IntelliDx Board of Directors (BOD)

This list of BOD was last modified on April 10, 2009

Ephraim Heller - Chairman

Ephraim Heller currently serves as the Chairman of IntelliDx Inc.  He is a Venture Partner at the 7 Health Ventures, an Israel-based venture capital firm investing in medical technology and devices.   He is Founder and CEO of Heller & Heller, a pharmaceutical startup company developing drugs for treatment of pain.

From 2003-2005 Mr. Heller was co-founder and CEO of AngioScore Inc., a company that develops and manufactures a line of innovative angioplasty balloons for coronary and peripheral applications.  Mr. Heller led the company through its product development, successful European and US PMA clinical trials, CE mark and FDA approval, and European product launch.  AngioScore is successfully operating as a private company with rapidly growing sales in the US, Europe and Japan.

Mr. Heller was co-founder of TheraSense Inc., a company that developed, manufactured and sold glucose monitors for people with diabetes.  From 1992-2002 Mr. Heller held a variety of positions at TheraSense including Board member, CEO, VP Marketing and VP Business Development.  TheraSense revenues grew from $5 million in 2000 to over $270 million in 2003.  The company went public in 2001 at a $700 million valuation and was acquired by Abbott Laboratories in 2004 for $1.3 billion.

Mr. Heller also co-founded E. Heller & Company, which successfully developed and out-licensed photocatalyst technology for use in applications including purifying ship ballast water and cleaning architectural surfaces.  From 1988-1992 Mr. Heller worked at Hewlett-Packard as a product manager in HP’s minicomputer business.  Mr. Heller holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a B.A. in Physics from Harvard.

T. (Teo) Forcht Dagi, M.D.

Dr. Dagi is a Partner of HLM Venture Partners. Prior to joining HLM in 2006, Teo was a Managing Partner of Cordova Ventures in Atlanta and oversaw its life sciences and health care portfolio. Before joining Cordova Ventures, Teo served as Principal at Access Partners in Westport, CT. Prior to that, he taught and practiced neurosurgery on the faculties of Harvard, Brown and Georgetown Universities, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the National Institutes of Health. Teo currently serves as a director of Atherogenics, Inc. (NASDAQ), Axela Biosensors, Inc. and IntelliDx. He also is on the advisory board of Vengrowth, Oxford Finance Corporation, and sits on the steering committee of the Program in Biomedical Entrepreneurship of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Teo received an AB from Columbia College, an MD and MPH from Johns Hopkins, an MTS from Harvard, where he was a Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Fellow, and an MBA with distinction from the Wharton School. He trained in neurosurgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital and is a diplomat of the American Board of Neurological Surgeons.

Elka Nir

Elka Nir joined Giza in 2006 as Managing Director, Life Sciences. Elka brings more than 20 years of extensive experience in senior management positions in the area of medical devices. Formerly, Ms. Nir was Chief Operating Officer & Director of Development and Operations at Biosense Webster (Israel), Johnson & Johnson, leading a team of 150 people in the development and manufacture of state of the art medical electromagnetic navigation systems. Prior to that Ms. Nir served as VP, Engineering & Research at General Electric Medical Systems, Israel, leading 100 researches, developing Nuclear Medicine systems. She also was a VP of Marketing, Sales & Customer Support at ELGEMS (GE & Elscint) and Product Manager at Elscint, Medical Imaging. Ms. Nir holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science, Technion-Israel’s Institute of Technology, and Business Administration from the University of Haifa.

Paul Badawi

Paul Badawi specializes in medical technology investments for 3i. Paul’s professional experiences have been healthcare-focused as a research scientist, operating executive, and investor. He currently serves as a board member for IntelliDx, NeoGuide Systems, OmniGuide, Triage Wireless, Ulthera, and Xthetix.

Prior to joining 3i, Paul was Vice President of Strategy at Medrium, a successful venture-backed healthcare software and services company. He had previously worked for the Delta Opportunity Fund, a healthcare-focused private equity fund and investor in Medrium. Earlier in his career, Paul conducted and published biochemical genetics research at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Paul has developed throughout his career as a Research Fellow (NIH), Welsh Fellow and Venture Fellow (UCLA), and Kauffman Fellow (3i). He holds a bachelor of science degree in biological sciences from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in business administration from UCLA.

Clint Severson

Raised in Minot, North Dakota, Clint Severson received his Bachelors of Business Administration from Minot State University in 1973.  Upon graduation, he moved to San Francisco and began his career in diagnostics sales & management with Dow Chemical where he sold blood testing equipment.  He spent the next 11 years discovering his true calling for growing development stage companies into profitable businesses from: 1978-1984 Syva, 1984-1989 3M Diagnostic Systems and 1989-1996 Mast Immunosystems, 1996-Present Abaxis, Inc.

As the current Chairman, President & CEO of Abaxis, Clint took the late developmental stage, NASDAQ traded company, with annual sales of $2.9 million and annual loss of $6.7 million and grew sales at a 34% compounded annual growth rate to over $100 million per year and an operating profit of $17.8 million. Clint was recognized by Forbes Magazine as Entrepreneur of the Year and Forbes also ranked Abaxis 11 of 200 best small companies.

Dr. Dan Gelvan

Dr. Gelvan is the Managing Director of Life Sciences, Aurum Ventures MKI Ltd. He is a seasoned life-science executive who before joining Aurum Ventures managed GammaCan International, Inc., a development-stage pharmaceutical company. Previously, Dr Gelvan founded and managed Zetiq Technologies, a drug discovery company specializing in cell-based high-throughput screening for novel anti-cancer drugs. Dr Gelvan founded Zetiq after leaving a senior position in Clal (Israel) Ltd., one of Israel’s largest holding conglomerates. Dr Gelvan holds a PhD in Business Economics from RUC in Denmark and he is an experienced lecturer of corporate finance and entrepreneurship. Dr Gelvan is a member of Israel’s National Committee for Biotechnology.

Dan Mitchell

Dan has been in the venture capital industry for 25 years. He began his venture career at the First National Bank of Chicago’s Institutional Venture Capital Fund, and then co-founded Capital Health Venture Partners, a healthcare-focused venture fund in 1985. In 1996 he co-founded Sequel Venture Partners. Sequel invests in seed and early stage opportunities primarily in the Front Range of Colorado.

Dan has focused on early stage venture opportunities, primarily in the healthcare and biotech industries. His prior investments include Pyxis (acq. by Cardinal Health), Genomic Solutions (acq. by Harvard Bioscience), Tetra Technologies (NYSE: TTI), Quovadx (NASDAQ: QVDX), and Myogen (NASDAQ: MYOG). He currently sits on the boards of Kalypto Medical,  GlobeImmune, Sierra NeuroPharmaceuticals, and IntelliDX.

Robert L. Coleman, PhD

Dr. Coleman was President and CEO of MediSense, Inc., a manufacturer of blood glucose self-testing devices, from 1991 to May 1996, and President of MediSense, an Abbott Laboratories Company, from June 1996 to December 1996.  He co-founded Nova Biomedical Corporation, a manufacturer of clinical laboratory equipment, and served as its President and CEO from 1976 to 1991.  Dr. Coleman held a faculty appointment as Associate in Medicine (Biochemistry) at Harvard Medical School for the academic years 1971 and 1972.

He has served on the board of directors for SensAble Technologies since 1997 to present.  SensAble Technologies is a developer and manufacturer of haptic computer peripheral devices.  He also has served on the board of directors for Masimo, Inc. from1997 to present.  Masimo is a cutting edge producer of pulse oximetry systems.  He is a 1997 co-founder and Chairman of WaveSense, Inc, a developer and manufacturer of biotechnology separation devices.  He became a board member at IntelliDx, Inc. in August 2008.