HistoSonics Expands Leadership Team As It Accelerates Growth

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sept. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- HistoSonics, Inc., a venture-backed medical device company developing a non-invasive, robotically assisted, platform therapy that uses pulsed sound energy for the precise destruction of targeted tissues, announced three leadership team developments today:  

• Veteran medical device executive Josh Stopek, PhD, who has led R&D and business development teams at Medtronic and Covidien, has joined HistoSonics as Vice President of Research & Development. Dr. Stopek is based in Minneapolis, where he will help HistoSonics build a presence in this rich medical device market.
                              
• HistoSonics Co-founder and CTO Jim Bertolina, PhD, has been named to the newly created position of Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). As CSO, Dr. Bertolina will be responsible for leading the company's translational research efforts and further advancing the science of histotripsy, which serves as the basis for HistoSonics' innovative platform therapy.
                                    
• Tom Tefft has been appointed to HistoSonics' Board of Directors. Mr. Tefft spent 24 years as an executive at Medtronic, most recently serving as President of Medtronic's neuromodulation business.

"I am extremely excited about the addition of Josh to our team, as I know him personally from our days together at superDimension/Covidien, and there is no one better to lead the development efforts of our new platform technology," said HistoSonics President and CEO Mike Blue. "As a company, we are in the process of accelerating our growth.  With Jim focused on translational research and future applications and Josh on getting this important technology to market, we are now well positioned to achieve significant development milestones for years to come." 

Jim Adox, Chairman of the HistoSonics Board of Directors, added, "We are very pleased to add Tom Tefft to the Board as we transition HistoSonics from a development company to a clinical-stage commercial company. Tom brings nearly 25 years of senior-level experience at Medtronic; his deep expertise will help guide the Company during this exciting growth stage."

About Josh Stopek, PhD

Dr. Stopek has more than 15 years of R&D leadership experience, including a strong background in developing image-guided technologies and bringing new platforms to market. He joins HistoSonics from Medtronic Lung Health, where he served as Senior Director of R&D and led a team of over 60 engineers. Previously, he spent eight years at Covidien, where he served in both R&D and Business Development leadership roles. Earlier in his career, Dr. Stopek was a Platform Leader in Advanced Technology R&D at US Surgical, and he was the co-founder and VP of a startup medical device company, VMSI. Dr. Stopek has significant experience in IP strategy, with over 100+ issued patents and another 200+ patents pending. Dr. Stopek received his BS, MS and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Florida, where he also completed a fellowship in Neurosurgery and Neuroscience. 

About Jim Bertolina, PhD

Dr. Bertolina is a medical physics expert with more than 20 years of experience in medical device product innovation and research. After co-founding HistoSonics in 2009, he served as the company's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for eight years, leading all of HistoSonics' product development and research efforts during that time.  Dr. Bertolina has overseen the development of HistoSonics' innovative therapeutic device used in a great number of preclinical applications, and has been responsible for growing HistoSonics' IP and trade secret portfolio.  Prior to HistoSonics, Dr. Bertolina served as Vice President, New Product Development at Xoran, Inc., Technical Director for the Stryker Navigation System at Stryker, Inc., and a Medical Physicist specializing in radiosurgery at Leibinger, Inc. Dr. Bertolina earned his BS and MS, both in Physics, from the University of Utah. He received his PhD and completed a postdoc in Medical Physics Research (Radiology and Radiotherapy) at the University of Virginia.

About Tom Tefft

Mr. Tefft was the Senior Vice President and President of Medtronic's $2B Neuromodulation business from 2009 to 2016, overseeing R&D, operations, and sales and marketing. Previously he held numerous finance leadership roles at Medtronic, including Corporate Controller, Vice President Finance for the Cardiac Rhythm Management business, and Vice President and Controller for Europe, Africa and Middle East. Earlier in his career, Mr. Tefft spent ten years at Price Waterhouse. In addition to serving on HistoSonics' board of directors, he serves on the board of directors of POPS! Diabetes Care, the American Nurses Foundation, and the Deans Advisory Board at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business. Mr. Tefft received his BA in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

About HistoSonics

HistoSonics, Inc. was created to advance the development of histotripsy, a revolutionary science discovered and developed by leading scientists at the University of Michigan to provide improved therapies for patients. Our exclusive license to intellectual property, significant financial support and strategic partnerships have helped HistoSonics develop Robotically Assisted Sonic Therapy (RAST), a non-invasive, non-thermal approach to cancer care that is based on the science of histotripsy, using pulsed sound energy for the precise destruction of targeted tissues. HistoSonics' team of experienced specialists and industry leaders is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

For more information, please visit www.histosonics.com.

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SOURCE HistoSonics, Inc.