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, Cell-X Technologies, Centerline Biomedical, Cleveland Diagnostics, Method AI, Neurotherapia, XII Medical, 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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In her more than five years at CCI, Amanda has worked on the Medical Device team with inventors in Nursing, Pediatrics, Women’s Health and Urology. She’s worked in all phases of commercialization, from constructing business cases to fund proof of concept and product development, managing regulatory pathways, overseeing project management, identification of partners to bring innovations to market and structuring of licensing deals. Her work with the Nursing Institute led to expanding product development efforts, providing nursing colleagues the ability to eliminate barriers to invention, increase funding, and launch the Nursing Innovation Fund with dollars earmarked for inventions to be trialed by nurses.
 
In the Delivery Solutions domain, she translated Cleveland Clinic-generated know-how into programs, processes, documents, management tools, and more. She’s also supported over 50 client organizations in their goal of sustaining a culture of service excellence through the Communicate with H.E.A.R.T. program, where she led new product development strategy and assisted with sales and marketing efforts. She is a certified H.E.A.R.T. trainer and facilitator. She was part of the team that initiated the Structured Innovation process, expanding the INVENT® process to include problem discovery, tracking of big ideas and emerging needs, and enablement of cross-discipline collaboration. Through this work, she studied Creative Problem Solving (CPS), a framework for innovation and change, where she is also a trained facilitator.
 
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. Amanda received her B.A. from John Carroll University, and she is a graduate of the Cleveland Clinic/Case Western Executive MBA program. Outside of work, Amanda enjoys spending time with her family, supporting her Cleveland sports teams and traveling to places she’s read about.

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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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Dr. Perez-Villa joined Innovations in November 2021 as part of the Engagement team. He is the Engagement and Partnering Associate for the Florida region where he is responsible for driving awareness of Cleveland Clinic’s culture of innovation and developing meaningful connections with Cleveland Clinic’s network of current and future inventors. 

Prior to joining the team, he was a Research Associate at the Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute in Cleveland Clinic Florida where he lead the deployment of the Outcomes Management and Evaluation system to collect patient-reported outcome measures in a highly structured and consistent manner before and after treatments. 

Dr. Perez-Villa completed his MD at the National University of Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina and then received training as a cardiologist at Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain. After finishing his residency, he worked in a county hospital, helping build the heart failure unit from scratch and developed a mobile application to improve the quality of care for heart failure patients. He served as the CSO of Wellian Inc., a digital health start-up based in Boulder, USA from 2018 to 2020. He holds an MSc in health economics, outcomes and management from the London School of Economics and a fellowship in healthcare innovation at the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. 

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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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Colleen Hyman joined Innovations in October 2021 as part of the Innovations Engagement team partnering with Cleveland Clinic leaders, administrators, physicians, nurses, researchers, and other stakeholders within the various Cleveland Clinic institutes to generate high quality invention disclosures for new medical products.

Prior to joining the team, she worked as a Product Marketing Manager for various industries including: home healthcare, dental, and combination medical devices. Most recently, Colleen worked with Avery Dennison Corporation’s medical division, helping bring to market an innovative antimicrobial adhesive technology for use in wound care dressing applications.

Colleen earned her Bachelor of Business Administration from Cleveland State University, and her Master’s degree in Engineering Management with a concentration in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

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D. Geoffrey Vince, PhD, is Executive Director of Innovations at Cleveland Clinic. He also holds The Virginia Lois Kennedy Chair in Biomedical Engineering and Applied Therapeutics and chairs the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio.

In his role as Executive Director of Innovations, Dr. Vince is aligning Cleveland Clinic’s technology development strategies with scientific and research priorities—including unprecedented growth in data and computing sciences—to accelerate the development of new treatments and drugs. He is also capitalizing on Cleveland Clinic’s innovative culture to build strategic partnerships and alliances with industry to drive revenue growth through commercialization of intellectual property, which will help fuel medical advances and economic growth in Northeast Ohio.

Dr. Vince obtained his PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of Liverpool in 1989. He came to Cleveland Clinic BME as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 1992, rising to Associate Staff by 2003.

In BME, Dr. Vince and colleagues invented a new methodology for imaging the interior of coronary arteries using intravascular ultrasound. This methodology, “Virtual Histology™,” was patented and later licensed to Volcano Therapeutics (now Volcano Corp.).

In 2005, Dr. Vince left Cleveland Clinic to join Volcano’s Cleveland office as Director of Research. In 2006, he became Vice-President of Clinical and Advanced R&D, moving to Volcano’s headquarters in San Diego, California. His invention is now a product of some 7,000 units worldwide. (Volcano was purchased by Philips in 2015.) Dr. Vince returned to Cleveland in 2011 to become Chair of Cleveland Clinic BME.

Dr. Vince is currently Principal Investigator of the Cleveland Clinic site for a grant awarded under the NIH Centers for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI) program, an initiative of the NHLBI/NIH. He is an inventor on more than 60 patents or patent applications in the United States and worldwide. More recently, Dr. Vince has been working with colleagues at Cleveland Clinic to develop a breathalyzer for simple, non-invasive, early detection of COVID-19.

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Deb has a combined 15 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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Dr. Erez Podoly is the Principal for Life Sciences on the New Companies team of Innovations. Erez is the Founder and CEO of MightyGate, which is developing high throughput screening technology for infectious diseases. Prior to MightyGate, he founded two startups - Slive, to pursue Salivary Diagnostics and AcheroMetics to discover biomarkers of acute pain. Previously, he was focused on Health Tech and Biotech investments at Artiman Ventures. At Stanford University, Erez pursued research with a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. Dr. Podoly  is a thought leader, frequent invited speaker (TEDx), active panelist, and judge in startup competitions. He has a Ph.D. in Neurobiology (Alzheimer’s research), M.Sc. in Biochemistry (Cancer research) and B.Sc. in Chemistry.

 

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Jon David “JD” Friedland joined Cleveland Clinic in May 2021 as Partner focusing on medical device investments. JD serves on the boards of Enspire DBS, Navigate Cardiac Structures and VisionAir.

Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic, 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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Jim Ellis, JD, MBA, is the Managing Director for Pre-Market Innovations at Cleveland Clinic where he supports the Inventor Engagement and Technology Assessment Teams.  Jim also oversees the Lerner Research Institute’s Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Office where he supports inventors pursuing external funding (SBIR/STTR/DOD) to support early stage technologies development, the Cleveland Clinic SPARK (technology selection and development, and inventor education), and the Innovation Fellows Programs (technology development training). 

Prior to focusing on medical technology development, Jim was the Finance Manager and then the Institute Administrator for the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute (LRI).  During his tenure, the LRI never missed budget and has continued to be a great place to work. He helped to develop the Research Communications, Compliance, Trainee Development, and Fund Development Offices. He served on many teams and committees to build programs like the Research Centers of Excellence Program (CoE) which builds Team Science, and implemented the Care Affordability efforts, in which we the LRI emerged a leaner, more efficient and productive research organization with annual funding continuing to exceed all previous records. He helped to oversee many construction projects including the Barrier, Pre-clinical MRI, and the Metabolomics facilities.

Jim is a licensed attorney in Ohio and CPA (currently inactive).  His experiences in law, business, healthcare, and research position him to effectively accelerate biomedical research discoveries into new medical products. 

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Joseph Rich, JD, MBA, oversees all governance activities and manages the commercialization grant programs for Innovations. Further, he is a member of the Cleveland Innovation District Team. Mr. Rich has served as a key executive, and Portfolio Manager for the state of Ohio Third Frontier sponsored Ohio BioValidation Fund (OBVF) program since re-joining Cleveland Clinic in 2011. OBVF is an $85 million+ 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 medical devices, life sciences, venture capital investments and angel financing, joint ventures and other strategic alliances involving technology commercialization. Mr. Rich served as a Board Member and or Corporate Officer for many early-stage companies and led the successful exit of multiple portfolio companies. He also manages the relationships between the boards and executive teams of Cleveland Clinic portfolio companies. Mr. Rich has over 15 years of technology commercialization experience. Prior to Cleveland Clinic, he served in a leadership role for The University of Akron Research Foundation, where he was instrumental in numerous corporate ventures and international deals. He believes in supporting our communities, including having 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 emerging therapuetics from preclinical to clinical programs; she is currently Senior Director, Innovations at Cleveland Clinic.  Previously, Julie worked 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 agreements Previously, 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 7 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 the Sales and Partnerships team for Cleveland Clinic Innovations . 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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Kayla Kress joined Innovations in October 2021 as part of the Assessment team providing key stakeholders with market intelligence in the assessment of new medical device technologies. Prior to joining the team, Kayla interned at Ohio WillowWood learning both the manufacturing and engineering processes for low limb prosthetic devices.

Kayla earned her Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Minor in Human Movement through Biomechanics from University of Dayton and her Master’s of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Cleveland 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. 

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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 17 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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Melissa Barnes is an intellectual property (IP) analyst in the Business Analytics Group at Cleveland Clinic Innovations. She joined the team in 2019 after receiving an M.A. in Patent Practice from Case Western Reserve University, School of Law. Her focus is on understanding the technical details of each new invention, conducting prior art searches, and assessing the patentability of the invention. Prior to specializing in IP, Melissa received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Case Western Reserve University and subsequently spent six years in academic research at Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine and five years in preclinical regulatory studies at Ricerca Biosciences (now known as Olon Ricerca Bioscience).

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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 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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Nicole Haller joined Innovations in April 2019 as part of the Business Analytics team providing key stakeholders with market intelligence in the assessment of new medical technologies and business opportunities. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a Senior Consultant at OhioHealth in Columbus, OH where she lead project teams of multidisciplinary clinical and administrative staff to develop and implement system-wide process/quality improvement initiatives. She also previously worked for OSU Physicians, Ohio State University’s not-for-profit physician practice plan, as a Project Coordinator with the Ophthalmology and Urology departments.

Nicole earned both her Bachelor of Science in Public Health, as well as, her Master’s degree in Health Administration (MHA) from The Ohio State University.

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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 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 Cleveland Clinic, Sarah worked as a Consultant at The Gateway Group, Vice President of Medical Operations at The MetroHealth System, and as an Administrator at Cleveland Clinic.  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 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 Innovations, 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 as over 20 years of experience in information technology product deveelopment and related business strategy. Early in his career Thad was a technology consultant for several global consulting firms including Deloitte & Touche and PricewatersCoopers. Before joining the Cleveland Clinic over 10 years ago, Thad worked as the Chief Operating Officer and Director of Information Technology at a Cleveland-based- SaaS start-up. Prior to joining the Health IT Team with Innovations, Thad was Co-inventor and Product Development Director for a novel clinical decision support platform which has been implemented at the Cleveland Clinic and successfully commercialized. Thad's portfolio of products, liceneses, and new ventures includes augmented reality, machine learning and artificial intelligence, clinical decisions support, remote patient monitoring and chronic disease management. 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. Thad has also earned a Master's Degree in Business Adminstration (MBA) from Case Western Reserve University.  

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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 has been with Innovations since 2016. In his current role (Associate Director, Innovations Technology Development), Torey is responsible for developing commercialization strategies for medical device related inventions submitted by Cleveland Clinic caregivers. This work includes evaluating early stage invention disclosures for commercial promise, managing development and funding plans, and collaborating with external partners to help commercialize these inventions. Prior to joining Innovations, Torey worked at St. Jude Medical in a sales/clinical role, where he specialized in cardiac electrophysiology related devices. 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 a Principal with Innovations, Zach works with the New Companies team to create, develop, and finance startup companies leveraging the ideas, expertise, and resources of Cleveland Clinic. Zach currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Ceraxis Health, Perfusion Solutions, and Qr8 Health, and as an observer of Enspire DBS Therapy.

Prior to joining the Innovations team in 2017, Zach was the Director of Development at Efferent Labs, an early-stage medical technology company. Previously, Zach worked at Z80 Labs, a seed-stage fund in Western New York. 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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