Meet the Team

Operations and Leadership

Meet the Team

Operations and Leadership

Disruptive revolutions within markets can be ignited by a small, experienced team that understands strategy, specific market demands, branding, execution, and is willing to set the bar higher and create a new gold standard. This is the goal of Caribbean Healthcare Partners, Ltd. – to become the trusted leader in the delivery of innovative healthcare while providing diversified and attractive returns to our partners and shareholders.

To ensure that we achieve our goal of becoming the world leader in regenerative medicine and individualized patient care while providing attractive value-based investments, we have assembled a team of experts with relevant experience to oversee the major aspects of the business and related units. This is done through an organized structure consisting of our Executive Management team, an Advisory Board and a Medical Advisory & Clinical Research Board, all with proven track records.

Executive Management

The Executive Management team consists of executives who have led startups, major publically traded life science corporations, as well as seasoned professionals and entrepreneurs with relevant experience in healthcare, branding, business development and global finance.

Barry Wilson

Co-Founder & Board Member

Greg Downey

Executive Chairman & Co-Founder

Denzil Crooke

Co-Founder, Government Relations

Pete Plamann

Chief Strategy Officer

John Martin

Chief Executive Officer

Mary Miller Sallah

Chief Operations Officer

Mary Miller Sallah has over 15 years of experience in the management of healthcare facilities, international business development, international accreditation, and is considered an international expert in the field of medical travel. Mrs. Miller Sallah’s professional experience covers over 30 international markets across the Caribbean, North American, South America, Africa, Asia and Europe.
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Rowland Hanson

Managing Partner, Corporate Communications

Janeen Schackel

Chief Technology Officer

Jan Schackel has over 40 years of healthcare experience in information systems development and management. She has a proven track record of successfully identifying technological challenges in highly regulated environments and developing cost effective and innovative solutions, implementing new technologies and managing teams of engineers and analysts supporting physicians, nursing, laboratory, surgery, pharmacy, radiology, registration and patient accounting.
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Advisors

Bill Mitchell

CEO & Founder, WT Mitchell Group

Nikos Anastassiades

CEO & Founder, NEA Medical

Alan Smith

Managing Director, Invictus Consulting Services, Ltd.

MEDICAL & CLINICAL RESEARCH ADVISORY BOARD

Andy Redmond, MD

Program Director, Interventional Pain Management

Ken Zaslav, MD

Program Director Program Director, Sports Medicine & Regenerative Knee

Michael Galitzer, MD

Program Director Anti-Aging/Health & Wellness

Adam Katz, MD

Program Director, Aesthetics, Plastics & Reconstructive Surgery

Bill Hunter, MD

Brian Johnstone, PhD

Erik Woods, PhD

Vaclav Prochazka, MD, PhD

Jim Swick, PhD

Kevin Ohashi, PhD, MBA, MS

Professional Services & Strategic Partners

Christophe Harbour promises island living with services guided by expert hands, experiences made authentic by Kittitian heritage, and rare Caribbean real estate opportunities. What distinguishes Christophe Harbour from all other Caribbean destinations is its distinctive collection of enticing amenities—Park Hyatt St. Kitts Christophe Harbour, superyacht marina and marina village, and coming soon a Tom Fazio designed golf course complete with clubhouse and practice facilities, and luxury accommodations.

Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC

Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC has over 500 attorneys and government relations professionals in 17 offices across the U.S. with headquarters in Pittsburgh, foundational practices in healthcare, international law and tax, business finance, commercial litigation, labor and employment.

Katz, Sapper & Miller, one of the top CPA firms in the nation, provides tax, accounting and consulting services for a wide range of industries, including a deep knowledge of physician groups, hospitals, health systems, life science mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures.

BSA LifeStructures is an award-winning architectural and engineering firm with 7 offices throughout the U.S. and design facilities that support, enhance and inspire healing, learning and discovery in the healthcare, research and higher learning sectors.

The Government of St. Christopher & Nevis

The Government of St. Christopher & Nevis has been very supportive of CHP’s efforts to establish a best-in-class medical facility with the twin island federation. The Ministry of Health has been intimately involved and accommodating to the needs of the company.

St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Ltd.

The St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Ltd. is one of the premier financial institutions in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, and is the largest banking institution in the region.

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Barry Wilson

Co-Founder, Managing Partner

Barry Wilson was appointed President of Medtronic International in 2001. He joined Medtronic as President Europe, Middle East and Africa in 1995 and in 1997 was elected a Senior Vice President of Medtronic, Inc. and joined the Executive Committee. He is a former President, International of the Lederle Division of the American Cyanamid Company, a research-based life sciences company that merged with American Home Products in 1995. Prior to this, he was President of Europe for the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. In 2003 he was appointed to the Board of Directors of Bausch & Lomb. Since 2000, Mr. Wilson has been Chairman of Eucomed, the pan-European trade association that represents the manufacturers and distributors of medical technology products in Europe. Barry has an MA from Cambridge and an MBA from The Wharton School of Business. Barry is the current Chairman of Mindmaze, a board director of Anecova and NetScientific (a British public company) and on the Advisory Board of the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering. He has served on the boards of Mallinckrodt, Inc, Bausch & Lomb and Welch Allyn and been the Healthcare Partner for DLJ Credit Suisse Alternative Investments. He and his wife spend their time between their homes in Switzerland and Nevis.

Greg Downey

Executive Chairman & Co-Founder

Greg Downey provides more than 20 years of senior executive and entrepreneurial experience in medical device, information technology, biologics and regenerative medicine, and has helped several promising domestic and European companies enter and grow in the United States. His operational experience covers areas such as business development, sales, marketing, branding, strategy, identifying emerging technologies, and building strategic industry and investor relationships.

Greg Downey began his career by helping launch a minimally invasive surgical division of Johnson & Johnson that quickly became the global leader in women’s health and urology. He then went on to serve in executive sales, marketing and business development capacities for the first B-2-B healthcare exchange, medibuy.com, which raised over $160M through Kleiner Perkins, Oakwood and Sequoia Capital. After the company was acquired, he went on to serve as vice president of sales and marketing for NoInk Communications, a mobile healthcare technology company spun out of Rose-Hulman Ventures. As vice president at NoInk, he led efforts to secure the company as the premier provider to the medical device industry. Upon the sale of NoInk, Greg assisted an international investment firm in bringing innovative software solutions into U.S. Homeland Security, as well as mobile healthcare through partnerships with Cisco, Intel and Siemens. Mr. Downey then joined the founding team of OrthoPediatrics, which is currently the largest international orthopedics company solely focused on providing innovative solutions for children suffering from musculoskeletal conditions. As a board member and vice president of business development, he managed investor relations and technology transfer with notable institutions like the Cleveland Clinic and the University of California San Francisco. In addition, he led all marketing and branding efforts, recruited top surgeons, and authored several private placements that raised over $19M for the company. OrthoPediatrics became a publically traded company in October 2017 (NASDAQ: KIDS) and is regarded as one of the top 10 performing IPOs of 2017.

In 2010, he co-founded Purim Ventures, a private venture development firm focused on providing strategic advisory and business development services to promising life science companies. Over the years, Mr. Downey has been involved in developing and launching numerous disruptive technologies in the fields of implantable and wearable devices, cosmeceuticals, biologics and regenerative medicine.

Greg serves as an advisor and on the board of several non-profit organizations and privately held companies, including the Orthopedic Research Foundation and Recovery Force USA. He received a B.S. from the Krannert School of Management, Purdue University and is married with two daughters.

Denzil Crooke

Co-Founder, Government Relations

Mr. Denzil Crooke is co-founder and managing member of Caribbean Healthcare Partners, Ltd. and is CEO and Principal of Quantum Consulting, a principle-based consultancy and training company with a focus on Experiential Facilitation, Entrepreneurship Development and Coaching, Leadership Development and Organizational Change Management.

Mr. Crooke has 40 years’ experience in senior executive management positions in the Caribbean. He started his career as an insurer in St. Kitts and pioneered the formation of the first locally owned insurance company in the Eastern Caribbean. In 1984 he joined Shell Antilles & Guianas Limited (Shell Oil) and served in various managerial positions in Barbados, Trinidad and Haiti with attachments in the wider Caribbean and Central America. He returned to St. Kitts in 2000 as CEO of the oldest privately owned and multi-faceted company in the Federation and led that group of companies until he opened his own management consultancy in 2012.

He serves as Director on several Boards including Golden Rock Development Company Limited and the St. Kitts-Nevis Chamber of Industry and Commerce and is Chairman of the local Salvation Army Advisory Council. He is a Past President of the Rotary Club of St. Kitts and a Past Rotary District Conference Chairman.

Mr. Crooke received his education in St. Kitts, London, England and Zurich, Switzerland. He is married and has 3 grown children and 5 grandchildren.

Pete Plamann

Chief Strategy Officer

Pete Plamann has been in the health insurance innovation industry for 25 years and was most recently the Vice President of Innovation Wellness Solutions with UnitedHealthcare, a Fortune 6 company with over $184B in revenue. During his 14-year tenure at UnitedHealthcare, Mr. Plamann held various leadership roles where he had been directly responsible for driving innovation, as well as developing and introducing disruptive products and services to the market that allowed members to more fully engage in their health and well-being while also ensuring the sustainability of employer sponsored benefit programs.

In his most recent position, Mr. Plamann worked closely with a venture capital research development firm that is closely affiliated with UnitedHealthcare Group. Through this collaborative and entrepreneurial relationship, he created an alternative insurance plan for small employers that were negatively impacted by the Affordable Care Act, which he subsequently grew from inception to well over $750M in revenue in just 3 years. Mr. Plamann used this same successful administrative platform to further test new concepts and technologies. One of the more notable technologies developed was a wearable motion device that rewards members for specific activity behaviors that improve health while lowering claims. Due to the success of this initiative and the potential to reduce billions in claim costs, UnitedHealth Group launched this technology nationally starting in April 2017, which includes TV and digital marketing efforts.

Prior to UnitedHealthcare, Mr. Plamann focused on managing and growing commercial employer and individual health offerings, and eventually worked his way up to Vice President over Wisconsin and Michigan where he oversaw an $800M line of business.

Mr. Plamann graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a Major in Business Administration with a Minor in Marketing. He was also selected and is a graduate of UnitedHealth Group’s Executive Development program. He and his wife Stephanie have 3 children in college and spend their time between their homes in St. Kitts, Wisconsin and Michigan.

John Martin

Chief Executive Officer

John Martin has over 25 years of industry experience working with leading hospitals, health systems and physician groups in the areas of finance, strategy and operations.

John served as chief executive officer of OrthoIndy and the Indiana Orthopaedic Hospital (IOH) in Indianapolis, where he oversaw the opening of a physician-owned 42-bed, 10-operating room hospital facility. During John’s tenure as CEO, IOH won several awards from HealthGrades, the nation’s leading healthcare ratings company.

John also served as CEO of Orthopaedics Indianapolis, the largest private, full-service orthopedic practice in the Midwest, with more than 70 physicians, providing bone, joint, spine and muscle care to patients. Additionally, he was the founder and principal of Martin Healthcare Consulting before joining Katz, Sapper & Miller as Managing Director of their healthcare consulting business.

John was selected by the Indianapolis Business Journal for inclusion in its “Forty Under 40” class of 2006. He is a former member of the board of Back on My Feet and a former member of the finance committee for the United Way of Central Indiana. John is a member of the American Association of Orthopaedic Executives, Medical Group Management Association, American College of Healthcare Executives and an advanced member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

John received a Bachelor of Science degree in business with a concentration in accounting from Indiana University at Indianapolis.

Mary Miller Sallah

Chief Operations Officer

Mrs. Miller Sallah provides over 15 years of experience in the management of healthcare facilities, international business development, international accreditation, proven leadership in change management, and the implementation of quality improvement models around the world. Mrs. Miller Sallah’s professional experience covers over 30 international markets across North American, South America, Africa, Asia and Europe.

Mrs. Miller Sallah started her career in the US at Duke University Medical Center where she gained initial operational insight into health system management. In 2009, Mrs. Miller Sallah then went on to international hospital management with the American Hospital Management Company in Antigua where she was responsible for meeting compliance with international standards and overall transitioning of the largest healthcare infrastructure investment by the Government of Antigua & Barbuda.

In 2012, Mrs. Miller Sallah started her healthcare management consulting firm, MPROVE GLOBAL, which allowed her to increase her focus on health systems, sustainable healthcare business models and quality improvement in developing markets. Miller Sallah established the first international department in the Dominican Republic at Hospital General De La Plaza De La Salud, the largest private-public hospital in the country. Mrs. Miller Sallah has also served as Director of Education for the Medical Tourism Association® (MTA) since 2012, which included management and development of all individual and group educational and certification programs for the medical tourism, wellness travel and hospitality verticals. Mrs. Miller Sallah was the lead developer of International Patient Services standards for the MTA that subsequently laid the groundwork for the first independent, international accrediting body focused solely on medical travel.

In 2016 and as an inaugural team member, Mrs. Miller Sallah launched the Global Healthcare Accreditation® (GHA) Program, the first independent international accreditation body focused on medical travel services. As Chief Quality Officer of GHA, Mrs. Miller Sallah is the executive responsible for quality improvement efforts for GHA with the goal of achieving an industry standard for best practices in medical travel, medical tourism and international patient services. Mrs. Miller Sallah manages and coordinates all activities related to ongoing development of standards, service delivery of GHA’s products and services, and achieving industry accreditations for GHA standards.

Mrs. Miller Sallah is considered an international expert in the field of medical travel, specifically in Performance Management, International Standards, and the development, launching and ongoing management of International, Global Patient Services, Medical Tourism or Medical Travel programs. Mrs. Miller Sallah presents across the globe on these topics and consistently works with clients to enable improved market penetration or improved operational processes. In the Caribbean region specifically, Mrs. Miller Sallah possesses nearly a decade of working with government, private and foreign stakeholders on healthcare improvement, capacity building and infrastructure development projects.

Mrs. Miller Sallah holds a Masters of Health Administration (MHA) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, a Bachelors of Science in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and certifications in Lean Six Sigma from Villanova University. She speaks English and conversational Spanish. Mrs. Miller Sallah resides North Carolina with her husband, a Gambian-Dutch national, and two daughters.

Rowland Hanson

Managing Partner, Corporate Communications

Rowland is CEO of The HMC Company; a consulting firm that assists companies with strategic communications and business development. Prior to consulting, he was Vice President of Corporate Communications at Microsoft, where he created and executed the company’s highly acclaimed branding strategy which included the market introduction of Microsoft’s most popular product‐a graphical interface that he named “Windows.” Several books published on the history of Microsoft document the strategies he executed that led to the dominance of the Microsoft and Windows brands.

Prior to Microsoft, he served as Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for Neutrogena Corporation, a skin care and cosmetics company that registered phenomenal growth through new product introductions and global partnering before being acquired by Johnson & Johnson (J&J). J&J acquired Neutrogena for a significant premium after determining that, while it could certainly replicate the products, it could not replicate the strength of the Neutrogena brand. Today Rowland is still involved with Microsoft but now with the Alumni Foundation where he is responsible for strategic partnerships. Created only a few years ago, the Foundation has been the catalyst for the formation of numerous non‐profits around the world.

Rowland has a BBA from Loyola University where he graduated Alpha Sigma Nu (Jesuit colleges honor society) and an MBA from Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania) where he graduated on the Directors List of Distinction.

Janeen Schackel

Chief Technology Officer

Mrs. Schackel has over 40 years of healthcare experience in information systems development and management. She has a proven track record of successfully identifying technological challenges in highly regulated environments and developing cost effective and innovative solutions, implementing new technologies and managing teams of engineers and analysts supporting physicians, nursing, laboratory, surgery, pharmacy, radiology, registration and patient accounting.

Mrs. Schackel has robust experience in capital and operational budget planning and management, vendor selection, contract negotiations, vendor relationship management and developing and managing long-term strategic roadmaps. Early in her career, she was a laboratory medical technologist and led the implementation of one of the first laboratory information systems, Cerner Classic.

Bill Mitchell

CEO & Founder WT Mitchell Group

Mr. Mitchell brings to the company over 30 years of business experience in more than 50 ventures as a principal. His strengths include team building, assessing risk, raising and investing capital. Thanks to God, each of Bill’s past ventures have returned 100% of the investor’s principal (in excess of $100 million) with a positive return on invested capital.

In his late 20’s, Bill became a partner in a real estate firm doing business throughout the eleven Western States that later carried his name. Riley Pearlman Mitchell Company completed ventures with many of the country’s largest corporations. In 1996, he bought all the outstanding shares in the company and moved it to Northern California.

In 2008, Bill co-founded Vocari.org, a non-profit that later grew into the Vocari Business HUB. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Vocari HUB attracts creative people and start-up businesses around a California theme of Napa Valley food/wine and Silicon Valley technology. People come to the Vocari HUB to innovate, collaborate and bring new ideas or products to market. Today, Bill spends much of his time with these entrepreneurs supporting and connecting them to resources they may otherwise not have access.

Nikos Anastassiades

CEO & Founder NEA Medical

Experienced Chief Executive Officer and Consultant, with a demonstrated history of working in the international medical industry. Skilled in marketing, management, negotiations and startup businesses, planning and strategy. Specializes in medical travel, the spine industry, regenerative medicine and medical devices. Strong business development professional with his degree focused on International Business, from the University of Oregon.

Nikos’ twenty-five-year career as an entrepreneur and consultant in international business spans four continents – USA, Europe, Northern Africa and Western Asia – specializing in the past eight years in the medical industry, with a background in hospitality and travel logistics.

A University of Oregon 1992 graduate and scholar athlete in the hammer and discus throw, his national and international achievements brought him to make the 1992 Olympic team. Soon after making the team, his athletic career ended abruptly due to a spine injury.

The injury brought Nikos to search for medical treatment on three different continents and flared his passion for the medical field, which led him to become an instrumental part of developing and managing one of the first US surgeon-owned spine institutes in Europe.

Nikos moved back to the USA in December 2014 and on January 1st 2015 started NEA Medical, which has developed into a major player in helping medical facilities incorporate regenerative medicine and stem cell treatments into their practice.

Nikos currently lives in Huntington Beach, CA with his family, who are also highly competitive athletes at national and international levels. He is a member of Rotary International, serving on various boards; as well as an active member of the Cyprus Scouting Association and a recipient of the Eagle Scout Award.

Alan Smith

Managing Director Invictus Consulting Services, Ltd.

Mr. Allan Smith is the Founder and Managing Director of multiple private companies that operate in the areas of International Consulting, Hospitality, Citizenship by Investment, and Renewable Energy.

Mr. Smith has extensive international business experience, with an educational background that includes advanced degrees in Mechanical Engineering, a Masters of Business Administration from Columbia University, and a Masters of Hospitality and Gaming from several noted universities. He is a dual citizen of the U.S. and St. Kitts & Nevis and resides in the Christophe Harbour area.

Andy Redmond, MD

Program Director, Interventional Pain Management

Dr. Redmond is a Yale University-trained, board-certified neurosurgeon. His medical practice in Texas is comprised of a multidisciplinary team of interventional pain, physical medicine and rehabilitation doctors and neurosurgeons. His active clinical trials include studies of cervical artificial discs and minimally invasive sacroiliac joint fusion. He is currently involved with spinal device development. A partner of the highly acclaimed Texas Spine and Joint Hospital (which has consistently ranked among the best hospitals in Texas), Dr. Redmond serves on its Medical Executive Committee. He has received the “Surgeon of the Year” award from the Tyler Junior College, Surgical Technology Program for the past three consecutive years.

Ken Zaslav, MD

Program Director Program Director, Sports Medicine & Regenerative Knee

Dr. Zaslav is an Orthopedic Surgeon practicing at Ortho Virginia in Richmond VA. His was the founding Director of the Sports Medicine Center and Cartilage Regeneration Centers at Advanced Orthopedic Centers in Richmond. He is a Clinical Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Virginia Commonwealth University and is the Company Physician for the Richmond Ballet. He has recently completed his 18-month term as President of the International Cartilage Regeneration and Joint Preservation Society (ICRS).

He received his B.A. at SUNY Binghamton in 1979 and then his MD degree at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York in 1983. He received his Orthopedic Surgery training at Stony Brook University in Long Island New York and subsequently completed a fellowship in Sports Medicine at New York University and Bellevue Medical Centers and served as a Shoulder Fellow at Lennox Hill Hospital in New York.

Dr. Zaslav has published and lectured extensively on The Diagnosis and treatment of Shoulder and Knee Injuries and since 1996 has been involved in clinical research concerning Cartilage Regeneration and Ortho-Biologics. He performed the first Cartilage transplant in Virginia in 1996 was the lead author of the FDA Study for Articular Repair (STAR) and has been a fellow member of the Int’l Cartilage Repair Society since 1997.

He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons & American Board of Orthopedic surgery and member of the Arthroscopy Association of North America, and the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine. Ken is currently on the Board of Directors of Virginia Life Science Investment Inc. and also serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of several Orthopedic Companies in Israel and the USA. He has also served his community as Past President and Chairman of The Richmond Ballet Board of Trustees and the Vice President of The Board of The Richmond Metropolitan Sportsbackers and The Secretary of The Board of Trustees for Music Orchard a 501C-3 serving city elementary school students in Richmond.

Michael Galitzer, MD

Program Director Anti-Aging/Health & Wellness

Dr. Michael Galitzer is a nationally recognized expert in Energy Medicine, integrative medicine, and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). For more than 40 years Dr. Galitzer has been a leading figure and innovator in the field of longevity, or anti-aging medicine.

Dr. Galitzer graduated from SUNY Upstate Medical School, and in 1973 he moved to Los Angeles, where he practiced Emergency Medicine for 15 years, and was among the first 100 doctors in the U.S. to become board certified in Emergency Medicine. Eventually he began studying integrative medicine, including herbs, nutrition, Energy Medicine, and homeopathy, and in 1990 he completed a course in Medical Acupuncture, which he incorporated into the private practice he established in Santa Monica, California, in 1987.

Today, Dr. Galitzer utilizes revolutionary treatments drawn from both traditional and complementary medicine, including sound and light therapy, toxin elimination, and intravenous supplementation, to produce remarkable and rapid improvements in his patients’ health and vitality. His patient list includes many top Hollywood, business, and sports figures, as well as people from all across North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

Dr. Galitzer has been a member of the American Association of Medical Acupuncture, the American Association of Acupuncture and Bio-Energetic Medicine, the International Oxidative Medical Association, and the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. He was a Board Member of the American College for Advancement in Medicine, a leading organization of physicians in the area of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. He has given lectures all over the world on longevity, alternative, and bioenergetic medicine.

Adam Katz, MD

Program Director, Aesthetics, Plastics & Reconstructive Surgery

Dr. Katz is a Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Florida. After graduating from Duke University with a Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience, Dr. Katz obtained his M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School, where he was president of the Alpha Omega Alpha National Honor Medical Society as well as a Hewlett-Packard Top Medical Graduate. His next eight years were spent at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for General and Plastic Surgery training. During this time, he spent three years as a research fellow working on the isolation, culture, characterization and application of adipose-derived cells for therapeutic purposes, which culminated in several issued patents and several peer-reviewed publications that have contributed to the now active field of ‘applied adipose-derived therapeutics’. Upon joining the staff at University of Virginia in 2001, Dr. Katz initiated the Laboratory of Applied Developmental Plasticity, which he directed for 11 years. In 2012, he joined the faculty of the University of Florida in the Division of Plastic Surgery where he is currently the Director of Clinical Research and the Director of the Plastic Surgery Laboratory of Bio-Innovation and Translational Therapeutics.

Dr. Katz was awarded The Academic Scholar of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons from 2002-2004, he is a member of The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), The American Association of Plastic Surgeons (AAPS), and The Plastic Surgery Research Council, and serves on the Editorial Board of Stem Cells Translational Medicine. Dr. Katz is a co-founder, past president and board member of The International Federation for Adipose Therapeutics and Science (IFATS), a non-profit multidisciplinary society dedicated to facilitating the development of new technology derived from and directed toward adipose tissue (www.ifats.org). He has also co-founded three medically-related ventures, two of which currently operate in the stem cell space (www.cytori.com and www.thegidgroup.com).

Bill Hunter, MD

Dr. Hunter received his undergraduate degree in Biology at Denison University in Ohio and then obtained a Masters Degree at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, in Physiology and Biophysics. On completion of his Masters he went to Georgetown University Medical School, where he also completed his Neurosurgery residency in 1998. Dr. Hunter then joined the University of Wisconsin, as an assistant professor where he trained neurosurgery residents and medical students in medical and surgical treatments of brain and spine diseases. Two years later, Dr. Hunter left the University of Wisconsin to pursue his carrier as a Spine surgeon in a private practice. He joined Neuroscience and Spine Center of the Carolinas, where he has been working since 2000.

Dr. Hunter has been practicing Neurosurgery for over two decades. He has been involved with new and innovative techniques for spinal surgery throughout this time. Dr. Hunter has been involved in the spinal program at CaroMont Regional Medical Center, since the beginning of his carrier and is considered as the leader for bringing new and innovative micro surgical techniques to the hospital and his patients. The hospital has been awarded top on the list for “Best Hospital’s in North Carolina”, with the spine program deemed as one of the best in the state.

Providing the best possible quality care to his patients is Dr. Hunter’s main concern. Although he runs a very busy private practice, he still makes sure that he finds the time to teach. His lectures and seminars revolve around new and innovative minimally invasive spine surgical techniques. He is very passionate about what he does and always strives to deliver the best care to his patients. He has been board certified since 2001 with the American Board of Neurological Surgeons.

Brian Johnstone, PhD

Dr. Johnstone has 20 years of experience developing cutting-edge medical therapies, including biologics, stem cells and gene therapies. For the past 14 years, he has been actively involved in translating adult stem cell therapies into treatments for a host of diseases affecting the major organs of the body. In 2004, Dr. Johnstone co-authored one of the first studies demonstrating the potential for treating cardiovascular diseases with a then novel adult stem cell isolated from fat (adipose). The paper is one of the earliest demonstrating the clinical utility of adipose stem cells, which are now routinely used in clinics worldwide.

Dr. Johnstone occupies a position of influence in the regenerative medicine field as the current President of IFATS, an international society focused on understanding and promoting medical uses of adipose-derived stem cells, which are used to treat patients in many hundreds of clinics worldwide. In addition, he is regularly invited to present his cutting-edge work at international stem cell conferences.

Dr. Johnstone continues to develop and test new medical uses for adult stem cells as part of his own research as well as in collaboration with international academic centers and pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms. He also actively consults for other companies developing stem cell treatment expertise.

Dr. Johnstone has formed three biotech companies in the last 8 years and served as Head of Preclinical Research & Development for each. The most recent, NeuroFx, is an Indianapolis-based start-up biotech firm developing a novel adult stem cell-derived therapy for neurological disorders. NeuroFx was formed based on novel findings of his own research, which resulted in a patent for use of stem cell-derived factors on which he is the lead inventor. The second, Chemigen, is developing a small molecule drug for treating Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). Chemigen recently began clinical testing of the drug under an FDA Investigational New Drug application which was granted based on the preclinical data package orchestrated and assembled by Dr. Johnstone. A third start-up he formed, EmphyMab Biotech, is developing biologics to treat serious lung diseases. A lead therapeutic monoclonal antibody has been identified and is in development for emphysema. The company was recently acquired and rebranded Allinaire.

Dr. Johnstone was previously Preclinical Director for the Regenerative Medicine Center at the Richard Roudebush VA Medical Center and Director of the Center for Translational Sciences Institutes small animal model Cardiovascular Ischemia and Vasculogenesis Core at Indiana University. In these roles he was directly involved in developing stem cell therapies for clinical testing.

Before moving to Indiana in 2003, Dr. Johnstone was an early employee at Sangamo BioSciences, located in the San Francisco Bay area. During his 6 years at Sangamo he managed the preclinical development program for their lead gene therapy candidate for cardiovascular diseases, which is currently in Phase II clinical testing.

Erik Woods, PhD

Dr. Woods received a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, USA. He then went on to study cryobiology at the Hillenbrand Center for Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN where he earned his PhD developing methods of isolation, microencapsulation and cryopreservation of human and canine pancreatic islets of Langerhans. Dr. Woods then completed a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, IN, developing enhanced methods of umbilical cord blood stem cell processing and cryopreservation.

In 1997 Dr. Woods co-founded General BioTechnology LLC (GBT), an R&D company devoted to advancing cell culture and cryopreservation to facilitate mainstream clinical use of cellular therapies. Dr. Woods was the first full-time employee of the company and in 2000 became President and CEO, ultimately leading it through successful acquisition by COOK Medical in 2012 and integration into COOK Regentec where he served as Senior Vice President. In his years of service with the company, he has held administrative roles, ran a continuous research endeavor with numerous scientific grants awarded through the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the State of Indiana, designed, oversaw construction and directed clinical laboratory operations and cell manufacturing operations as a board certified High Complexity Clinical Laboratory Director (HCLD).

Dr. Woods has actively continued research in cell therapy and cryobiology and continues to contribute academically as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Woods is also currently President of the International Society for Cryobiology, having served on its Board of Governors prior to being President for 10 years. Dr. Woods is also involved with several other academic/professional societies including the International Society for Cell Therapy (ISCT), in which he serves on the Process and Product Development Committee, the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) and the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB). Dr. Woods holds multiple patents in the field, and has published numerous scientific articles, reviews and book chapters.

Vaclav Prochazka, MD, PhD

Vaclav Prochazka, MD, PhD is the Chief of Interventional Neurology and Angiology at the University Hospital, Ostrava, Czech Republic where he also serves as Vice Director for Research and Science. His specialty is treatment of diseases caused by non-functioning blood vessels, which restrict blood flow. Besides his clinical practice, he also maintains an active research program that investigates novel interventions for vascular diseases. During his 25-year practice he has implemented many new therapeutic procedures. In particular, he was one of the first clinicians to introduce endovascular extraction of stroke-causing clots. His clinic has treated over 600 patients with this procedure, which has just recently been adopted worldwide as the standard of care for acute stroke. Dr. Prochazka continues to innovate by collaborating with companies and academic researchers to develop the next generations of stroke and critical limb ischemia therapies. He has recently completed a successful clinical trial of bone marrow-derived stem cells for treating critical limb ischemia due to complications of diabetes. He is frequently invited to present his work at international conferences.

Dr. Prochazka received his medical degree from Medical Faculty Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic. He has a PhD in Cerebrovascular Diseases from the same university.

Jim Swick, PhD

Dr. Swick has over 40 years commercializing cutting-edge technologies that enhance the science of medicine with over 30 years’ experience as a preclinical and clinical investigator both in academia and industry. Prior to founding his own consultancy, he was the founder and Chief Scientiﬁc Oﬃcer of LyChron, LLC, a privately held in vivo studies laboratory located in Mountain View, CA that assisted medical device companies in bringing their products to market. Dr. Swick is also on the faculty of Stanford University School of Medicine lecturing in biodesign and innovation. Dr. Swick received his BS in Molecular Biology from UC Berkley and a PhD in Neurophysiology from Baylor College of Medicine.

Kevin Ohashi, PhD, MBA, MS

Dr. Ohashi is a seasoned life science entrepreneur and venture capitalist. His experience spans a large segment of healthcare, including sports medicine, device manufacturing and regenerative medicine. Prior to founding Pond Capital in Boston, Dr. Ohashi led the sports medicine and biologics business development initiatives for Tornier. He is also a founder in Cayenne Medical, nContact, and Tauten Sports. Dr. Ohashi holds a BS in Bioengineering from UCSD, a MS in Biomechanical Engineering and Minor in Materials Science Engineering from Stanford, an MBA from MIT and a SM in Health Sciences and Technology from Harvard Medical School/MIT.