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CVRx leadership team

Senior management

Kevin Hykes, President and CEO

Kevin Hykes

President and CEO

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Kevin Hykes

President and CEO

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Kevin Hykes has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer, since February 2024, and as a director on the Board, since December 2022. Mr. Hykes previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of Augmedics, Inc., an augmented reality surgical navigation company, from December 2021 to February 2024. He has also served as a Venture Advisor to Vensana Capital, a medtech-focused investment firm, since November 2019. Mr. Hykes previously served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of each of Bardy Diagnostics, Inc., a remote cardiac monitoring and individual health services company, from August 2020 until its acquisition in June 2021, and Relievant, Inc., a provider of interventional treatment for chronic low back pain, from 2017 to January 2020. He also served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Metavention Inc., a neuromodulation company, from 2013 to 2017, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cameron Health, Inc., a cardioverter-defibrillator medical device company from 2010 until its acquisition in 2013, and Chief Commercial Officer of Visiogen, Inc., a developer of products for cataract and refractive patients, from 2008 until its acquisition in 2010. Mr. Hykes served as an Operating Partner at Versant Ventures, a healthcare focused venture capital firm, from 2013 to 2017. Mr. Hykes currently serves on the board of directors of Metavention Inc. and previously served on the boards of directors of Bardy Diagnostics, Inc., Relievant, Inc., and Veran Medical Systems, Inc., an interventional pulmonology medical device company. Mr. Hykes received a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin and an M.B.A. from Northwestern University.

Jared Oasheim, Chief Financial Officer

Jared Oasheim

Chief Financial Officer

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Jared Oasheim

Chief Financial Officer

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Jared Oasheim has served as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer since October 2020 and has over 19 years of finance experience. Mr. Oasheim joined the Company in August 2015 as VP of Finance/Controller. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Oasheim held various leadership roles at three emerging growth technology companies after starting his career with KPMG LLP. Mr. Oasheim received a B.S. in Accounting from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. He is a certified public accountant (inactive).

Paul Verrastro, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer

Paul Verrastro

Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer

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Paul Verrastro

Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer

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Paul Verrastro has served as the Company’s Chief Marketing Officer since January 2021 and became Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer in June 2022. He has over 33 years of experience in the cardiac rhythm market. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Verrastro managed his own consulting business, working with clients such as St. Jude Medical, Abbott Cardiovascular and Medtronic CRDM. Mr. Verrastro started his career as a sales representative for Medtronic, and after ten years in the field, he joined Guidant Corporation as Director of Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators Marketing. Mr. Verrastro then served as Vice President of Marketing for all of Guidant Corporation in Europe and later as Vice President of Global Marketing for their customer relationship management division. In May 2011, Mr. Verrastro rejoined Medtronic as Vice President of Global Strategic Marketing. Over his career, he has helped bring a number of new technologies to market, including implantable cardiac defibrillators, cardiac resynchronization therapies, implantable loop recorders and leadless pacing. Mr. Verrastro received a B.S. degree from Syracuse University.

Craig Palmer, Senior Vice President of US Sales

Craig Palmer

Senior Vice President of US Sales

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Craig Palmer

Senior Vice President of US Sales

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Craig Palmer has served as the Company’s Senior Vice President of US Sales since February 2022 and previously served as the Company’s Vice President of US Sales since 2012. Mr. Palmer has over 21 years of pharmaceutical, bio-technology and cardiovascular medical device field experience. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Palmer was responsible for launching and developing the markets for key cardiovascular therapies, such as Carvedilol, Ranolazine, Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators, Pacemakers and Cardiac Resynchronization Therapies. Prior to that, Mr. Palmer worked with some of the elite organizations of the industry, including GlaxoSmithKline, Gilead, Boston Scientific and St. Jude Medical. Mr. Palmer received a B.S. degree from The Pennsylvania State University.

Thomas Hengsteler, Vice President, European Sales and Marketing

Thomas Hengsteler

Vice President, European Sales and Marketing

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Thomas Hengsteler

Vice President, European Sales and Marketing

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Mr. Hengsteler has over 25 years of management experience in sales & marketing functions in Germany and throughout Europe in the Medical Technology Field. Prior to joining CVRx®, he held various sales & marketing leadership roles in 3 international companies in the medical device sector (St. Jude Medical, Sorin Group and Boston Scientific) focusing on the field of Cardiac Rhythm Management (Pacemakers, ICDs and Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy) and Electrophysiology (EP catheters and recording, 3D mapping and cryoablation). After graduating with a Diploma in physics from Ulm University, Germany, Mr. Hengsteler finished his education with a Dr. rer. nat. in physics at Ulm University, Germany.

Al Crouse, Vice President, Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs

Al Crouse

Vice President, Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs

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Al Crouse

Vice President, Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs

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Al is the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at CVRx. He developed and implemented the quality system and was a key participant in all regulatory submission work at CVRx over the past 15+ years leading to European, FDA and Australian approvals for the quality system and devices. In addition, Al has participated in the MDIC and AdvaMed Case for Quality efforts for many years. Through this, CVRx has volunteered to pioneer new Case for Quality programs developed in conjunction with FDA to improve the quality of medical devices in general and the CVRx product line specifically, including pilots of FDA Critical to Quality assessments, maturity model assessments for the FDA Voluntary Improvement Program (VIP) and the Medical Device Information and Analysis Sharing (MDIAS) program of which he is an original Governing Committee member. Prior to CVRx, Al worked for Medtronic for more than 16 years in various divisions and management roles primarily in the areas of quality and reliability. Al has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Colorado.

Paul Pignato, Vice President of Operations

Paul Pignato

Vice President of Operations

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Paul Pignato

Vice President of Operations

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Mr. Pignato has over 25 years of experience in the areas of medical device research, development, and operations. Prior to joining CVRx, he led product development and operations teams at Medtronic as well as at several start-up medical device companies. He is a named inventor on 78 patents worldwide, with 54 of those in the US. After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Chemical engineering, he earned an MBA from the University of St. Thomas as well as PMP certification.

Jonelle Burnham, Vice President, General Counsel

Jonelle Burnham

Vice President, General Counsel

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Jonelle Burnham

Vice President, General Counsel

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Jonelle Burnham began her legal career as a patent litigation attorney, first with the Twin Cities’ intellectual property firm of Merchant & Gould and then in-house with Kimberly-Clark Corporation. She has served in various roles advising business units, insights and research and development, sales forces, and boards of directors and specializes in life sciences companies, leading legal/compliance functions. Jonelle holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota and a J.D. from Marquette University.  

Ivana Stojanovic, Vice President, Market Access and Consumer Marketing

Ivana Stojanovic

Vice President, Market Access and Consumer Marketing

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Ivana Stojanovic

Vice President, Market Access and Consumer Marketing

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Ivana Stojanovic is the Vice President of Market Access and Consumer Marketing. Prior to joining CVRx, she worked as a strategic consultant, and as an economist across multiple verticals within the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Ivana holds a Masters Degree in Economics with a focus on Econometrics.

Dimitrios Georgakopoulos, Distinguished Scientist, Fellow

Dimitrios Georgakopoulos

Distinguished Scientist, Fellow

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Dimitrios Georgakopoulos

Distinguished Scientist, Fellow

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Dimitrios, 'Jim' has 15 years’ experience in medical devices and more than 5 years in academia where he studied hemodynamics circulatory systems particularly as it relates to heart failure. Jim joined CVRx in 2007 and advanced the unique mechanism of action of baroreflex activation through Barostim. Since 2015 Jim has held leadership roles in advanced heart failure and mechanical circulatory support, business development and founded his own company to develop closed loop stimulation of the baroreflex. Jim has a doctorate from the Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Fellowship in Cardiology both from Johns Hopkins. He has 43 peer reviewed publications and is a reviewer for the American Heart Association. 

Board of directors

Ali Behbahani, New Enterprise Associates

Ali Behbahani

New Enterprise Associates

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Ali Behbahani

New Enterprise Associates

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Ali Behbahani, M.D. has served as a director on the Board since July 2013. He joined New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (“NEA”), a venture capital firm, in 2007 and is a Partner and Co-Head of Healthcare. Prior to joining NEA, Dr. Behbahani served as a consultant in business development at The Medicines Company, a specialty pharmaceutical company developing acute care cardiovascular products. He previously held positions as a Venture Associate at Morgan Stanley Venture Partners and as a Healthcare Investment Banking Analyst at Lehman Brothers. Dr. Behbahani serves on the boards of directors of Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc, a biopharmaceutical company, Arcellx, Inc., a biotechnology company, Black Diamond Therapeutics, Inc., a precision oncology medicine company, CRISPR Therapeutics AG, a biotechnology company, Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company, Nkarta, Inc., a biotechnology company, and Korro Bio, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, and previously served on the boards of directors of Genocea Biosciences, Inc., Nevro Corp., Minerva Surgical Inc., and Oyster Point Pharma, Inc. Dr. Behbahani received an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Chemistry from Duke University.

Joseph Slattery, TransEnterix, Exosome Diagnostics, Replimune

Joseph Slattery

TransEnterix, Exosome Diagnostics, Replimune

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Joseph Slattery

TransEnterix, Exosome Diagnostics, Replimune

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Joseph Slattery has served as a director on the Board since October 2008. He previously served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Asensus Surgical, Inc., a medical device company, from October 2013 to December 2019. Mr. Slattery also served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Baxano Surgical, Inc., from April 2010 to September 2013. From February 1996 to August 2007, Mr. Slattery served in various roles of increasing responsibility at Digene Corporation, including as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Finance and Information Systems, from October 2006 to August 2007. Mr. Slattery serves on the boards of directors of Morphic Therapeutic, Inc. and Replimune Group, Inc., and he previously served on the boards of directors of Baxano Surgical, Inc., Exosome Diagnostics, Inc., Micromet, Inc., and Omega Alpha SPAC. Mr. Slattery received a B.S. in Accounting from Bentley University and is a certified public accountant.

Mudit K. Jain, PHD, Treo Ventures

Mudit K. Jain, PHD

Treo Ventures

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Mudit K. Jain, PHD

Treo Ventures

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Mudit K. Jain, Ph.D. has served as a director on the Board since July 2020. He has served as a Founding General Partner at Treo Ventures I, L.P. (formerly known as Strategic Healthcare Investment Partners) (“Treo”), a medical device-focused venture capital firm, since September 2018, and previously served as a Managing Director at Synergy Venture Partners, LLC, a medical technology venture capital investment firm, from April 2007 to September 2018. Dr. Jain has also served as the CEO and co-founder of NuXcel, a medical device accelerator, since 2018. Dr. Jain currently serves on the boards of directors of Avivomed, Inc., Neochord, Inc., Neuspera, Inc., Noctrix, Inc., NuXcel, One Heart Health, a non-profit organization, ShiraTronics, Inc., and iVEAcare, Inc., and he previously served on the board of directors of Inspire Medical Systems, Inc., Aptus Endosystems, Inc., and Impres Medical, Inc. Dr. Jain received a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University, an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India.

Kirk Nielsen, Vensana Capital

Kirk Nielsen

Vensana Capital

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Kirk Nielsen

Vensana Capital

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Kirk Nielsen has served as a director on the Board since July 2020. Mr. Nielsen has served as a Managing Partner at Vensana Capital, a medtech-focused investment firm, since January 2019 and as a Managing Director at Versant Ventures, a healthcare-focused venture capital firm, since January 2011. He currently serves on the board of directors of Inari Medical, Inc. and on several boards of directors for private companies, including: Alleviant Medical, Artelon Inc., Metavention, Inc., and Moxe Health Corporation, and previously served on the board of directors of Monteris Medical and SpyGlass Ophthalmics. Mr. Nielsen received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and an A.B. from Harvard College.

Martha Shadan, Miach Orthopaedics, Smith & Nephew, Rotation Medical

Martha Shadan

Miach Orthopaedics, Smith & Nephew, Rotation Medical

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Martha Shadan

Miach Orthopaedics, Smith & Nephew, Rotation Medical

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Martha Shadan has served as a director on the Board since July 2021. Ms. Shadan has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Miach Orthopaedics, a developer of bio-engineered surgical implants for connective tissue restoration, from January 2019 to June 2022. From January 2018 to December 2018, Ms. Shadan served as Global Vice President of Marketing at Smith & Nephew plc, a multinational medical equipment manufacturer, a role she assumed after the company acquired Rotation Medical, a medical device company focused on regenerative shoulder repair treatment, where she was President and Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Shadan led Rotation Medical through FDA approval and commercialization of the Rotation Medical Bioinductive Implant for rotator cuff tears (now known as REGENETEN), as well as the company’s acquisition by Smith & Nephew in December 2017. Prior to joining Rotation Medical in January 2013, Ms. Shadan served as President of the Trauma Division at Zimmer where she managed the P&L for the global business and Vice President/General Manager of Vascular Therapies and Vice President/General Manager of BioSurgery and Sports Surgery at Covidien, and she held various positions at Bristol Myers Squibb Co. and Merck Millipore. Ms. Shadan currently serves on the boards of directors of AdvaMed, a trade association, LeMaitre Vascular Inc., a medical device and human tissue cryopreservation company, and as Chair of the board of directors of BrilliantStrings Therapeutics. Ms. Shadan received an M.B.A. from Northeastern University, a Master of Science in Biology from Michigan State University and Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of New Hampshire.

Kevin Hykes, President and CEO

Kevin Hykes

President and CEO

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Kevin Hykes

President and CEO

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Kevin Hykes has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer, since February 2024, and as a director on the Board, since December 2022. Mr. Hykes previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of Augmedics, Inc., an augmented reality surgical navigation company, from December 2021 to February 2024. He has also served as a Venture Advisor to Vensana Capital, a medtech-focused investment firm, since November 2019. Mr. Hykes previously served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of each of Bardy Diagnostics, Inc., a remote cardiac monitoring and individual health services company, from August 2020 until its acquisition in June 2021, and Relievant, Inc., a provider of interventional treatment for chronic low back pain, from 2017 to January 2020. He also served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Metavention Inc., a neuromodulation company, from 2013 to 2017, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cameron Health, Inc., a cardioverter-defibrillator medical device company from 2010 until its acquisition in 2013, and Chief Commercial Officer of Visiogen, Inc., a developer of products for cataract and refractive patients, from 2008 until its acquisition in 2010. Mr. Hykes served as an Operating Partner at Versant Ventures, a healthcare focused venture capital firm, from 2013 to 2017. Mr. Hykes currently serves on the board of directors of Metavention Inc. and previously served on the boards of directors of Bardy Diagnostics, Inc., Relievant, Inc., and Veran Medical Systems, Inc., an interventional pulmonology medical device company. Mr. Hykes received a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin and an M.B.A. from Northwestern University.