Meet Our Board of Directors

Richard Mott

Chairman of the Board

Brent Ahrens

Director

About Canaan

Canaan is an early stage venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurs with visionary ideas. With $5B under management, a diversified fund and over 200 exits to date, Canaan has invested in some of the world’s leading technology and healthcare companies over the past 32 years. Canaan’s focus areas include consumer tech, fintech, enterprise/SaaS, frontier tech, biopharma, digital health and medtech. To learn more about our people and our portfolio, please visit canaan.com.

David R. Amerson

Director

From 2006 to 2011, Mr. Amerson was Global Vice President, General Manager for the Surgical Urology division of Coloplast, a publicly-traded medical equipment company based in Denmark. From 1990 to 2006, Mr. Amerson worked at Mentor, a publicly-traded medical device company where he was Global Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Urology division when it was acquired by Coloplast.

Mr. Amerson currently serves on the following Boards:
Executive Chairman of New Enterprise Associates (NEA) funded company, NC8; Chairman of the Board, Palette Life Sciences; Board Member of Calyxo Medical.

Mr. Amerson holds a M.B.A. from Argosy University and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of West Georgia.

Tyler Binney

Director

Ross Jaffe, MD

Director

Having stepped back from active investing, Ross continues to manage his Versant portfolio, including serving on the boards of AlterG and Minerva Surgical (NASDAQ: UTRS); represents NEA on the boards of Relievant, FIRE1, and Woebot; and is an independent board member for DocMatter. He is also a co-founder and Chairman of Faro Health, a software company focused on improving the design and implementation of clinical trials.

Ross has played an active role in the venture capital and medical innovation communities, including serving on the board of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and the Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC). He has been honored with the NVCA Outstanding Service Award and recognized on the Forbes “Midas List” of leading venture capitalists.

Ross earned a BA in Policy Studies from Dartmouth; an MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He completed his residency in internal medicine and served part-time as an attending physician at the University of California, San Francisco.

Justin Klein, MD, JD

Director

Justin graduated with an AB in Economics, a BS in Biological Anthropology & Anatomy, and a Minor in Chemistry from Duke University. He also concurrently earned his MD from the Duke University School of Medicine and his JD from Harvard Law School.

Jason Lettmann

Director

Cynthia Lucchese

Director

Ms. Lucchese was the Chief Strategy Officer of Penske Entertainment Corp., a subsidiary of Penske Corporation, from November 2020 through February 2023, and she served as Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Financial Officer from November 2014 to November 2020. Prior to this, she was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Hillenbrand from 2008 to 2014. Ms. Lucchese has more than twenty years of experience with medical device and life sciences companies including Guidant, Eli Lilly, and Thoratec, where she served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Ms. Lucchese currently serves on the board of CooperCompanies, Inc.(NYSE: COO), a global medical device company, where she is a member of the audit committee and corporate governance and nominating committee.  She is a member of the board of directors of Inari Medical (NASDAQ: NARI), a company focused on the treatment of venous thromboembolism and other venous diseases, where she serves as chair of the audit committee and a member of the nominating & corporate governance committee. She is also a member of the board of directors of BVI Medical, a privately owned surgical ophthalmic company, where she serves as chair of the audit committee. Ms. Lucchese is a member of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University.  Ms. Lucchese previously served on the board and audit committee of Hanger, Inc. (NYSE: HGR), a provider of orthotic and prosthetic patient care services and solutions, until its acquisition in October 2022 by Patient Square Capital, and on the board of Intersect ENT (NASDAQ: XENT) from 2014 until its acquisition by Medtronic in May 2022, where she served as chair of the audit committee and a member of the nominating & corporate governance committee. She also was a member of the board of directors of Brightpoint from 2009 until its acquisition by Ingram Micro in 2012, where she served as chair of the audit committee and a member of the nominating & corporate governance committee. Ms. Lucchese earned her undergraduate degree in accounting and MBA from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

Alexander Schmitz

Director

Alexander brings more than two decades of business and strategy experience in both medical device and high-technology companies. He currently represents Endeavour Vision on the boards of Kenbi, Lumeon, Nalu, Rapid Micro Biosystems (NASDAQ:RPID), Relievant MedSystems, and VentureMed, and led the firm’s investments in Gynesonics, Nuvaira, and V-Wave. He previously served on the boards of VertiFlex (acquired by Boston Scientific in 2019) and EndoStim. He is a member of the steering committee for PCR Innovators’ Day and serves as both a jury member and expert panelist for the Healthtech Summit.

Prior to joining the Endeavour Vision team, Alexander spent nine years with Biosensors International Group, an interventional cardiology company, where he served as vice president of business development. He previously worked with LogiSpring Ventures, MicroStrategy, and McKinsey & Co.

Alexander holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BSFS, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University.

Art Taylor

Director