21 November 2011 – Therapeutic hypothermia pioneer BeneChill Inc. has appointed Fred Colen as President and Chief Executive Officer.
Mr. Colen has over 30 years’ experience in the field of medical technology, and has held various senior management roles at Boston Scientific Corporation over a period of more than ten years. From 2006 to 2010, he served as Executive Vice President of Operations and Technology, then as President, of the Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Group, an acquired business he restored to double digit growth. He joined Boston Scientific as Vice President of Cardiovascular Research and Development for Scimed Life Systems, the company’s cardiovascular division. He was rapidly promoted to Corporate Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, where he directed research, technology, and product development for the entire company. In this role he was instrumental in the very successful launch and rapid market adoption of the Taxus drug-eluting stent family and in creating an impressive stent product pipeline, which directly led to the substantial growth of Boston Scientific.
Most recently, Mr. Colen has been acting as a consultant to venture capitalists specializing in medical technology, advising on early investment in emerging medical device technologies.
“I am very excited with this opportunity to lead the management team at BeneChill”, Mr. Colen commented. “With the RhinoChill IntraNasal Cooling System, the company has a unique device which helps preserve the brains of patients who have suffered a cardiac arrest, stroke or traumatic brain injury. I am eager to build the business in Europe and to move the RhinoChill device towards FDA approval in the USA.”
Dr. Denise Barbut, Founder and Board Member of BeneChill commented “We are excited to have Fred Colen join BeneChill as CEO and look forward to building the company into a leadership position in the rapidly growing field of therapeutic hypothermia. The RhinoChill device is uniquely suited for early initiation of cooling and will improve outcome following cardiac arrest.”
BeneChill is a medical device company based in San Diego, California with European headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. The company is developing therapeutic hypothermia products with a focus on early, rapid, non-invasive cooling for use in the field. BeneChill’s lead product, the RhinoChill® IntraNasal Cooling System, has CE Mark approval for inducing therapeutic hypothermia immediately following cardiac arrest, and is available in most major European markets. BeneChill has a distribution agreement with Physio-Control for certain European countries. While BeneChill is working to obtain US approval, the company’s products have not been approved by the FDA and are currently not available in the USA.
Investors in BeneChill include MedVenture Associates, NGN Capital, Healthcap Ventures, Medtronic and the Solon Medical Foundation.
For more information, go to www.benechill.com
