About NeoChord
About NeoChord
ABOUT US | Company Overview
Who are we?
NeoChord is a privately held medical technology company leading the advancement of beating heart mitral valve repair in patients suffering from mitral valve regurgitation. The company’s flagship product, the NeoChord Artificial Chordae Delivery System, received CE market clearance in December 2012.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
J. Alex Martin
Chairman of the Board
A 40-year, veteran corporate executive of the healthcare and medical device industries, Mr. Martin brings an accomplished track record for growing corporate revenue and successfully transforming global businesses. Mr. Martin was the President and CEO of Coherex Medical, where he led the company to a successful exit with Biosense Webster (a Johnson and Johnson company), in November 2015. Prior to Coherex, Mr. Martin was the President and CEO of WorldHeart Corporation, where he led the company to a successful exit with HeartWare in August 2012. Previously, Mr. Martin has held senior leadership roles with Edwards Lifesciences, Cordis Corporation, a Johnson & Johnson Company, and SonaMed Corporation. Mr. Martin holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky.
Andrew ElBardissi, M.D.
Board Member
Dr. ElBardissi has significant investment experience in the healthcare sector. He is currently an investor on the Private Transactions team at Deerfield Management Company and has previously held roles as an early stage life-sciences venture investor and investment banker. He received residency training in General Surgery at Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford University. Dr. ElBardissi has been independently funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, has over 30 publications in leading peer reviewed scientific journals and as presented his research at numerous medical and surgical conferences.
David Gregorka
Board Member
Dave Gregorka is an independent consultant that has been providing his expert advice to Baird Capital since 2013. He works from Baird’s Ann Arbor, Michigan office and provides strategic advice to the General Partner of the partnerships, assists with our evaluation of investment opportunities and works with our team to build value within the existing portfolio.
Dave is an experienced operations executive and entrepreneur who has successfully taken multiple businesses from start-up to commercial success. He is an active member of the Michigan entrepreneurial community and is a Mentor-In-Residence for the University of Michigan Office of Technology Transfer. Dave was previously a co-founder of HealthMedia and held various roles, including the company’s Chief Financial Officer and operations VP. Johnson & Johnson acquired HealthMedia in 2008. In prior roles, he was on the executive management teams of a start-up company that developed tools for managing large data sets and of an international public health and environment standards and certification organization. He chairs the External Advisory Board of the University of Michigan Weil Institute for Critical Care and Research Innovation and serves on the boards of Genomenon and NeoChord. Dave has an MBA and M.S. degree from the University of Michigan and a B.S. from the University of Rochester.
David Chung
Board Member
Mr. Chung has over twenty-five years of hospital-focused, global medical device and pharmaceutical leadership, most recently serving in the role as Chief Commercial Officer for AcelRx Pharmaceuticals. Prior to AcelRx, Mr. Chung served as Chief Commercial Officer for Conceptus (Bayer), where he oversaw the strategic and day-to-day leadership for a 150-member global sales and marketing team. Prior to Conceptus, Mr. Chung served as President and CEO of Mitralis, an early-stage mitral valve repair company. He previously held roles of Vice President North America Sales and Marketing, and Global Vice President, Commercial Operations, for the Heart Valve Therapy business at Edwards Lifesciences. Mr. Chung began his career in the commercial organization at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Chung also served as a PATRIOT missile officer in the U.S. Army, with multiple distinctions, including Airborne, Desert Storm Veteran and Bronze Star Medal. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Casey Tansey
Board Member
Mr. Tansey is a managing member of U.S. Venture Partners, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Mr. Tansey brings significant experience in entrepreneurial, early stage, medical device companies to our NeoChord Board of Directors. Prior to joining USVP, Mr. Tansey was President and CEO of Epicor Medical, a medical device company that developed a minimally invasive treatment for atrial fibrillation and was acquired by St. Jude Medical in 2004. Prior to Epicor, he was President and CEO of Heartport Inc., an innovator of minimally invasive cardiac surgery products. Heartport was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2001. Previously, Mr. Tansey served as Vice President, North American Sales for Baxter Edwards’ Cardiovascular products, including heart valves and oxygenators. Mr. Tansey’s educational background includes a B.S. and M.B.A from The College of Notre Dame in Belmont, California.
Mudit K. Jain, PhD
Board Member
Mudit is a Founding General Partner of Treo Ventures (formerly known as Strategic Healthcare Investment Partners-S.H.I.P), and the CEO and co-founder of NuXcel, a medical device accelerator. Mudit also co-founded and serves as Chairman of the Board of ShiraTronics, Inc., a NuXcel spin off company. Mudit has over two decades of medical device industry experience across company formation, R&D, and business development. In addition to his private venture capital experiences at Treo, and Synergy Life Science Partners, Mudit also brings a strategic investment perspective based on his tenure at Johnson and Johnson Development Corporation.
Mudit has served on the boards of several medical device companies, from early to commercial growth stage, resulting in successful IPOs and M&A transactions. Mudit currently serves on the boards of Inspire Medical Systems (NYSE: INSP), Neochord, Inc., ShiraTronics, Inc., CVRx, Inc., and Noctrix, Inc. Some of his prior investments/board responsibilities include Irhythm Technologies (NSDQ:IRTC), Aptus Endosystems (Acqd. by Medtronic), CardioMEMS (Acqd. by St. Jude Medical), Impres Medical (Acqd. by J&J), and Neuspera,Inc. Mudit also serves on the Board of Visitors of the Graduate School at Duke University, External Advisory Board of John Hopkins University Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design. Prior to his investing career, Mudit held operational roles in the Cardiac Rhythm Management Division of Guidant Corporation, and played a key role in developing novel device technologies for heart failure, remote cardiac monitoring, and cardiac ablation. Mudit holds 8 issued patents and has authored several peer reviewed publications. Mudit graduated with a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from REC, Nagpur, India, where he was a gold medal recipient for academic achievements. He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University, and his M.B.A. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
MANAGEMENT TEAM
David Chung
President/Chief Executive Officer
Ron M. Nelson
Chief Financial Officer
Alex Jonkers
Chief Commercial Officer
Mr. Jonkers is a 20 year veteran of the medical device and healthcare industry. Most recently, Jonkers was with Medtronic, Inc., leading a large commercial organization responsible for catheter-based therapies and surgical heart valves across the EMEA region. Prior to Medtronic, he was with CoreValve, Inc., serving in a clinical and sales leadership capacity and a key member of the team that directed the successful integration of CoreValve into the Medtronic organization upon acquisition. Mr. Jonkers’ educational background includes healthcare and business degrees from the Open University Netherlands.
Daryl Edmiston
Chief Technology Officer
Mr. Edmiston has over 15 years of interventional medical device leadership experience. His background includes engineering project management, state-of-the-art manufacturing process development, and medical device design with patents in embolic protection, stent delivery and occlusion devices. He has extensive experience in implementing R&D capabilities in a startup environment, managing intellectual property, and developing technical and design dossiers through clinical trials. Prior to joining NeoChord, Mr. Edmiston was Vice President of Research and Development at Coherex Medical, leading teams from concept development through CE Mark and IDE approval. Prior to Coherex Medical, Mr. Edmiston held leadership roles at Rubicon Medical, directing technical development through clinical trials, CE market clearance and company acquisition. He also held technical roles at Fairchild Semiconductor and Spectra-Physics Laserplane. Mr. Edmiston holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Brigham Young University and a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University.
W. Randolph Chitwood, Jr., MD
Chief Medical Officer
Jenny Donovan
Director, Business Operations

NeoChord is a privately held medical technology company leading the advancement of beating heart mitral valve repair in patients suffering from mitral valve regurgitation.
NeoChord ConsultConnect and ConnectCARD is a medical consultation and service related to delivery of artificial chordae tendineae for treatment of mitral insufficiency. The NeoChord Artificial Chordae Delivery System, Model DS1000, meets the essential requirements referred to in Article 3 of the MDD 93/42/EEC and is labeled with the CE marking of conformity.
NEOCHORD, DS1000, RECHORD, NEOCHORD CONSULTCONNECT, CONNECTCARD, ACCHORD, ULTRACHORD, the stylized logos, and Transforming Mitral Valve Repair are registered trademarks or service marks of NeoChord, Inc.
CAUTION: Investigational Device Limited by Federal (United States) Law to Investigational Use.
CONTACT
(952) 698-7800
NeoChord, Inc
5402 Parkdale Drive,
Suite 160 St. Louis Park,
MN 55416