Management Team

Timothy A. McCarthy – President and CEO

Tim has 20 years of successful commercial leadership experience in the medical device, sports medicine, rehabilitation and prosthetic marketplaces. His experience spans both public and private companies.  Prior to accepting this important leadership role at iWalk in December 2009, he was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Ossur Americas, Inc. since 2003.  During his seven years in that position, total annual sales tripled from $50 Million to over $150 Million through organic growth, innovation, and strategic acquisition.   The prosthetic product growth included no acquired revenue and grew from $35 Million to $75 Million during his tenure, a 13% CAGR in an industry growing 2-5% annually.  Tim led a commercial team credited with launching an entire industry into the “bionic” age of prosthetics with the successful commercial launches of a series of advanced prosthetic technologies.  Earlier in his career, Tim spent six years in regional business development for the Chattanooga Group, a DJO holding, and three years as co-founder and commercial leader of NER, Inc., a fast-growing sports medicine distribution and third-party billing company.  Tim  earned his M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and his B.S., with honors, from Northeastern University.


Rick Casler - Vice President of Research & Development

For the past 25 years, Rick has led the development and commercialization of robust, high-performance, electro-mechanical systems.  These systems span the fields of industrial automation and control, industrial robotics, medical robotics, and microsystem assembly. What’s more, they’ve achieved best-in-class machine cycle time, footprint, and cost.  Rick has served in executive positions in both Fortune 100 and entrepreneurial enterprises, including serving as the CEO of Genesis Automation and the vice president of engineering of Adept Technology, where he drove development of scalable robotic systems. While the Vice President of Systems Engineering at Intuitive Surgical, he built a quality and reliability infrastructure that increased telesurgical system reliability; he also served as VP of Engineering and CTO of Electroglas. He led the development of a revolutionary wafer probe and microsystem assembly platform that was the first in the industry to employ active vibration cancellation technology. Rick is known for his unique abilities to blend strategy and execution—creating executable visions for product development teams—and to lead cross-functional project teams in the creation and commercialization of new robotic system architectures and platforms that achieve market leadership in cycle time, cost, and solution footprint.    Casler holds B.S.M.E. and M.S.M.E. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University.  He holds over 25 patents in the fields of dynamic control, signal processing, robotics, and precision platform design. Rick joined iWalk in May 2008.


Shane Namack – Vice President of Sales
 
Shane has over 15 years of medical sales experience with the last seven in the field of advanced prosthetics as a sales leader at Ossur Americas. His background in kinesiology and physiology honed his expertise on body kinematics and gait function, thus obtaining a true understanding of how the body moves as it relates to prosthetic devices. As a leader on the Ossur management team he was part of the division that led to Ossurs double-digit sales growth over five years. His knowledge of advanced prosthetics has been invaluable for his customers as he aided them in their own business development goals. His addition to the iWalk team reinforces the commitment to bring industry leaders into key roles to bring a new scientific bionic platform to the market.  Shane has a BS in Physiology from Youngstown State University


Ian Vawter - Vice President of Finance

Ian has over 15 years of finance experience with global medical device companies spanning capital devices, surgical devices and biologics.  Prior to iWalk, Ian was a Director of Finance with Covidien Surgical Devices where he managed the finance organization for the $900m global Soft Tissue Implant franchise.  Prior to Covidien, Ian was Finance Director – North America for UK based Tissue Science Laboratories plc (TSL).   While with TSL, he played an instrumental role in transforming the organization from a third-party distributor model to a direct sales model, growing the US business by a 50% CAGR, over a three year period.  Prior to TSL he spent nearly a decade with French based EDAP-TMS S.A.  While with EDAP, he held various finance and accounting positions culminating with his appointment to the role of Chief Financial Officer.  Ian has a BS in Business from Norwich University.

Brian L. Gustin, CP, BA - Vice President Clinical Research and Payer Relations

Brian has a solid understanding of the medical policies that govern the delivery of Orthotic and Prosthetic clinical care. He is a past President of the American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association and has served on their Coding and Reimbursement Committee since 1998. In addition, he is a presenter of the popular AOPA Advanced Coding and Billing Seminar series.

After assuming control of the family O&P practice, Brian expanded it to five locations, selling the chain in 2006. Gustin then served as the Chief Clinical Officer for an investor group purchasing O&P facilities. He has consulted on best practices to manage the risk of O&P fraud and abuse with a variety of organizations including patient care facilities, manufacturers, insurers, law enforcement and private equity firms.

Brian received his Bachelors Degree from Concordia University of Wisconsin in Business Management and graduated from Northwestern University's Orthotic and Prosthetic program.

Karen Vane – Director, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance

Karen has over 10 years of research experience at Yale University and over 25 years of regulatory and quality experience with global medical device companies.  She began her career in the medical device industry at U.S. Surgical Corporation, and has held increasingly more responsible management positions, working  for companies including, Cardinal Healthcare, Greatbatch Medical, and Avail Medical.  Prior to joining iWalk, she served as the Director of Regulatory Compliance at Intuitive Surgical.

Her industry experience includes responsibility over RA/QA operations and quality systems across multiple facilities, both domestic and international.  Karen received a BA in Biology from Sacred Heart University and pursued graduate studies in Microbiology at the University of Bridgeport.  She served on the California State Board of Examiners for the Council for Quality and Service.

John Coolidge – Senior Vice President of Operations

John has 28 years of successful operations experience with leading global medical device companies. He was an Officer and Vice President of Operations with Aspect Medical Systems, the market leader in depth of consciousness monitoring technology. John was responsible for Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Engineering, Service, Facilities & IT. His work was recognized when the company achieved national recognition as the winner of the coveted Shingo Prize for Manufacturing Excellence. That same year Aspect was designated the 2006 Medical Device Manufacturer of the Year. During his tenure annual revenue grew from zero to $112 million; the company went public; and was ultimately sold and integrated into Covidien. After the acquisition, John continued to serve as Vice President of Manufacturing for the Respiratory and Monitoring division of Covidien. He was responsible for global supply of patient monitoring systems, three manufacturing plants in the U.S. & Mexico and contract manufacturing in Asia. Earlier in his career John held operations and product development positions on the senior management teams of divisions with Johnson and Johnson and Medtronic. John earned an M.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his B.S. from Wentworth Institute of Technology. He joined iWalk in September 2011.


iWALK BOARD OF DIRECTORS

William F. Doyle

Bill is the founder and managing director of WFD Ventures. He brings over 20 years experience in the advanced technology and healthcare industries as an entrepreneur, Fortune 50 executive, management consultant, and investor.  Prior to founding WFD Ventures, Bill was a managing director at Insight Venture Partners, leading its healthcare and outsourcing investment practices. Bill was a member of Johnson & Johnson’s Consumer Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Group Operating Committee and Vice President, Licensing and Acquisitions.  Bill was also chairman of the Medical Devices Research and Development Council and a director of Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, J&J’s venture capital subsidiary.    Earlier in his career, Bill was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. He was also involved in founding Durel Corporation, a joint venture of Rogers Corporation and 3M, and was the first employee of American Superconductor (NASDAQ: AMSC). Bill currently serves as a director of Avisena, Clozex Medical, GlobalCare, Hand Innovations, NovoCure, and Prisma. Bill served as an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business Administration in New York and holds a S.B. in engineering from MIT and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

John Simon

John is a managing director of General Catalyst Partners, and invests in both new and existing technology businesses. Areas of special interest include technology-intensive, industry-leading software and systems platforms. In particular, he focuses upon mission critical enterprise software applications and subsystems, software-based connectivity platforms with an emphasis on wireless, and software-based companies that sit at the intersection of media and technology.  Prior to co-founding General Catalyst Partners, John was founder, chairman, and CEO of UroMed Corporation. UroMed completed its initial public offering in 1994 and was subsequently merged to form Alliant Medical Technologies. Prior to founding UroMed, John led marketing and sales at Adaptive Networks and was a venture capitalist with Highland Capital Partners and Charles River Ventures. John earned a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.A. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

William A. Sahlman

William A. Sahlman is the Dimitri V. d’Arbeloff—Class of 1955 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. The d’Arbeloff Chair was established in 1986 to support teaching and research on the entrepreneurial process. The chair honors the late Dimitri d’Arbeloff (HBS ’55), whose entrepreneurial skills helped make Millipore Corporation a world leader in its industry.  Bill received an A.B. degree in economics from Princeton University, an M.B.A. from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in business economics, also from Harvard. His research focuses on the investment and financing decisions made in entrepreneurial ventures at all stages in their development.

Paul Flanagan

Dr. Hugh Herr - Founder and Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Herr, Founder and Chief Technology Officer, is the NEC Career Development Professor at the MIT Media Lab and holds a joint appointment at MIT’s Program in Media Arts and Sciences and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. He is the Director and Principal investigator of the Biomechatronics Group of MIT’s Media Laboratory.  Herr received his B.A. in physics from Millersville University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. in mechanical engineering from MIT, and a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University. Prior to coming to the Media Lab, Herr was Assistant Professor at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology and the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School.  Herr’s research interests include biomechanics, biological motion control, and the advancement of human rehabilitation and augmentation technology. His earlier prosthetic invention, the Rheo Knee, was licensed and commercially launched in 2004 and currently has 20% market share.

Timothy A. McCarthy - President and CEO

Tim has 20 years of successful commercial leadership experience in the medical device, sports medicine, rehabilitation and prosthetic marketplaces. His experience spans both public and private companies.  Prior to accepting this important leadership role at iWalk in December 2009, he was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Ossur Americas, Inc. since 2003.  During his seven years in that position, total annual sales tripled from $50 Million to over $150 Million through organic growth, innovation, and strategic acquisition.  The prosthetic product growth included no acquired revenue and grew from $35 Million to $75 Million during his tenure, a 13% CAGR in an industry growing 2-5% annually.  Tim led a commercial team credited with launching an entire industry into the “bionic” age of prosthetics with the successful commercial launches of a series of advanced prosthetic technologies.  Earlier in his career, Tim spent six years in regional business development for the Chattanooga Group, a DJO holding, and three years as Co-founder and Commercial Leader of NER, Inc., a fast-growing sports medicine distribution and third-party billing company.  Tim  earned his M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and his B.S., with honors, from Northeastern University.