Brent Ahrens, General Partner, Canaan Partners
Skip Baldino, President & CEO, EndoGastric Solutions
Michael Carusi, General Partner, Advanced Technology Ventures
John Gillings, General Partner, Accelmed
Kunal Paymaster, Principal, SightLine Partners
Alejandro Sanchez, Managing Director, Evidity
Brent Ahrens, General Partner, Canaan Partners
Mr. Ahrens is a General Partner with the Canaan Partners (Canaan), an early stage Life Sciences and IT venture capital fund, and sits on the board of directors for EndoGastric Solutions (EGS). Prior to his tenure at Canaan, Mr. Ahrens worked for GSI, where he managed business development, marketing and sales efforts. In addition to his experience at GSI, he also worked for the Ethicon Endo-Surgery division of Johnson & Johnson, where he was involved in product development. He previously was a Senior Research Engineer at IAP Research.
Mr. Ahrens is the holder of three patents relating to medical technologies. He sits on the boards of Coapt Systems, CoAxia, Novare Surgical Systems, Pavad Medical, Relievant Medsystems, and other private boards.
Skip Baldino, President & Chief Executive Officer, EndoGastric Solutions
Mr. Baldino has over 35 years in the healthcare industry. Just prior to his role at EndoGastric Solutions (EGS), he served four years as President, Americas for Given Imaging-a world leader in GI medical devices, offering healthcare providers a range of innovative options for visualizing, diagnosing and monitoring the digestive system. Covidien completed its acquisition of Given Imaging in February 2014 in an $860 million deal (Medtronic now acquired Covidien). Prior to Given Imaging, he enjoyed a distinguished 26-year career at Abbott Laboratories-a worldwide diversified health care company. While there, Mr. Baldino established an outstanding track record of consistent and high-performing financial and organizational success. His experience encompasses various key customer segments, as well as a wide range of product portfolios, product life-cycles, new product launches, and integrations. As a divisional Vice President, he held key commercial leadership roles in: Diabetes Care, Diagnostics, Medical Products (Corporate), Hospital Products (now known as Hospira), Health Systems, and Specialty Products.
Mr. Baldino graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Philadelphia University.
Mr. Baldino was also the Chairman of the Board of ACell, a regenerative medicine company that was focused on the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of medical devices for wound management and surgical soft tissue repair. He served on ACell’s board from 2015 until their January 2021 sale to Integra Health Sciences valued up to $400 million, including a $300M upfront payment.
Michael Carusi, General Partner, Advanced Technology Ventures
Mr. Carusi joined Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV) in 1998, where he focused on investments in the life sciences and medical device sectors. In addition to EndoGastric Solutions, Mr. Carusi currently serves on the boards of several ATV portfolio companies including Emphasys Medical, GI Dynamics, GluMetrics, Plexxikon, TranS1, and XTENT.
Prior to joining ATV, Mr. Carusi served as the Director of Business Development for Inhale Therapeutic Systems (now Nektar Therapeutics), a venture-backed pulmonary drug delivery company that went public in 1994. At Inhale, he lead partnering activities with a number of well-established pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Mr. Carusi was also a Principal at The Wilkerson Group, a strategic ATV partner and leading management consulting firm focused exclusively on healthcare. At The Wilkerson Group, he helped establish the firm’s offices in London and San Francisco.
John Gillings, General Partner, Accelmed
Mr. Gillings joined Accelmed Partners in 2019, bringing more than 10 years of finance and investment analysis experience in HealthTech. Prior to Accelmed, John established and ran the internal Investor Relations function for Apollo Endosurgery and, prior to that, spent roughly nine years in equity research focused solely on the HealthTech space. His research coverage spanned a broad range of disease states and device types and included large multi-national organizations as well as earlier-stage companies with novel technologies. Prior to business school, he spent time in audit, corporate accounting and investment banking. John holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Accounting from the University of Utah and a Masters in Finance from London Business School.
Kunal Paymaster, Principal, SightLine Partners
Mr. Paymaster has 12 years of healthcare experience. He joined SightLine in 2012 and has been a core part of the investment team, serving as an advisor or board observer at several portfolio companies. Prior to joining SightLine, Kunal spent seven years in various operating roles at Boston Scientific’s Cardiac Rhythm Management business unit.
Alejandro Sanchez, Managing Director, Evidity
Alejandro Sanchez co-founded Evidity Health Capital with Paul Enever in 2014. He has nearly a decade of experience in PE/VC investing and has been advising boards and C-suite executives in the technology sector on commercialization, operations, and strategy for nearly 20 years.
Prior to joining Evidity, Alejandro was a co-founder and partner of Hermes Growth Partners, where he launched its Telecom, Media, and Technology Fund. He is a former partner at McKinsey and Company, where he worked in the telecom, media, and technology sectors across a diverse set of geographies, including the United States, Russia, Poland, Chile, Brazil, and Venezuela.
He serves on the Boards of Directors of bioTheranostics, Endogastric Solutions, and Tryton Medical, and he is a board observer at Akili Interactive Labs.
Alejandro is a systems engineer with an MS in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University.
Domain expertise: Leadership and talent, board effectiveness, exit readiness.