Management
Members of Solace’s management team, board of directors and investors have been dedicated to the development of less invasive therapies for bladder dysfunction for over 75 years. Key Team Members include:
Biographies
Kevin G. Connors, CEO
Kevin Connors is a co-founder, and is the Chairman and CEO. Prior to Solace, Kevin was the founding CEO of a surgical incontinence company acquired by Boston Scientific. Kevin is a General Partner of Spray Venture Partners (www.spraypartners.com). Spray Partners focuses exclusively on contributing capital and expertise to emerging healthcare technology companies. Their specific focus is in the medical device sector, where they work closely with clinical and technical founders to create companies that develop, market and deploy innovative technologies to meet major unmet healthcare needs. Kevin has served on the Board of Directors of Vesica Medical, Inc. (acquired by Boston Scientific), CoTherix (Nasdaq:CTRX) Pilot Cardiovascular (acquired by CR Bard), Masimo Corporation (Nasdaq:MASI), Circe Biomedical (acquired by ICN Pharmaceuticals), Gamera Bioscience (acquired by Tecan AG), and Endonetics (acquired by Medtronic). He is currently on the Board of Interlace Medical, Facet Solutions, Intrinsic Therapeutics, Tryton Medical, and Leptos Biomedical. Kevin received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Dayton, and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.
John Gillespie, Vice President, R&D
John Gillespie leads Research and Development for Solace. Prior to Solace, John led worldwide R&D and served on the management boards of three businesses for Johnson and Johnson: Ethicon Products, the multibillion dollar world leader in surgical wound closure; Ethicon Women’s Health and Urology - world leader in incontinence, pelvic floor repair and uterine health; and Cardiovations, innovator in minimally invasive heart surgery. Prior to that John was a General Manager for Valeo, SA. He also held R&D leadership roles for Baxter Healthcare, when he served on the management board for Baxter’s Anesthesia business, and at C.R. Bard, Inc. He holds BS and MS degrees in Engineering from Boston University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Benson F. Smith, Director
Benson is the Chief Executive Officer of BFS & Associates, LLC, a company specializing in strategic planning and venture investing. Benson was the former President and Chief Operating Office of C. R. Bard and previously Group Vice President of Bard’s urological product group. Benson serves on the Board of Directors of Rochester Medical Corporation and ZOLL Medical Corporation.
Dr. William Pintauro, Director
Dr. William L. Pintauro is a urologist in private practice in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He received his B.A. in Biology from Herbert H. Lehman College and a M.S. in Physiology from George Washington University. Dr. Pintauro received his medical degree and did his internship and residency at Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University where he served as Chief Resident in Urology. Dr. Pintauro also completed a fellowship in Neurourology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. Dr. Pintauro has been in private practice in South Florida for over 20 years. For the past 15 years, Dr. Pintauro has also served as a consultant for medical device companies and been involved in research in the fields of urology and incontinence. He has published several articles in top medical journals and holds numerous patents. He is a member of the American Urological Association and the National Association for Continence. Currently, Dr. Pintauro serves on the boards of Cascade Ophthalmics and Solace Therapeutics.
Geoff Pardo, Director
Geoff Pardo-Geoff is a General Partner of Spray Venture Partners. Geoff has over 14 years of operating and venture experience. He started his career with Arthur D. Little working primarily with companies in Latin America on issues of privatization, operations planning, and strategy development. He subsequently joined Synthes USA as a product manager and led the market introduction of Norian bone graft substitute which was named Synthes’ impact product of the year in 1999. Prior to joining Spray, Geoff worked at Cardinal Partners where he led their investing activity in the medical device sector. He was responsible for sourcing and managing investments in Replication Medical and CardioOptics. Presently, Geoff serves on the Board of Directors at Highgate Orthopedics, Kolis Scientific, Solace Therapeutics, Cascade Ophthalmics, and Facet Solutions. Geoff has a B.A. with honors in History from Brown University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business.