Compare
Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs)

Functional
Generations 4 & 5

- Over 440 implants worldwide of the MicroMed VAD account for more than 130 patient years of life
- CE approved Pediatric VAD · CE approved Adult VAD

About MicroMed Cardiovascular, Inc.

Clifford zur Nieden
Director

Clifford zur Nieden has been a director of the Company since July 2006. Mr. zur Nieden is a managing partner of Ceres Capital Inc. He is a board member of Dunstone Financial (United States), a provider of professional debt collection solutions established in 1999, and is a co-founder and has been a board member of Inaxio, an information technology services company in Switzerland and Romania, since 2004. Mr. zur Nieden was the logistics director of Carlsberg Switzerland, responsible for its restructuring and reorganization, from 2002 to 2003. From 2000 to 2001, he also worked as CEO for CoCap Offerings Inc., a private equity trading platform that was merged with a security broker in Switzerland. Before that, he spent five years with Siemens AG in Germany and the United States to setup the GSM mobile network for the U.S. markets and with Nestlé in Singapore as an engineer. Mr. zur Nieden holds a M.S. in engineering from ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology).

Norwick B.H. Goodspeed
Director

Norwick B.H. Goodspeed has served as a director of MicroMed Cardiovascular, Inc. since March 2003. Mr. Goodspeed is President and Chief Executive Officer of FlowCardia, Inc., where he has served since March 2004. From May 2000 to January 2004, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of TransVascular, Inc., an interventional cardiology company acquired by Medtronic, Inc. in September 2003. From June 1997 to May 2000, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Ocular Sciences, a publicly traded contact lens manufacturer. Previously, Mr. Goodspeed served as President of McGaw Inc. (a manufacturer of I.V. Solutions and a subsidiary of Ivax) and President and Chief Executive Officer of Vical, Inc. (a gene therapy company). Earlier in his career, Mr. Goodspeed held executive positions with BOC Healthcare and Baxter. He holds an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University and a B.A. from Yale University.

Rodger G. Ford
Director

Rodger Ford joined the board of directors for MicroMed Cardiovascular in July 2008. Since August 2005, Mr. Ford has been the CEO and president of SynCardia Systems, Inc. and a director of SynCardia since May 2004. SynCardia manufactures the CardioWest™ temporary Total Artificial Heart and is currently developing a family of pulsatile ventricular assist devices.

Mr. Ford brings more than 35 years of entrepreneurial accomplishments and leadership to the MicroMed board of directors, having founded AlphaGraphics Print Shops of the Future in the 1970s.Under Mr. Ford’s leadership, AlphaGraphics grew to more than 400 locations worldwide, with operations in Canada, South America, Australia, Europe and the Middle East. He also formed Anthem Equity Group, Inc. in 1991. Anthem Equity Group is a significant owner and operator of commercial real estate in Southern Arizona. Mr. Ford has served on boards of numerous public and private organizations and was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000. Mr. Ford holds a B.S. degree in accounting from Brigham Young University and an M.B.A. from the University of Arizona.

J. David Mackstaller
Director

J. David Mackstaller joined the board of directors for MicroMed Cardiovascular in July 2008. Since March 2005, Mr. Mackstaller has been the Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Corporate Development for SynCardia Systems, Inc., and a member of SynCardia’s board of directors since September 2005. SynCardia manufactures the CardioWest™ temporary Total Artificial Heart and is currently developing a family of pulsatile ventricular assist devices.

Mr. Mackstaller brings a lifetime of business experience to the board of directors for MicroMed. In 1973, he co-founded the Schomac Group of companies, a developer and operator of real estate projects from coast to coast having a cumulative value of more than $300 million. In 1991, Mr. Mackstaller joined Mr. Ford to form Anthem Equity Group, Inc., a significant owner and operator of commercial real estate in Southern Arizona. Mr. Mackstaller was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000. Mr. Mackstaller holds a B.A. degree in economics from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School.

Bill Birdsall
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

Bill Birdsall joined MicroMed in October 2008 as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman. Mr. Birdsall is an attorney with a successful career of starting and building businesses. In the 1970’s he played a significant role in the establishment of Ticketmaster, Inc., where he was founding Executive Vice President and built the company into a world leader in the entertainment industry. Mr. Birdsall has also been a pioneer in the public real estate markets. He was Chairman of the Board of Host Funding, Inc., a public real estate investment company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange and Chairman of the Board and CEO of The Price REIT, a New York Stock Exchange company he co-founded in 1991 with retailer Sol Price. He is also a founding director and major shareholder of Sub-Crypto systems, a software firm providing digital security systems to military and corporate clients. He has served as legal counsel to the Interior Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives and to the Joint House and Senate Oversight Committee for the Office of Technology Assessment, as well as Assistant Attorney General for the State of Arizona. Mr. Birdsall is a graduate of the University of Arizona Law School and a member of the Arizona and Colorado Bar Associations.

Robert J. Benkowski
Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Robert J. Benkowski joined MicroMed Technology in August 1996 as its Director of Engineering and became its Vice President of Engineering  in April 2000. In January 2005, Mr. Benkowski became Senior Vice President of Engineering and Operations. Mr. Benkowski’s background is in aerospace with an expertise in Computer Aided Design, Manufacturing and Engineering (CAD/CAM/CAE). He worked on the engineering of the B-1 and C-17 military aircraft as well as the International Space Station. He began working on the DeBakey VAD® project in 1990, first while working at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, then at Baylor College of Medicine as a member of Dr. DeBakey's team. He is a co-inventor of the original NASA technology, our continuation-in-part patent, a pulsatile loop patent, a VAD controller patent, several suction detection and physiologic algorithm patents. He has received numerous awards for his work in this area including being inducted into The Space Foundation’s “Space Technology Hall of Fame,” receipt of the Sezai Innovative Research Award, Olsen-Medforte Clinical Award, and the NASA Commercial Invention of the Year award.

Bryan E. Lynch
Director, Operations

Bryan Lynch joined MicroMed in July 1997 as Director of Operations and he became Vice President of Operations in May 2001 and then Vice President of International Sales and Marketing in January of 2005.  Previously, he served as director of marketing and product development with Komet Medical, Inc., a German manufacturer and distributor of surgical instruments and hard tissue cutting systems. From 1990 to 1994, Mr. Lynch served as manager of engineering, research and development for Surgimedics, Inc., a Texas-based medical device company, developing products for minimally invasive surgery, laser surgery and autologous blood transfusion.  Mr. Lynch is co-inventor of several patents including pulsatile loop and implantable pump patents at MicroMed.  Mr. Lynch holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University and an M.B.A. from Texas Christian University.  

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