The Cayenne management team combines over 100 years of experience in the medical device industry, with primary expertise in the less invasive surgery markets. The team background spans a range from large corporations to venture capital operations.
James W. Hart, a co-founder of Cayenne Medical, has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board since its inception. Prior to joining Cayenne Medical, Hart was President and Chief Executive Officer of Opus Medical, where he led its successful acquisition by ArthroCare Corporation in 2004. Prior to this, Hart was President, Chief Operating Officer and a Director of Orthopaedic Biosystems, Inc. (OBL). Hart was instrumental in accelerating growth at OBL and successfully sold the business to Smith & Nephew in November of 2000. Prior to joining OBL, Hart was Vice President of Strategic Marketing for Zimmer, Inc. He has also held positions at Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble and was previously a member of the Board of Directors for IsoTis OrthoBiologics. Harts educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from DePauw University in Greencastle, IN, and the Executive Program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business in Palo Alto, CA.
Randal L. Buness, Chief Financial Officer, is a CPA and senior financial executive with over 25 years of results-oriented leadership. Prior to joining Cayenne Medical, he served as Chief Financial Officer of multiple high-growth, public and private technology companies with annual sales up to $250 million. Such companies included United Medical Network, a medical communications company that he co-founded and which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson. His financial background includes expertise in venture capital, public stock offerings and mergers and acquisitions. Early in his career, Buness spent ten years in public accounting at Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He graduated summa cum laude from Seattle University, where he earned a B.A. in business administration and accounting and he holds an M.B.A. in international finance from Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Derek J. Harper, Vice President of Research and Development, joined the company in June 2005. Prior to joining Cayenne Medical, Harper held management positions in Research and Development as well as Marketing at Medtronic, PS Medical, MDC Research and MicroSolutions. Harper is a biomedical engineer with 18 years of diverse experience in the medical industry and has authored co-authored 10 issued US patents related to medical devices. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering with a specialty in Bioengineering from Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ.
Timothy S. Nash, Vice President, Marketing, brings to Cayenne Medical more than 18 years of sales and marketing experience in the sports medicine, orthopedic and spinal industries. Immediately prior to his arrival at Cayenne, Nash served as National Sales Manager for Medtronic Spine and Biologics, where – among his achievements – was the creation and oversight of the company’s intraoperative neuromonitoring sales force. Additionally, while at Medtronic, Nash was Marketing Director for pedicle screw and rod systems. Prior to Medtronic, Nash held several sales and marketing positions with Zimmer Orthopaedics including Global Product Manager, Linvatec Arthroscopy, where among his accomplishments was leading project teams, which introduced multiple new ACL reconstruction and meniscal repair systems. Early in his career, Nash also served as a Director of Materials Management for HCA North Monroe Hospital. He received his Bachelor of Business Administration, Business Management degree from Northeast Louisiana University.
Kereshmeh Shahriari, Director of Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs, is a skilled Engineer with more than a decades worth of experience overseeing quality and/or regulatory issues pertaining to medical devices. Most recently, Shahriari served as Senior Quality Engineer for Bard Peripheral Vascular where she managed quality assurance for new product development programs and implemented FDA and ISO standards throughout the new product development cycle. Earlier in her career, Shahriari was a Quality Engineer for CTI (Siemens Medical Solutions). She received her Master of Science degree in Bio-Engineering from Arizona State University and her Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from Azad University in Tehran.
Michael T. Gillem, Vice President of Sales brings to Cayenne Medical over 18 years of documented sales and sales management success the in medical device space primarily focused on novel and potentially disruptive technologies. Most recently, Gillem served as Vice President of Sales at Stereotaxis where his focus of driving capital equipment helped deliver a 27% increase of revenue in 2009 versus 2008. Prior to Stereotaxis, Gillem held several senior level positions helping to introduce technology to the market place and drive clinical adoption. Most notably was his early involvement with Foxhollow Technologies. As an Area Director, Gillem’s involvement with the commercial plan helped grow the company to over 200 sales professionals leading to an explosive revenue growth resulting in one of the most successful device start-ups. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University.
Cayenne has received 510(k) market clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration for the AperFix® System, iFix™ System and CrossFix™ System and all the products are available for clinical use in the United States. Additionally Cayenne holds a CE Mark for the design and manufacture of femoral and tibial implants with inserters, interference screws and instruments for tissue reconstruction. Cayenne operates a Quality Management system, which complies with the requirements of ISO 13485:2003.