BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Bill Gruber
President and CEO:

Solace Therapeutics

Bill Gruber joined Solace Therapeutics in August 2011 as President and CEO. Prior to this role, he co-founded Interlace Medical in August 2006 and served as their President and CEO until Interlace was acquired by Hologic in January 2011. Bill has extensive experience in organizational development and in product development for rapid growth businesses. Prior to Interlace, Bill spent five years at Cortek Inc., a spinal products company. As Cortek’s V.P. of Sales and Marketing, he built sales from $612K to over $10M.  During his last two years, he was the V.P. of New Business Development and Marketing.  In this role, he was instrumental in creating Soteira, a Cortek subsidiary, focused on devices for treating vertebral compression fractures. Prior to Cortek, Bill spent 10 years at Boston Scientific Corporation. Before leaving Boston Scientific Corporation, he held the position of Director of the $172M Global Atherosclerotic Therapy business. Prior to entering the medical device sector, Bill spent five years in sales and marketing roles at Procter and Gamble. Bill received a BA degree from Washington State University.

Kevin G. Connors
Founding Partner:

Spray Venture Partners

Kevin Connors is founder of Solace and was the Company’s CEO until Bill Gruber joined in 2011. He is an accomplished entrepreneur and venture investor. Kevin has co-founded eight healthcare technology companies, and has had CEO roles in ten. These companies have focused on developing proprietary technology to address large unmet medical needs, such as emphysema, low back pain, cerebral aneurysms, uterine disorders and bladder dysfunction. Prior to founding Spray Venture Partners in 1996, Kevin was the founding CEO of Vesica Medical, a company focused on the surgical treatment of female urinary incontinence. Under his leadership, Vesica realized product sales within 18 months of formation and was acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation in 1995. Prior to Vesica, Kevin led medical device investment activity at DSV Partners in Newport Beach, California. Kevin earned his BSEE from the University of Notre Dame, his MSEE from the University of Dayton, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Dave Neustaedter
VP of Venture Capital at Medtronic

As Vice President of Venture Capital at Medtronic, Dave works closely with Medtronic’s leadership and business development teams regarding minority investments. He has led a large number of investments in medical technology companies and has served as a Director or Observer on approximately 20 Boards including superDimension, Idev Technologies, Medina Medical, TVA Medical, Inspire Medical, Entellus Medical, Gynesonics, Saluda Medical, PQ Bypass, and a number of undisclosed companies. Prior to Medtronic, Dave served in a similar role at Covidien, where he also led a process to develop a white space growth strategy for the company.  Prior to Covidien, he was Director of Commercial Strategy and Advanced Technologies at Stryker. Dave began his business career as a healthcare-focused strategy consultant, supporting clients on decisions regarding internal product development and acquisition opportunities across the medical device, diagnostic and biopharmaceutical industries. He received a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of British Columbia, and an MBA from Yale.

Brian Smith
S3 Ventures

Brian is the founder of S3 Ventures and serves as its Managing Director. At age 29, he founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Crossroads Systems (Nasdaq: CRDS). He led Crossroads through five rounds of venture, strategic and mezzanine financing and to a successful IPO in 1999. Brian ran Crossroads as a public company for nearly four years. In this role, Brian was an early pioneer in Storage Area Networks (“SANs”), which are industry standard solutions today. For his efforts, he was awarded the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2000. He spent the first seven years of his career in electrical engineering positions holding product development roles within the Technology Group of the IBM Corporation.

John McDonough
President and CEO: T2 Biosystems

John McDonough has served as President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors at T2 Biosystems since November 2007. From 2003 to 2007, John held various positions at Cytyc Corporation, a company engaged in the design, development, manufacturing and marketing of clinical products that focus on women’s health, and ultimately served as President at Cytyc Development Corporation. John was responsible for designing and executing Cytyc Corporation’s growth strategy for expanding the company from a single product company with revenue of approximately $300 million to a diverse women’s health company with revenue of approximately $750 million. He led the efforts that resulted in Cytyc’s acquisition by Hologic, Inc. in October 2007, for over $6 billion. John has served in senior executive management and CEO roles in several private and public companies. John received his B.S.B.A. from
Stonehill College.