Eric Lang

Vice President, Operations

Eric is an accomplished medical device operations leader with over 20 years of experience working with Class II and Class III technologies. He has led operations, quality, and engineering activities from early concept through post market for a range of innovations including drug/device combination products, complex catheter delivery systems, electronics and software systems manufacturing. Eric joins Akura from Avive Solutions, Inc. where he was Vice President of Operations and Quality. In this role, he was responsible for manufacturing and quality management system implementation and maintenance, strategic planning, and operational compliance in preparation for the company’s next generation automated external defibrillator PMA submission. Prior to Avive, Eric served as the manufacturing and engineering director at Potrero Medical, Inc., a spin out of the medical device incubator, Theranova, LLC. In this position, he was instrumental in building the initial prototypes, scaling the engineering and manufacturing team, and executing through design transfer and U.S. launch of the company’s Accuryn^™ Critical Care Monitoring System. Before Potrero, Eric held leadership roles of increasing responsibility with Evalve, Inc (acquired by Abbot Vascular Inc.), XTENT, Inc, and Guidant Corporation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Studies from California State University. Additionally, Eric has an ISO 9000 Series Program certificate and two patents/patent pending.

Murali Srivathsa

President & CEO

Before joining Abbott in 2017, Murali was the Vice President and General Manager of Cardiac Management Solutions at ZOLL. ZOLL acquired Kyma Medical Technologies, where he served as President and CEO. Prior to Kyma, Murali was the Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Customer Operations at Corventis, a pioneer in wireless technologies for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, before being acquired by Medtronic in 2014.

Earlier in his career, at both Boston Scientific’s Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) and Guidant CRM, Murali helped bring nascent therapies to market in various marketing and sales roles. These technologies included heart failure leads and delivery systems, wireless CRT-D devices, and wireless home monitoring.

Murali holds a B.E. in Electronics Engineering from Bangalore University, India, an Executive Masters in International Trade from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, and an M.B.A. from IMD, Switzerland.

Amr Salahieh

Co-Founder and Chairman

Amr is a seasoned medical device entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the medical device industry. Amr is the founder of Shifamed LLC, a Silicon Valley-based medical device innovation hub founded in 2009, from which Legacy Portfolio Companies Maya Medical, Kalila Medical, Apama Medical, and Nuvera Medical have successfully exited and through which 10 additional companies are currently under incubation. Prior to founding Shifamed, Amr founded Sadra Medical, a percutaneous aortic valve replacement company, and co-founded Embolic Protection, Inc. (EPI), which were both sold to Boston Scientific. Amr is either the inventor or co-inventor on >100 granted and >140 published US patent applications. He holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

Aadel Al-Jadda

Co-Founder & VP of R&D

Aadel is an accomplished medical device R&D executive with over 20 years of experience developing and commercializing Class II and Class III medical technologies such as infusion pumps, neurovascular clot retrievers, and laser ablation catheters. Most recently, Aadel led the robotic instrument development of the Auris Monarch robotic endoscope platform (Acquired by J&J). As an early member of Auris, he also played a key role in the early feasibility testing of the system, identifying high-value clinical applications and supporting regulatory milestones. The Monarch system has received several distinctions for its design, including an Edison Award Gold Medal and Red Dot: Best of the Best award for Product Design. Aadel is motivated to continue using his extensive design and management experience to create medical technologies that help people live healthier and longer lives. He holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an M.S. in Human Factors Engineering from Wright State University, and an M.B.A. from University of Rochester’s William E. Simon Graduate School of Business.

Mariam Maghribi

Chief Business Officer

Mariam has over 15 years of experience in business strategy, finance, R&D and operations in the medical device and diagnostic sector. Prior to Shifamed, she served as Chief Operating Officer for deltaDOT QSTP-LLC, a joint venture between Imperial College of London and Qatar Foundation. Mariam is an inventor on 21 issued U.S. patents. She holds a B.S. from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of California, Davis. She also earned dual M.B.A. degrees from Columbia Business School and the UC Berkley Haas School of Business.

Joann Heberer

Senior Vice President QA, RA, CA

Joann has over 30 years of experience in medical devices. She started her career at Guidant Vascular, where she held positions in manufacturing and R&D, with increasing responsibility for program development. Joann took a sales position in Guidant’s cardiac rhythm organization, where she provided technical support for pacemakers, defibrillators, and cardiac resynchronization devices. She returned to product development and expanded her role beyond R&D to include regulatory and clinical. She has also held leadership roles within Boston Scientific, Covidien (Acquired by Medtronic), and TauTona Group. Joann joined Shifamed in 2011 and has been a part of three Shifamed companies (Maya Medical, Kalila Medical, and Apama Medical) with responsibilities in R&D, regulatory, and clinical. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and an M.S. from Stanford University. 

David Voris

Chief Financial Officer

David serves as Akura Medical’s Chief Financial Officer and is also CFO for each of Shifamed’s portfolio companies.  He brings over 25 years of experience in financial and operating executive leadership roles for early-stage and mid-sized medical device and life science companies. His experience includes a significant number of equity, debt, and shareholder liquidity transactions, the establishment and oversight of financial and operating controls and information systems that enable rapid scaling, and direct operational accountability.  Most recently, David served as CFO and COO of Optovue, Inc.  a medical device company that rapidly emerged as a leader in Ophthalmology imaging.  David also served as CFO for Laser Diagnostic Technologies up until its sale to Carl Zeiss Meditech. David is a certified public accountant and began his career at Deloitte in the Emerging Business Services group.

Praveen Dala

Vice President, Console

Praveen brings over 20 years of experience developing innovative medical devices and bringing them to market. He comes to Akura from iRhythm Technologies, Inc. where he led Integrations and Health System Strategy. In this role, he was responsible for building the company’s best-in-class integration platform to help expand referral networks for health systems and establishing strategic partnerships to advance the company’s next-generation cardiac monitoring technology. Prior to iRhythm, Praveen held senior leadership roles at Vocera Communications, Inc. where he was instrumental in driving the company’s overall vision, product pipeline, and M&A strategy. He was responsible for scaling the product team and integrating technologies following several successful acquisitions. Praveen founded and served as CEO for mVisum, Inc, a clinical communications platform (acquired by Vocera Communications, Inc.) and ThoughtMatrix, LLC, a high-skill medical device engineering and R&D consulting firm. He began his career with EP MedSystems where he was responsible for developing the company’s pivotal intracardiac echo technology and solutions platform that lead to the company’s acquisition by St. Jude Medical, now Abbott. Praveen currently holds 21 issued U.S. patents for over 30 innovations and has been published in numerous peer-reviewed publications. He holds a M.S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA as well as a B.E. from Mysore University in India.

Robert Edesess

Vice President, Intellectual Property

Robert has over a decade of experience advising life sciences start-ups. Before joining Shifamed, Robert served as Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property for Thoratec Corporation. He supported integration of the Thoratec business into St. Jude Medical and then joined the IP Litigation group at Abbott following its acquisition of St. Jude Medical. Earlier, Robert worked at a global law firm and MedTech patent boutique firm. He holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University as well as J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from DePaul University.

Debbie White

SVP Human Resources

Debbie has over 25 years of experience establishing and managing innovative corporate infrastructures and systems within the medical device industry. She is recognized as a human resources and administrative start-up expert and an integral part of the management team for both initial public offerings and corporate acquisitions. Throughout her career, Debbie has held leadership roles in human resources and administration at various medical device start-ups. She holds a B.A. degree in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.