Eric has extensive experience working in the Medical Technology field, covering medical devices, tools, diagnostics and digital health for >20 years as both an investment banker and industry operator. As a banker, Eric worked at both bulge bracket and middle-market firms and completed nearly 100 transactions with >$65 billion of aggregate deal value. Eric’s transaction experience covers various M&A and financing advisory assignments for a broad range of clients from large-cap to development stage companies. Prior to his career in investment banking, Eric spent several years as an OR-based orthopedic craniomaxillofacial sales consultant where he spent thousands of hours in the OR and gained a front-line appreciation for the challenges companies face marketing products and services in the U.S. healthcare system. Eric also served in the U.S. Navy as a Submarine Officer and Navy Diver after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy as a Distinguished Graduate and winner of the Brainard Award with a BS in Weapons System Engineering. Eric also received an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Dr. Lindstrom is the founder and attending surgeon at Minnesota Eye Consultants, Adjunct Clinic Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota Department of Ophthalmology, and visiting professor at the UC Irvine Gavin Herbert Eye Institute. He is a board-certified ophthalmologist and internationally recognized leader in corneal, cataract, refractive, glaucoma and laser surgery. He has been at the forefront of ophthalmology's evolutionary changes throughout his career, as a recognized researcher, teacher, inventor, writer, lecturer and highly acclaimed physician and surgeon.
After graduating Magna Cum Laude from the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Lindstrom completed his doctorate degree in medicine in 1972. He conducted research, residency and fellowship training in cornea at the University of Minnesota and affiliated hospitals and extended his anterior segment surgery fellowship training at Mary Shiels Hospital in Dallas followed by a Heed Fellowship in Glaucoma at University Hospital in Salt Lake City, after two years of private practice in Dallas, TX. In 1980 Dr. Lindstrom returned to the University of Minnesota, where he spent ten years on the faculty of the Department of Ophthalmology, the last two as a full professor and the Harold G. Scheie Research Chair. He continues as Adjunct Clinical Professor Emeritus, Chairman of the Vision Foundation, a board director for the University of Minnesota Foundation and Associate Director of the Minnesota Lions Eye Bank. He entered private practice in 1989 and has led the growth and expansion of Minnesota Eye Consultants having served as managing partner for 15 years. He is also CO-medical director of Precision Lens and Refractec. He is Chief Medical Editor of the USA and International editions of Ocular Surgery News, which reaches 82,000 ophthalmologists worldwide.
Dr. Lindstrom served as President (2007-2008) of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery; he also served as chair for 6 years and continues on the Executive and is for the ASCRS and its Foundation. He has also served as the President of the International Society of Refractive Surgery of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, The International Intraocular Implant Club, and the International Refractive Surgery Club.
He has served for 20 years Chairman and CEO of Lindstrom Cleaning and Construction, a three-generation family business. He has endowed funds supporting the University Of Minnesota Department Of Ophthalmology, the Eye Bank Association of America, and the University of Minnesota Tennis Team.
Dr. Lindstrom has been awarded over 40 patents in ophthalmology and has developed a number of corneal preservation solutions, intraocular lenses and instruments that are used in clinical practices globally. He serves on the Board of Directors of Lindstrom Restoration, Minnesota Eye Consultants, TearLab, Ocular Therapeutix, Imprimis, Refractec, AcuFocus, Encore, ForSight#6, IICayr, Alphaeon, Aviana, PogoTec, Equinox, Precision Lens, Iantech, Visionary Ventures, and Flying L Ventures. Prior Boards of acquired companies include: Eyeonics, Advanced Vision Science, Midwest Surgical Services, Laserboyz, Citation Ventures, LVCI Vision, TLC Vision, Sightpath, Onpoint Medical Diagnostics, Vision Twenty-One, Occulogix and Wavetec. Not for profit Board service includes: The University of Minnesota Foundation, University of Minnesota Vision Foundation, InnerCityTennis, Minnesota Eye Consultants Foundation, the ASCRS Executive committee and Foundation Board, The International Society of Refractive Surgery of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
A frequent lecturer throughout the world on cornea, cataract, glaucoma, laser, and refractive surgery, he has presented over 40 named lectures and keynote speeches before professional societies in the U.S. and abroad, most recently giving the Kelman Lecture at the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Castroviejo Lecture at the Cornea Society. The Blumenthal Memorial lecture in Jerusalem, Israel, the Benedetto Strampelli Medal Lecture in Rome, Italy, and the Albrecht von Garefe-Vorlesung Innovator’s Lecture in NureNberg, Germany.
Dr. Lindstrom serves on a number of journal editorial boards, including JCRS and JRS. He is the Honorary Editor-in-Chief of the U.S./Chinese Journal of Ophthalmology. He has co-edited seven books, published over 350 peer reviewed journal articles and 60 book chapters. His professional affiliations are extensive.
He is the recipient of numerous awards for distinguished service by national and international ophthalmology associations, including the LANS, Barraquer and the first lifetime achievement award from the International Society of Refractive Surgery in October 1995 and also was honoured with A SECOND lifetime achievement award in October 2002, the Binkhorst and Kelman Lecture Award from the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, the Bausch and Lomb Lifetime Achievement Award, April 2005, and the Paton Award and NACT Award from the Eye Bank Association of America.
Dr. Lindstrom lives in Minneapolis on the shores of Lake Minnetonka with his wife Jaci and has two children and 5 grandchildren.
Dr. Rafaeli has served as Chief Executive Officer of PhootooMedex Inc (NASDAQ: PHMD) from December 2011 until May 2017. Previously, starting in 2006, he served as president and CEO of Radiancy IInc. (a private company that was merged into PhootoMedex) He has over 30 years of experience managing international operations.
Prior to joining Radiancy, Inc., Dr. Rafaeli served from 2004 to 2006 as president and CEO of the USR Group, a consumer electronics products manufacturer, managing operations in Israel, China, Hong Kong and the U.S. Between 2000 and 2004, Dr. Rafaeli founded and served as general manager of Orbotech Ltd. (ORBK-NASDAQ), an automated optical inspection capital equipment manufacturer for the electronics industry in China and Hong Kong, where he was instrumental in building these operations into a $100 million a year business. Between 1997 and 2000, Dr. Rafaeli served as CEO of USR Ltd., a global electronics contract manufacturing company providing design, supply chain and manufacturing services to dozens of clients in the communications, consumer and medical device fields. USR Ltd. employed approximately 1,000 individuals.
Dr. Rafaeli previously served as director of operations and manager of the Arad manufacturing facility for Motorola in its Land Mobile Product Solutions division, manufacturing and distributing communications, consumer and other infrastructure electronics products in excess of $400 million annually. He received honors as the 2013 Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ ranked #131 with 925% revenue growth, the 2014 Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ ranked #90 with 1301% revenue growth, the 2018 Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ ranked #38 with 3338% revenue growth, Investment Deal of the Year, award winner for the SmartCEO Magazine, finalist for the Ernst & Young 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year.
He has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, both domestically and internationally, and particularly involving public company acquisitions, including Photomedex Inc. (formerly, Nasdaq:PHMD), LCA Vision, Inc. (formerly, Nasdaq: LCAV). Currently he serves as the president and CEO and a member of the board of directors of Strata Skin Sciences (Nasdaq:SSKN), and has previously served on the boards of FC Global Realty (NASDAQ:FCRE) and Gadsden Properties Inc. (NASDAQ:GADS).
Dr. Rafaeli graduated with a B.Sc. in industrial engineering and management cum laude and a M.Sc. in operations management from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and holds a Ph.D. in business management from Century University and an MBA (with distinction) from Cornell University.
Ophthalmologist; Co-Founder and CEO of Notal Vision, Co-Founder of Vision6, Pres-by, Azura Ophthalmics, Cameraeyes, and Venture Partner at Accuitive Medical Ventures
Dr. Uri Geiger has served as Managing Partner of Accelmed, a private equity investment firm he co-founded in 2009 focused on medical device companies. Prior to founding Accelmed, Dr. Geiger served as the CEO of Exalenz Bioscience Ltd., a medical technology company, from May 2006 until December 2008. Prior to that, Dr. Geiger co-founded and was the CEO of GalayOr Networks, a developer of optical components from 2001 until 2003. Dr. Geiger was also the founding partner of Dragon Variation Fund in 2000, one of Israel's first hedge funds, which was sold to Migdal in 2007.
Dr. Geiger worked on Wall Street during the 1990s, where he gained a broad understanding of and significant experience in capital markets. Dr. Geiger was formerly an adjunct professor at Tel Aviv University's Recanati School of Business where he lectured on private equity and venture capital and authored the books "Startup Companies and Venture Capital" and "From Concept to Wall Street."
He earned his doctorate from New York’s Columbia University Center for Law & Economics, where he majored in global equity markets. Dr. Geiger previously served on the board of directors of EndoChoice Holdings Inc. from January 2014 until March 2016.
Uri Geiger brings extensive entrepreneurial, management and investment know-how having created and built many successful medical device enterprises.
David Carter is a Partner and member of CRG’s Investment Committee. CRG is a healthcare investment firm that manages over $4 billion of institutional capital. Mr. Carter joined CRG in 2003 and has more than 30 years of investment and advisory experience. In addition to focusing on sourcing, execution and monitoring existing CRG investments he is also responsible for staffing CRG deal teams. Prior to joining CRG, Mr. Carter was a Partner at Palestra Capital, a hedge fund focused on risk arbitrage and special situations. Before joining Palestra, Mr. Carter was a high yield analyst at Furman Selz LLC (ING Barings), where he was responsible for coverage of healthcare-related high yield debt. Previously, Mr. Carter was an investment banking analyst in the Healthcare Group at Chemical Bank and a research assistant in the mergers and acquisitions group of Morgan Stanley. Over the course of his career, he has closed in excess of $6 billion of financing activity. Mr. Carter received a Bachelor of Science in finance from Pennsylvania State University in 1988. He received a Master of Arts degree in information science and systems in 1994 and an M.B.A. in 1996, both from Columbia University.
James V. (Jim) Mazzo is Executive Chairman of Neurotech, a retinal implant company; and Chief Executive Officer and president for Avellino Labs, a biotechnology and genetic science company. He is also an Advisor for Zeiss and an Advisor for Bain Consulting.
Mazzo is one of the ophthalmic industry’s best known and most respected business leaders with more than 40 years of proven experience. His global reputation for building and running world-class organizations is based on 22 years of leading Allergan’s North American and European eye care organizations; seven years as Chairman, President and CEO of Advanced Medical Optics (AMO); four years as EVP of Abbott’s global ophthalmology business; three years as Executive Chair and CEO of AcuFocus; and four years as Global President of Ophthalmic Devices for Carl Zeiss Meditec.
Additionally, he is the Founder and Chairman of OCTANe, a member of the International Intraocular Implant Club (lllC) and Executive Committee Board Member with the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA).
Mazzo is on the ASCRS Governing Board, the AAO Foundation Advisory Board, the AGS Foundation Advisory Board, a Chair Member of the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, a Consultant of Anivive Lifesciences, sits on the Board of Visus Therapeutics, Refocus Group, Centricity Vision, LensGen, Iantrek, and Preceyes, serves on NASA’s Mission to Mars Committee, is an Officer in the Order of St. John, and is also a Board Member of the Anaheim Ducks Foundation.
His accomplishments and contributions to the healthcare industry and business and educational communities include serving as Board Chairman for AdvaMed; serving on the University of California at Irvine foundation; the Vice Chair Trustee, Chapman University; and years of dedicated experience with the medical device industry including cardiology, orthopedics as well as ophthalmology. Jim has also been recognized as a Top 100 Innovator in Ophthalmology multiple times and in 2021 received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
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