Steven E. Nissen MD is Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Nissen came to the Cleveland Clinic in 1992. He served for 9 years as Vice-Chairman of the Department and five years as Medical Director of the Cleveland Clinic Cardiovascular Coordinating Center (C5), an organization that directs multicenter clinical trials. In 2006, he was appointed Chairman. National leadership positions include a term as President of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the professional society representing American cardiologists (March 2006 to March 2007). Dr. Nissen has served numerous ACC committees and working groups including Education Committee, Annual Scientific Session Planning Committee, and 2 terms as Board of Trustee. Steven Nissen earned his medical degree from the Michigan University School of Medicine in Ann Arbor. He completed Internal Medicine internship and residency at the University of California, Davis in Sacramento, and Cardiology Fellowship at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington. Dr. Nissen’s research during the last two decades has focused on application of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging to the assessment of progression and regression of coronary atherosclerosis. Contributions to scientific literature include being author/coauthor of more than 350 journal articles and 60 book chapters. As a physician/scientist, Dr. Nissen consults for many pharmaceutical companies on the development of new therapies for cardiovascular disease, but maintains a longstanding personal policy of requiring companies to donate all related honoraria directly to charity so that he receives neither income, nor a tax deduction. In recent years, he has also written extensively on the subject of drug safety. In 2001, he was co-author of the first manuscript that raised concerns about the safety of rofecoxib (Vioxx), which was withdrawn from the market 3 years later. In 2005, he re-analyzed data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to support approval of muraglitazar, a new agent to treat diabetes and lipid disorders. Despite a recommendation by an FDA Advisory Panel to approve this new agent, Dr. Nissen’s study reported that muraglitazar doubled the risk of major adverse cardiovascular outcomes and the Agency halted approval. In 2007, he was the author of a manuscript that demonstrated that the widely used diabetes drug rosiglitazone (Avandia™) raised the risk of myocardial infarction, resulting in a “black box’ warning by the FDA 6 months later. Dr. Nissen served as a member of the CardioRenal Advisory Panel of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for 5 years, and as Chairman of the final year of his membership. He continues to serve as Advisor to several FDA committees as a Special Government Employee. In July 2008, while serving as guest member of the Endocrine and Metabolism Advisory Panel, Dr. Nissen recommended a new approach to approval of diabetes drugs, which was ultimately adopted by the Agency in November 2008. Steven Nissen is also known for his role in public policy discussions, particularly in the area of drug safety. He has testified in both the Senate (Health Education and Labor Committee) and House of Representatives (Energy and Commerce Committee) on the need to reform the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He was actively involved in discussions with Congress on the FDA Amendments Act of 2007 that added additional regulatory authority for the Agency. Professor Steven Nissen was selected for the Outstanding Scientist Award by the Cleveland Clinic in 2004. Cleveland Clinic Cardiovascular Medicine Fellows have awarded him the Outstanding Teaching Award, an annual recognition, on 3 occasions. He also received Award for Outstanding Contributions to Cardiovascular Research from the Gill Heart Institute of the University of Kentucky in 2004. Other awards include “Best Doctors” 2008 by Cleveland Magazine, “One of 40 most influential persons in the City of Cleveland” 2008 Cleveland Magazine, Country’s 30 “most powerful forces in Business and Finance” 2007 Smart Money Magazine, 100 Most Influential People, Scientists and Thinkers 2007 TIME Magazine.

Chris Coburn has served as Executive Director of Cleveland Clinic Innovations (CCI), Cleveland Clinic’s corporate venturing arm, since it was established in May, 2000. He has built a high performing team of more than three dozen professionals guided by some of the nation’s top venture capitalists. Cleveland Clinic’s 35 spin-off companies have raised more than $450 million in equity investment. In June 2010, Innovations was recognized by Global Corporate Venturing as one of the world’s top 30 health corporate venturing organizations. Mr. Coburn serves on the board of directors of Autonomic Technologies, Cleveland HeartLab, Explorys, PeriTec, and BioEnterprise. He is a former Vice President and General Manager of Battelle Memorial Institute, director of the U.S. Enrichment Corporation (NYSE:USU) and author of the only comprehensive profile of public sector commercialization initiatives as well as numerous articles and book chapters. He has consulted, testified and spoken on technology commercialization throughout North America and more than 20 countries. He is a member of the Ohio’s 3rd Frontier Advisory Board and a trustee of Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, Hathaway Brown School, and the City Club of Cleveland. He was selected in 2008 by Neurotech Business Reports as the most valuable financial professional.

Dr. Paul E. DiCorleto is Chair of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute (LRI), and Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Medicine, Case School of Medicine. The LRI is home to over 190 principal investigators and 1500 employees performing biomedical research. Dr. DiCorleto received his undergraduate training in chemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his doctorate in biochemistry from Cornell University. Dr. DiCorleto’s research, which has been continuously funded by NIH for over 30 years, focuses on the molecular and cellular basis of atherosclerosis. He has been with the Cleveland Clinic for 30 years, having served previously as Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology, and as an Associate Chief of Staff. He is currently a member of the Clinic’s Board of Governors and Board of Trustees. On a national level, he has chaired multiple NIH and American Heart Association review panels, as well as several national conferences on research into heart and vascular disease. He has published over 100 articles in his field and serves on the editorial board of multiple scientific journals. Dr. DiCorleto is a Community Trustee of Cleveland State University and a member of the Association of American Medical College’s Advisory Panel on Research. He is also a director of Cleveland BioLabs, Inc. (CBLI) – a publicly traded, Cleveland Clinic spin-off company.

Keith Kerman, M.D. is an Operating Partner and Senior Advisor with The Riverside Company, a global private equity firm focused on growth businesses. Dr. Kerman has 20 years of experience in healthcare related private equity, venture capital, and operating roles, and has been an executive, investor, and board member at numerous healthcare businesses and organizations. Prior to joining Riverside, Dr. Kerman was a Managing Director and led the healthcare practice at Primus Capital Funds, a growth equity and middle market buyout firm, and was previously a General Partner with Morgenthaler Ventures. Dr. Kerman also was an operating executive at U.S. Healthcare, where he was president of the company’s subsidiary providing managed care services to self-funded health plans. Prior to joining U.S. Healthcare, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, was a member of the clinical faculty at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and was a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics at The Wharton School. He has an AB and an MD from Brown University, and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Kerman currently serves on the Board of Directors of AxioMed Spine Corporation, Cleveland Heart Labs, IDOC, and Physicians Pharmacy Alliance. He also serves on the Worldwide Board of Directors of the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS), is a member of the Cleveland Clinic Innovations Industrial Advisory Board, and is Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Cleveland Clinic’s Global Cardiology Innovation Center.

John is founder and Managing Partner of Triathlon Medical Ventures based in Cincinnati and brings 22 years of venture investing and 13 years of research and R&D management experience in biotechnology, devices, and diagnostics. John was a Managing Director of Senmed Medical Ventures from 1989 until 2003 where he was a member of the investment committee and led the emerging medical technology investment efforts. Prior to joining Senmed, John spent 13 years with Battelle Memorial Institute serving in various research, management, and business development capacities. Locally and regionally, John was among the early organizers of Bio/Start, Cincinnati’s biomedical business incubator and served as Chairman of its Board of Trustees. He is also a Chairman of the Board of BioOhio, Ohio’s life science economic development organization and serves on the board of the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center at the Cleveland Clinic. John represents Triathlon on the boards of Akebia Therapeutics Inc., Aerpio Therapeutics and Kereos Inc., and is an observer on the board of CoLucid. He is also Chairman of the Board of Cincinnati Children’s spinoff Airway Therapeutics. John earned his BS, MS and Ph.D degrees in Microbiology and Virology from The Ohio State University.

Frank Samuel is President of the Geauga Growth Partnership, Inc., a business organization focused on economic development in Geauga County (northeast Ohio). He has been involved in biomedical technology and health care issues for many years in Washington, D.C., and the State of Ohio. He was Science and Technology Advisor to Ohio Governor Bob Taft from 2000 to 2007, where he was a principal architect of Ohio’s Third Frontier Project, one of the nation’s premier State initiatives to encourage economic development through support of applied research, technology commercialization and early stage capital creation. He currently serves on the National Advisory Council of the California Health Benefits Review Program. He has served as Board chair at Providence Hospital (Washington, D.C.), as a member of Institute of Medicine advisory bodies on biomedical technology, and on the board of directors of several biomedical companies. His paper describing a venture capital strategy for the Great Lakes region was published by The Brookings Institution in 2010. He is a graduate of Hiram College and Harvard Law School.