Dr. Auth is a renowned scientist, inventor, businessman, and entrepreneur. He is best known for his invention and development of the Rotablator®, around which he built a company (Heart Technology, Inc.[HRTT:NASDAQ]) that he sold to Boston Scientific for $600 million in 1995.

Dr. Auth received his Ph.D. in Physics from Georgetown University in 1969, and joined the faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington that year. He taught electrical engineering and the newly-created field of bioengineering there for 13 years, and ran a lab that integrated both fields. Dr. Auth and his graduate students pioneered several new medical device platform technologies including contact laser surgery, ophthalmic holography, and Transendoscopic limited injury hemostasis resulting in the fast pulse thermal cautery probe which was licensed by the University of Washington to Olympus Corp. (Olympus HPU®) With his students he performed the seminal investigation of impedance limited, controlled injury, multipolar cauterization leading to two highly successful inventions: American Cystoscope BICAP® and the Novacept/CYTYC/Hologic global endometrial ablation device Novasure® (2009 revenue of approx. $300 million).

He left academia in 1982 to become Director of New Product Ventures for Squibb Medical Systems Group. Three years after that transition, he started the Biophysics International division of E.R. Squibb and Sons, Inc. He continued with Squibb until 1989, the year he founded Heart Technology, Inc. to commercialize his rotational atherectomy (Rotablator®) device. The Rotablator®, regarded as Dr. Auth's Piéce de résistance, is a catheter based microdissection device using high speed rotational ablation to selectively and safely remove calcified, lipoid, and fibrous atherosclerotic plaque from coronary arteries via differential cutting.

Dr. Auth ran Heart Technology as its CEO for six years, growing it to 500 employees and $80 million in revenue. He has maintained his ties with academia serving since 1985 as an Affiliate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Washington.

In addition to Arstasis, Dr. Auth is Chairman and CEO of Coaptus Medical Corporation and serves on the Boards of Directors of eight medical device companies. He has previously served on the boards of Integra LifeSciences, Novacept and Radiotherapeutics. He is a registered professional electrical engineer in the State of Washington and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

In 2005 Mr. Croce retired from a 36-year career at Johnson & Johnson. From 2005 through present, Mr. Croce has served as a venture partner for New Enterprise Associates (NEA) working with NEA healthcare portfolio companies. From 1968 through 2005, Mr. Croce worked at Johnson & Johnson where he held a series of senior positions, culminating with 12 years as Company Group Chairman. Previously, he was Worldwide Franchise Chairman of Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson company. Prior to that, he was Worldwide Franchise Chairman for Ethicon Endo-Surgery.

Mr. Croce began his career with Johnson & Johnson in 1968 as a Sales Representative for Ortho Pharmaceuticals, where he was named Vice President of Marketing. In 1985, Mr. Croce moved to McNeil Pharmaceutical as Vice President of Business Development and later transferred to Ethicon, Inc. as Group Vice President, where he remained until he was named President in 1990. In 1992 he was promoted to Worldwide President, Ethicon Endo-Surgery. For the many medical technology products he brought to market, Mr. Croce was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Phoenix Conference in 2006 and the Pioneer Award by Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons in 2008.

Mr. Croce was awarded an MBA in 1965 and a BS in 1964, both from Central Missouri State University.

Mr. Modesitt is a recognized leader in the arteriotomy hemostasis field, having been the primary inventor and designer of the VCD with the fastest revenue ramp to date, the Perclose percutaneous remote suturing device, the Closer. The Closer generated over $100 million in revenue during the first year of sales. In August 2004, Mr. Modesitt Incorporated Arstasis and transferred into it intellectual property rights for the self-sealing arteriotomy creating access device he invented. From 2004 through present, Mr. Modesitt has recruited key employees, consultants, suppliers, directors, and investors for Arstasis, and had run the company as its president and CEO.

From 2003 to 2005, Mr. Modesitt worked as an independent consultant to medical device manufacturers. From 2000 through 2003, Mr. Modesitt worked at Fogarty Research & Development where, working with Dr. Fogarty, he developed medical devices for vein harvesting, vein stripping, side branch management, remote endarterectomy, abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, and thoracic aortic aneurysm repair. From 1997 through 2000, Mr. Modesitt worked at Perclose, where he invented the Closer, which caused Abbott Labs to acquire Perclose for $680 million in 1998. The Closer subsequently held 32% of the arteriotomy closure device market. From 1995 through 1997, Mr. Modesitt worked as an engineer at Progressive Angioplasty Systems (PAS). At PAS, Mr. Modesitt was the primary inventor and designer of the Paragon™ coronary stent. PAS was sold to US Surgical in August of 1997 for $150 million, primarily because of the Paragon stent. The Paragon stent design remains the basis of many stents on the market today including those produced by Conor Medsystems (now part of Johnson & Johnson). Mr. Modesitt holds thirty patents and patents pending in the medical device field.

Mr. Modesitt was awarded a B.S.M.E. degree from Arizona State University in 1982.

Dr. Moonly, Principal, Venture Investments, joined Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC) in 2007. He is based in Silicon Valley, California.

Prior to joining JJDC, Dr. Moonly worked for a private equity firm in Southern California where he evaluated investments across all areas of health care. Before that he was a consultant in the health care practice of L.E.K. Consulting. While at L.E.K., he provided strategic advice to medical device, biotechnology, and private equity firms. His professional career began as a health care investment banking analyst with Merrill Lynch, where he worked on mergers and acquisitions and equity financings.

Dr. Moonly earned a Ph.D. in Bioengineering jointly from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, San Francisco. He received a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego.

Mr. Navarro is a strategic advisor within the medical device industry. Over his career, he has been an investment banker, research analyst, investor and Board member of public and private companies. He ran a large NYC based hedge fund's healthcare portfolio from 2001 to 2005, and is a founder of Gravitas Healthcare, LLC, a strategic advisory firm based in Greenwich, CT and San Francisco, and focused exclusively on emerging medical device companies. Over the last year the firm has advised on five transactions, ranging from strategic fund raising to sell side M&A.

From 2005 through 2008, Mr. Navarro served as a Managing Director and Global Head of Medical Technology Investment Banking at Cowen & Company. From 1998 through 2001, he was Global Head of Healthcare Investment Banking at ING Barings, and prior to that, he was senior medical technology research analyst at UBS, Furman Selz and Needham & Company.

Mr. Navarro was awarded an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a Master in Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelors degree in Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

In addition to Arstasis, Mr. Navarro has served on the Boards of four other medical device companies: MicroTherapeutics, Jomed, Photomedex, and Fixes-4-Kids, as well as non-profit foundations and one non-medical company, Pixelux Entertainment.

Dr. Nelson is chairman of GDN Holdings, LLC (Aviation, Medical Products and Services). Dr. Nelson's major current interest is in improving the performance of our health care system through reforms including: uniform universal coverage for all citizens; standardization, measurement, and reporting of health delivery interventions; universal electronic medical records; continuing timely introduction of best practices and efficacious new technology (validated by clinical research and post market surveillance).

Prior to GDN Holdings, Dr. Nelson was a director of Medtronic Inc. from 1980-2002 and was employed as Executive Vice President from 1986-1988 and subsequently Vice Chairman from 1988-2002. Before joining Medtronic, Dr. Nelson practiced surgery from 1969-1986. He was chairman, president and chief executive officer of the Park Nicollet Medical Center, a large multi-specialty group practice in Minneapolis from 1975-1986. He was also chairman of the board and chief executive officer of American MedCenters, Inc., from 1984-1986.

Dr. Nelson received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College in 1959, and a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Minnesota in 1963. He completed his training in general surgery at Hennepin County General Hospital, Minneapolis, in 1969. Dr. Nelson was certified by the American Board of Surgery in 1970. Dr. Nelson is an Emeritus Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of Minnesota.

Mr. Pell is one of the most prolific and successful medical technology investors of the last 30 years. Since 1975, Mr. Pell has been the lead investor or co-founder of 24 medical device manufacturers, eight of which have been sold for a collective net gain of $1.6 billion. The syndicate of investors he leads into his financings includes dozens of the world's leading cardiologists, and many former executives of the world's largest healthcare companies.

Mr. Pell's medical technology company-founding began in 1975, the year he co-founded Machida America, with Katsumi Oneda, to sell flexible endoscopes. In 1979 he created Pentax Precision Instruments, which he sold eleven years later to Asahi Optical. In 1983 he co-founded American Endoscopy, which made endoscope accessories and was acquired by C.R. Bard in 1986. In 1984 he co-founded Versaflex which made angioplasty balloons and was acquired by Medtronic in 1988. In 1989 he co-founded Heart Technology (with fellow Arstasis board member David Auth) to create and launch the Rotablator, which went public in 1992 and was acquired by Boston Scientific in 1995.

In 1991 Mr. Pell co-founded InStent, Inc. to develop self-expanding coronary stents. InStent went public in 1995 and was acquired by Medtronic in 1996. In 1992 he co-founded Vision Sciences to develop disposable endoscope sheaths with tool channels. In 1994 Mr. Pell co-founded Biosense to develop three-dimensional cardiac mapping software for electrophysiologists. Biosense was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 1997 and remains one of Johnson & Johnson's fastest growing and profitable companies to this day. Also in 1994, Mr. Pell co-founded Influence, Inc., to sell incontinence products, which was acquired by American Medical Systems in 1999.

In 1997 Mr. Pell co-founded Impulse Dynamics, to develop a cardiac muscle stimulator that enhances ICD performance. In 1998 he co-founded three companies: (1) By-Pass, Inc., to develop a coronary anastomosis device. (2) Radiancy, Inc., to create and sell a light-based hair-removal device, and (3) Disc-O-Tech, to develop a portfolio of orthopedic devices that was sold in Kyphon in 2007 for $240 million. In 1999, he co-founded two more: (1) X Technologies, to develop X-Ray emitting devices for use in coronary artery disease, and (2) Proteologics, Lew's one biotechnology venture, to develop novel protein drugs.

In 2002, Lew became the lead investor and Chairman of FlowMedic, to develop a leg cuff to prevent deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Later that year he led another syndicate of investors and became the Chairman of V-Target, later re-named Spectrum Dynamics, developing a nuclear imaging device. In 2004 he became the lead investor and chairman of ReAbility (Motorika) in the rehabilitation device market. In 2005 he became the lead investor and chairman of two companies: (1) VisionSense, making an electronic chip that bestows ultra-realistic three-dimensional vision to the tips of surgical instruments, and (2) Guided Delivery Systems, developing a non-surgical mitral valve repair device. In 2006, he became the lead investor and chairman of Arstasis, as described in History of Arstasis, below. In 2007, he became the lead investor and chairman of SpineView, developing a balloon instrument that allows spine surgeons to work in a miniaturized surgical field that fits on the tip of a probe.

Mr. Pell continues to serve as chairman of the boards of 13 of his companies, including Arstasis.

From 2002 to Present, Dr. Starksen has been president and CEO of Guided Delivery Systems, Inc. (GDS), a developmental-stage company he founded to treat mitral valve disease by taking a proven surgical treatment and making it deliverable by interventional cardiologists. GDS has raised $40 million in capital and is in clinical trials in Europe and Canada. Dr. Starksen is the author of 21 scientific peer view articles and 26 patents.

Prior to leaving his practice in 2002, Dr. Starksen practiced interventional and nuclear cardiology. He completed his medical training at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and University of California San Francisco.

Dr. Starksen was awarded an MD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1982, and a B.S. from the University of California, Irvine Campus in 1978.