Management Team

Jim Buck, President, CEO & Director, leveraging 30 years of experience successfully developing and commercializing innovative medical technologies. While holding a Board Director position at Medcura since 2018, Jim also served as the President and CEO of cancer imaging innovator ClearCut Medical. Prior to ClearCut, Jim was President and CEO of American Heart Association award-winning heart valve therapy developer, Mardil Medical. One particularly relevant experience Jim brings to Medcura is from Closure Medical, where he was VP of Marketing & Business Development at one of the biosurgical industry’s most successful new technology companies. There, Jim directed the product-mapping strategy and execution for a novel surgical sealant and adhesive technology that was acquired by global healthcare leader, Johnson & Johnson, for more than $370 million. He also served in multiple management and executive roles at cardiac medical device leader St. Jude Medical, Inc., for more than a decade after earning a master’s degree in business from Northwestern University, and an undergraduate degree from Indiana University.

Larry Tiffany Executive Chairman and Director. Larry is a serial entrepreneur having led Medcura from early prototypes to successful commercialization after founding and selling the neuro-molecular testing company DioGenix. While at the helm of DioGenix, Larry raised venture capital while garnering ~$2M from the National MS Society and other philanthropists to support the clinical development and prospective validation of the first new diagnostic for Multiple Sclerosis since the late 50’s. Prior to DioGenix, Larry held positions in Sr. Management at Ore Pharmaceuticals (CBO), Gene Logic (SVP & GM, Genomics) and Genetraks (US President). He holds a JD from Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire (specializing in intellectual property and commercial law); a MS in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland; and a BS in Biochemistry from Nazareth College in Rochester, New York.

Matthew Dowling, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Director. Matt completed his graduate work at the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland (UMD), after completing his undergrad in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame. At UMD, he was awarded the Fischell Fellowship in Biomedical Engineering for his innovative ideas in drug delivery systems. Matt then co-created gel-e, a novel biomaterial platform, raising several initial grants to develop the technology and to launch Medcura as a corporate entity. Matt was the recipient of the Dean’s Doctoral Research Award from the UMD Clark School of Engineering for his work on chitosan-based self-assembled soft materials for use in wound treatment. He has been the Principal Investigator on $6.0 million in non-dilutive grant awards to Medcura; these have been used to achieve 5 FDA clearances, 8 issued patents, and 10+ peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals. Matt’s work has been featured on several US and international media outlets including the BBC TV program, Brave New World with Stephen Hawking.

Dr. Barry is both an accomplished scientist and product developer, with over 20 years experience leading global development teams in large, mid-sized and start-up companies. He was most recently Vice President of Research & Development at Miromatrix Medical, where he took an innovative cell therapy treatment for acute liver failure to IND submission. Prior to this he served as VP R&D at Emergent Biosolutions where he built an international R&D team and pipeline around products for emergency use. Prior to this Dr. Barry worked for Baxter International, rising from benchtop scientist to leading R&D for its Biosurgery (now Advanced Surgery) Business Unit. In this role, he launched many products for hemostatic control in addition to products for soft & hard tissue repair. Dr. Barry received his PhD from the University of Nottingham (U.K.) for bone and cartilage repair. He has published over 50 abstracts & journal articles, has received recognition as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistryand has served as adjunct faculty at Loyola University School of Medicine Chicago. He has served as a principal investigator on grants, awards, and contracts from leading government agencies and non-profit organizations, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

Steve Ford, Senior VP, Marketing and Business Development at Medcura. Steve has worked for 25 years in the field of medical devices, in the areas of sales management, product management, product development, business development and research & development at companies such as Baxter, CR Bard, Ethicon, Allergan and Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. Throughout Steve’s career, he has lead and participated on over 75 product development teams and has launched over 50 medical devices globally. Steve is an innovative problem solver and has many patents in the areas of hemostasis, sealing and tissue reconstruction. Most recently, Steve was the U.S. Vice President of Marketing for Biom’up where he was a co-lead on the high profile successful launch of their surgical hemostat HEMOBLAST Bellows. Steve holds a B.S. in Marketing from California State University.

Rachel Hoffman, Senior Vice President Clinical and Regulatory Affairs, is a global leader in hemostats, having worked on over three dozen hemostats, sealants, and adhesives at different stages in development. Prior to joining Medcura, Rachel was the Global Head of the Medical Device & Diagnostics business segment at Syneos Health. During her tenure there, she grew the medical device offering from clinical operations to the full spectrum of development, including scientific consulting and regulatory. Rachel was also the Vice President of Clinical Operations for Biom’up and took HEMOBLAST Bellows from the lab through to commercialization. She has also held clinical operations and leadership positions at NAMSA and Artivion (formerly CryoLife). Rachel specializes in translational research and regulatory strategy for medical devices and holds a degree in biomedical engineering from Duke University.

Kenneth Renkens, M.D. is a thought-leading neurosurgeon who co-founded the Indiana Spine Group and has been involved in the development and commercial success of numerous innovative biosurgical products now widely used in operating rooms around the world. Ken’s practice specialized in treating a variety of complex spine and spinal cord disorders encompassing the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine. Surgical treatments included outpatient procedures as well as inpatient spinal cord decompressions and/or spinal instrumented fusions. Ken received his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine (Boston, MA). After an internship in General Surgery at Boston University Hospital, he completed a residency in Neurosurgery at Tufts-New England Medical Center (Boston, MA). He then went on to receive additional training in Paris, France with Dr. Jean Dubousset, a pioneer in modern spinal instrumentation. Ken is Board Certified in Neurological Surgery by the American Board of Neurological Surgery, a Diplomat of the American Board of Neurological Surgery, and until his recent retirement a Clinical Instructor for Orthopaedic Surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Ken is also a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, North American Spine Society, the Indiana State Medical Association, and the Massachusetts Medical Society, and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

Colleen Nye, Vice President of Product Development. Colleen has over 30 years of experience in various engineering, development, and manufacturing leadership roles in the life sciences, semi-conductor, and industrial industries. Her experience includes oversight of company operations, management of design of specialty chemical, pharmaceutical/biopharmaceutical facilities and process areas, strategic planning, business development, and start-up of a biotechnology company. Previously, Colleen was the Vice President of Operations for Centrexion Therapeutics and was a co-founder of Syan Biosciences. Colleen has a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rochester and an MBA from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Felix Vega, VMD, is currently the Principal at Preclinical Consultation. He consults on the full spectrum of preclinical evaluation, with an emphasis on in-vivo studies for medical devices. Félix has been working in the preclinical evaluation of medical devices, for almost 30 years. He has extensive experience in hemostatic devices, ranging from start-up companies through multinational corporations.

Natasha Johnson, Vice President of Quality Assurance. Natasha is responsible for the development, management, implementation, and sustainability of all quality assurance and improvement activities, compliance procedures, and safety and risk management programs. Natasha has created a vision to deeply embed robust quality assurance practices into the development life cycle enabling Medcura to reduce cost, time, and effort on testing year-on-year, which also includes oversight of the Company’s supply chain.

Rich Vincent, Chief Financial Officer. Rich previously held senior management positions at Meritage Pharma, Sorrento Therapeutics, Elevation Pharmaceuticals, Verus Pharmaceuticals, Women First HealthCare, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Phase Metrics, and Deloitte & Touche LLP, where he specialized in emerging growth and publicly-traded companies. Over the past 20+ years, Rich’s experience includes raising over 50 million through venture capital, major commercial banks and institutions, public offering proceeds for high growth pharmaceutical and technology-based companies, and participating in a number of acquisitions and divestitures valued at over billion. Rich was named 2014 public company CFO of the Year in San Diego by the San Diego Business Journal.

Dr. Jaeho Lee is a chemical engineer with diverse experiences in research and development projects, spanning from academia, industry and the US government. Jaeho earned his PhD from the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Maryland, where he pioneered the development of hydrophobically modified biopolymers for drug delivery and smart material applications. Prior to joining Medcura, he served as a Staff Scientist at the National Institutes of Health, publishing more than 20 papers in high-impact journals during his tenure, and receiving several patents on novel drug delivery systems. Before his graduate studies in the US, Jaeho received his BS and MS in Chemical Engineering from Seoul National University (Korea) and worked as a product development engineer at the multi-national corporation LG.

Bradon Wallace is the Manufacturing Manager at Medcura. Brandon successfully led the design, development and scaling of Medcura's manufacturing capabilities for their first commercial medical device under cGMP and ISO 13485. By leveraging years of experience and deep foundational knowledge regarding Medcura's biomaterial platform, he implemented an efficient and robust cGMP process for the Company's biosurgical program in the midst of a global supply chain crisis. Brandon joined Medcura after earning his BS in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Maryland, where he specialized in targeted and controlled release drug delivery systems, as well as polymer synthesis for advanced medical devices.

Kristine Greer, Operations Manager and Senior Accountant. Kristine is responsible for the day-to-day operations including purchasing, inventory control, and data management as well as directing the financial affairs to support the CFO. Kristine has over 20 years of operational experience in small and large retail operations with extensive knowledge of inventory and process management. Kristine has a B.S. degree in Business Management.

Dave Clark, Head of Strategic Partnerships. Dave has extensive surgical device commercial experience which includes 25 years in the surgical device industry with leading companies including Medtronic and Baxter Healthcare. Most recently, Dave was the U.S. Executive Vice President of Sales for Biom’up where he was a co-lead with Steve Ford in the high profile successful launch of their surgical hemostat HEMOBLAST. As part of the launch, he built and led the U.S. Sales Team which included over 250 in-direct sales representatives. During his 15 years with Baxter, the BioSurgery Division grew from a small revenue business into a major market player in the advanced hemostasis space with products such as FloSeal and Tisseel. Dave has a B.A. in Economics from Rutgers University.

Bruce Choi, Head of Manufacturing. Bruce is a medical device professional with over 19 years of global experience in Quality, Research and Development, Operations, and Supply Chain at large multi-national and privately held start-up companies. Bruce is the Founder & CEO of Integral, a company that focuses on building Quality and Operational infrastructure for new medical device ventures. Previously, Bruce was the Director of Medtronic’s endoVenous Global Operations where he was responsible for the end-to-end values stream of products accounting for over 100 million in revenue. Bruce has a B.S. degree in Material Science & Engineering from Cornell University and a M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Cal Poly.

Senior Consumer Products Advisor. Ed Quilty is an accomplished senior business executive who has consistently led, built and transformed organizations. Ed has been CEO of four publicly-listed companies and is currently a Board Member and senior advisor to selected healthcare companies. Ed most recently served as the Chairman & CEO of Derma Sciences Inc., a leader in tissue regeneration and advanced wound care. Under Ed’s direction and leadership the company grew from under $5 million in sales with less than 10 employees to become a leader in its industry with revenues of just under $100 million and over 250 employees. During his career, Ed managed numerous M&A transactions and financings with a total value of over $2 billion. Ed served as Chairman of the Board of Palatin Technologies, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company specializing in peptide drug design, was President/CEO of MedChem Products, Inc., a leader in specialty medical products (acquired by C. R. Bard). He served as CEO of Life Medical Sciences, that was purchased by MedChem Products, Inc. where Ed became CEO of the combined company.

Don McCaughey is a seasoned leader and special operations veteran, having served as both US Army Special Forces Medic and thereafter as a paramilitary operator with CIA. During his career, Don had significant experience in conflict regions around the world and routinely encountered and managed combat trauma in the field. Don received a B.S. from Texas A&M, a B.A summa cum laude from ASU and an M.P.A. from Harvard with a concentration in management, leadership, and development.

Neil Winterbottom, Ph.D, Dr. Winterbottom has led medical device, diagnostic and combination product R&D teams from concept to commercialization for more than 20 years, including more than 10 years launching new ventures. Until recently, as Principal Consultant at Bimesa Consulting, Dr. Winterbottom provided technical and strategic support for several high impact medical and biotechnology industry development projects. His career includes critical development and leadership roles at companies spanning from startups to multinationals including Metra Biosystems, Fusion Medical Technologies, Baxter Healthcare, Tenaxis Medical, Nerites, Kensey-Nash and DSM. This work has been particularly focused on medical devices and delivery systems involving biomaterials (e.g. FloSeal hemostat, PreveLeak vascular sealant). Neil holds a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Manchester Polytechnic in the UK and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Alberta, Canada.