We are medtech industry veterans with deep experience that includes pioneering the retained sponge prevention category. Collectively we have brought to market and successfully grown the adoption of numerous medical device products, including the two market-leading retained sponge solutions available today. We are investors and operators that have successfully funded, built and exited from companies including the original companies that first introduced these retained sponge solutions to the market. We are passionate about innovating products that meet the needs of our customers and they are excited to adopt.
Leadership
Brian Stewart
Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Director
Brian Stewart is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tally Surgical, Inc. Prior to founding Tally, Brian was the Managing Member of Innovo Ventures, a healthcare focused investment firm. Previously, Mr. Stewart was the General Manager of Patient Safety at Stryker where he was responsible for the integration of Stryker’s acquisition of Patient Safety Technologies (OTC:PSTX) and the overall operations of that business including the SurgiCount Safety-Sponge™ System retained sponge prevention solution. Prior to Stryker, Brian was the Chief Executive Officer of Patient Safety Technologies where he drove the growth of SurgiCount and the ultimate exit of that company to Stryker. After being appointed as CEO of Patient Safety Technologies, Mr. Stewart led a successful restructuring of the company’s board of directors and management team and drove an operational turnaround which resulted in considerable growth in market penetration, reported revenues, profitability and significant shareholder value creation. During his tenure as CEO, Patient Safety Technologies achieved 850%+ growth in its customer base, successfully expanded into 6 of the top 10 U.S. News and World Report Best Hospitals Honor Roll recipients and added numerous IDN wide adoptions including the largest hospital system in the U.S. Mr. Stewart was the co-founder and CEO of SurgiCount Medical and co-inventor of the marketing leading surgical sponge counting technology, the SurgiCount Safety-Sponge™ System. Additionally, Brian has over 10 years of investment and investment banking experience at Credit Suisse, CIBC and Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette.
David Dreyer
Director
David Dreyer brings almost 30 years of accounting, financial, compliance and operating experience and expertise in the pharmaceutical, healthcare staffing, medical device, diagnostic and hospital administration industries. David’s experience includes serving as Chief Financial Officer of four public companies, Biolase, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOL) from 2015 to 2017, Patient Safety Technologies, Inc. (OTC:PSTX) from 2010 to 2014, AMN Healthcare Services (NYSE:AHS) from 2004 to 2009 and Sicor, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCRI) from 2002 to 2004. David has been a Certified Public Accountant in California since 1986. He currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of Prolacta Biosciences. David served as a director of Diplomat Pharmacy Inc. (NYSE:DPLO) from November 2014 to January 2020, and a director of InfuSystems Inc. (NYSE:INFU) from April 2008 through to August 2018.
John P. Francis
Director
John P. Francis is Managing Member of Francis Capital Management, LLC, an investment management firm specializing in select private companies and small capitalization stocks across a number of select industries including medical device. Mr. Francis has over 25 years of experience in investment management, finance and accounting. John is a CFA as well as a CPA (inactive). Prior to starting Francis Capital, Mr. Francis was an analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and a portfolio manager at Strome Investment Management. John was an investor in and served as a director of Patient Safety Technologies, Inc. (OTC:PSTX).
Steve Inacker
Director
Steve Inacker is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Avante Health Solutions (previously Jordan Health Products) where is he responsible for its seven operating companies. Prior to joining Avante, Steve was with Cardinal Health for 25 years in progressing roles in sales, operations and general manager positions. During the last six years of his tenure he served as President of the $8.5B Hospital Sales and Service division of Cardinal Health’s Medical Segment. He also served on Cardinal Health’s Operating Committee. During his time as President of Cardinal Health’s Hospital Sales and Service division Steve was responsible for Cardinal Health’s entrance into the retained sponge prevention category through its marketing and distribution relationship with SurgiCount Medical and Patient Safety Technologies.
Stavros Vizirgianakis
Director
Stavros G. Vizirgianakis is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Misonix (Nasdaq: MSON). Mr. Vizirgianakis has a distinguished career in the medical devices field having worked for United States Surgical Corporation as director of sales for sub-Saharan Africa and later Tyco Healthcare in the capacity of General Manager South Africa. In 2006, Mr. Vizirgianakis co-founded Surgical Innovations, which has become one of the largest privately owned medical device distributors in the African region, and now part of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed entity Ascendis Health. Mr. Vizirgianakis was Managing Director of Ascendis Medical from January 2014 through July 2016. Mr. Vizirgianakis also served on the board of Tenaxis Medical and is a strategic investor in and advisor to numerous medical device startups and established companies in this field.
Advisory Board
John Barnhill
Advisor
John M. Barnhill brings 17+ years of success addressing unmet needs in the medical device space by leading companies, developing markets, and commercializing products. As a strategic leader and creative marketer, Mr. Barnhill has a history of steering start-ups from early stage through exit and scaling high-growth MedTech companies to reach full market potential. His MedTech expertise includes advanced-energy surgical and robotics, oncology, cardiology, critical care, medical simulation/training, and patient safety products. Mr. Barnhill currently holds the position of President of United Biologics, Inc. an industry leading producer of silicone vasculature simulation and training products. John previously held the position of VP, Global Marketing and Business Development at RF Surgical, a retained surgical sponge prevention company ultimately acquired by Medtronic. During his tenure at RF Surgical, the company nearly tripled revenues and hospital adoptions over three years.
Kari Cashmore
Advisor
Kari Cashmore is currently the Director of Marketing for Leiters, an FDA-registered 503B outsourcing provider of compounded sterile preparations and pharmacy services. Prior to joining Leiters, Kari spent over 19 years at Cardinal Health in a variety of progressing roles including sales operations, upstream and downstream marketing, business development and specialty sales management. In her most recent role at Cardinal, Kari was responsible for the development, implementation and management of key sales operations initiatives and both upstream and downstream marketing activities for Cardinal Health’s $1B procedure kitting business. Throughout her time at Cardinal, Kari led many patient safety initiatives including Cardinal Health’s strategic partnership with SurgiCount Medical. In this strategic leadership role she was responsible for the co-sales and marketing initiatives, key account management, sales support, implementation planning, as well as customer service and distributor transactions.
Dr. William Stewart
Advisor
Dr. Stewart was the co-founder of SurgiCount Medical and the co-inventor of the SurgiCount Safety-Sponge™ System. Dr. Stewart previously practiced medicine for more than 30 years as a surgeon and has held various senior administrative positions at the facilities at which he practiced including Chief Medical Officer, Chief of Surgery and Chief of Staff. He acted as an advisor to Patient Safety Technologies and helped drive the continued innovation of that company’s surgical products. He holds multiple foreign and domestic medical device patents.