Meet Our Board of Directors
Richard Mott
Walkabout Consulting LLC
Brent Ahrens
West Coast
His previous companies include Dexcom (DXCM), Revivant (acquired by ZOLL), Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (acquired by JNJ), Cerexa (acquired by FRX), Calixa (acquired by CBST), AtheroMed (acquired by VOLC); Durata Therapeutics (DRTX, acquired by AGN), Data Sciences International (acquired by HBIO); Elevation Pharmaceuticals (acquired by DNPUF); Spinifex (acquired by NVS) and Unchained Labs (acquired by Carlyle Group).
Prior to joining Canaan, Brent worked in both commercial and technical roles at General Surgical Innovations, Ethicon Endo-Surgery (J&J), and IAP Research. He also has several surgical instrument patents to his credit.
Brent earned an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College after graduating with a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Dayton.
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
NeoTract
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
Relievant Medsystems
Ross Jaffe, MD
New Enterprise Associates
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
Vensana Capital
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
Lightstone Ventures and Morgenthaler Ventures
Alexander Schmitz
Endeavour Vision
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
Monterey Advisors