leadership teams

Dr. Lishan Aklog is Chairman & CEO of PAVmed Inc. (Nasdaq: PAVM), a diversified, commercial-stage medical technology company which he co-founded, and its majority-owned subsidiary Lucid Diagnostics Inc., a cancer prevention medical diagnostics company (Nasdaq: LUCD). He also serves on the board of the leading medtech industry group, AdvaMed, and as an independent public company director. He previously co-founded a medtech holding company which founded four medical device companies and led one of its portfolio companies which commercialized one of his life-saving inventions, AngioVac®. Dr. Aklog has consulted for leading medtech companies and is an inventor on dozens of patents. The Healthcare Technology Report recognized him as a Top Healthcare Technology CEO in 2021 and 2022. Prior to entering the life sciences industry as an entrepreneur and executive, Dr. Aklog had a distinguished career as an innovator in cardiac surgery, serving on the faculty of leading academic medical centers including Harvard Medical School and Mount Sinai Medical Center, and in professional society leadership positions. He was recognized as an America’s Top Doctor for over a decade. He received his undergraduate degree in Physics, magna cum laude, and M.D., cum laude, from Harvard University. He completed his training at Harvard teaching hospitals and leading medical centers in London and Paris.

Dennis M. McGrath has served as the Company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since March 2017.

Previously, from 2000 to 2017 Mr. McGrath served in several senior level positions of PhotoMedex, Inc. (Nasdaq: PHMD), a global manufacturer and distributor of medical device equipment and services, including from 2011 to 2017 as director, President, and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to PhotoMedex’s reverse merger with Radiancy, Inc in December 2011, he also served as Chief Executive Officer from 2009 to 2011 and served as Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer from 2000 to 2009.

He received honors as a P.A.C.T. (Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technology) finalist for the 2011 Investment Deal of the Year, award winner for the SmartCEO Magazine 2012 CEO of the Year for Turnaround Company, and finalist for the Ernst & Young 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year. He has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, both domestically and internationally, and particularly involving public company acquisitions, including Surgical Laser Technologies, Inc, (formerly, Nasdaq: SLTI), ProCyte Corporation (formerly, Nasdaq: PRCY), LCA Vision, Inc. (formerly, Nasdaq: LCAV) and Think New Ideas, Inc. (formerly, Nasdaq: THNK). Prior to PhotoMedex, he served in several senior level positions of AnswerThink Consulting Group, Inc. (then, Nasdaq: ANSR, now, The Hackett Group, Nasdaq: HCKT), a business consulting and technology integration company, including from 1999 to 2000 as Chief Operating Officer of the Internet Practice, the largest division of AnswerThink Consulting Group, Inc., while concurrently during the merger of the companies, serving as the acting Chief Financial Officer of Think New Ideas, Inc. (then, Nasdaq: THNK, now, Nasdaq: HCKT), an interactive marketing services and business solutions company. Mr. McGrath also served from 1996 until 1999 as Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President and director of TriSpan, Inc., an internet commerce solutions and technology consulting company, which was acquired by AnswerThink Consulting Group, Inc. in 1999.

During his tenure at Arthur Andersen & Co., where he began his career, he became a Certified Public Accountant in 1981 and he holds a B.S., maxima cum laude, in accounting from LaSalle University. In addition to continuing as a director of PhotoMedex, he serves as the audit chair and a director of several medical device companies, including DarioHealth Corp. (Nasdaq: DRIO), Noninvasive Medical Technologies, Inc. and Cagent Vascular, LLC, and as an advisor to the board of an orphan drug company, Palvella Therapeutics, LLC. Formerly from 2007 to 2009, Mr. McGrath served as a director of Embrella Cardiovascular, Inc. (sold to Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, NYSE: EW). He also serves on the Board of Trustees for Manor College and the Board of Visitors for Taylor University.

Shaun M. O’Neil has served as the Company’s Chief Operating Officer since April 2022 and served as Chief Commercial Officer from July 2018 to April 2022.

As PAVmed’s Chief Operating Officer, he is responsible for the planning and execution of both sales and marketing activities for the U.S., Europe, South America, and Asia. His responsibilities include the development of PAVmed’s strategic partnerships, distribution channels, creation of growth strategies and successful business solutions for branding and positioning of the product lines as well as organize, develop, and grow the sales organization. Shaun works closely with surgeons, clinicians, medical device manufacturers and distributors, technology business managers, as well as research and development partners around the globe.

With a solid track record of sales and marketing leadership, and product and business development expertise in both startup and established companies, including a particularly strong track record in growing sales and increasing market share for innovative medical devices. Since 2011, Mr. O’Neil has held various sales and marketing leadership positions with AngioDynamics (Nasdaq: ANGO), a leading provider of innovative medical devices used by interventional radiologists, interventional cardiologists, surgeons, and other physicians for the minimally-invasive diagnosis and treatment of cancer and peripheral vascular disease. Most recently he served as regional sales manager for its peripheral vascular division, where he oversaw multiple territory managers and clinical specialists. He was responsible for multiple product launches and was a perennial recipient of sales and performance awards. Prior to AngioDynamics, he served in various sales, marketing, and engineering roles at Aycan Medical Systems, a privately-held medical imaging company.

Mr. O’Neil received a B.S. in Business Administration with a focus in management information systems from Alfred University and an M.B.A. from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Michael A. Gordon has served as the Company’s General Counsel and Secretary since May 2022. Mr. Gordon has also served as the General Counsel and Secretary of Lucid, the Company’s majority owned subsidiary, since May 2022. Previously, from October 2006 to May 2022, he was a member of the corporate department of the law firm Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman LLP, where he was a partner from January 2013 through May 2022, and a member of the firm’s management committee from January 2019 through May 2022. While at Friedman Kaplan, Mr. Gordon represented PAVmed and Lucid in a range of M&A, financing and other corporate and commercial transactions, and also advised the companies and their boards on corporate governance matters. Prior to joining Friedman Kaplan, Mr. Gordon was a corporate associate with the law firm Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP. Mr. Gordon received his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude in 2004, and his A.B. in Economics from Dartmouth College, where he graduated cum laude in 1996.

Dr. deGuzman has served as PAVmed’s Chief Medical Officer since October 2014 and served as a Director from October 2014 to January 2015. Dr. deGuzman has previously served as a co-founding Partner of Pavilion Holdings Group (“PHG”), a medical device holding company, and Pavilion Medical Innovations (“PMI”), a venture-backed medical device incubator, since their respective inceptions in 2007 and 2009.

Dr. deGuzman has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Kaleidoscope Medical since its founding in February 2013 and has also served as a Senior Advisor to PMI portfolio companies Saphena Medical since February 2013 and Cruzar Medsystems since July 2013. Dr. deGuzman served as Chief Medical Officer of Vortex Medical from inception until its sale to AngioDynamics, for whom he continues to serve as a consultant. Dr. deGuzman has also been a consultant to Biomet and Atricure since 2007, and on the Revascularization Scientific Advisory Board of Maquet Cardiovascular (formerly Boston Scientific and Guidant Cardiac Surgery) since 2006.

During his surgical career, Dr. deGuzman also served as a consultant to various medical device companies, including Edward Lifesciences. Prior to moving into the medical device industry full-time in 2012, Dr. deGuzman was Assistant Professor of Surgery, Associate Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery, and Surgical Director of the Atrial Fibrillation Clinic at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center’s Heart and Lung Institute from 2006 to 2012. From 2002 to 2006, Dr. deGuzman was Assistant Professor of Surgery at Tufts University School of Medicine and an attending cardiac surgeon at the Lahey Clinic Medical Center in Massachusetts. From 2001 to 2002, Dr. deGuzman was a Clinical Associate of Cardiac Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. deGuzman received his general surgical training at the University of Connecticut/Hartford Hospital, was a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School’s Cardiac Surgery Research Laboratory, and received his cardiothoracic surgical training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. deGuzman was recognized as a Top Doctor in Cardiovascular Surgery by Boston Magazine. Dr. deGuzman received his B.S. in Biology from Boston College and his M.D. from Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Dr. Deepika Lakhani is an internationally recognized regulatory professional with over 15 years of experience with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and industry. Her interest in regulatory affairs started during her Doctorate studies at Virginia Commonwealth University where she collaborated with the FDA on an academic research project that fostered her interest in understanding regulations impacting the pharmaceutical and medical device industry. Right out of graduate school she started working as a reviewer at the Center for Drugs Evaluation and Research at the FDA where she spent >5 years in different capacities followed by >5 years at Center for Devices and Radiological Health. During her tenure at the FDA, she has reviewed, led cross-discipline teams, and contributed to policies impacting drugs, biologics, medical devices, tobacco products and combination products and served as FDA’s liaison to ISO committees. More recently in the healthcare industry she has lead efforts for global regulatory approvals of drugs, medical devices, combination products and emerging technologies and demonstrated expertise in tactically leading global regulatory teams using her sharp acumen for regulatory strategy and expertise in policy to maximize regulatory success.  Through her experience working at the FDA and then in the industry at AstraZeneca and while consulting for Johnson and Johnson, she has gained in-depth understanding of global regulatory pathways from a vast portfolio of drugs, medical devices, and combination products. Most importantly she has a mindset that bringing products to market, especially those that are innovative, can benefit from a creative regulatory process and strives to provide “regulatory enablement” using both standard and out-of-the-box thinking.

Deepika received her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy in Delhi, India and her PhD in Pharmaceutics from Virginia Commonwealth University.  She has multiple peer-reviewed publications, received many awards for excellence and leadership while at the FDA and in the industry.

Dr. Verma joined Lucid Diagnostics & PAVmed as Chief Scientific Officer and VP, molecular diagnostics in 2021. Prior to joining PAVmed, she served in various scientific and senior executive roles for over a decade, at Irvine, CA-based ResearchDx, Inc. a leading contract diagnostics organization (CDO) for the biopharmaceutical and diagnostic industries and Bridge Diagnostics, a National Molecular Laboratory focused on infectious diseases and women’s health. During these years, she led the development and commercialization of numerous cutting-edge molecular diagnostic assays including liquid biopsy and precision oncology tests. Dr. Verma earned doctorate in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California Irvine where she made significant contributions to breast cancer biology research and identified targets for therapeutic intervention in breast cancer. Before immigrating to the U.S., Dr. Verma earned her medical degree at Maharishi Dayanand University in India, where she also completed her internal medicine training and served as a staff physician actively engaged in clinical research.

Dr. Lee has served as the Company’s Chief Medical Officer since April 2023 and served as the Vice President of Medical Affairs from August 2022 to March 2023.

Prior to joining PAVmed, from November 2020 to August 2022 Dr. Lee was first a Director, and later the Senior Director of Clinical Affairs at CytoSorbents Inc., a publicly traded medical device company specializing in blood purification technology. Preceding her move into the medical device industry, from 2019-2020 Dr. Lee was an Associate Medical Director at Syntactx (now part of NAMSA), a medical device focused CRO with a strong reputation for expert clinical trial support in the cardiovascular disease space. Dr. Lee has also served as a physician consultant at McKinsey and Company from 2017-2018, where areas of interest included medical policy, resource utilization, and optimizing efficiencies in healthcare.

Dr. Lee has experience in both pre-market and post-market clinical trials; trial designs have included multicenter, randomized control trials; multi-center, case-control trials; prospective, single-arm, open-label trials; multi-center registries; retrospective cohort studies; and  virtual patient trials. Research responsibilities have included trial design, contracting and selection of CROs and AROs, protocol development, safety oversight and medical monitoring, organization of Steering Committees, collaboration with KOLs, and general oversight of clinical research operations. She has been a frequent collaborator on regulatory submissions to the FDA and European regulatory authorities, including successful requests for breakthrough device designation.

Dr. Lee graduated from the NYU Grossman School of medicine in 2011 and began her surgical training in general surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. Shortly thereafter, she returned to NYU Langone Medical Center when offered a position as the inaugural member of their Integrated Vascular Surgery Residency program, where she ultimately completed her training and obtained her Board Certification in Vascular Surgery. Dr. Lee received her B.S. in Cellular, Molecular, and Developmental Biology at the University of Washington, Seattle.

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