Chapters in Commercialization

Tim Miller
President & CEO at Stimdia Medical LLC

Tim Miller has worked in the healthcare industry for over 30 years where he developed a strategic and entrepreneurial skill set with a depth of knowledge in business development, operations, clinical and regulatory affairs, and commercialization. He has been leading organizations and is passionate about building high performance teams focused on customer needs that provide clinical and economic value in both private and publicly traded companies. Prior to Stimdia Medical, Tim was the COO at Preventice Solutions, a remote cardiac monitoring company that sold to Boston Scientific for $1.2 billion. He holds numerous patents and received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Steven Koester
Professor of Nanotechnology, University of Minnesota

Dr. Koester is the Russell J. Penrose Professor of Nanotechnology at the University of Minnesota, and Director of the Minnesota Nano Center. He received B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from the University of Notre Dame in 1989 and 1991, and the Ph.D. in 1995 from the University of California, Santa Barbara. From 1997 to 2010, he was a research staff member at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center and performed research on a wide variety of electronic and optoelectronic devices, with an emphasis on those using the Si/SiGe material system. From 2006 to 2010 he served as manager of Exploratory Technology at IBM Research where his team investigated advanced devices and integration concepts for use in future generations of microprocessor technology. Since 2010, Dr. Koester has been a Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota where his research focuses on a wide range of novel micro- and nano-electronic device concepts. He has broad experience in technology commercialization, particularly in working with early-stage companies to develop new biosensor concepts. Dr. Koester has authored or co-authored over 300 technical publications and holds 74 United States patents. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and Optica.

J. Robert Paulson, Jr.
President & CEO, Sonex Health

Bob is the President and CEO, and a Director at Sonex Health (real-time ultrasound guidance to treat upper extremity entrapment neuropathies). Bob previously served as President/CEO/Director at VentureMed (peripheral vascular), NxThera (prostate health-acquired by Boston Scientific), and Restore Medical (snoring/sleep apnea-acquired by Medtronic); CFO/VP Marketing at Endocardial Solutions (intracardiac mapping and navigation-acquired by St. Jude Medical); Sr. VP/GM at Advanced Bionics (cochlear implants); VP/GM of Surgical Navigation Technologies, VP of Corporate Strategy, and Director of Corporate Development at Medtronic. Prior to joining the MedTech industry, Bob held senior marketing, corporate development, legal and finance roles at General Mills, and practiced corporate, M&A, and securities law at Lindquist & Vennum.

Bob is a Director on the Boards of Sonex Health, Spineology, and the VentureMed Group, serves as Chair of the Luther College Board of Regents, and is a member of the Vanderbilt University Law School Board of Advisors. Bob previously served on the boards of a number of private and public medtech companies, as well as several non-profit organizations.

Bob received a JD from the Vanderbilt University Law School; an MBA from the University of St. Thomas; and a BA from Luther College, with majors in Accounting, Economics and Political Science.

Carla Pavone (Moderator)
University of Minnesota

Carla Pavone is Associate Director of the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship at the Carlson School of Management, teaching entrepreneurship, strategy, and leadership. She is co-PI of the NSF I-Corps Great Lakes Region Hub and Program Director of the Minnesota Innovation Corps (MIN-Corps), developing and administering educational programs about science/technology commercialization and entrepreneurship. She is co-lead of the Innovation Ecosystem pillar for the Institute for Engineering in Medicine and the ATP-Bio engineering research center. She has a BA in biology from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a PhD in business administration from the University of Minnesota.

Russ Straate
Venture Center, University of Minnesota

Russ Straate heads up the Technology Commercialization Venture Center team, which is responsible for leading the formation and launch of new companies based on a broad range of technologies coming out of the research enterprise at the University of Minnesota. Prior to joining University, Russ was vice president of business development for a medical device startup.

During his career, Russ has cofounded two companies in the medtech and high-tech sectors and has worked as an intrepreneur for Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies. He has held senior-level management positions at IMI, plc, a UK-based fluidics company; Honeywell International Automation and Control; and Schneider Electric (Square D Company).

During time at these companies his focus was on driving new business growth. At Honeywell, Russ led high growth operational units and most recently was director, business development, Honeywell Automation and Control Solutions, where he reported to the general manager of Honeywell’s $1.2 billion environmental controls business.

Russ has a B.S. in electrical engineering and post-graduate studies in marketing and finance. In addition to cofounding two startup companies and leading multiple product development efforts at established companies, Russ’s credentials include five inventor patents and certification as a Six Sigma Green Belt.

Learn more about the Venture Center.