Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Aklog co-founded and has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of our parent company, PAVmed Inc. (Nasdaq: PAVM), since its inception in June 2014, and as Executive Chairman of its two other majority-owned subsidiaries, Solys Diagnostics Inc. and Veris Health Inc., since their inceptions in October 2019 and May 2021, respectively. He also has served as a co-founding Partner of both Pavilion Holdings Group (PHG), a medical device holding company, since its inception in 2007 and Pavilion Medical Innovations, a venture-backed medical device incubator, since its inception in 2009. He has served on the Board of Directors and the Audit Committee of Contrafect Inc. (Nasdaq: CFRX) since June 2020, and on the Board of Directors of the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), the world’s leading medical technology trade association since February 2021. He previously served on the Board of Directors and as Chair of the Audit Committee of Viveon Health Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: VHAQ) from September 2020 to April 2021, and as Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of Vortex Medical Inc., a PHG portfolio company, from its inception in 2008 until it was acquired by AngioDynamics Inc. (Nasdaq: ANGO) in October 2012. Dr. Aklog has served as a consultant to numerous medical technology companies including Biomet Inc., now Zimmer Biomet (NYSE: ZBH), from 2009 to 2017, AngioDynamics, from 2012 to 2016, Edward Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW), from 2007 to 2012, On-X Life Technologies Inc., now CryoLife Inc. (NYSE: CRY), from 2009 to 2012 and Atricure Inc. (Nasdaq: ATRC) from 2007 to 2016. He also previously served on the Scientific Advisory Boards of numerous leading medical device companies, including Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT), St. Jude Medical Inc., now Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), Guidant Cardiac Surgery, now, Getinge AB, and Cardiovations, then, a division of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ). Dr. Aklog is an inventor on 35 issued patents and dozens of patent applications, including the patents of Vortex Medical’s AngioVac system and the majority of the PAVmed’s products. His patents have been honored by the Boston Museum of Science and the Boston Patent Lawyers Association. Prior to transitioning to a full-time career as an entrepreneur and executive in the life sciences industry in 2012, Dr. Aklog had a distinguished academic and clinical career as a technological innovator in cardiac surgery serving as Associate Professor of Surgery, Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery and Chair of The Cardiovascular Center at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center’s Heart and Lung Institute in Phoenix, Arizona from 2006 to 2012, Assistant Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Associate Chief of Cardiac Surgery, Director of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery, Surgical Director of the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit, and Associate Director of the Thoracic Surgery Residency Program at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, from 2006 to 2012, and Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Cardiac Surgery Research Laboratory and an attending cardiac surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston from 1999 to 2002. Dr. Aklog received his clinical training in general and cardiothoracic surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital, during which he spent two years as the Medtronic Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School’s Cardiac Surgery Research Laboratory. He was awarded the American Association of Thoracic Surgery Traveling Fellowship pursuant to which he received advanced training in heart valve surgery under renowned cardiac surgeons Sir Magdi Yacoub at Harefield Hospital in London and Professor Alain Carpentier at L’Hopital Broussais in Paris. Dr. Aklog is a co-author on 38 peer-reviewed articles and 10 book chapters and has served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery since 2006. He is a member of numerous professional societies and was elected to the American Association of Thoracic Surgery in 2011. He served on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery from 2006 to 2009 and as President of the 21st Century Cardiothoracic Surgery Society in 2011. Dr. Aklog was recognized as one the Top Healthcare Technology CEOs of 2021 by Healthcare Technology Report and as one of America’s Top Doctors in the Castle Connolly Guide from 2002 to 2013. He serves as Chairman of the Board of Boston ECG Project Charitable Foundation, and on the International Board of Directors and New York Executive Committee of Human Rights Watch. Dr. Aklog received his A.B. degree, magna cum laude, in Physics from Harvard University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and his M.D. degree, cum laude with a dissertation in the field of molecular genetics, from Harvard Medical School.
Chief Financial Officer
Dennis M. McGrath has served as our Chief Financial Officer since our inception. Mr. McGrath also has served as President of our parent company, PAVmed Inc. (Nasdaq: PAVM), since March 2019 (having served as Executive Vice President from March 2017 to March 2019), as PAVmed’s Chief Financial Officer since March 2017, and as a member of the Board of Directors of one of its other majority-owned subsidiaries, Veris Health Inc., since its inception in May 2021. Previously, from 2000 to 2017 Mr. McGrath served in several senior level positions of PhotoMedex, Inc. (then Nasdaq: PHMD, now Nasdaq: FCRE), a global manufacturer and distributor of medical device equipment and services, including from 2011 to 2017 as director, President, and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to PhotoMedex’s reverse merger with Radiancy, Inc in December 2011, he also served as Chief Executive Officer from 2009 to 2011 and served as Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer from 2000 to 2009. He received honors as a P.A.C.T. (Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technology) finalist for the 2011 Investment Deal of the Year, award winner for the SmartCEO Magazine 2012 CEO of the Year for Turnaround Company, and 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 Surgical Laser Technologies, Inc, (formerly, Nasdaq: SLTI), ProCyte Corporation (formerly, Nasdaq: PRCY), LCA Vision, Inc. (formerly, Nasdaq: LCAV) and Think New Ideas, Inc. (formerly, Nasdaq: THNK). Prior to PhotoMedex, he served in several senior level positions of AnswerThink Consulting Group, Inc. (then, Nasdaq: ANSR, now, The Hackett Group, Nasdaq: HCKT), a business consulting and technology integration company, including from 1999 to 2000 as Chief Operating Officer of the Internet Practice, the largest division of AnswerThink Consulting Group, Inc., while concurrently during the merger of the companies, serving as the acting Chief Financial Officer of Think New Ideas, Inc. (then, Nasdaq: THNK, now, Nasdaq: HCKT), an interactive marketing services and business solutions company. Mr. McGrath also served from 1996 until 1999 as Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President, and director of TriSpan, Inc., an internet commerce solutions and technology consulting company, which was acquired by AnswerThink Consulting Group, Inc. in 1999. During his tenure at Arthur Andersen & Co., where he began his career, he became a Certified Public Accountant in 1981 and he holds a B.S., maxima cum laude, in accounting from LaSalle University. In addition to continuing as a director of PhotoMedex (now Gadsden Properties, Inc., Nasdaq: GADS), he serves as the audit chair, compensation chair, and a director of several medical device companies, including DarioHealth Corp. (Nasdaq: DRIO), Cagent Vascular, LLC and BioVector, Inc. Formerly from 2007 to 2009, Mr. McGrath served as a director of Embrella Cardiovascular, Inc. (sold to Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, NYSE: EW). He also serves on the Board of Visitors for Taylor University and as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Manor College.
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Verma most recently served as VP, Research & Development at Irvine, CA-based Bridge Diagnostics, a National Molecular Laboratory focused on infectious disease and women’s health. Prior to that, over the previous decade, she served in various research scientist and senior executive roles at Irvine, CA-based ResearchDx, Inc. a leading contract diagnostics organization (CDO) for the biopharmaceutical and diagnostic industries and long-time CLIA laboratory partner of Lucid Diagnostics. As VP, Genomic Services she led the development and implementation of numerous molecular diagnostic assays using the full spectrum of cutting edge molecular biologic techniques and technologies. Dr. Verma earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California Irvine, during which she performed and published on important research in breast cancer biology and targets for therapeutic intervention in breast cancer. Prior to immigrating to the U.S., Dr. Verma earned her medical degree at Maharishi Dayanand University in Rohtak, India, completed her internal medicine training at Civil hospital, Ballabgarh, India, and served as a staff physician active in clinical research in Faridabad, India.
Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President
Mr. O’Neil has been serving as the Company’s Chief Commercial Officer since July 2018. Mr. O’Neil has also served as the Chief Operating Officer of PAVmed Inc. (NASD: PAVM) (“PAVmed”), which owns a majority of the outstanding capital stock of the Company, since February 2022, and as Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Vice President of Business Development of PAVmed since July 2018. Previously, from June 2011 to July 2018, Mr. O’Neil served in various roles of increasing responsibility for AngioDynamics (NASD: ANGO), first as Product Manager, then as Senior Product Manager and finally as Regional Business Manager. Before joining AngioDynamics, from October 2005 to June 2011, Mr. O’Neil served as a Product Manager and Sales and Service Engineer for Aycan Medical Systems. Mr. O’Neil earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Alfred University in 2004 and his master’s degree in business administration from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2011.