At COO (Boardroom Media) we track over 1,000,000 startups and over 5,000,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top California based COO’ operating in the Medical Device space. If you think a COO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected].
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Jennifer Jacobs
Co-Founder COO of PerceptiMed
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About PerceptiMed: PerceptiMed develops an advanced pill identification system designed to eliminate human errors in medication dispensing in pharmacies.
Gene Castagnini
COO, CFO, CAO & Co-founder of Biocare Medical
Gene J. Castagnini, MS, MBA, co-founded Biocare Medical LLC in 1997 and serves as its Co-Owner and Chief Financial Officer. Gene Castagnini serves as the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Biocare Medical, LLC Gene Castagnini served as the Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Financial Officer of BioGenex Laboratories. Inc., for 10 years. Gene Castagnini’s experience includes 15 years as a Director and Officer of Medi-Physics Inc., formerly a Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. subsidiary. Gene Castagnini has a BS in accounting and an MBA in Human Resource Management from the California State University school systems.
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About Biocare Medical: Biocare Medical is a provider of immunohistochemistry instrumentation.
Julie Skaff
Chief Operating Officer of Viz
Julie is Head of Operations at OODA Health.Prior to OODA she served as the Vice President of Implementation & Account Management at Grand Rounds, Inc. She managed the growth in their customer base to more than 80 direct customers. Prior to Grand Rounds, Julie was the Director of Implementation at Castlight Health, where she led the strategic implementation group. Julie has also worked in Booz & Company’s Global Health Practice and served Senator Dianne Feinstein as an aide for taxes, budget, and commerce. Julie has an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a BA from Northwestern University.
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About Viz: Viz is a medical imaging company that helps optimize emergency treatment using deep learning technology.
Vivien Chan
COO of Eureka Therapeutics
Vivien Chan serves as the Chief Operating Officer at Eureka Therapeutics.
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About Eureka Therapeutics: Eureka Therapeutics is a biotechnology company focusing on immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.
Nandini Ramani
Chief Operating Officer of Outcome Health
Nandini Ramani is the COO of Outcome Health.
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About Makers, Outcome Health: Outcome Health delivers better health outcomes and impacts the human condition positively through technology.
Soren Therkelsen
Co-Founder and COO of Qvin
Soren Therkelsen is the Co-founder and COO at Qvin.
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About Qvin, Sandbox, SCALEit: Qvin is a developer of a smart sanitary pad for women to proactively track their health.
R.J. Demman
COO of Vivera Pharamceuticals
R.J. Demman is the Chief Operations Officer of Vivera Pharmaceuticals. With over 20 years of comprehensive operations, relationship, and business development experience, Mr. Demman is well versed in the needs of high volume Companies. As Vice President of Relationship Marketing with several of the largest gaming institutions, Mr. Demman has crafted a number of high-level programs to increase revenue and growth while maintaining strong bonds with Tribal Councils, government regulators, and team members. Mr. Demman will use his extensive leadership and people skills to oversee the day-to-day operations and implement policies and procedures to promote Vivera’s continued growth.
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About Vivera Pharamceuticals: Vivera Pharmaceuticals is an innovative, science-driven pharmaceutical company located in Southern California.
Tayson Siegel
Chief Operating Officer of Xip
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About Xip: Xip produces disposable blood analyzers that wirelessly upload lab-quality clinical measurements in minutes.
Jeffrey Nardoci
Chief Operating Officer of HydraFacial
Jeffrey Nardoci joined HydraFacial as the chief operating officer in April 2017. Prior to joining HydraFacial, Jeff served as Chief Commercial Officer for Syneron-Candela. Jeff brings more than 25 years of experience in leadership roles in healthcare, medical device and FMG with multinational corporations and industry leaders including Banner Health, Solta Medical, Bausch & Lomb, and Nabisco Brands.
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About HydraFacial, INBRACE: HydraFacial is an FDA registered manufacturer of advanced aesthetic technologies and products.
Stewart Roberts
Co-founder, President & COO of Biolinq
Stewart Roberts is the Co-founder, President, and COO of Biolinq.
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About Biolinq: Biolinq develops a wearable biosensor platform that is capable of measuring blood level information.
Jared Tangney
Co-founder, President & COO of Biolinq
Jared Tangney joined Biolinq as Co-founder, President, and COO in November 2020. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering at UC San Diego.
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About Biolinq: Biolinq develops a wearable biosensor platform that is capable of measuring blood level information.
Wenkang Qi
Chief Operating Officer of VitalConnect
Wenkang Qi is the Chief Operating Officer at VitalConnect.
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About VitalConnect: VitalConnect is a wearable biosensor technology for wireless hospital and remote patient monitoring.
Thomas Kramer
Chief Operating Officer, Co-Founder of Cruzar Medsystems
Thomas Kramer has over 25 years of experience in medical device development. He owns and operates a medical device manufacturing center that specializes in new design and development. He has over 20 issued patents in medical devices encompassing multiple disease states. As Founder of Sirius Engineering LLC, Tom has lead multiple teams from concept to commercialization. Some of these successes include: Cruzar’s Houdini Catheter System, Vortex Medical’s AngioVac (acquired by Angio Dynamics), and Kaleidoscope Medical’s IVC filter/delivery system. Tom is a Co-founder of Cruzar MedSystems and InnoVein, Inc. serving as its Chief Operations Officer. Prior to his dedicated role in building medical device companies, Tom served as the VP of Clinical Affairs for Hansen Medical, Director of R&D and Clinical for Broncus Technologies, and Director of R&D and QA for Guidant Corporation. He holds a BSME from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a MSME from San Diego State University.
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About Cruzar Medsystems, Sirius Engineering, TAS Medical: Cruzar Medsystems operates in the healthcare industry manufacturing medical device designed to access peripheral vasculature.
Robb Hesley
COO & Senior Vice President of Product Development, Manufacturing, Quality & Information Technology of Intuity Medical
Robb Hesley has over 21 years in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. He joined Intuity Medical in 2011 as Vice President of Corporate Development and Finance and brings extensive experience in product development, commercialization and financing of medical device companies. Serving as VP of Business Development at Hologic Inc., Robb managed all aspects of the FDA approval process for a New Drug Application (NDA), resulting in the sale of the drug for $200MM. Prior to Hologic, Robb was VP of Business Development at Adeza where he was instrumental in the company’s successful IPO and ultimate acquisition by Cytyc Corporation. Robb also held roles as VP of Business Development and R&D at Metrika, Inc., and Director of Business Development at Metra Biosystems.
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About Intuity Medical: Intuity Medical develops blood glucose monitoring systems for diabetes management.
Phillip Laby
Co-Founder and COO of Moray Medical
Phillip Laby is the Co-Founder and COO of Moray Medical.
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About Moray Medical: Moray Medical develops a structural heart robotic delivery systems for edge-to-edge valve leaflet repair.
Steve Herbowy
Co-founder, COO of Pelvalon
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About Pelvalon: Pelvalon, Inc., a medical device company, develops solutions for women suffering from loss of bowel contro.
Grace Wei
COO, Founder, PhD of Encellin
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About Encellin: Encellin develops a novel thin-film cell encapsulation device for cell-based therapeutics.
Willem De Goede
COO of B. Braun Medical
Willem De Goede is the Chief Operating Officer at B. Braun Medical
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About B. Braun Medical: B. Braun Medical is a medical device manufacturing company that specializes in infusion therapy and pain management.
Nicholas Hu
Co-Founder & COO of Branchpoint Technologies
Nicholas Hu is a Co-Founder and COO at Branchpoint Technologies.
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About Branchpoint Technologies: Branchpoint Technologies designs and develops pressure management platforms for medical applications.
Reed Gaither
COO of MURJ
Murj at COO.
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About MURJ: Murj is a digital health company working on a solution for cardiac care.
Sanjiv Taneja
COO of FemtoDx, Inc.
Sanjiv Taneja serves as the Chief Operating Officer at FemtoDx. He is also an Advisor at Berkeley SkyDeck.
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About FemtoDx, Inc.: FemtoDx is a medical device company that transforms diagnostics with innovative technology.
Jesse Schorz
Co-Founder & COO of Tombot
Jesse Schorz is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder at TomBot.
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About Tombot: Tombot makes robotic animals that transform the daily life of individuals, families and communities facing health adversities.
Ray Martino
Founder and COO of Specific Diagnostics
COO, Co Founder Specific Diagnostics. Bloodstream infection leading to sepsis is responsible for more than half of all deaths in hospitals and is the most expensive condition treated in hospitals. Mortality rate increases 6% every hour from onset. Therefore, it is critical the right antibiotic treatment is determined quickly. Current methodologies require 3 days to determine the effective antibiotic. Specific Diagnostics has developed a new technology that determines the effective antibiotic in less than 1 day. Specific’s Reveal instrument and assay are cost effective and labor-saving allowing clinics to readily deploy the Specific Reveal™ solution.
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About Specific Diagnostics: Specific Diagnostics is a medical device company that provides a patented technology leverages a low-cost small molecule sensor.
Edward Liou
Chief Operating Officer of Providence Medical Technology
Ed Liou has worked with Providence for over 6 years. He is a highly regarded serial entrepreneur and engineer with experience in all aspects of medical device design, development, manufacturing, regulatory compliance and commercialization. Ed began his career as a co-founder of Alter-G. He then went on to various roles, including Senior Mechanical Engineer at Speck Design, co-founder at NovaMed Systems, Director and Vice President of Engineering at Thayer, and Senior Engineer and Advisor at Prospect Health. At Providence, Ed plans and directs all aspects of the R&D, Operations, Quality and Regulatory organizations. Throughout his career, Ed has devoted his talents to improving the human condition by developing elegant solutions to complex health problems. He is a named inventor on over 14 issued US patents, including several proprietary technologies that have been incorporated into Providence products. Ed received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University.
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About Providence Medical Technology: Providence Medical Technology is a privately-held medical device company focused on innovative solutions for cervical spinal conditions.
Teresa Jimenez
Chief Operating Officer of Rapid Healthcare
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About Rapid Healthcare: Rapid Healthcare provides clinical mobile workflow applications for healthcare that prevent patient safety issue from occurring.
Teresa Jimenez
Chief Operating Officer of Rapid Healthcare
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About Rapid Healthcare: Rapid Healthcare provides clinical mobile workflow applications for healthcare that prevent patient safety issue from occurring.
Mark Juravic
COO and Co-Founder of Materna Medical
Mark has over 12 years of experience in the medical device world. He has led several project teams designing devices used for interventional cardiology and cardiac surgery. He has orchestrated pre-clinical testing plans, participated in full product development cycles, supervised engineers, designers, consultants, and technicians in product development roles. Additionally, Mark has extensive engineering and project management experience at Guidant, Boston Scientific, and Maquet Cardiovascular. As Materna’s CEO, Mark has raised two rounds of funding, hired and developed of all Materna’s employees and consultants, and organized Materna’s initial clinical studies.
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About Materna Medical: Materna is a medical device company focused on preserving and recovering women’s pelvic health.
Prathamesh Prabhudesai
Co-founder & COO of SafeBVM
Prathamesh Prabhudesai is a Co-Founder at SafeBVM.
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About SafeBVM: SafeBVM is a medical device startup working on inadvertent hyperventilation by healthcare providers during manual ventilation.
Jonathan Coe
Co founder, President & COO of Prescient Surgical
With more than a decade of experience in the medical device industry, Jon is both an inventor and a leader. Before co-founding Prescient Surgical as a Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellow, Jon held a range of roles in engineering, marketing, and leadership in the surgical instrument divisions of Johnson & Johnson and Covidien. He is an inventor on 25 issued patents and successfully launched four major products in bariatric, general, and natural orifice surgery, and surgical oncology. He also started two interventional cardiology companies, Metavention and Gradient Therapeutics, and led the IP, technical, and pre-clinical efforts at Metavention through a successful Series B investment. Jon holds SB and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and Georgia Tech, respectively.
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About Prescient Surgical: Prescient Surgical, Inc. engages in the development of medical devices for the prevention of surgical site infection.
Jason Turner
COO of Venclose
Jason Turner serves as the Chief Operating Officer at Venclose where he is responsible for managing the daily activities of the company and leading its business planning and execution efforts.
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About Venclose: Venclose is a medical technology company that develops solutions for the treatment of venous insufficiency.
Ben Vollrath
Chief Operating Officer of AMPRION
Ben is a seasoned life sciences executive and entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Ben also has an extensive background in developing biotech startups from inception to exit. Prior to Amprion, Ben served as CEO of Xetrios Therapeutics, an emerging biotech company focused on the development of novel therapeutics for immunological disorders and cancer. Xetrios was acquired by Kolltan Pharmaceuticals in 2014. Ben spent over 4 years as Entrepreneur in Residence at Avalon Ventures, a San Diego-based VC firm focused on developing early-stage life science companies. During his tenure with Avalon Ventures, Ben was a co-founder and senior member of the management teams of several biotech companies, including Afraxis (focused on CNS therapeutics, subsequently sold to Genentech for $187M), Carolus Therapeutics (focused on therapeutics for inflammatory diseases) and Otonomy (Nasdaq: OTIC, focused on therapeutics for diseases of the inner and middle ear). Prior to Avalon, Ben served as a scientist at Renovis, a San Francisco-based CNS drug discovery company and Merck. Ben also brings a broad experience in managing virtual and semi-virtual research programs. He is named inventor on over 40 patents or patent applications.
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About AMPRION: Breakthrough Biomarker Testing For Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lewy Body Dementia (LBD)
Todd Murphy
COO of Tueo Health
Todd’s roots are in mechanical engineering, including design roles at several medical device companies. He spent four years in Myanmar where he was responsible for the leadership of the manufacturing operations for a leading social enterprise and returned to the US looking for new opportunities to apply technology to reduce health and economic disparities.
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About Tueo Health: Creating a digital health solution for improved asthma management empowering patients and their families to take control of the disease.
Stephanie Kaplan
COO of Madorra
Stephanie Kaplan currently works as Chief Operating Officer at Madorra.
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About Madorra: Madorra is a women’s health firm that develops solutions to improve quality of life after menopause.
Kevin Guo
COO of Matregenix
Kevin Guo currently works as Chief Operating Officer at Matregenix, Inc. He is also a Project Manager at American Technologies, Inc.
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About Matregenix: Matregenix is a medtech company offering advanced nanofibrous materials for medical applications.
Krzysztof Appelt
Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Prevacept Infection Control
Dr. Appelt is a seasoned bio-technology scientist and executive with over 25 years of management experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. He has had extensive experience in the discovery and development of antiviral, antibacterial and anticancer chemotherapeutic agents. Dr. Appelt lead a multidisciplinary team at Agouron Pharmaceuticals which discovered and developed ViraceptTM – an innovative AIDS therapy, and several other compounds discovered using structure-based approached pioneered by Agouron. After Agouron’s acquisition by Warner-Lambert and subsequent merger with Pfizer, Dr. Appelt served as Global Head of Ophthalmology in both organizations. From 2001 to 2005 Dr. Appelt served as Executive VicePresident and Chief Technology Officer at Quorex Therapeutics, a company focused on the discovery of antibacterial and antibiofim agents. Dr. Appelt founded Great Lakes Pharmaceuticals in 2006. Dr. Appelt received his undergraduate degree in Physiology from Poznan University in Poland and his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the Max Planck Institute in West Berlin. Before joining Agouron Pharmaceuticals in 1987 he was Assistant Professor in Chemistry Department in University of California in San Diego. Dr. Appelt is a co-author of 57 peer reviewed publications and co-inventor of several patents.
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About Prevacept Infection Control: Prevacept Infection Control is a clinical-stage company focused on developing.
Stan Conston
Founder, CEO and COO of Medterials
Stan Conston is a co-founder of iScience Interventional. He currently serves as Vice President of Research & Development. At iScience, Stan is responsible for product research and design as well as testing and clinical development of new products and concepts. Stan has over 25 years of life science experience and has been a founder or founding team member of four medical device startups in the Silicon Valley. Stan has extensive experience in the design, development, and testing of a wide variety of medical products, having worked in areas ranging from urology to neurology. He holds over 60 patents and published patent applications in the field and received a degree in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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About Medterials: Medterials provides contract and consulting services for Healthcare applications.
Kelly Flores
Chief Operating Officer of Dosist
Kelly Flores is the Chief Operating Officer at Dosist.
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About Dosist: Dosist is a developer of proprietary vaporizing dose-pens created to provide safe, targeted, and effective cannabis.