Dr. Saklecha is the Managing Director of Cleveland Clinic Ventures where he leads investments into startup companies for one of the world’s top healthcare systems. He currently sits on the boards of Cardionomic, Cleveland Diagnostics, Enhale Medical, Enspire DBS, Mitria Medical, Navigate Cardiac Structures, Neurotherapia, and Zehna Therapeutics.
 
Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic Ventures, Akhil was a Partner at Artiman Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm with over $1.2 billion under management. While at Artiman, he led investments in early-stage start-up companies and served on the boards of Cellmax Life, Oncostem Diagnostics, Slive, ApplyBoard, DateMySchool, and HomeUnion. In addition to his Board of Director roles, he also served as CEO of Slive, an early stage diagnostics company. Prior to joining Artiman, Akhil served in administrative roles at Aultman Hospital in Ohio as Medical Director of the hospital’s regional transfer program and Chairman of the Emergency Department and Level II Trauma Center. He was also CEO of Canton Aultman Emergency Physicians, a professional services firm that provides physicians, mid-level providers, and coding expertise to multiple hospitals and urgent care centers. In this same time period, Akhil participated at the local, state, and national levels of governing institutions within emergency medicine, healthcare quality, information technology, managed care, and emergency medical services.
 
Akhil is Board-certified in Emergency Medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. He continues to practice emergency medicine at Cleveland Clinic on a part-time basis where he remains connected to clinical care, patients, and physicians. Akhil graduated from the combined accelerated B.S./M.D. program at Northeast Ohio Medical University. He completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Summa Health System and holds a M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
 

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Amanda has over ten years of experience working in the medical device industry. Prior to CCI, she worked for Steris Corporation in various sales and marketing roles. While in Marketing, she contributed to new product research and development, rebranding initiatives and domestic and international launch directives. Sales took her to San Francisco and Washington D.C. where her expertise in infection control products, policies and procedures supported hospital risk management, surgery, endoscopy and sterile processing. 

She has numerous sales accolades but feels her most meaningful work was in helping her customers adopt and transition to new processes in many product categories including enzyme formulations, chemistry dosing systems, manual and mechanical endoscope reprocessors, sterility assurance products and UV room disinfection. 

Amanda received her B.A. in Communications from John Carroll University where she was a four year member of the women’s basketball team.  Outside of work, she still enjoys playing team sports.  

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Barb is responsible for tracking the licensing activities within CCI, including revenue and expenses generated from all active licenses. Prior to joining CCI, Barb was Legal Administrator for the Cleveland Clinic Law Department and served in a similar role at TRW Inc. before joining Cleveland Clinic. Barb earned a B.S. in Paralegal Studies from Dyke College.

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Bill's role is a liaison between the Clinic and corporate partners, managing the development of new medical devices. A mechanical engineer, he spent eleven years as a consultant developing medical device prototypes for early-stage startups in both the San Francisco Bay Area and northeast Ohio. He's listed on five patents. Bill sits on the Partnership for Innovation (PFI) oversight board at Case Western Reserve University. Prior to working in the medical device industry, Bill worked five years at Honda R&D in Marysville, Ohio. He received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University.

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Deb has a combined 13 years of experience in Intellectual Property focused primarily on patent transactions. Previously, Deb  worked  for ABB , a large global corporation, as their Patent Coordinator and IP Paralegal to their Chief Counsel  for North America. Her duties included assisting with managing the inventions, patent filings, database maintenance, docketing  and reporting, along with point of contact for both domestic and foreign counsels. In addition, prior to joining the Innovations team, Deb worked for a large law firm in Cleveland, Ohio as a Foreign Filing Coordinator. She was the point of contact for managing a large foreign client.  Deb’s background working within both a corporate and law firm setting has provided her with  a comprehensive outlook regarding  the specialty of patent translations.
 
Deb has an associates in Business Management and a Paralegal Certificate from Lakeland Community college.
 

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Debra is an Administrative Program Coordinator in Cleveland Clinic Innovations. Debra primarily focuses on project management, event coordination, operational activities and executive support. Prior to joining CCI, Debra was an executive assistant at the British Petroleum Company.

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Gabrielle Semon is an Associate with the Strategic Marketing team for Innovation at Cleveland Clinic. In her role, she oversees all content initiatives across multiple platforms and formats to educate, engage, and retain both internal and external collaborators. The chief writer and publisher, Gabrielle directs and develops office- and enterprise-wide content campaigns to drive new and future business. She contributes to the evolution and execution of office programs: Cleveland Clinic’s Medical Innovation Summit, Transformation Tuesdays live webinar series, and Health Amplified podcast. As part of Summit programming, she leads the charge for the institute’s annual Top 10 Medical Innovations announcement.
 
Gabrielle joined the Innovation at Cleveland Clinic team full-time in May 2018 after repeated internships with the office. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a concentration in Pre-Medical Studies and a minor in Neuroscience from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Currently, Gabrielle is pursuing a Master of Business Administration at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University.
 
A Cleveland native, Gabrielle is excited to be living and working to support healthcare innovation in her hometown!
 

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Jon David “JD” Friedland joined Cleveland Clinic Ventures in May 2021 as Partner focusing on medical device investments.

Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic Ventures, JD served as a Managing Director at Wombat Capital, a boutique M&A advisory firm focused on the life sciences industry.  JD has also held senior positions at Rothschild, Lazard Fréres and Wasserstein Perella.

From 2016 to 2020, JD served as a Special Operating Partner at Pulse Equity Partners, a private equity firm located in New York, NY.  Prior to joining Pulse Equity Partners, JD was Vice President, Corporate and Business Development at Henry Schein, a global distributor of products and services to the medical, dental and animal health industries.  JD was also involved in the formation of the Innovation Initiative, an investment platform for Henry Schein, and led the Innovation Initiative’s first investment.

JD received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

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J.D. Romero is an Innovation Manager with Cleveland Clinic Innovations, focused on developing and commercializing early stage health information technologies.  Prior to joining CCI, J.D. was a  management consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers where he specialized in digital strategy, M&A strategy and large-scale corporate transformation projects for F500 clients.

J.D. has a BS in finance from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
 

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Jason Ospina has over 10 years of experience in Life Sciences and over 2 years of experience in technology commercialization.  Prior to joining CCI, Jason was a post-doctoral fellow at Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute. His research centered on the delineation of mechanisms regulating Hedgehog signal transduction and the influence of protein phosphorylation on pathway outcomes.

Jason received his PhD in genetics from Case Western Reserve University, where his thesis work examined nuclear protein dynamics and transport, as well as ribonucleoprotein biogenesis.

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Jeanne Sanford is a receptionist for the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center.  Jeanne is involved with coordinating efforts within GCIC’s incubator/accelerator program and provides support to our buildings tenants.  Jeanne has over 30 years’ experience in reception and clerical duties.  Prior to joining the Cleveland Clinic Innovations team she worked for Cleveland Clinic Medina Hospital.  Before becoming a Caregiver Jeanne worked at the Medina County Government Office for over 20 years.

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Jeff is a business and transactional lawyer in Cleveland Clinic’s Law Department.  Jeff counsels CCI’s spin-off companies on various general corporate, strategic and commercial issues affecting their businesses.  Jeff has extensive experience in structuring and closing early-stage and growth-stage capital formation transactions, including technology transfer and licensing, seed investment, early-stage investment and follow-on investment transactions.  In addition, Jeff represents CCI and its portfolio companies in complex financing transactions including control and non-control investments at every level of a company's capital structure, such as senior secured and subordinated debt investments and common and preferred equity investments. 

Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic’s Law Department, Jeff was an associate at two large law firms in Cleveland, Ohio where he focused on the areas of M&A (mergers and stock and asset acquisitions and divestitures), corporate finance and venture capital, and he was named a “Rising Star” by Ohio Super Lawyers (M&A).  Jeff earned a B.S in General Business from the Richard T. Farmer School of Business at Miami University, an M.B.A. from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, and a J.D.(cum laude) from the School of Law at Case Western Reserve University. 

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Jim is General Manager, Business Solutions at Cleveland Clinic Innovations. Jim works with outside organizations to help with commercialization, operation, and business development needs. He partners with Innovations staff members to provide customized solutions for entrepreneurs, start-ups, and established companies. Service offerings include business diagnostics, market segmentation, introduction to the healthcare financial ecosystem, key opinion leader and subject matter expertise introduction and other services needed by early stage organizations. Additionally, he works with investors and funds looking for due diligence or pre-investment services, as well as companies looking to understand market entry barriers and solutions. Jim has over 20 years of experience in healthcare operations and consulting services. Prior to joining CCI, he was the Institute Administrator for the Cleveland Clinic’s Orthopaedic and Rheumatologic Institute and Director of the Cleveland Clinic Innovation’s Enterprise Solutions team. His work centered on monetizing workflows, trade secrets and non-IP protectable solutions. Jim has also worked at finding solutions and introducing partners centered around healthcare solutions.

Jim received his BSBA in Finance from John Carroll University. He has an MBA from Cleveland State University and has his Series 6 and 63 securities license.

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Jon Steiner works to identify, build, and maintain relationships with external partners interested in pursuing collaborative relationships with Cleveland Clinic Innovations.  These partners includes healthcare provider organizations, corporate / industry partners, public and private technology accelerators and non-Cleveland Clinic inventors and investors, among others.  He works closely with CCI’s Alliance program—a union of healthcare providers and related industry organizations who are focused on developing new commercial technologies to extend and improve human life.

Jon has a strong strategic and analytic background that he has applied to actionable, operational objectives across the healthcare provider landscape. In his most recent role with Cleveland Clinic’s Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute, Jon oversaw and managed the Institute’s growing community of national affiliate and alliance sites. In this role, Jon was directly responsible for building relationships, contracting, management of the Affiliate Program team, and the daily operations and management of affiliate, alliance and consulting relationships. Prior to that, Jon worked in the Cleveland Clinic Strategy Office, where he led cross-enterprise strategic planning initiatives to achieve system-wide and regional-specific growth and efficiency targets. Before joining Cleveland Clinic, Jonathan worked as a consultant with SS&G Healthcare Services LLC, in Akron, Ohio, where he worked with physician practices, hospitals and health systems to drive financial performance and operational improvements.

Jon has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a Master of Arts in English Literature from John Carroll University.
 

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Joseph T. Rich, JD, MBA is responsible for new venture development and growth, and manages the relationships between the boards and executive teams of CCI and OBVF portfolio companies. He also is the Portfolio Manager of the Ohio Third Frontier sponsored, $30 million+ Ohio BioValidation Funds early stage investment program. He has extensive business development expertise through his involvement in the organization and start-up of numerous financially successful companies. Mr. Rich possesses industry-specific expertise in life sciences, venture capital investments and angel financing, joint ventures and other strategic alliances involving technology commercialization. He has led many OBVF deal teams that resulted in successful OBVF investments. Mr. Rich serves as a Board Member and or Corporate Officer for over 15 early-stage companies, and led the successful exit of portfolio company FlexLife to LifeWatch Services, Inc. He has a decade of technology commercialization experience, previously serving as a senior member of Cleveland Clinic’s New Venture group. Prior to Cleveland Clinic, he served as vice president and general counsel for The University of Akron Research Foundation, where he was instrumental in numerous corporate ventures and international deals. He is actively involved in higher education in the State of Ohio, and has served on the Board of Trustees of The University of Akron after an appointment by the Ohio governor. Mr. Rich received a BS in Biology from John Carroll University, an MBA in Finance from The University of Akron and a JD from The University of Akron.

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Judy McAnally has over 20 years of experience in project coordination and administrative support. Prior to joining CCI, Judy was the Office Manager at Boston Scientific.

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Juliana Woda, Ph.D. is an experienced biotechnology leader with expertise in translating biologics from preclinical to clinical programs; she is currently Senior Director, Innovations at Cleveland Clinic.  Previously, Julie worked for 12 years at multiple biotechnology companies, leading technologies through product development towards pharmaceutically acceptable therapeutics. Julie co-founded Clarametyx Biosciences  and is a current Scientific Advisory Board Member. As Senior Director and Head of the Project Sourcing and Portfolio Opportunity Team at BioMotiv, Julie engaged with academic institutions, and funding partners to identify technologies and negotiate collaborations and license agreementsPreviously, as Director of Translational Research at Juventas Therapeutics, Julie led all aspects of translational research, including developing GMP manufacturing processes, leading to the successful submission of an IND and approval for a Phase II clinical study of a novel gene therapy product. She worked as a Senior Scientist at Athersys working on preclinical studies and manufacturing  of their cell therapy platform. Julie received her PhD from Harvard University in Cell and Developmental Biology and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital working on Huntington’s Disease.

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Julie is the administrative program coordinator for Cleveland Clinic Ventures (CCV). Julie develops, implements, manages and maintains the operational systems and activities of CCV. She also functions as the administrative, technical and operational resource for the CCV team.  Julie has worked at Cleveland Clinic for 5 years, previously holding a role in Innovations with the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center where she assisted with coordinating efforts within GCIC’s Incubator/Accelerator Program and provided support to the tenants.
 

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Katelin Guice is an administrative program coordinator for the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center team. Katelin is involved with coordinating efforts within GCIC’s incubator/accelerator program and assisting the building’s tenants. In addition, she supports CCI’s Senior Medical Director, Dr. William Morris. Prior to joining CCI, Katelin worked for CCF Main Campus Clinical Engineering for 3 years. Before becoming a Caregiver, she worked for the Walt Disney World Resort in Main Street Operations at the Magic Kingdom. She received her BA in Theatre and BS in Political Science from The Florida State University.

 

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Kimberley is responsible for the overall management of the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center, a 50,000 square foot facility that houses the GCIC's incubator/accelerator program. The facility opened in May 2010. Responsibilities include operational and financial activities; marketing and communications; and facilities management and services.

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Laura is responsible for the overall management of the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center, a 50,000 square foot facility that houses the GCIC’s incubator/accelerator program. Her responsibilities include facilities management and service, lease agreements, and financial activities. Her responsibilities also include the management of our Preclinical Program where she serves as a liaison between all levels of management, various departments, and our vendors. Prior to joining the Innovations team Laura worked in multiple research departments at the Cleveland Clinic.

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Madeline Bernard, CPA joined Cleveland Clinic Innovations in May 2018. Prior to joining Innovations, she was a senior associate in public accounting at Grant Thornton LLP in the Boston and Cleveland markets. Madeline provided audit services for clients in the nonprofit, privately held, and early stage companies. Madeline also worked with CW+, the charity associated with the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, where she primarily assisted with visual and performing arts for patient wellbeing.

Madeline earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business and a minor in the History of Art and Architecture. Madeline is a member of the American Institute of CPAs.

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Mary Kander is the General Manager of Technology and Commercialization for Cleveland Clinic Innovations. In this capacity, Mary oversees all activities relating to the management, assessment, development and commercialization of Cleveland Clinic inventions.  Mary has over 20 years of experience in medical product development and commercialization, including over 11 years commercializing technologies created at Cleveland Clinic.   Previously, Mary held a number of management positions, at Invacare Corporation, a manufacturer of medical devices for the home care market and at Procter & Gamble Co.  Mary has a B.A. from John Carroll University and an M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  

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Meg Mason is an administrative program coordinator for the Strategic Marketing team. She is responsible for administrative support and project management for the strategic marketing team, implementing marketing and technology initiatives, and helping develop and plan the annual Medical Innovation Summit.  Prior to joining CCI, Meg had internships with Crowl, Montgomery and Clark, a marketing communications firm in North Canton, as well as two internships with CCI. She received her BA in Strategic Communication from Miami University.

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Since 2010, Michael has led market intelligence efforts within Innovations. Under his direction, the Business Analytics team is dedicated to qualifying and quantifying the commercial potential of new medical technologies. This is accomplished through comprehensive, data driven assessments spanning patentability, marketability, financial modeling and related diligence activities designed to optimize portfolio management and mitigate investment risk. Efficiency, resourcefulness and deep domain expertise are the key value drivers the Business Analytics team brings to Innovations and its strategic partners. Prior to joining the Clinic, Michael spent more than 11 years at Health Research International, an independent medical market research and consulting firm, most recently as Vice President. During this time, he authored numerous syndicated industry reports and worked closely with a broad range of medical technology firms from local start-ups to multinationals on custom primary and secondary research projects. Michael earned a BA in business administration (cum laude, Marketing major) from the Richard T. Farmer School of Business at Miami University.

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Mike Pfeiffer joined Cleveland Clinic Innovations in 2016, with a focus on market assessment of new medical technologies. Prior to joining Innovations, Mike worked at Northcoast Research, where he spent nearly three years as an equity research associate covering the medical device and technology space. Prior to his time at Northcoast Research, Mike spent several years working at an investor relations consultancy managing clients across multiple industry verticals. Additionally, Mike started his career in equity research covering healthcare facilities and services at Longbow Research. Mike earned his BA in Economics and Sociology from Case Western Reserve University where he earned three varsity letters on the football team. Lastly, you can find Mike out in nature hiking the Cleveland Metroparks or playing golf. 

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Sarah is the General Manager of Operations & Administration and is responsible for all work pertaining to financial, administrative, and human resources activities of Cleveland Clinic Innovations. Sarah has over 20 years in healthcare and is recognized for her expertise in practice management and strategic and business planning. Prior to rejoining CCF, Sarah worked as a Consultant at The Gateway Group, Vice President of Medical Operations at The MetroHealth System, and as an Administrator at CCF.  Her work centered on directing and managing medical group practices, developing and executing strategic initiatives, front end revenue enhancement and improving the performance of existing product lines.

Sarah received her BS in business administration degree from John Carroll University and her MBA from Cleveland State University.

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Shawn Zimmer, CPA has over fourteen years of experience in accounting, financial reporting, management and internal controls. Shawn joined Cleveland Clinic Innovations in August 2016 as Director of Finance. Prior to joining Innovations, he was the Chief Financial Officer of a privately owned company, responsible for developing and growing an accounting department, monthly reporting, cash flow management and Enterprise Resource Planning system integration. He also spent a significant portion of his career in public accounting at Deloitte & Touche LLP. Shawn provided audit, accounting and business advisory services to a wide range of clients, including publicly traded, privately held, and early-stage companies with revenues ranging from $10 million to +$1 billion.
 
Shawn earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) in Accounting and Master of Accountancy from Bowling Green State University. Shawn is a member of the American Institute of CPAs and the Ohio Society of CPAs.

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Sonja O'Malley has over 20 years of experience in healthcare information technology. Prior to joining CCI, Sonja was responsible for managing the global life sciences client portfolio at Axentis. Axentis, a Wolters Kluwer business, is a software provider of on-demand solutions used by life science customers and other highly regulated industries to minimize their exposure to risk and optimize business performance; a $5 billion (2010) company with 19,000 employees worldwide. Sonja's work has spanned clinical laboratory medicine as a MT (ASCP), consulting in the health care practice of Andersen Consulting, directing the process improvement practice within a health insurance organization, and building multiple startups as an early employee.

Sonja is a certified PMP from the Project Management Institute and has a BS in medical technology from Miami University and an MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

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Thad has over 15 years of experience in information technology and business operations.  Early in his career Thad was a technology consultant for several global consulting firms including Deloitte & Touche and PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Before joining the Cleveland Clinic six years ago, Thad was as the Chief Operating Officer and Director of Information Technology at a Cleveland-based SaaS start-up.  Prior to joining the Health IT Incubator with Cleveland Clinic Innovations, Thad was a co-inventor and product director for a patented clinical decision support platform currently implemented at the Cleveland Clinic.  Thad received his Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA) from Ohio University where he earned two degrees, one in Management Information Systems and another in Finance.

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Over 25 years experience in development, manufacture and commercialization of technology-based products including senior management and technical positions in both start-up and Fortune 500 organizations. 
 
Thomas worked as Vice President, Medical Technology at the Stratos Group where his responsibilities included technology scouting, new venture analysis, product concept development, IP strategy, licensing and newco incubation in the Product Strategy and Life Sciences/Medical Device practice.  Thomas was co-founder and CEO of Spark Medical, a technology development company focused on emergency cardiac assist devices.  He served as Senior Director of Engineering with Boston Scientific Corporation, formerly Heart Technology Inc., where he was responsible for leading an organization which contributed the process development, new product introduction, and manufacturing systems required to rapidly grow the company from $1M to over $120M in annual revenues. Prior to BSC, he was co-founder and Vice President of Engineering of the Soma Dynamics Corp., a developer of medical devices for the orthopedic rehabilitation market and Director/Vice President of Operations for Wall Data, a networking and data communications company.
 
Thomas’s product development activities include contributions to an automated stem cell selection instrument which won an R&D 100 Award, a wearable cardiac monitor which won a Medical Design Excellence Award and a rotational angioplasty device which has been used in over 750,000 interventional procedures worldwide.
 
Thomas holds a BS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University and is a graduate of the Stanford Program for Managing High Technology Companies
 

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Torey Hovest is an Innovation Manager for Cleveland Clinic Innovations. In this role, Torey works with caregivers at the Cleveland Clinic to help with the assessment, development, and commercialization of their inventions. Prior to joining CCI, Torey was a Senior Technical Service Specialist at St. Jude Medical and has over 6 years of experience in the medical device industry working in sales and clinical support. His work centered around providing technical and clinical support for St. Jude Medical's electrophysiology technology, including its cardiac devices and 3-D electroanatomic mapping system. Torey has a BSE in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and an MBA from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

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Veronika’s function serves as liaison and administrative, technical, and operational resource for the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center team. She has an extensive background providing support to senior-level Executives and world class service to all valued customers.

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As an Associate with Cleveland Clinic Ventures (CCV), Zach works with the CCV team to create, develop, and finance startup companies leveraging the ideas, expertise, and resources of Cleveland Clinic. Zach supports all aspects of the Cleveland Clinic Ventures investment program with an emphasis on the analysis of potential Cleveland Clinic startup companies, and performance of current Cleveland Clinic startup portfolio companies. CCV works closely with Cleveland Clinic Innovations (CCI) to translate intellectual property from Cleveland Clinic into high performing startup companies, supporting the Clinic’s mission and maximizing returns to inventors and CCF at the same time.
 
Prior to joining the CCV team in 2017, Zach was the Director of Technical Operations at Efferent Labs, an early-stage medical technology company headquartered in Buffalo, NY. Zach worked in an interdisciplinary role with Efferent management and its science and engineering teams. In Zach’s time at Efferent Labs, the company was awarded numerous grants, raised a seed round of funding, established a partnership with a billion dollar global drug discovery company, and made significant R&D advances.
 
Previously, Zach worked at Z80 Labs, a startup incubator and seed-stage fund in Western New York, where he evaluated new investment opportunities and worked with portfolio companies on a variety of ad hoc projects. Zach received a B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan, where he also worked as a Research Assistant in the Extracorporeal Life Support Research Laboratory, a joint collaboration between the Department of Surgery and the Biomedical Engineering Program.
 

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