Dirk G. Soenksen, M.S., M.B.A., Founder and CEO
Dirk Soenksen has more than 18 years of experience in all aspects of corporate management. He has been involved in three prior start-up ventures, most recently as vice president/GM at Applied Spectral Imaging, where he was instrumental in raising both private and venture capital. Prior to that, Mr. Soenksen spent six years in product development at GEC-Marconi. He has a proven record of identifying markets for new technologies and holds a number of patents related to microscope-based diagnostics.
Norman Dann
Norman Dann has been on the board of directors of Aperio since August 2000. Mr. Dann was a partner in the Pathfinder Venture Capital Funds from 1980 to 1992. Prior to being a venture capital investor, Mr. Dann held senior management positions at Medtronic Inc., serving as senior vice president of corporate development from 1974-1976. He presently serves on the boards of several public and private medical companies.
Martin Felsenthal
Martin R. Felsenthal is a Partner of HLM Venture Partners. Marty was previously a General Partner of Salix Ventures, where he focused on investments in health care services and health care information technology. Marty served on the boards of Vantage Oncology, US Renal Care, Ancillary Care Management, Vericare, AccentCare, Titan Health and Payerpath. At Salix, Marty was involved in helping management found a number of new businesses through platform acquisitions, including Vantage and Vericare. He also recruited more than 25 executives to the portfolio companies with whom he worked. Marty serves on the Foundation Board of California Pacific Medical Center. He received a BA from Princeton University and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Mark J. Gergen, J.D.
Mark J. Gergen has served on the Aperio board of directors since April, 2002. Mr. Gergen is senior vice president of corporate development at Amylin Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Amylin, Mr. Gergen was an executive consultant to a number of life science companies. He has held the positions of executive vice president of CardioNet, Inc., chief restructuring officer and acting CEO of Advanced Tissue Sciences, Inc., having previously served as senior vice president, chief financial and development officer as well as vice president, corporate development and general counsel for that company. He has held various legal and corporate development roles at Premier, Inc., Medtronic, Inc., and Jostens, Inc. Mr. Gergen has a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School and a B.A. in Business from Minot State University. He presently serves on the boards of several private companies.
Steven P. Novak, M.B.A.
Steven P. Novak joined the Aperio board of directors in February 2004. Mr. Novak is founder and president of Palladio Capital Management LLC which provides management services to Palladio Partners LP, an investment partnership. From January 1998 to December 2001, Mr. Novak was a managing director at C.E. Unterberg, Towbin. From February 1993 to January 1998, Mr. Novak served as co-founder, president, and chief investment officer of C.E. Unterberg, Towbin Advisors, a registered investment advisor. Mr. Novak's prior affiliations include, among others, Forstmann Leff Associates, a fund manager, Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, Inc., an independent investment counselor, and Harris Bankcorp, a multi-bank holding company. Mr. Novak holds a B.S. from Purdue University and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. Mr. Novak presently serves as a director of Technology Investment Capital Corporation, a publicly-trade business development company, and several privately held companies.
Tom Rodgers
Tom Rodgers joined the board in November 2005, and is a principal at Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV), where he focuses on the medical device and life sciences sectors. Prior to joining ATV, Mr. Rodgers had 13 years of operating experience in the healthcare industry, most recently serving as vice president of corporate strategy and business development at McKesson Corporation, a Fortune 15 company in the healthcare IT and pharmaceutical services industries. Prior to joining McKesson, Mr. Rodgers was the director of strategy for iMcKesson. Prior to that, he managed sales and oversaw healthcare strategy for FitLinxx, a venture-backed startup that pioneered the fitness and rehab intelligence technology market. His management background also includes marketing roles at Genentech and five years consulting at The Wilkerson Group. Mr. Rodgers holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Zubeen Shroff
Zubeen Shroff has been a board member since November 2005. He is a general partner at Galen Partners, an established late-stage healthcare private equity firm. Over the firm's 15-year history, the group has provided expansion capital to more than 60 companies, garnering more than $10 billion in market value. Several of these companies have become important players in their industry segment, including MiniMed, Ocular Sciences, CryoLife, Pyxis, MedAssets, Stericycle, TARO Pharmaceuticals, Lumenos, and Encore Medical. Mr. Shroff started his healthcare industry career with Schering Plough in 1989 and when he left was head of their French subsidiary's biotech business group, which commercialized Alpha-Interferon. From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Shroff worked as a principal at The Wilkerson Group, a leading provider of management consulting services to the healthcare industry. Currently, he serves as a director of Encore Medical Corporation (ENMC), and of several of Galen's privately held companies. Mr. Shroff received his M.B.A. from Wharton and is a founding board member of The Wharton Private Equity Network. Additionally, he is an Executive Committee Member of Boston University's Medical School Advisory Board and is a Trustee of the Westchester Medical Center Foundation.
Stephen Shapiro
Stephen Shapiro has been a member of our board of directors since November 2005. Mr. Shapiro is a technology partner with both Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV) and Galen Partners, where he focuses on medical devices. Mr. Shapiro has been a managing director at The Wilkerson Group, where he was in charge of the medical device practice. Previous employment includes director of technology and new business development at Becton Dickinson & Co., and various technical management and strategic planning positions with Union Carbide Clinical Diagnostics. He is a director of Novoste Corp., Closure Medical, ONI Corp. and SHPI Corp. Mr. Shapiro holds an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering Studies and Medical Physics from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S. from MIT.
