Leadership
Lawrence (Larry) Stern, Chairman, is broadly recognized for his vision and entrepreneurial leadership driving transformational change in a wide range of business and non-profit entities. Larry independently led the acquisition of ImaCor, Inc. and financed the wholly owned entity through transformational change. Seeing a true unmet market need, Larry led the team in revolutionizing the acquired technology by engineering a new handheld ultrasound system specifically designed for the evolving workflow in today’s ICU.
Previously Larry led the evaluation and plan in 2005 to acquire the Bayer Biologics plasma business and form Talecris Biotherapeutics with financial investment from Cerberus Capital Management and Ampersand Ventures. As Chairman and CEO, Larry guided the company’s growth into a leading global provider of plasma-derived protein therapies culminating in the company’s 2009 IPO and listing on NASDAQ. In 2010, Larry was recognized as the national winner of Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year® in the Health Sciences category for his vision and leadership. In 2011, Talecris was acquired by Grifols for $3.4 B, resulting in over a 30x return for the initial investors.
Larry started his career at ARCO Chemical in 1981 where he built his skill base in research, development, global manufacturing and international business. He joined Bayer Corporation as the president of its Urethanes group in 2000 upon Bayer’s acquisition of Lyondell Chemical’s polyol business.
Larry has served on numerous non-profit healthcare boards including the COPD Foundation, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation and the Pittsburgh Jewish Association on Aging.
Larry received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University (1979) and a M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1981).
David Pleasance, Vice Chairman, has extensive international breadth with business transformations and value creation across numerous industries including healthcare, financial services, telecom, energy, and industrial and process manufacturing. David is the Founder and Chairman of ACG Ventures – a venture business focused on investing in and transforming emerging businesses to compete in the digital economy. In addition, David served on the Board of the TM Forum (including a term as Chairman), an innovative global digital industry body with roughly 800 members representing most of the leading companies in the telecommunications and digital service provider sectors. Prior to founding ACG Ventures, David was a senior consulting partner at Deloitte where he oversaw numerous global client relationships.
At both ACG and Deloitte, David has architected business strategies and led enterprise transformation programs with global companies focused on strengthening competitive positioning through the creative application of IT and digital technology, leveraging core product technologies into ancillary markets, and accelerating business expansion. David focuses on collaborating with investors and management to accelerate value creation throughout the “investment life cycle”. Prior to entering the consulting arena, David spent many years with Imperial Chemical Industries where he held a variety of senior management positions in Canada, the US, and the London head office.
David has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering (BASc) and an MBA, both from the University of Toronto, and he is a Chartered Accountant and CPA.
In addition to being the Chairman of the TM Forum, David has served as a director on several corporate Boards as well as on the Boards of the Arthritis Foundation, Women’s Refugee Commission and Financial Executives International (FEI). He is also a member of the Victoria College Investment Committee of the Board of Directors at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Christoph Pedain, Ph.D. is a seasoned global MedTech executive with over two decades of leadership experience spanning imaging, diagnostics, and patient monitoring. He has led multi-billion-dollar international businesses at Siemens Healthineers and Philips, and currently serves as the President, Healthcare Marketing Division at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Earlier in Dr. Pedain’s career, he had various technical, commercial, and leadership roles at both Brainlab (Germany) and Roche Diagnostics (Switzerland and Germany).
Christoph is passionate about scaling transformative technologies and brings deep expertise across clinical, technical, and commercial domains including image-guided clinical procedures. Christoph is equally passionate in building a performance culture anchored in a leadership model that unites purpose (“why”) with targets (“what”) and behaviors (“how”).
Dr. Pedain co-founded Bretton Globalization Solutions, a consultancy supporting multinational MedTech’s to gain and strengthen business across China and the U.S. Dr. Pedain looks forward to leveraging those perspectives and contacts as well as for his expertise with imaging, monitoring and international business to advance ImaCor’s AI-enabled cardiac imaging for better outcomes in critical care.
Dr. Pedain received his PhD from Cranfield University in Great Britain and his MBA and MS of Mechanical Engineering at the Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany. He’s fluent in German and French in addition to English.
David Steinhaus, M.D. is an expert in cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology, now applying his experience and passion to address unmet clinical needs with innovative MedTech devices and procedures. Dr. Steinhaus currently supports numerous cutting edge MedTech startups either as an advisor or Board member, including EBR Systems, a company publicly traded on the Australian exchange.
Dr. Steinhaus retired in 2019 as Vice President & General Manager of the Heart Failure Business for the Cardiac Rhythm and Heart Failure Division (CRHF) at Medtronic PLC. With responsibility for a $1.5 B P&L, Dr. Steinhaus led the commercial management and overall development of product portfolios focused on the treatment of Heart Failure.
In his earlier work at Medtronic as a Medical Director, Dr. Steinhaus’s clinical leadership enabled better alignment with the needs of customers worldwide. His responsibilities included bringing the physician’s voice to CRHF, identifying future opportunities in new product development, and serving as a liaison to government agencies, professional societies, and medical groups.
Prior to joining Medtronic in 2005, Dr. Steinhaus developed extensive clinical expertise serving as Executive Medical Director of the Mid America Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Health System. He has multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals and has testified for the Senate Committee on the FDA.
In addition, Dr. Steinhaus has been active in professional organizations including the American Heart Association and Heart Rhythm Society where he was the Chair of the NASPE examination committee (now called IHRBE).
A 1973 magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, Dr. Steinhaus received his medical doctorate from Harvard Medical School as part of the Harvard-M.I.T. program in Health Sciences and Technology, with AOA honors. He completed his internship, residency, and a clinical and research fellowship in cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
James F. (Jim) Jordan is an active industry expert in healthcare and the life sciences. He is a Distinguished Service Professor of Health Care and Biotechnology at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, the President of StraTactic, the National Co-Chairman of the BIO Bootcamp, and the Founder of the Healthcare Data Center. He has published numerous articles and books on innovation, startups, intellectual property, and health systems.
Mr. Jordan has been a senior executive for Fortune 100 companies and has participated in and led angel and venture capital investments. As CEO of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, Mr. Jordan worked with 493 companies and invested in 93 of them. Mr. Jordan held executive positions in Fortune 100 companies such as McKesson Corporation and Johnson & Johnson. Previously with C.R. Bard and Boston Scientific, he held a range of management positions in sales and marketing, operations, supply chain management, information technology, finance, and quality assurance. Mr. Jordan is active on several Boards, including the Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association.
Mr. Jordan’s experience, which includes consulting engagements with numerous companies such as Medtronic, Frost & Sullivan, Schwartz Pharmaceutical, and Otsuka Pharmaceutical, is documented in his book, titled Innovation, Commercialization, and Start-ups in Life Sciences. Most recently, Mr. Jordan coauthored The Intellectual Property Pyramid Assessment: A Novel Method for Creating a Sustainable Competitive Advantage, a new workbook and method for developing comprehensive IP strategies and creating a significant competitive advantage.
Mr. Jordan joined Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy in 2005 and serves as Distinguished Service Professor of Health Care and Biotechnology Programs, and also as Strategic Board Chairman-Center for Healthcare Innovation. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from Merrimack College and a Master of Business Administration degree from Boston University.
Robert Kowal, M.D., Ph.D., serves as the Vice President & General Manager of the Cardiac Pacing Therapies (CPT) business within the Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) operating unit within Medtronic. Dr. Kowal previously served as the Chief Medical Officer, Vice President of Medical Affairs, Business Development & Strategy within the Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM), Diagnostic Services (CDS), and Ablation Solutions (CAS) businesses. In these roles, he helped guide a patient-focused approach toward portfolio development. Rob also oversaw the medical education function from 2018-2020.
Prior to joining Medtronic, Dr. Kowal was a practicing electrophysiologist at Baylor Heart and Vascular Hospital and Co-Medical Director of both Electrophysiology for the Baylor Scott and White System and Best Care/Clinical Integration for the Baylor Scott and White Quality Alliance. In those roles, he developed quality metrics and protocols for improving care and reducing unnecessary costs to patients. He was active in clinical research and on the Board of Managers at Baylor Heart and Vascular Hospital and the Board of Trustees for the Heart Rhythm Society until accepting his current role at Medtronic. Dr. Kowal’s clinical studies have been published in over 60 peer-reviewed journals. He is also an inventor in numerous patents.
Dr. Kowal received his undergraduate degree at Yale University and his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from UT Southwestern Medical Center, completing his graduate work in molecular genetics with Drs. Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein. He completed an internal medicine internship and residency as well as a cardiovascular disease fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and then postdoctoral research and a clinical cardiac electrophysiology fellowship at UT Southwestern, where he went on to join the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Medicine for four years prior to transitioning his practice to the Baylor Healthcare system.