DELIVERING CONFIDENCE

At Artio, we are committed to developing and commercializing novel, best-in-class medical devices that have the potential to provide better patient outcomes.

Our Core Values

Nurture creative people, build great teams and encourage innovative ideas

Develop new products by focusing on the needs of patients and physicians

F. Nicholas Franano, MD

Founder, President, & CEO

F. Nicholas Franano, MD

Founder, President, & CEO

Nicholas Franano, MD, is a physician, scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur. He is President and CEO of Artio Medical, and a co-founder. Dr. Franano is an experienced entrepreneur, founding several companies including Artio Medical, Flow Forward Medical, Novita Therapeutics, and Proteon Therapeutics (NYSE: PRTO). Dr. Franano has held positions of President, CEO, and CSO at these companies, which have raised collectively over $120 million in capital and grants.

Before Proteon, Dr. Franano maintained an active clinical practice in interventional radiology, performing a wide range of vascular and non-vascular procedures. He received both his Doctor of Medicine and Master of Science in biomedical research from Washington University in St. Louis. He completed a residency in Diagnostic Radiology and a fellowship in Interventional Radiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He has received numerous research awards, grants and fellowships, and has published many abstracts and articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Franano holds 11 patents and more than 30 pending patent applications. In 2009, Dr. Franano was named a “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum and an Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” for the Central Midwest. Dr. Franano serves on the Biological Sciences Advisory Board at the University of Kansas and the Entrepreneurship Council at Washington University in St. Louis.

Paul Muller

CTO and General Manager

Paul Muller

CTO and General Manager

Paul Muller is Chief Technology Officer and General Manager at Artio Medical. He is an experienced leader with over 30 years of success developing cardiovascular, peripheral vascular, and neurovascular medical devices. Prior to Artio, Paul was Chief Technology Officer and General Manager at Flow Forward Medical (acquired by Artio) where he led the product development team and moved the Arteriovenous Fistula Eligibility System program to clinical readiness. Prior to Flow Forward Medical, Paul started and led the HeartMate Percutaneous Heart Pump ^TM (PHP) program for the Thoratec Corporation, receiving CE mark approval and IDE initiation in 2015. Paul also successfully integrated the HeartMate PHP program into St. Jude Medical, and then into Abbott Laboratories through their acquisitions. Prior to Thoratec, Paul held many leadership and management roles within Guidant and Abbott Vascular. In one role, Paul created and led the Carotid, Peripheral, Biliary, and Neuro Business Unit within Guidant that developed the first device approved by the FDA for carotid artery stenting.

Paul is an inventor and co-inventor on 29 patents and has published several peer-reviewed papers in leading medical journals. He received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of the Pacific.

Melissa Viotti

Sr. Director of Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs

Melissa Viotti

Sr. Director of Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs

Melissa Viotti is Senior Director of Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs at Artio Medical. She has over 20 years of Quality and Regulatory experience in medical devices. Prior to Artio, Melissa successfully implemented quality and regulatory systems for the launch of the LATERA® Absorbable Nasal Implant for Spirox, later acquired by Entellus Medical and then Stryker. Melissa held similar positions on Quality teams for Nuelle Inc, Neodyne Biosciences, Vibrynt Inc, Abbott Vascular, and Guidant. She has a proven track record of providing quality and regulatory support for medical device companies from conception to commercialization.

Melissa received a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University.

Ryan Moore

Program Director

Ryan Moore

Program Director

Ryan Moore is R&D Program Director at Artio. Ryan joins the team with 15 years of medical device experience in various roles including R&D, Clinical Sciences, and Program Management. Most recently Ryan was with Confluent Medical where he led the implementation of their project management system and also managed several Product Development programs from concept feasibility to high-volume production. Ryan has held senior engineering roles for Stryker Neurovascular and Boston Scientific.

Ryan received a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Marquette University and an MBA from the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University.

Vera Shinsky

Director of Technology

Vera Shinsky

Director of Technology

Vera Shinsky is the Director of Technology at Artio Medical. She brings extensive medical device engineering experience to the team from a career focused in the neurovascular space. Prior to Artio, Vera held engineering management roles at Route 92 Medical, Medina Medical (acquired by Medtronic), and R&D roles at Silk Road Medical, Concentric Medical (acquired by Stryker), St. Jude Medical, and Acorn Product Development.

Vera Shinsky holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, a Bachelor of Science in Product Design, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Stanford University.

Jennifer Martin

Director of Marketing & Operations

Jennifer Martin

Director of Marketing & Operations

Jennifer Martin is Director of Marketing and Operations at Artio Medical. Jennifer is an experienced marketing professional in neurovascular market. Previously, Jennifer was a Global Product Manager at Stryker Neurovascular where she commercialized and managed several products for the treatment of hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke. She was also a Business Development consultant for a promising start-up addressing Alzheimer’s disease.

Jennifer received a Bachelor of Arts in Neurobiology from Harvard University.

Scott Richardson

Director of Creative Device Design

Scott Richardson

Director of Creative Device Design

Scott Richardson is Director of Creative Device Design at Artio where he has played a key role in the growth of Artio’s product portfolio and intellectual property estate. Scott has over 30 years of cardiovascular medical device engineering experience, including at Thermo Cardiosystems, Thoratec, Levitronix, and Flow Forward Medical. He enjoys using his broad and deep technical expertise and inventive nature to find novel, practical solutions to difficult medical device design and engineering challenges.

Scott has completed continued education courses at Northeastern University, UMass Amherst, and Framingham State College, and technical courses at the Control Data Institute.

William Whitaker

Co-Founder

William Whitaker

Co-Founder

William Whitaker is a co-founder of Artio Medical and previously co-founded Flow Forward Medical, Novita Therapeutics, and Proteon Therapeutics (PRTO) where he served as Vice President, General Counsel, and Director. He helped raise more than $120 million in capital and grants for the various companies.

Prior to this, Whitaker was a Partner at two law firms before forming his own practice. He had a diverse career practicing in such areas as corporate law and financing, estate planning, municipal bond financing, bankruptcy, and litigation. He has served on the Boards of Directors of the Heart of America Mutual Fund and of Milburn Country Club, where he served a term as President. He also served for three years on the Public Policy and Education Committee of Kansas BIO.

Whitaker earned a Bachelor of Science in economics from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce. He received his law degree from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. In 2009 Whitaker was named an Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” for the Central Midwest. Whitaker has held memberships in the Missouri Bar Association, Kansas City Bar Association and the Lawyers Association of Kansas City.

F. Nicholas Franano, MD

Founder, President, & CEO

F. Nicholas Franano, MD

Founder, President, & CEO

Jim Schultz

Open Prairie Ventures

Jim Schultz

Open Prairie Ventures

Jim Schultz is the founder of Open Prairie and is responsible for the management of four private equity funds with investments in innovative technologies spanning medical devices, agriculture/food and information systems. Funds invested by Open Prairie have resulted in two successful IPOs and created over 4,000 jobs across 40 portfolio investments. In addition to being a member of the Artio board of directors, Jim has been an active board member on notable medical device investments, including:

TomoTherapy (2007 IPO; NASDAQ: TOMO) – cancer treatment technology
FlowForward Medical (current investment) – hemodialysis technology
ConsortiEX (current investment) – SaaS hospital pharmacy
MedVenture Technologies (sold in 2008 to Ampersand) – outsource device manufacturing
Compact Particle Acceleration Corporation (divested in 2013) – proton-therapy treatment device

Maria Sainz

Aegea Medical

Maria Sainz

Aegea Medical

Maria Sainz has over 25 year of experience in commercial and leadership positions in the medical device industry. Maria is currently President and CEO of Aegea Medical, a venture backed medical device company focused on women’s health. Maria has served as the President and CEO of Cardiokinetix, a medical device company pioneering a catheter-based treatment for heart failure. Prior to that, Maria was the President and CEO of Concentric Medical, a developer of minimally invasive products for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke, which was acquired in 2011 by Stryker Corporation. Maria began her device career at Guidant Corporation where she held positions of increasing responsibility in Europe and the US. When Guidant was acquired by Boston Scientific, Maria served as President of the Cardiac Surgery division of Guidant Corporation. Maria has been intimately involved in several major medical device product launches, including coronary stents and cardiac resynchronization devices. Maria also serves as a Director of several public and private medical company boards.

Maria received a Master of Arts in Languages from the University Complutense in Madrid, Spain and a Masters in International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Jeff Weinrich

Siemens Healthineers

Jeff Weinrich

Siemens Healthineers

Jeff has 30 years of commercial leadership experience in the Healthcare industry, including pharmaceutical, medical device, healthcare payments, and AI interventional robotics. Jeff is currently on the Regional Management Team at Corindus Vascular Robotics, a commercial AI robotics company, which was recently acquired by Siemens Healthineers for $1.1 billion.

Prior to Corindus, Jeff was Executive Vice President for medZERO, responsible for corporate development and positioning employers to provide employees with world’s first mobile payments platform for their healthcare bills. Prior to this, Jeff held several leadership positions at Spectrantics Corp., a cardiovascular medical device company acquired by Phillips. He was responsible for the national launch of the TightRail, a mechanical lead extraction device which captured 50% of the market in just 6 months. Before Spectranetics, Jeff held several leadership and successful sales positions at companies including Cyberonics, Guidant Corporation (Boston Scientific), CHS Solutions, Applied Vascular, and McNeil Pharmaceutical / Jassen (Johnson & Johnson).

Jeff holds a BS degree in communications from the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO.

Nathaniel Hagedorn

NorthPoint Development

Nathaniel Hagedorn

NorthPoint Development

Nathaniel Hagedorn is the founder and CEO of NorthPoint Development and brings nearly two decades of experience in accessing new markets and scaling new business opportunities. Nathaniel founded NorthPoint Development in 2012 as a local industrial developer, and over the past twelve years, he successfully raised $6.5B in capital, expanded operations to 21 states, employs over 280 people, and manages 75 million square feet of commercial real estate space. NorthPoint Development has also been honored as a Kansas City Business Journal “Best Places to Work” annually since 2013, and Nathaniel was a regional finalist for Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2014. Prior to NorthPoint Development, Nathaniel was at Briarcliff Development Company and took on increasing roles within the organization, developing the skills, experience, and expertise he would later apply to the foundation of NorthPoint Development.

Nathaniel received both a Master’s degree and Bachelor of Arts in Finance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Blaise Baxter, MD

Dr. Blaise Baxter is a Neuro and Peripheral Interventional Radiologist. He recently served as Chief/Chair of the Radiology Department at Erlanger Health System. Dr. Baxter is currently a Special Government Employee for the Neurological Devices Panel for the FDA Medical Devices Advisory Committee. In addition, Dr. Baxter is the immediate Past-President of the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS). He is also an Executive Committee Member of American Society of NeuroRadiology (ASNR) and Scientific Statements Committee Member at American Stroke Association (ASA).

Dr. Baxter completed his Interventional Neuroradiology Fellowship at the University of Western Ontario, and received his medical degree from Dalhouse University Faculty of Medicine in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Joshua Hirsch, MD

Dr. Joshua Hirsch is an Interventional Neuroradiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is the Vice Chair of Procedural Services, Service Line Chief of Interventional NeuroRadiology, Chief of NeuroInterventional Spine Service, and has his academic appointment at the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hirsch is a past president of both the American Society of Spine Radiology (ASSR) and the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS). Dr. Hirsch is the President Elect of the American Society of Neuroradiology and the chair of the Cerebrovascular Coalition as well as the Health Policy Committee of the SNIS.

Dr. Hirsch has received numerous awards has published more than 500 articles in the peer reviewed literature and authored many chapters and edited many books. Dr. Hirsch is a founding editor of the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery (JNIS) and has served on multiple other editorial advisory boards.