Nellix :: Management Team

Management Team

Robert D. Mitchell, CEO Nellix Endovascular Inc.
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 Evans, Founder, President, and COO - Nellix Endovascular
Michael is a technical entrepreneurial executive with twenty years of experience in early stage medical device design and development. Prior to founding Nellix Endovascular, Michael was the Vice President of Research and Development of LuMend through the recent acquisition by Johnson & Johnson. Michael was also Vice President of Research & Development of Bacchus Vascular which he co-founded along with Thomas J. Fogarty, MD. Michael spent six years at Medtronic/AneuRx where he was one of the Founding Members and served concurrently as both the Director of Research & Development and the Director of Scientific Affairs. Michael also has engineering, clinical research, regulatory and management experience from early stage medical device start-ups including Innerdyne Medical (IPO) and Devices for Vascular Intervention (acquired by ACS/Eli Lilly). Michael earned his B.Sc. in Polymer Science from the California State University. Michael is a co-inventor on over 40 issued U.S. and 69 pending patents in the field of medical devices. Michael also serves as a co-founder and Managing Partner at Northwind Ventures.

Gwen Watanabe, Chief Business Officer – Nellix Endovascular
Gwen is a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist with fifteen years of experience in starting and managing early stage medical device companies. Gwen is a co-founder, co-inventor, and Chief Business Officer of Nellix Endovascular. Gwen was a founding team member in AneuRx, where she was an engineer and co-inventor on the stent-graft delivery system team. Gwen was also a founding team member at Bacchus Vascular, where she was the business development and marketing manager. Gwen has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she also simultaneously completed pre-med requirements, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in the Design Division with an emphasis on Biomechanical Design, and an MBA from Harvard Business School with focus on Finance and Marketing.

K.T. Rao, Vice President of Research & Development - Nellix Endovascular
KT has been involved with the development of emerging medical technologies at Guidant and Johnson & Johnson, and is responsible for all research and development activities at Nellix Endovascular. He led several programs as Director of New Product Development and Pilot Operations at Nitinol Devices & Components and Cordis businesses of J&J, including anastomotic devices to assist beating-heart surgery, intracranial devices to treat wide-necked aneurysms; endovascular stents, filters, guide wires and aortic stent-grafts. Prior to this, at Guidant, as Director of Research in the Stent Business Unit, he directed a robust technology portfolio on stent design, materials, lasers, drug delivery, tissue mechanics and preclinical research, which established and sustained Guidant’s leadership in coronary stents including the introduction of MultiLink Vision, a new cobalt-chromium stent platform. During this time, he was involved with various business development activities related to due diligence, internal ventures and business integration. KT holds BTech, MS and PhD from Indian Institute of Technology at Madras, Purdue and University of California Berkeley, respectively.