CVRx leadership team

Nadim Yared is the President and Chief Executive Officer of CVRx^®. Mr. Yared previously served as Vice President and General Manager of Medtronic Navigation, a supplier of integrated image-guided surgery products, from 2002 to 2006. He also worked at GE Medical for ten years, where he was Vice President of Global Marketing for OEC Medical Systems, Inc. and Vice President and General Manager of General Electric Company’s European X-ray business based in Paris. Mr. Yared is a member of the boards of directors of AdvaMed, Lightpoint Medical, the Medical Device Innovation Consortium (“MDIC”), NanoWear, Inc., North American Science Associates, Inc. (“NAMSA”) and CVRx. In addition, Mr. Yared is currently the Chairman of the NAMSA Board of Directors and has recently served as Chairman of the AdvaMed Board of Directors and the MDIC Board of Directors. Mr. Yared has an engineering degree from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications and an M.B.A. from INSEAD, France.

Mr. Oasheim has over 15 years of finance experience and joined CVRx^® in 2015. Prior to joining CVRx^®, he held various leadership roles at three emerging growth technology companies after starting his career with KPMG LLP. Jared graduated from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota with a B.S. in Accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive).

Paul Verrastro has over 30 years of experience in the cardiac rhythm market. He started his career as a sales representative for Medtronic. After 10 years in the field, he joined Guidant as Director of Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators Marketing. He then served as Vice President of Marketing for all of Guidant in Europe and later as Vice President of Global Marketing for their CRM division. Following the acquisition by Boston Scientific, he left to start his own consulting business and worked with clients such as St. Jude Medical, Abbott Cardiovascular and Medtronic CRDM. In May of 2011, he joined Medtronic as Vice President of Global Strategic Marketing. Over his career, he has helped bring a number of new technologies to market such as Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators, Cardiac Resynchronization Therapies, Implantable Loop Recorders and Leadless Pacing. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse University.

Craig Palmer is the Senior Vice President of US Sales, possessing over 20 years of pharmaceutical, bio-technology, and cardiovascular medical device field experience. Prior to joining CVRx^®, 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. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science from The Pennsylvania State University, Mr. Palmer has had the privilege of working with some of the elite organizations of the industry, including GlaxoSmithKline, Gilead, Boston Scientific, and St. Jude Medical.

Ms. Liz Galle has over 20 years of cardiovascular clinical trial experience. Prior to coming to CVRx^®, she lead statistical and clinical scientist groups at Guidant (Boston Scientific Cardiac Rhythm Management) and was involved in the Women’s Health Initiative Study while at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Liz earned a masters degree in biostatistics from Yale University School of Public Health.

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 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.

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 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 is the Vice President of Market Access and Direct to 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, '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. 

Ali joined New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in 2007 and is currently a General Partner on the healthcare team. He specializes in investments in the biopharmaceutical, medical device, specialty pharmaceutical and healthcare services sectors. Prior to joining NEA, Ali worked as an intern and later 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. He conducted basic science research in the fields of viral fusion inhibition and structural proteomics at the National Institutes of Health and at Duke University. Ali concurrently earned his MD degree from The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and his MBA degree from The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, where he graduated with Honors and was a Palmer Scholar. He graduated summa cum laude and received his bachelor’s degrees with distinction in Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Chemistry from Duke University.

John M. Nehra graduated from the University of Michigan, BA 1970. Upon graduating, he joined Doyle O’Connor & Company, a leading nationwide NASDAQ trading firm based in Chicago, as an Associate in their Venture Group. In 1971 Mr. Nehra built a small Research and Sales Department following small to medium sized publicly traded growth stocks, complementing the firm’s historic trading capabilities. With the passing of Bob Doyle in 1975, the firm never fully realized its full potential. In 1975 Alex Brown & Sons hired Mr. Nehra to build a corporate strategy in Health Care, with an expanded approach to Investment Banking. For decades Alex. Brown became the preeminent national firm in Health Care Research, Trading and Banking. Alex. Brown adopted this strategic template in Software, Transportation, Consumer and Financial Services. In 1981 Mr. Nehra became a Partner of the firm. Mr. Nehra also worked with Alex Brown’s Partners with an entry into Venture Capital, Merchant Banking and Capital Markets. Mr. Nehra worked and managed Health Care related Research and Investment Banking ultimately managing the Capital Markets Desk. In 1989 until his retirement in August 2014, Mr. Nehra was affiliated with New Enterprise Associates (“NEA”), a leading venture capital firm, including, from 1993 until his retirement, as General Partner of several of its affiliated venture capital limited partnerships. Mr. Nehra also served as Managing General Partner of Catalyst Ventures, a venture capital firm, from 1989 to 2013. Mr. Nehra served on numerous boards of NEA’s portfolio companies in healthcare and technology until his retirement in August 2014. Mr. Nehra remains a retired special partner of NEA. Since 1999 Mr. Nehra has served on the board of DaVita (NYSE:DVA). He advises and is on the board of several private companies. He has been active with the Baltimore School for the Arts and various charities. Mr. Nehra is married and has two daughters.

Mr. Slattery serves on the Board of Replimune Group, Inc., Morphic Therapeutic and CVRx^®. He previously served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of TransEnterix, Inc. from October 2013 through December 2019. Mr. Slattery served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Baxano Surgical, Inc. from April 2010 until September 2013. Mr. Slattery served as a member of the Baxano Surgical Board of Directors from November 2007 until April 2010 and resigned in connection with his appointment as an officer. From February 1996 through August 2007, Mr. Slattery served in various roles of increasing responsibility at Digene Corporation, a molecular diagnostics company that was acquired by Qiagen, N.V. in August 2007, including from October 2006 through August 2007 as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Finance and Information Systems. Mr. Slattery served on the Board of Directors of Micromet, Inc., a publicly-held biopharmaceutical company, and Exosome Diagnostics, Inc., a privately-held molecular diagnostics company. Mr. Slattery received a B.S. degree in Accountancy from Bentley University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Mudit is a Founding General Partner of Treo Ventures, and the CEO and co-founder of NuXcel, a medical device accelerator. Mudit also co-founded and serves as Chairman of the Board of ShiraTronics, Inc., a NuXcel spin off company. Mudit has over two decades of medical device industry experience across company formation, R&D, and business development. In addition to his private venture capital experiences at Treo Ventures, and Synergy Life Science Partners, Mudit also brings a strategic investment perspective based on his tenure at Johnson and Johnson Development Corporation. Mudit has served on the boards of several medical device companies, from early to commercial growth stage, resulting in successful IPOs and M&A transactions. Mudit current serves on the boards of Inspire Medical Systems (NYSE: INSP), Neochord, Inc., ShiraTronics, Inc., CVRx, Inc., and Noctrix, Inc. Some of his prior investments/board responsibilities include Irhythm Technologies (NSDQ:IRTC), Aptus Endosystems (Acqd. by Medtronic), CardioMEMS (Acqd. by St. Jude Medical), Impres Medical (Acqd. by J&J), and Neuspera, Inc. Mudit also serves on the Board of Visitors of the Graduate School at Duke University, External Advisory Board of John Hopkins University Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design. Prior to his investing career, Mudit held operational roles in the Cardiac Rhythm Management Division of Guidant Corporation, and played a key role in developing novel device technologies for heart failure, remote cardiac monitoring, and cardiac ablation. Mudit holds 8 issued patents and has authored several peer reviewed publications. Mudit graduated with a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from REC, Nagpur, India, where he was a gold medal recipient for academic achievements. He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University, and his M.B.A. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

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

Martha Shadan joined Miach Orthopaedics as the president and chief executive officer in January 2019. During 2018, Shadan served as global vice president of marketing at Smith & Nephew plc, a role she assumed after the company acquired Rotation Medical, where she was president and CEO. 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. Martha Shadan has more than three decades of experience in the life science industry as a business leader in a variety of both large and start-up organizations. Prior to joining Rotation Medical, Martha was the president of the Trauma Division at Zimmer where she managed the P&L for the global business. Martha served at Covidien as vice president/general manager of Vascular Therapies and vice president/general manager BioSurgery and Sports Surgery. Other companies that have benefited from Martha’s experience and leadership include Bristol Myers Squibb Co. and Merck Millipore. Martha is the chairwoman of the Board of Directors for a medical device start-up, IlluminOss. She is actively involved with the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), serving on the Board of Directors since 2017; being a member of the Accel Board of Directors since 2015 and currently serving as its chairwoman. Accel is the division within AdvaMed dedicated to addressing the unique needs and challenges of smaller medical technology manufacturers. Martha chairs the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for AdvaMed and is a founding member of the Leadership Circle for the Women’s Executive Network (WEN). She is also a board advisor for several other companies. Martha holds a master of business administration from Northeastern University, master of science in biology from Michigan State University, and bachelor of science in biology from the University of New Hampshire.

Kevin is currently the President and CEO of Augmedics, a pioneer in augmented reality surgical navigation. Prior to joining Augmedics, Kevin was President and CEO of Bardy Diagnostics, which was acquired by Hillrom in August of 2021. Before Bardy Diagnostics, Kevin was President and CEO of Relievant Medsystems, an Operating Partner at Versant Ventures, Chairman and CEO of Metavention, Inc., CEO of Cameron Health (Boston Scientific), and Chief Commercial Officer of Visiogen (Abbott). Prior to joining Visiogen, Kevin spent sixteen years at Medtronic in the CRM, Neurostimulation, and Cardiac Surgery businesses. Kevin is currently an Operating Partner with Revival Healthcare Capital and an independent board member at Metavention, Inc. Kevin received his MBA from Northwestern University and a BBA in Information Systems from the University of Wisconsin.

Nadim Yared is the President and Chief Executive Officer of CVRx^®. Mr. Yared previously served as Vice President and General Manager of Medtronic Navigation, a supplier of integrated image-guided surgery products, from 2002 to 2006. He also worked at GE Medical for ten years, where he was Vice President of Global Marketing for OEC Medical Systems, Inc. and Vice President and General Manager of General Electric Company’s European X-ray business based in Paris. Mr. Yared is a member of the boards of directors of AdvaMed, Lightpoint Medical, the Medical Device Innovation Consortium (“MDIC”), NanoWear, Inc., North American Science Associates, Inc. (“NAMSA”) and CVRx. In addition, Mr. Yared is currently the Chairman of the NAMSA Board of Directors and has recently served as Chairman of the AdvaMed Board of Directors and the MDIC Board of Directors. Mr. Yared has an engineering degree from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications and an M.B.A. from INSEAD, France.