Michael Allen, President & CEO
Kenneth Binmoeller MD, Chief Medical Officer
Tony Natale MD, Prism VentureWorks
A. Barr Dolan, Charter LifeSciences
Avi Kometz MD, Ascent Biomedical Ventures
Eric Sillman, Aperture Venture Partners
Michael Allen, President & CEO
Mr. Allen joined Xlumena in May of 2008 after creating a business plan and raising a Series A financing that began the operations of the Company. With more than 25 years experience in medical diagnostics and devices, Mr. Allen guided two Silicon Valley companies from concept through commercialization and to an exit (Metrika, Inc. [presently Bayer Diabetes Care]; ChemTrak, Inc.).
Prior to joining Xlumena, Mr. Allen held the position of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Metrika where he guided a successful physician office and home diabetes product from concept to high volume off-shore manufacturing and commercialization, and then sold the company to Bayer Healthcare in 2006. At ChemTrak, Mr. Allen held the positions of Vice President of Research and Development & Manufacturing and he successfully developed a series of physician office and consumer products that remain on drugstore shelves today. As part of the executive team he took ChemTrak public in 1993. Mr. Allen was a member of the initial group that began Syntex Medical Diagnostics in 1982.
Mr. Allen holds a degree in Biochemistry from University of California Berkeley and has over 15 publications, one book chapter and 26 issued and pending patents.
Kenneth Binmoeller MD, Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Binmoeller is recognized nationally and internationally as an authority and leader in advanced endoscopic procedures and endosonography. Dr. Binmoeller has been performing complex interventional endoscopic procedures since the late 1980's. Currently, he is the Medical Director of the Interventional Endoscopy Services (IES) at California Pacific Medical Center. In 1991, Dr. Binmoeller was recruited by Dr. Nib Soehendra to the University of Hamburg to serve as Deputy Director and Senior Consultant in the Department of Endoscopic Surgery. After seven years, he relocated to the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), where he was Director of Endoscopy and held a joint appointment as Associate Professor of Medicine and Surgery.
Dr. Binmoeller completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Following residency, he was an attending physician in Honokaa, Hawaii at the Hamakua Medical Center, Honokaa Hospital. He then completed a Fellowship in Gastroenterology at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon. After fellowship training, he moved to France to join the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University Hospital at Cimiez in Nice, France.
Dr. Binmoeller completed his undergraduate degree at Columbia University and attended medical school at the University of Freiburg in Germany and the University of Bern in Switzerland.
Tony Natale MD, Prism VentureWorks
A member of Prism's life sciences investment team, Dr. Natale blends his extensive business, investment and company formation experience with a background in clinical medicine. He focuses on medical device investments for the firm. He is currently a director for Avedro and Entrigue Surgical. Previously he was a director and lead investor of several venture-backed life sciences companies, including Mako Surgical. Prior to joining Prism in 2006, Dr. Natale was a Venture Partner with MDS Capital. He built the firm's presence in the U.S. Medtech venture community and led all investment activities for MDS' U.S. early stage fund, playing a founding investor role in multiple companies, and substantially growing the firm's seed-stage presence and capabilities. Dr. Natale has invested across a number of therapeutic device areas, including orthopedics, interventional medicine, radiation oncology, minimally invasive technologies, neurology, robotics and women's health.
Dr. Natale trained in General Surgery and Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Connecticut, holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia, an M.D. from the University of Florida College of Medicine and an M.B.A. from Yale University's School of Management.
A. Barr Dolan, Charter LifeSciences
Mr. Dolan has extensive venture capital investment experience and extensive experience as a founder of life sciences companies. Prior to the founding of CLS, Mr. Dolan was a founding partner of the Charter Ventures family of venture capital funds. Mr. Dolan has been an active founder of multiple life sciences companies, including the women's health company Adeza Biomedical (ADZA), cardiac catheter company EP Technologies (IPO, then acquired by Boston Scientific), biotech company Heska Corporation (HSKA), biotech company Univax Biologics (IPO, then acquired by NABI) and women's health medical device company Vesta (acquired by Pfizer). Among his many roles with these companies, Mr. Dolan has also served as interim chief executive officer of Adeza and EP Technologies.
Mr. Dolan has made venture capital investments in more than 50 life sciences companies, including specialty pharma company Intermune (ITMN), drug delivery company Advanced Polymer Systems (APPA), biotech company Calgene (IPO, then acquired by Monsanto), biotech company EOS Biotechnology (acquired by Protein Design Labs), biotech company Genelabs Technologies (GNLB), biotech company Geron (GERN), biotech company Valentis (VLTS), medical device company Orquest (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), drug delivery company Penederm (acquired by Mylan Laboratories) and biotech company Tularik (TLRK).
Mr. Dolan holds a BA in chemistry and an MS in engineering from Cornell University, an MA in applied science from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University.
Avi Kometz MD, Ascent Biomedical Ventures
Dr. Kometz is a Partner at Ascent Biomedical Ventures. Dr. Kometz has more than 18 years experience in the healthcare industry, several of which have been focused in private and public investing. Prior to joining Ascent Biomedical Ventures, Dr. Kometz was the head of corporate development at a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on pediatrics. In this role Dr. Kometz successfully closed several partnerships with large pharmaceutical companies and as part of the executive management team developed the business strategy. Prior to this, Dr. Kometz spent several years in the Healthcare Practice at McKinsey & Company in New York. Dr. Kometz worked for several multinational companies with a focus on product valuation, risk assessment, portfolio strategy, organizational change and cost-cutting. Dr. Kometz began his career as a clinician in South Africa and went on to found and build a group of clinics in South Africa. Dr. Kometz received his medical doctorate from the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, South Africa.
Eric Sillman, Aperture Ventures Partners
Mr. Sillman is a General Partner at Aperture, a healthcare-focused investment fund. He has worked at Aperture since inception and is involved in allaspects of the business. Portfolio companies he has been involved with include Interlace Medical (acquired by Hologic), Mako Surgical (IPO), Conor Medsystems (IPO and then acquired by JNJ) and Ception Therapeutics (acquired by Cephalon). Prior to Aperture, Eric worked in a variety of professional services capacities. At UBS, he executed merger and acquisition, equity and debt transactions in a variety of industries. At The Parthenon Group, he helped companies assess expansion strategies and e-commerce initiatives. He received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and B.A. from Brown University.