life sciences, and after Harvard, rotated through the business development and marketing groups at Guidant, now a part of Boston Scientific. There I learned the basics of medical market opportunity assessments – market sizing, understanding clinical benefits, development timelines and project costs – skills that have served me well. From there I went to Medtronic where I led marketing for the world’s first brain stent.
Doug Post and cardiac surgeon Vinod Thourani,
following the first case with CardioGard's
second generation product.
As my career progressed, I became involved in various early-stage projects, due diligence for venture capitalists, and rotated through additional full-time positions at Medtronic and Boston Scientific. A seminal position for me was leading the RESOLUTE Drug Eluting Stent Program at Medtronic. It was a huge leadership role with 15 direct reports, a cross-functional team of 9 directors, and 60 FTEs. It was very much an R&D and a project management job – very different than marketing. It rounded out my experience and prepared me for even bigger challenges. In 2013, I moved to Boston to be with my girlfriend, a Boston native, who is now my wife. In Boston, I connected with a private equity firm investing in Israel and consulted for one of their start-ups, CardioGard. I became the CEO after an extended consulting relationship. I’ve led CardioGard for nine years and, through perseverance and grit, got CardioGard’s Gen2 product through the FDA and into two NIH funded clinical studies. Once again, I thrive on the leadership aspects of the role, as well as the technical and innovative aspects.
​
As the focus at CardioGard has transitioned to mostly clinical activities, my role has evolved into that of a coach, consultant and occasional troubleshooter. My passions are still medical technology and leadership – but with the benefit of varied experiences and considerable maturity. I am looking for projects that can leverage my cross-functional expertise, as well as my zest for good leadership, sound decision making, and action orientation.