Spiration® Team
Spiration is led by a distinguished group of medical device and health care veterans with more than 120 years’ combined industry experience.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Richard Shea joined Spiration in early 2000, with more than 28 years of medical device and health care industry experience. Mr. Shea has lead Spiration through significant growth and development culminating in the initiation of a U.S. pivotal trial for the company’s minimally invasive IBV® Valve System for the treatment of severe emphysema. Prior to joining Spiration, Mr. Shea held a broad range of executive positions, both domestic and overseas, in sales, marketing, distribution, research and manufacturing capacities. With early career experience at Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories, Mr. Shea expanded his professional portfolio with several successful early-stage medical companies such as Stericycle (SRCL). Mr. Shea earned his BS in marketing from Nichols College and is a member of the Board of Directors of Spiration, Inc.
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Gregory Sessler joined Spiration in the fall of 2002 with more than 20 years of financial and strategic management experience in the life sciences industry.
Prior to joining Spiration, Mr. Sessler served as senior vice president and CFO of Rosetta Inpharmatics, a leader in informational genomics, from March 2000 until its acquisition by Merck & Co in July 2001 for $540 million. In addition to playing an instrumental role in the business development activities that led to the acquisition by Merck, Mr. Sessler led Rosetta's efforts to a successful initial public offering in August 2000, as well as previous initial public offerings for three other biomedical companies, including Sonus Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Mr. Sessler is a member of the AICPA and the Financial Executives International. He is also on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association and is on the Board of Directors of VLST Corporation.
Mr. Sessler holds a bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, from Syracuse University and a master's in business administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Vice President and Medical Director
Dr. Steven Springmeyer joined Spiration in 2001. Dr. Springmeyer is a pulmonary and critical care specialist with extensive experience in bronchoscopy, clinical research and patient care. Dr. Springmeyer joined Spiration® following 17 years at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, most recently as director of Bronchoscopy and Interventional Pulmonology and co-director of Thoracic Oncology. Dr. Springmeyer had extensive involvement with the success of the Virginia Mason Research Center, where he held numerous positions, including president of the Board of Directors and director of Clinical Research. In 1994, he co-developed Virginia Mason Medical Center’s Lung Volume Reduction Surgery Program. Before joining Virginia Mason, Dr. Springmeyer was on staff at the University of Washington for 10 years as the chief of respiratory disease at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He continues as a Clinical Professor of Medicine with the University.
Dr. Springmeyer's personal research interests have resulted in more than 40 publications, and he is a frequent lecturer and medical educator. He is active in several professional societies, including previously serving as President of the Washington Thoracic Society, a member of the Board of Directors of the American Thoracic Society, and Chairman of the Council of Chapter Representatives. Dr. Springmeyer was named one of the "Top Doctors in Seattle" in the September 2000 issue of Seattle magazine.
Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Xavier Gonzalez joined Spiration in June 1999. In his current position as chief scientific officer and vice-president of Clinical Research, he oversees and directs all research activities and clinical trials for the company.
Dr. Gonzalez has more than12 years of experience working in the medical device industry, starting in 1994 at InControl, Inc., the developer of the first implantable atrial defibrillator, where he served as senior research scientist. When Guidant Corporation acquired the company in 1998, he was retained as a consultant to continue working in projects related to cardiac pacing and defibrillation. He also contributed pre-clinical research work in heart failure devices for ACORN Cardiovascular Inc. Dr. Gonzalez has contributed more than 50 publications in the areas of cardiovascular and pulmonary research and multiple patents in both fields. Dr. Gonzalez completed his cardiovascular research training at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Gonzalez has made presentations of his scientific work at prestigious national and international meetings in the cardiovascular, surgical, pulmonary and research areas. In 1996, he was awarded third place in the Young Scientist Award Competition of the Internal Society of Electrocardiology.
Vice President, Product Development, Operations & Quality
Robert Conta joined Spiration in the fall of 2003. He has more than 30 years of diversified experience in research, development, manufacturing engineering and operations in the medical device field. Mr. Conta is responsible for management of the company's product development and manufacturing scale-up activities as well as evaluation of new technologies and intellectual property development.
Prior to joining Spiration, Mr. Conta served as vice president of Research and Development for several companies in the orthopedic implant, surgical instrumentation and wound closure fields. During this time, Mr. Conta was responsible for the development of the first cervical intervertebral disc prosthesis for Spinal Dynamics Corporation, which was acquired by Medtronic in July 2003. Prior to Spinal Dynamics, Mr. Conta led the development and commercialization of new orthopedic joint reconstruction systems for Wright Medical Technology and Joint Medical Products. Mr. Conta has also led teams at U.S. Surgical, Davis & Geck and Baxter Healthcare in the development and introduction of multiple implantable medical devices.
Mr. Conta is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Society for Biomaterials, the American Society for Testing and Materials, and the Orthopedic Research Society. He is holder of 10 issued and multiple pending U.S. patents.
Mr. Conta holds a bachelor's degree in Aerospace and Bioengineering from Brown University and a masters degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Sciences from the University of Rochester.
Vice President, Marketing
Nancy Hill joined Spiration in 2007 with more than 16 years of sales and marketing experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. At Spiration, Ms. Hill manages all aspects of the company's marketing, commercialization and business development efforts.
Ms. Hill comes to Spiration from the successful marketing consulting firm she founded, Zaltana Strategies, LLC, which focused on commercialization strategy, business development support and product launch planning for growing biopharmaceutical companies.
Prior to starting her own firm, Ms. Hill held executive marketing positions with Amgen, Berlex Laboratories (now Bayer HealthCare) and Immunex Corporation (now Amgen). As vice president of Marketing for the Oncology Business Unit of Berlex Laboratories, Ms. Hill led oncology product marketing, strategy and spearheaded long-term portfolio planning. She also held a key leadership role in the international strategic planning for a novel product in late-stage development.
Prior to Berlex, Ms. Hill served as senior director of Oncology Marketing for Immunex and was responsible for both marketed and pipeline products in a variety of therapeutic areas. She also held a number of commercial positions at Amgen, formulating long-term strategic business plans for pre-market products, securing favorable reimbursement post-product launch and managing channel strategies. Ms. Hill began her healthcare career in sales at Lederle Laboratories.
Ms. Hill holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, and a BA in business administration from the University of Washington where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Board of Directors
Michael Kopp, chairman of the board of directors, has extensive experience in executive roles with various medical device companies. From 1995-1999, Mr. Kopp was president and CEO of IsoStent Inc., a medical device company focused on the development and clinical testing of radiation-emitting and non-radiation-emitting stents for the treatment of coronary and peripheral vascular disease. IsoStent was acquired by Cordis Corporation, a Johnson and Johnson company. Previously, he served first as vice president of Sales and Marketing, then as President and CEO of Devices for Vascular Intervention, Inc. (DVI), a medical device company that developed and marketed a line of atherectomy catheters and associated accessories for the treatment of coronary and peripheral vascular disease. Acquired by Eli Lilly in 1989, DVI grew to more than 600 employees, with worldwide sales of over $80 million annually. DVI later became part of Guidant Corp.
In addition to his work with Spiration, Mr. Kopp also serves on the Board of Directors of Vascular Solutions, Inc., a publicly traded company located in Minneapolis, Minn., and serves as an independent industry consultant. Mr. Kopp holds a BS degree in physics from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Calif., and an MBA from the University of California at Irvine.
Clif Alferness is co-founder of Spiration and Seattle Medical Technologies with Three Arch Partners. Mr. Alferness is the inventor of the Acorn Cardiac Support device and founded Acorn Cardiovascular, Inc. Mr. Alferness also was a co-founder of InControl, Inc., which developed and patented technology for atrial defibrillation. Mr. Alferness has 35 years of research and development experience in the medical device industry, including management positions at InControl, Inc., Physio-Control Corporation, and Medtronic. He is the author of numerous scientific papers and holds more than 65 issued U.S. patents for medical devices. He is also a co-founder of Cardiac Dimensions Inc., Archus Orthopedics Inc., and EndoGastric Solutions, Inc. and serves on the Board of Directors of Cardiac Dimensions.
Jeani Delagardelle is a managing director of New Leaf Venture Partners, a healthcare technology fund established in August 2005 by the healthcare technology partners of the Sprout Group. Ms. Delagardelle joined Sprout in August 2000 and became General Partner in July 2001. Previously, she was a general partner focused on healthcare investments at Weiss, Peck & Greer Venture Partners. Before joining Weiss, Peck & Greer, Ms. Delagardelle spent 15 years in senior marketing, sales, business development and general manager positions in the healthcare industry. During this time she served as vice president of Global Marketing for Target Therapeutics (acquired by Boston Scientific for $1.1 billion) and held several senior management roles in the Medi-tech division of Boston Scientific. Ms. Delagardelle also served as director of Business Operations for Roche Laboratories and director of Global Marketing for Cell Pro, Inc.
In addition to her work with Spiration she also serves on the Board of Directors of Direct Flow Medical, Intrinsic Therapeutics, Radiant Medical, Triple Point Medical, VascA and Visiogen.
Ms. Delagardelle holds an MBA from the University of California at Irvine and an A.B. from Occidental College.
Gilbert H. Kliman, M.D., is a managing director of InterWest Partners, a leading diversified venture capital firm. At InterWest, he focuses on life sciences investing with a special interest in medical devices. Currently he is responsible for a broad portfolio of InterWest life sciences companies, including ePocrates, IntraLase, Neuropace, and Spiration. He was one of the early lead investors in Spinal Dynamics, a spine surgery device company that was acquired in 2002 by Medtronic for $270 million.
Prior to InterWest Partners, Dr. Kliman was a healthcare investor at TA Associates and at Norwest Venture Capital. As a practicing Ophthalmologist he was the former West Coast Director of LCA Vision, and assistant professor at Tufts New England Eye Center. Dr. Kliman has a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.
Richard Lin, M.D., is a partner at Three Arch Partners and is a co-founder of Spiration. As a managing director at Three Arch Partners, Dr. Lin's other current board memberships include Visiogen, AccentCare, Vein Rx, Sunshine Heart, Seattle Medical Technologies, Gentiae, and LipoScience.
Dr. Lin received training in general surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. He has a bachelor's degree in biology from Stanford University, where he graduated with honors and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. Lin received his doctorate from Harvard Medical School, where he graduated cum laude and was named a Howard Hughes Scholar. He also was a research scientist at the University of California - San Francisco School of Medicine and at the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lin has authored sixteen peer-reviewed articles and abstracts and also holds a M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was named an Arjay Miller Scholar for outstanding academic achievement.
Rebecca B. Robertson is a co-founder and managing director of Versant Ventures, an early-stage healthcare venture capital firm. Prior to Versant, Ms. Robertson was a general partner at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), which she joined in 1996 after a 14-year career in life sciences as an engineer, medical products entrepreneur and corporate executive. Her emphasis at both IVP and Versant is in early stage investments in medical devices, diagnostics and biotechnology tools. Ms. Robertson has served as a director of Pro Duct Health, Appriva and Coalescent, which have all been acquired by other companies. She currently serves on the boards of directors of Liposonix, Myocor, NeoGuide, Quantum Dot Corporation (Qdot) and Rosedale, and is an advisor to The Innovation Factory, a medical devices incubator. From 1994-1996, Ms. Robertson served as senior vice president at Chiron Diagnostics, a division of Chiron Corporation, where she had responsibility for its $200 million critical care business unit. Ms. Robertson also served as vice president of Business Development where she led numerous deals in support of Chiron Diagnostics’ business and technology objectives. Previously, she was a co-founder and vice president at Egis, an IVP portfolio company, and held senior management positions in operations and finance at Lifescan, a Johnson & Johnson company. During her seven-year term at Lifescan, the company grew from an early stage venture-funded company to a worldwide market leader in diabetes diagnostics. Ms. Robertson holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University.
Sigrid Van Bladel, Ph.D., is a partner of New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a premier venture capital firm. She joined the firm in 1994 and focuses on biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. Other current board memberships include Acorn Cardiovascular, Kanisa Pharmaceuticals, Myogen, NeuroPace, and Xcel Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining NEA, Ms. Van Bladel worked as a management consultant at McKinsey and Company and as a research associate with the National Science Foundation of Belgium. She received a "Licenciaat" in chemistry/biotechnology (summa cum laude) and a Ph.D. (summa cum laude) in molecular biology from The University of Ghent, Belgium. Ms. Van Bladel holds a M.B.A. from Stanford University.