David P. Hochman
Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer and Founder
Mr. Hochman has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Orchestra BioMed since May 2018. Since 2006, he has been Managing Partner of Orchestra Medical Ventures, LLC (“Orchestra Medical Ventures”), an investment firm that employs a strategy to create, build and invest in medical technology companies intended to generate substantial clinical value.
Mr. Hochman has also served President of Accelerated Technologies, Inc., a medical device accelerator company managed by Orchestra Medical Ventures. Funds managed by Orchestra Medical Ventures are shareholders in the Company. See “Principal Stockholders.” Mr. Hochman has over 21 years of healthcare entrepreneurial, venture capital and investment banking experience. He was a co-founder of Caliber and was on the Board of Caliber since 2009. He was a co-founder of BackBeat and served as its President and a member of its Board since inception in 2010. He was a co-founder of FreeHold and served as a member of its Board since 2011. He is also Chairman of the board for Motus GI. Mr. Hochman was a co-founder and currently serves as a board member of Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRBP), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics to treat rare, life-threating inflammatory-fibrotic diseases with clear unmet medical needs. He also serves as a director of Adgero Biopharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc. Prior to joining Orchestra Medical Ventures, Mr. Hochman was Chief Executive Officer of Spencer Trask Edison Partners, LLC, an investment partnership focused on early stage healthcare companies. He was also Managing Director of Spencer Trask Ventures, Inc. during which time he led financing transactions for over twenty early-stage companies raising over $420 million. From 1999 to 2006, Mr. Hochman was a board advisor of Health Dialog Services Corporation, a leader in collaborative healthcare management that was acquired in 2008 by the British United Provident Association for $750 million. From 2005 to 2007, he was a co-founder and board member of PROLOR Biotech, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing longer lasting versions of approved therapeutic proteins, which was purchased by Opko Health (NYSE: OPK) in 2013 for over $600 million. He currently serves on the board of two non-profit organizations: The Citizens Committee for New York City and the Mollie Parnis Livingston Foundation (a family foundation for which he is also President). He has a B.A. degree with honors from the University of Michigan.
Darren R. Sherman
President, Chief Operating Officer and Director
Mr. Sherman has served as President, Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Board of Orchestra BioMed since May 2018. Since 2009, Mr. Sherman has been Managing Partner of Orchestra Medical Ventures, an investment firm that employs a strategy to create, build and invest in medical technology companies intended to generate substantial clinical value.
Since 2008, Mr. Sherman has also served as Chief Technical Officer of Accelerated Technologies, Inc. (ATI), a medical device accelerator company managed by Orchestra Medical Ventures. Funds managed by Orchestra Medical Ventures are shareholders in the Company. See “Principal Stockholders.” Mr. Sherman has over 25 years of management and entrepreneurial experience in the medical technology industry spanning interventional cardiology, cardiac electrophysiology, sudden cardiac death, stroke, surgery, GI, and neurovascular therapies. Mr. Sherman served as Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Caliber since 2009. He was a co-founder and served on the Board of BackBeat since 2010. He was a co-founder and served as Chief Executive Officer and a director of FreeHold since 2011. From 2009 until 2016, he served on the board of directors of Vivasure. He is a member of the board of directors of Motus GI. Prior to joining Orchestra Medical Ventures, from February 2002 until March 2008, Mr. Sherman held various positions in executive management for Cordis Neurovascular (CNV), a Johnson & Johnson company, including Executive Director R&D and Director of Strategic Marketing for stroke products. He had worldwide responsibility for all neurovascular R&D and global strategic marketing responsibilities for the stroke franchise, including budgets, portfolio of products and strategic planning. Mr. Sherman made significant contributions to the design and commercialization of a series of key products including the Enterprise Vascular Reconstruction Device and the Orbit Embolic Coil. From January 1997 until February 2002, Mr. Sherman played an integral role in the formation and development of Revivant Corp (acquired by Zoll) while working with Thomas J. Fogarty, M.D. at Fogarty Engineering. He was Revivant’s first employee and managed the design, development, and testing of the AutoPulse device from concept through market introduction. In addition to the R&D related activities, Mr. Sherman supported the clinical research, marketing, and intellectual property efforts. The AutoPulse is a lightweight, portable tool replacing the need for manual chest compressions during cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for patients suffering from sudden cardiac arrest. From January 1995 until January 1997, Mr. Sherman held positions in research and development for Cardiac Pathways Corp., prior to its acquisition by Boston Scientific. Prior to Cardiac Pathways, he worked at Baxter Healthcare. In each of these companies, he participated in the creation, development and launch of products. Mr. Sherman has authored more than 75 U.S. patents with an additional 90+ published applications. He earned a BS degree in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego.
Eric A. Rose, M.D.
Director
Dr. Rose became a member of Orchestra BioMed’s Board of Directors in December 2018. He previously served as a Strategic Advisor since July 2018.
Dr. Rose is Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of SIGA Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIGA), a commercial-stage pharmaceutical company focused on serious unmet medical needs and biothreats. Previously, he had served as Chairman and CEO of SIGA. Dr. Rose chaired the Department of Health Evidence & Policy at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine from 2008 to 2012. From 1994 through 2007, he served as Chairman of the Department of Surgery and Surgeon-in-Chief of the Columbia Presbyterian Center of New York Presbyterian Hospital. In addition to his roles at SIGA, Dr. Rose holds a position as Executive Vice President – Life Sciences at MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated, the holding company of Ronald O. Perelman and a related party to SIGA. In April 2013, he became a director for Mesoblast Inc. (NASDAQ: MESO), an advanced cellular medicine company, where he serves as chairman of the scientific and technology committee. In 2015, Dr. Rose became a director of Abiomed, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABMD), a leading provider of medical devices that provide circulatory support.
Eric S. Fain, M.D.
Director
Dr. Fain became a member of Orchestra BioMed’s Board of Directors in November 2018. He previously served as a Strategic Advisor and a consultant to BackBeat Medical, Inc. since October 2017.
Since July 2018, he has served as the President and CEO of Procyrion, Inc., a development stage medical device company developing catheter-based circulatory support technologies for congestive heart failure patients. Previously, he was the Senior Vice President and Group President, Cardiovascular and Neuromodulation at Abbott following its acquisition of St. Jude Medical. Dr. Fain became Group President of St. Jude Medical in 2014 where he was responsible for global sales, marketing and clinical affairs across the entire St. Jude Medical portfolio worldwide. Dr. Fain joined St. Jude Medical in 1997 as Vice President, Systems Development as part of the company’s acquisition of Ventritex, Inc., where he had worked since 1987. He went on to become Senior Vice President, Clinical/Regulatory Affairs for the St. Jude Medical Cardiac Rhythm Management Division (CRMD) in 1998. He was later promoted to Executive Vice President, Development and Clinical/Regulatory Affairs for CRMD in 2005 and then President of CRMD in 2007. Prior to his role as Group President, Dr. Fain was President of the company’s Implantable Electronic Systems Division beginning in 2012 when its CRM and Neuromodulation Divisions merged. Dr. Fain received his M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine and holds a Sc.B. degree in applied math/biology from Brown University.
Geoffrey W. Smith
Director
Mr. Geoffrey Smith has been a member of the board of directors of Orchestra BioMed since May 2018. He previously served on the boards of directors of Caliber Therapeutics, Inc., BackBeat Medical, Inc., and FreeHold Surgical, Inc. He is a co-founder and General Partner of Ascent Biomedical Ventures, LLC (“Ascent”), a New York City-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage life sciences investments and an investor in Caliber, BackBeat and FreeHold.
Mr. Smith currently represents Ascent on the Board of Directors for Azevan Pharmaceuticals and BlinkBio, and is a Board Observer of Vivasure Medical. He is also the founder and Managing Partner of Digitalis Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in fundamental new ideas in math and science to address complex health problems. He currently represents Digitalis as a Director of CareDox Inc. and as a Board Observer of Second Genome, Inc. Mr. Smith is a co-founder of Fuse Therapeutics. He is also a Visiting Scholar at Rockefeller University and an adjunct faculty member at the RU Center for Clinical and Translational Science. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. Previously, he was the founding Director of the Mount Sinai Institute of Technology and a Professor in the Department of Population Health Science and Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Mr. Smith received a B.A. (with honors) from Williams College and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Jason Aryeh
Director
Mr. Aryeh became a member of Orchestra BioMed’s Board of Directors in November 2018. He previously served as a Strategic Advisor since July 2018.
Mr. Aryeh is the founder and managing general partner of JALAA Equities, LP, a private hedge fund focused on the biotechnology and specialty pharmaceutical sector and has served in such capacity since 1997. He has served as a member of the board of directors of Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: LGND), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing or acquiring technologies that help pharmaceutical companies discover and develop medicines. He has served as Ligand’s Chairman of its Nominating and Governance Committee since September 2006. He serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Novelion Therapeutics and is also on the board of directors of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Therapeutics Board.
Pamela Yanchik Connealy
Director
Ms. Connealy became a member of Orchestra BioMed’s Board of Directors in February 2020. She serves as the Audit Committee Chair.
Ms. Connealy is the chief financial officer of Immunovant, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on enabling normal lives for patients with autoimmune diseases. At Immunovant, Ms. Connealy leads finance, investor relations, and human resources. She also serves as an advisor to Perfuse Therapeutics, an early-stage company focused on ophthalmic diseases. Prior to Immunovant, Ms. Connealy held a number of leadership roles including chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Kiva, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization; global head of talent at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, focused on talent management, compensation, benefits, and global mobility; and vice president of business operations at Salesforce.com. Ms. Connealy also had a long tenure as a corporate officer at Genentech, including CFO of research and development and other key global operational roles.