Meet Our Board of Directors

Richard Mott

Chairman of the Board, Principal,
Walkabout Consulting LLC

Mr. Mott is currently a principal in Walkabout Consulting LLC, a management consulting and private equity firm. Mr. Mott served as President and Chief Executive Officer and Director of Kyphon Inc., a NASDAQ-listed global medical device company focused on minimally invasive spinal therapies, through its acquisition by Medtronic, Inc. in late 2007. Prior to Kyphon, Mr. Mott held several executive positions at Wilson Greatbatch Technologies, Inc., most recently as Chief Operating Officer, as well as executive operating roles within the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. Mr. Mott is the previous recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Frost & Sullivan Technology Leadership of the Year Award. Mr. Mott holds a BS in Ceramic Engineering from Alfred University and is a Graduate of Harvard University’s Advanced Management Program.

Brent Ahrens

General Partner,
West Coast

Brent joined Canaan in 1999 as a member of the Kauffman Fellows Program and throughout his tenure has lead investments in an array of healthcare companies, with a focus on biopharma and medtech. Brent’s current investments and board seats include device developer and manufacturer Abyrx, reflux device company EndoGastric Solutions, immune-oncology drug developer Grey Wolf Therapeutics, autoimmune disease therapy provider Pathios Therapeutics, device maker for chronic back pain Relievant MedSystems, neurodegenerative disease company, Transposon Therapeutics, and oncology-focused ThirtyFiveBio.
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

Retired President and CEO,
NeoTract

David R. Amerson is the former President (retired 2021), NeoTract Interventional Urology at Teleflex. He served as President and Chief Executive Officer and member of our Board of Directors for NeoTract, Inc. from July 2011 to October 2017 when the company was successfully acquired by Teleflex. Mr. Amerson led NeoTract to become a best-in-class medical device company, achieving significant milestones including FDA De Novo clearance, new CPT 1 codes, a New Tech APC code, ~300M U.S. covered lives. Both NeoTract and Mr. Amerson have been recognized as one of the most recent successful Medical Device Companies in recent years. Mr. Amerson was awarded the “The Deal Maker” Award at the 2018 Medtech CEO Conference and the Phoenix 2018 Emerging Growth Company Award at the 25th Annual Phoenix Medical Device and Diagnostic CEO Conference.

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

President and Chief Executive Officer,
Relievant Medsystems

Tyler Binney joined Relievant as President and CEO in April 2021. Prior to joining Relievant, Tyler served as President & General Manager of Interventional Urology at Teleflex and as Vice President of Sales for NeoTract, Inc. (acquired by Teleflex in 2017). Prior to his tenure at NeoTract, Tyler served in multiple leadership roles in sales & marketing within two business units at Johnson & Johnson (Acclarent and Cordis). With over 20 years of experience in the medical device industry, Tyler has been an instrumental leader in developing high-growth companies and talented teams with best-in-class company cultures throughout his career. Tyler holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Presbyterian College.

Ross Jaffe, MD

Venture Advisor,
New Enterprise Associates

Ross Jaffe, MD is an experienced healthcare venture capitalist who currently serves as a Venture Advisor to New Enterprise Associates (NEA) as well as being one of the founding Managing Directors of Versant Ventures. During his 30+ year career in venture capital, Ross has served on the boards of multiple successful medical technology companies, including Acclarent (acquired by JNJ), St. Francis Medical Technologies (acquired by MDT), Therasense (acquired by ABT), Insulet (NASDAQ: PODD), Novacept (acquired by HOLX), Ablation Frontiers (acquired by MDT), Webster Labs (acquired by JNJ), and Vertiflex (acquired by BSX). He started his venture career at Brentwood Venture Capital, where he was a General Partner.

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

Managing Partner,
Vensana Capital

Justin Klein, MD, JD, is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Vensana Capital, a leading venture capital and growth equity firm dedicated to medtech innovation. Justin was previously a partner and leader of the medical technology investing practice at NEA, one of the largest and most active venture capital firms in the world. Justin also worked at the Duke University Health System where his experience included roles in strategy, finance and operations as Duke built one of the nation’s first integrated healthcare delivery systems. Justin currently or previously served on the board of directors of Apella, Cartiva (acquired), ChromaCode, Cleerly, Curate Biosciences, CV Ingenuity (acquired), Epix Therapeutics (acquired), FIRE1, Intact Vascular (acquired), Metavention, Personal Genome Diagnostics (acquired), PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals (IPO), Plexium, Relievant Medsystems, Senseonics (IPO), Topera (acquired), Ulthera (acquired), Vertiflex (acquired), Vesper Medical (acquired), and VytronUS (acquired). Justin currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association and that of AdvaMed Accel, where he is the Chair of its MedTech Investment Working Group.

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

General Partner,
Lightstone Ventures and Morgenthaler Ventures

Jason Lettmann is a General Partner of Lightstone Ventures and focuses on investments in the biopharmaceutical and medical technology sectors. Jason brings 20 years of operating and venture experience in the life sciences and also is a General Partner at Morgenthaler Ventures. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of ALX Oncology (NASDAQ: ALXO), Atsena Therapeutics, Carrick Therapeutics, Cerevance, FIRE1, Relievant Medsystems, and Second Genome. Jason led the firm’s investments and served as a Director of Ra Pharmaceuticals (acquired by UCB) and Vapotherm (NASDAQ: VAPO). Jason also served as the interim CEO of Promedior and led the company through its sale to Roche in 2020. Before joining Morgenthaler in 2009, Jason was a Vice President at Split Rock Partners where he focused on early-stage investments in the life sciences. Prior to venture, Jason’s experience includes tenure with Guidant’s Compass Group which focused on corporate venture investing and business development, as well as a consultant with Accenture’s Health and Life Science practice, where he advised clients across the medical device, pharmaceutical, and healthcare payer sectors.

Alexander Schmitz

Partner,
Endeavour Vision

Alexander is a Partner at Endeavour Vision, investing in medical technology, digital health, and diagnostics companies across multiple therapeutic areas.

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

President and Chief Executive Officer,
Monterey Advisors

Art has 25 years of experience in the medical device industry as a CEO, a COO, a CFO, and other senior-level operational and financial positions for both publicly held companies and private venture capital-backed firms. Art has extensive operational and leadership experience in both large and small commercial-stage companies and in pre-revenue clinical or development startup companies. Sector experiences include spine, electrophysiology, ophthalmology, hearing health care, and neurology. In addition to Relievant, Art currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Providence Medical and Resonea, Inc.

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