Team
Irit Yaniv, MD, MBA – Chief Executive Officer
Irit is an experienced and accomplished Senior Executive in the life sciences industry, both in the medical devices and bio-pharma fields. Her 15 years of progressively increasing responsibilities in this field have included successfully managing the product development function (from inception through launch), designing and implementing clinical studies and pivotal trials, achieving FDA regulatory approvals both in the forms of PMA and 510K, effectively launching the sales of new products as well as increasing the sales of existing lines. Previous companies include: Bayer, Sunlight Medical, BSP and Brainsgate. Irit Holds an MD degree from Ben-Gurion University and an MBA from the Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration at the Tel Aviv University.
Amir Cohen, MA – Chief Financial Officer
Amir has more than 20 years of experience in Israeli and multinational companies and has held CFO and COO positions in the medical device and cleantech industries. Prior to joining Metacure in March 2009, Amir was CFO at Atlantium, an Israeli private company in the cleantech market. Prior to this position Amir was CFO at Medical Compression Systems (D.B.N), an Israeli company traded on the TASE. He has led efforts such as an IPO on the German stock exchange, M&A and spin-off, cost reduction, capacity extension through efficiency increases, and more. Amir holds an M.A. in Economics from the Hebrew University, a B.A. in Economics and Statistics (Honors) from the Ben-Gurion University.
Wolfgang Karl – Managing Director Germany
Wolfgang holds a degree in economics and started his career as a member of international auditing companies and trust corporations. Subsequently, he was Managing Director of the pacemaker company Intermedics (later Sulzermedica) in Germany, and General Manager Bradycardia for Guidant Corp. in Germany. He acted as Vice President of MiniMed Europe located in Brussels, Belgium, and became General Manager for the divisions of diabetes, gastroenterology and urology at Medtronic Europe in Switzerland. He also acted as board member of the Medical Technology Association for a long period of time.
Paul Goode, PhD- VP R&D
Paul has 15 years of experience working with implantable and external medical devices for use in cardiology and diabetes. Prior to joining MetaCure in 2006, he served as Director of Engineering for Impulse Dynamics, an implantable stimulator for the treatment of congestive heart failure. Prior to this, Paul was Director of Engineering for DexCom, a glucose sensor company with both implantable and external sensing products. Paul has also gained experience in glucose sensing from MiniMed (Medtronic Diabetes), where he served as a Senior Engineer. Prior to that he worked at Guidant Corporation (Boston Scientific) and Intermedics (Guidant) as a Senior Scientist and Engineer, respectively. Paul received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University.
Hanna Eliason – Director of QA/RA
Hanna has 20 years of experience as a Quality Manager in leading industrial and medical device companies, and 10 years of experience in managing regulatory affairs in medical device companies. Prior to joining MetaCure, Hanna served as Quality and Regulatory Affairs Manager in Icecure Medical, a medical device company developing cryotherapy products, in RMT (Rafael Medical Technology), and in Rostam, a world leader in the manufacturing of feminine hygiene products. Hanna holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
Walid Haddad, PhD - Medical Affairs Director
Walid brings with him an extensive experience in clinical research in the medical device field, as well as in medical affairs, operations, publications, safety, global patient recruitment, and preparation of medical and training documents (protocols, reports). Walid has previously been involved in the development and management of medical affairs of various products across a broad range of disease management fields, including diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, electrophysiology and Cardiovascular. Walid holds a Ph.D in Physiology from the Faculty of Medicine, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
Shirley Shapira, PhD- Clinical Director
Shirley brings over 12 years of experience in development of innovative medical devices. Prior to Metacure Shirley led clinical trials in Sightline, acquired by Stryker GI (NYSE: SYK), offering innovative colonoscopy and gastroscopy equipment. Before Stryker Shirley headed several research projects at NovoCure, developer of novel therapy for solid tumors. Shirley earned her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and B.A. in Food and Biotechnology engineering from the Technion.
Lior Teitelbaum, MSc, MBA – Director of BD and Marketing
Lior brings with him over 10 years of experience in the life sciences industry and academic research. Prior to joining MetaCure Lior was Deal Flow Manager and Senior Technological and Business Analyst for Life Sciences at Elron, the technological investment arm of IDB, Israel’s largest conglomerate. Prior to that he served as a Grant Consultant at Freemind Consultants specializing in NIH and other government research grants for Life Science Researchers and companies. Lior holds an MBA from the Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration at the Tel Aviv University, an MSc. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science and a BSc. in Chemistry and Biology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
