Mark C. Bates, M.D., F.A.C.C., F.S.C.A.I.: Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Mark C. Bates, M.D., F.A.C.C., F.S.C.A.I., founder and CEO of Nexeon MedSystems, is a successful entrepreneur and thought leader in cardiovascular medicine. Currently the co-director of one of the largest vascular centers in the U.S. and a full West Virginia University professor of Medicine and Surgery, Dr. Bates has more than 20 years of interventional cardiology experience during which time he has performed or supervised thousands of coronary and peripheral procedures. In 1993 Dr. Bates initiated the heart stent program in West Virginia. He performed the first non-coronary stent, carotid stent, stent graft and other innovative procedures in his home state.

Dr. Bates is also a medical device inventor with more than 25 issued and pending patents. He is the founding member of several medical technology companies including San Francisco Science, BAFF (Bates Floating Filter), TransDerm technology, Medical Dynamics, ReVasc and NeoSeed. Two of his patents for filter devices were sold to Boston Scientific. His work in carotid flow control and reversal resulted in seven of the core patents that were used to form the San Francisco Science subsidiary ArteriA, a company that was later sold to W. L. Gore & Associates. He has been a member of the scientific advisory boards for Guidant, Boston Scientific, and Medtronic and served on the Johnson & Johnson Opinion Leaders Council.

Dr. Bates graduated from West Virginia University School of Medicine and served his cardiovascular fellowship at the University of Kentucky, where he was retained as a clinical scholar in interventional cardiology. He subsequently completed a vascular medicine and vascular interventional research fellowship at the Dorros-Feuer Research Foundation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards in his field and is the author of several book chapters and numerous manuscripts.

Gardiner Smith, J.D.: President

Gardiner Smith, J.D., president, is an experienced senior manager with previous roles at leading biopharmaceutical and life sciences start-up companies. Prior to Nexeon, Mr. Smith held the role of senior vice president of Business Development and Licensing at Aspreva Pharmaceuticals, where he had global responsibility for business and licensing transactions, with staff in the U.S., Canada and England. Previously, he was chief business officer at Memory Pharmaceuticals. While there he secured a number of major corporate alliances and played a key role in the company’s 2004 initial public offering. He has also held senior positions at Human Genome Sciences and GlaxoSmithKline. Mr. Smith began his career at Glaxo in 1987, moving through positions in chemistry, patents and transactional law.

Mr. Smith has a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a J.D. from North Carolina Central University. He is a member of the North Carolina Bar and U.S. Patent Bar.

Bret Chandler: Chief Financial Officer

Bret Chandler, chief financial officer, has more than two decades of senior financial management experience specializing in growing businesses and assisting in start-ups. For the past several years Mr. Chandler has been a partner in the Triana Energy group, where he is responsible for reviewing investment opportunities and providing executive management to the companies within the group’s portfolio. For seven years he was with Charles Ryan Associates, the second-largest advertising/public relations firm in the southeast, where he was an executive vice president, CFO, and partner, providing financial and strategic leadership to all areas of the organization. While at CRA he helped found RevInteractive, rated as one of the top 100 interactive agencies in the United States. Prior to his work with CRA Mr. Chandler was the director of the Bell Atlantic Research Center, managing a 400-employee facility responsible for conducting product and customer satisfaction research for the seven Bell Atlantic companies.

Mr. Chandler holds a Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Business Administration from Marshall University.

Kent Stalker: Chief Scientific Officer

Kent Stalker, chief scientific officer, has two decades of experience in the medical device industry. Most recently, Mr. Stalker created Guidant Corporation’s peripheral drug eluting stent program and was instrumental in leading Guidant’s groundbreaking work in superficial femoral artery biomechanics. Mr. Stalker has expertise in manufacturing, production, R&D management, and technology development for a variety of cardiac and vascular interventional devices and has delivered more than two dozen products to market. He was responsible for directing the engineering efforts of Guidant's peripheral and carotid divisions, including, most notably, the development of the pioneering Acculink™ Carotid Stent System and the first .014”-based peripheral stent system. He holds 22 U.S. patents and over a dozen pending applications for many of his marketed devices.

Mr. Stalker served in the U.S. Army, Active and Reserves for 13 years where he was a Platoon Sergeant (SFC, E-7) of Infantry, Cavalry Scout, and Support Platoons. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from San Diego State University and a Masters in Management from the University of Redlands.

Dan Heilbrunn: Vice President of Marketing and Business Development

Dan Heilbrunn, vice president of marketing and business development, is an expert in medical device marketing, early stage product design, therapy development, and commercialization strategies. Most recently he directed the worldwide commercialization of carotid stenting and embolic protection at Guidant Corporation, work that included the first launch of this new therapy in the United States and propelled the company to worldwide market leadership. Mr. Heilbrunn’s three years working for Guidant in Japan assisted the company in establishing its direct sales subsidiary for the vascular intervention market. In Japan Mr. Heilbrunn developed strategies for multiple coronary intervention product launches and led new teams for the intravascular radiation therapy and neurovascular therapy markets. Prior to his work in the medical device industry Mr. Heilbrunn served as a project leader designing 8-bit and 16-bit microcontrollers for Mitsubishi Semiconductor America.

Mr. Heilbrunn holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Electrical Engineering and Economics from Duke University, and a Master of Business Administration and Master of Arts in Japanese Studies from the University of Michigan.