By necessity, small companies such as VXi function through the part-time efforts of a handful of dedicated individuals. In the early days, VXi was largely a technology company. More recently, additional people have joined VXi to round off the corporate management team. Details of these individuals are as follows.

Larry Blankenship, Chairman of the Board and CEO

e-mail: lblankenship@valvexchange.com

Larry Blankenship is a highly experienced medical device industry executive and start-up CEO with over 25 years experience converting technical ideas into healthcare products and getting them into commercial distribution. He has guided more than two dozen healthcare products from concept, through regulatory clearance, and into the marketplace. He served as a manager or officer in divisions of three major corporations (Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Battelle Labs), and has been CEO or senior officer in three startups: Vitalmetrics, Inc. (acquired by Bard/Tyco), The Larren Corporation (acquired by Battelle), and Cardio-Optics, developing novel catheter imaging technology. He has raised private and venture capital on multiple occasions, and is a leader in the Colorado BioScience business community. Throughout his career, Mr. Blankenship has focused on helping entrepreneurs and inventors convert their medical device technology ideas into real products, including establishing the needed business structure, funding, and operations. This is the case at ValveXchange as it was at Cardio-Optics, The Larren Corporation, Battelle Laboratories and Vitalmetrics, Inc. Serving as Vice President of Medical Programs for Battelle Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio, (1996 to 2000) he assessed pipeline technologies from within Battelle and its affiliated organizations including Brookhaven National Laboratories, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories to funnel pipeline R&D programs into commercial medical applications, such as bio-hazard detection systems, bacterial infection assay equipment, wound closure devices and implantable polymers for carrying radioactive isotopes, and connecting these Battelle technologies with leading medical industry corporations such as Becton Dickinson, Johnson & Johnson, and The Thermo-Electron Companies. Prior to Battelle, he was CEO, President and Co-founder of The Larren Corporation, Boulder, Colorado, (1989 to 1996), a leading-edge medical device industry product development and consulting company whose services included the assessment of the business and regulatory environment, and development and approval of technologies such as thermal dilution cardiac output and infrared SvO2 measurement, continuous cardiac output measurement, portable drug infusion pumps, intra-cranial pressure monitors, critical drug self-injection systems, portable power systems for Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVADs), Multi-lead ECG systems, disposable endoscopic biopsy tools, electrosurgical tools for arthroscopic surgery, flexible angioscopes and ureteroscopes and surgical video systems and light sources. While at Larren, Mr. Blankenship personally led a project to assist St. Jude Medical in completion of the design and introduction of the “Masters Series” rotatable heart valve. This provided Mr. Blankenship with significant first-hand experience in the heart valve business. Mr. Blankenship also served at Valleylab, Boulder, Colorado, (1985-1989) as Director of Technology for their Infusion Systems Division (helping prepare this division for divestiture), and as CTO for Vitalmetrics, a San Diego, California start-up company developing innovative new products for open heart surgery and neuro-surgery. Mr. Blankenship serves on the Board of Directors of the Colorado BioScience Association (www.cobioscience.com) and brings vital business, executive and commercialization expertise to VXi. TOP

Ivan Vesely, Ph.D., Founder & Chief Scientific Officer

e-mail: ivesely@valvexchange.com

Dr. Vesely has been the H. Russell Smith Foundation Endowed Professor of Cardiothoracic Research and Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery Research at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering at University of Southern California. Previously, he founded the Cleveland Clinic’s heart valve laboratory and, over ten years, built it into the best-funded valve laboratory in the world. He is well-known in the tissue valve field by way of several key publications that identified a new mechanism for bioprosthetic valve degeneration, and through his work in heart valve modeling and valvular tissue engineering. Dr. Vesely invented VXi’s rapidly exchangeable bioprosthetic valve, served as the start-up CEO, and then recruited the current management team. Dr. Vesely has recently stepped back from full-time research to focus on developing the exchangeable valve at VXi as its Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Vesely previously founded Sonometrics, Inc. an ultrasound catheter guidance company, where he developed technology that was subsequently acquired by Cardiac Pathways (now Boston Scientific). He is the author of 14 issued patents and over 80 publications. Dr. Vesely received his Ph.D. in Biophysics and Electrical Engineering degrees from University of Western Ontario. TOP

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Todd Campbell, Senior Executive Director of Product Development
e-mail: tcampbell@valvexchange.com
Todd Campbell is a mechanical engineer (BS, U. of California) with a M.S. in Molecular Biology (California State University). His career spans over 30 years, with most of his effort in the heart valve field. He has held manufacturing, quality control and/or R&D positions for several heart valve companies including Hancock Laboratories, the first US manufacturer of bioprosthetic valves, St. Jude Medical, where he managed tissue technologies and bioscience, and Sadra Medical, a startup developing percutaneous heart valve technology. He also served as VP of R&D for Hansen Medical. Todd previously held R&D positions within Medtronic Vascular and Baxter Healthcare as Sr. Research Chemist and COO of Tissue Implants. At VXi, he has been instrumental in establishing our component manufacturing system and valve assembly methodology, including procurement and processing of bovine pericardium, and the training of assembly technicians. TOP

Kevin Morningstar, Senior Director, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance
e-mail: kmorningstar@valvexchange.com
Kevin Morningstar has over 25 years experience in regulatory affairs and quality assurance in the medical device manufacturing industry. Prior to creating his own regulatory consulting practice in 1997, Mr. Morningstar held engineering, regulatory, and management positions with TomTec Imaging Systems, Ohmeda, Telectronics Pacing Systems, and COBE Laboratories. He also co-founded Silverglide Surgical Technologies, Inc., a surgical instrument business successfully sold to Stryker Corporation in 2006 in a planned exit strategy. Kevin started his medical device career in 1983, since then working with many cardiac care companies. He has held positions in Operations, Engineering, Regulatory Affairs, Quality Assurance, and Executive Management. Mr. Morningstar received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University. Mr. Morningstar’s special areas of interest include medical device start-ups, early stage medical device commercialization, international medical device regulations, quality system architecture, design assurance, and project management. At VXi, he has been establishing the Quality System required for our planned clinical studies. TOP