Nellix :: Board of Directors

Board of Directors

Guido Neels, Chairman, Board Member
Mr. Guido Neels is a partner at Essex Woodlands. Mr. Neels served as Chief Operating Officer of Guidant Corporation. At Guidant, he was Group Chairman, Office of the President. At Eli Lilly and Raychem, he held various general management, sales and marketing, information technology, finance and manufacturing positions. He holds a MBA degree from Stanford and a Business Engineering degree from University of Leuven in Belgium.

Robert D. Mitchell, President & CEO
Robert Mitchell became our Chief Executive Officer in March 2008. He has over twenty years of professional experience leading several high technology medical device companies. Prior to joining Nellix, Mr. Mitchell served as Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President at AngioDynamics, a NASDAQ-listed public company and leading provider of innovative medical devices to treat cancer and peripheral vascular disease. Mr. Mitchell also served as Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Millimed Holdings, Inc., a privately held company based in Roskilde, Denmark, developing next-generation drug eluting products centered on the treatment of vascular disease. Much of Mr. Mitchell's professional experience was at Cook Medical Inc., the worlds largest privately held medical device company, where he was responsible for various operations from 1986 to 2003. As Senior Vice President, he led Cook’s largest revenue generating business units including: interventional radiology, cardiology, endovascular, critical care and surgical. Directly following this position, he was employed by NASDAQ-listed Align Technology, Inc. of Santa Clara, California, where he was Vice President of Worldwide Sales and a member of the Executive Management Committee. Mr. Mitchell continues to be actively involved as a lecturer, advisor and board member for several companies, medical societies and humanitarian organizations. Mr. Mitchell received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Utah and his MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University.

Michael Gertner, Board Member
Dr. Michael Gertner is an adjunct partner at Essex Woodlands. Dr. Gertner has been involved in healthcare for the past 15 years, as a researcher, general surgeon, and entrepreneur. He founded a company which became the foundation for Medlogics Corporation. He co-founded Allux Medical, a company developing a revolutionary therapy for rhinosinusitis. Currently, he is the founder and president of Gem Biosystems. In 2003, he was named one of the top 100 innovators under 35 by the MIT technology review. Dr. Gertner completed a BS and an MS in mechanical engineering from Columbia and MIT and attended medical school at Cornell.

Charles Taylor, Nellix Founder and Board Member
Chuck Taylor is a highly successful entrepreneur, inventor, engineer, and manager with over 20 years of very successful experience as a true innovator. He was the founder, Vice President and Chief Technical Officer of CardioThoracic Systems, Inc.(CTS), which he took from his garage, through venture funding, and a successful IPO, as well as growing annual revenues to nearly $30 million prior to selling the company to Guidant. Prior to CTS, Mr. Taylor held research and development positions at Heartport, a developer of devices and procedures for minimally invasive cardiac surgery. He is an inventor on over 50 patents.

Bill Nighan, Board Member
Bill Nighan is a Managing Director and founder of the Incubic Venture Fund, an early stage technology venture investment partnership, with medical devices being one of Bill‘s areas of interest. He has taken the role of interim CEO for several technology start-ups and serves as a Director on several Boards. Prior to founding Incubic with Milton Chang, Bill built and led the engineering teams that developed solid-state lasers for Spectra-Physics Lasers (SPLI), with the success of the business enabling the company‘s transformation into “The Solid State Laser Company™” and its 1997 IPO. Prior to this he developed surgical laser products for Zeiss. Bill has BSc and PhD degrees in engineering from Brown and Princeton University respectively. He is an inventor on over 20 patents.

Jeffrey M. Closs, Board Member
Jeff Closs is the co-founder, President and CEO of Benu Inc, which integrates products from competing health plans into a unique total replacement option. Prior to co-founding BENU, Jeff was President and CEO at Fox Hollow Technologies, Inc., a leading cardiovascular device company in the Silicon Valley. Previously, Jeff was Vice President and International General Manager for Perclose, where he was part of the senior executive team that led the company from early formation through a successful IPO and ultimately an acquisition by Abbott Laboratories. Prior to Perclose, Jeff held positions in a variety of functional areas including marketing, sales, clinical, regulatory, manufacturing and international operations with Devices for Vascular Intervention/Guidant and Baxter Healthcare Corporation. Jeff has testified before the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S Congress on Healthcare reform. Jeff received his MBA from Emory University and his BA from the University of California, Los Angeles.