Leadership

Board of Directors

Dr. Robert Wilkins
President and Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Wilkins is a former anesthesiologist and critical care physician, with 10 years of clinical practice and some two decades of international healthcare industry experience in product development, marketing and business development. In addition to positions at Abbott Laboratories and Baxter Healthcare, and in small start-up environments, he ran a successful practice as a marketing and business development consultant to Fortune 500 and start-up healthcare companies.

Dr. Wilkins received his medical training in Manchester, England, subsequently becoming an attending staff anesthesiologist and critical care specialist at the University Hospital of South Manchester. After leaving medical practice in 1987, he was medical director of Hausmann/Vifor, a Swiss pharmaceutical company in Geneva. Four years later he joined Abbott Laboratories as medical director in the Hospital Products Division, with key roles in the development of new medical devices. Later, as marketing director for Abbott’s HealthSystems Division, he was responsible for marketing medical devices, clinical diagnostics and pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Wilkins left Abbott in 1999 to join Baxter Healthcare’s anesthesia group as director of business development, and, in late 2000, became chief scientific officer and vice president of marketing of Physiometrix, a start-up medical device company. Since 2001, Dr. Wilkins has been a consultant to Battelle Ventures and other venture capital organizations, as well as to such medical device companies as the Cardiac Assist Division of Datascope and GlucoLight Corp.

Widely published on the topics of critical care and anesthesiology, Dr. Wilkins earned his MBChB (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees awarded in the U.K., equivalent to M.D. qualification in the United States) from the University of Manchester in 1977. In 1982 he became a fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, receiving the designation FRCA, which is equivalent to board certification stateside. He is a member of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Tracy Warren
General Partner, Battelle Ventures and Innovation Valley Partners

Ms. Warren focuses primarily on investments in healthcare, life sciences and emerging energy technologies, and led the firms’ healthcare investments in Endovalve and NuPathe, a CNS specialty pharmaceutical company, which completed its IPO in August 2010. In the healthcare sector, besides serving on the Endovalve Board, she also is chairman of the BioNanomatrix and NellOne Therapeutics Boards.

Ms. Warren also led the funds’ investments in utility smart metering company SmartSynch and serves as a SmartSynch Board observer.

Prior to joining a venture capital firm in 2000, when she became an associate at Battelle Ventures’ predecessor fund, Ms. Warren spent three years at SG Cowen Securities, first as an analyst in Healthcare Mergers and Acquisitions, then as an associate in Corporate Finance. While at SG Cowen, she focused on companies in the medical device and healthcare information technology fields.

Ms. Warren began her career in the Global Financial Analyst program at Chase Manhattan Bank. She holds a B.S. degree in accounting and international business from New York University Stern School of Business, and an M.B.A in finance and entrepreneurial studies from Columbia Business School.

Kurt Dasse, Ph.D.
President and CEO, Levitronix, LLC

Dr. Dasse has spent nearly three decades conducting research in cardiovascular disorders and developing medical devices, including products for percutaneous and vascular access. He currently heads Waltham, Mass.-based technology company Levitronix, LLC, a developer and maker of a new generation of blood pumps and ultra-pure fluid handling components for the semiconductor industry. Dr. Dasse joined Levitronix in 2000 as president of its Medical Division. He also serves as Chief Operating Officer of Levitronix’s parent company, Pharos LLC.

Previously, Dr. Dasse was Chief Scientist and vice president of $700-million Thermo Electron Corporation’s Biomedical Group, where the company focused on developing products for the respiratory, neurodiagnostic, cardiovascular and imaging markets. He also was a founding officer of Thermo Cardiosystems and played a key role in commercializing the first implantable ventricular assist system for end-stage heart-failure patients.

A former Core Technology Advisory Board member for Battelle Memorial Institute, and Scientific Advisory Board member for Cardeon, he previously served as a director of Given Imaging, and is currently a director of Afferent Corporation.

Dr. Dasse received a B.A. degree in biology from the University of Massachusetts, and his doctorate in medical physiology from Boston University School of Medicine. He has written more than 75 journal articles and multiple book chapters, and holds five patents.

Investors

Battelle Ventures (www.battelleventures.com) and its affiliate fund, Innovation Valley Partners (www.innovationvalleypartners.com), are the only current investors in Endovalve.

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