Andrew Firlik, M.D., Chairman – Dr. Firlik's career spans neurosurgery, entrepreneurship, and venture capital. He joined Foundation Medical Partners to concentrate on medical device and biopharmaceutical investments. Prior to Foundation, he was a venture partner at Sprout Group and Managing Director of its healthcare technology spinout, New Leaf Venture Partners. Previously, he was a principal at Canaan Partners. Dr. Firlik has led numerous venture capital investments and has served as a founder, founding investor, or director of many companies, including NeuroVista, Sopherion Therapeutics, Transoma, Omnisonics, Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Viacor, and Spine Wave.

Dr. Firlik is a founder and an inventor of the core technology platform of Northstar Neuroscience (NASDAQ: NSTR), a medical device company that is pioneering a novel approach to neuromodulation for the treatment of stroke and other disorders. He is currently the Chairman of NovaVision, a medical therapeutics firm focusing on neuroplasticity for visual disorders. He also currently serves on the board of directors of several companies, including NeuroVista, Spine Wave, BridgePoint Medical, Innovative Metabolics, and Visiogen.  Dr. Firlik is a member of the Industrial Advisory Board of Cleveland Clinic Innovations Center and the Administrative Board of the Cornell University Council and Chairman of its Technology Transfer Committee.

Dr. Firlik spent 12 years in the healthcare profession during his medical training and practice as a neurological surgeon. He has published more than 50 articles in medical literature, written chapters for several medical textbooks, and is the co-editor of a book about cerebrovascular surgery. His scientific work has been presented at many international conferences. He has been an inventor of numerous patents.

He studied biology at Cornell University and Oxford University, received his MBA from the University of Pittsburgh, and his MD from Cornell University Medical College. As a board certified neurosurgeon, Dr. Firlik most recently served as Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at the New York University School of Medicine.

Thomas Hook – Tom Hook is the CEO of Greatbatch Inc. and has served in that position since August 2006, as director since May 2006 and President since June 2005. Prior to August 2006, Mr. Hook served as Chief Operating Officer, a position he held since September 2004. Beginning in 2002, Mr. Hook was employed by CTI Molecular Imaging where he had served most recently as President, CTI Solutions Group. From March 2000 to July 2002, Mr. Hook was General Manager, Functional and Molecular Imaging for General Electric Medical Systems. From 1997 to 2000, He worked for the Van Owen Group Acquisition Company and earlier, Duracell, Inc. Mr. Hook serves as a director of Central Radiopharmaceuticals, Inc., where he also serves on the audit committee of that board, and the Buffalo-Niagara Partnership. He is a member of the board of trustees of St Bonaventure University.

Wendelin Maners – Ms. Maners is the Vice President, Strategy and Business Development at Boston Scientific, Inc.  She is currently acting as the Corporate Liaison to Advanced Bionics and, as such, she acts as the principal day-to-day interface between Boston Scientific and Advanced Bionics to assure effective communication and to determine where synergies may be achieved between the two organizations.  Wendelin has been with Boston Scientific for 12 years and in addition to her liaison role, is also responsible for developing and executing acquisition strategies for their neurological, electrophysiology, and undeveloped markets.   She is also a delegate Board member for other Boston Scientific investments, including Cyberonics and Northstar Neuroscience.  Prior to joing Boston Scientific, Ms. Maners was an investment banker with Barrington Associates in Los Angeles, CA.

Vincent P. Owens, President and CEO –Mr. Owens joined the Cleveland Clinic in February 2005 to lead the spin-out and Series A financing of Intelect Medical.  Since inception, Intelect has raised $11 million in equity financing to fund its novel DBS therapies for recovery from stroke and TBI.  Prior to joining Intelect, Mr. Owens was President and CEO of Texcel, an implantable CRM and Neuromodulation device company.  Previously, Mr. Owens was founding CEO of Biomec Cardiovascular (BCI), a Minneapolis-based developer of proprietary implantable stimulation leads and delivery systems for the neuromodulation and CRM markets.  He led BCI through acquisition by Enpath Medical (NASDAQ:NPTH) in 2003, after which he became President of Enpath - Lead Technologies.  Mr. Owens was a founding employee of Biomec Inc. in Cleveland in 1998, and served in various capacities including VP Operations, President & CEO, and Board Member through Biomec’s acquisition by Greatbatch (NYSE:GB) in 2007.  Earlier in his career, Mr. Owens held various operations, quality/regulatory, and engineering management roles at Ciba Corning (now Siemens), and in-vitro diagnostics company, and Circon ACMI (now Olympus), a medical endoscopy company.  Mr. Owens serves on the boards of several privately held medical device companies and he is a member of several industry advisory boards, including Cornell University’s CCTEC, the technology transfer arm of the Weill Cornell Medical College, and Case Western’s Case-Coulter Translational Research Partnership (CCTRP).  Mr. Owens earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Ashland University.