Our Team

Prior to joining Veran in August 2012, Jason had an eighteen-year career at Stryker, a publicly traded Fortune 500 medical device company with an emphasis on capital sales and operating room equipment. During his tenure, Jason served as Global Vice President and General Manager for the Surgical Navigation division, spearheading Stryker’s fastest-growing capital business in 2006, 2009, and 2010. Jason has a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska.

Prior to joining CONMED, Curt had an illustrious 22-year career at Stryker Corporation, even serving as interim CEO from February to October 2012. During Curt’s tenure, Stryker completed several acquisitions, debt offerings, share buybacks and an enhanced dividend policy. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and obtained an Advanced Management Program Certificate from Harvard Business School.

Carter joined River Cities in 1999 and leads the Firm’s healthcare investing practice. He has been instrumental in setting River Cities’ healthcare strategy and establishing the Firm’s credibility within the healthcare vertical.
 
Previously, Carter worked in marketing and business development for Home Technology Healthcare, a comprehensive home healthcare company offering nursing, DME, infusion therapy and hospice services. Home Technology Healthcare was private equity financed by Continental Illinois and acquired by Integrated Health Services in 1997. As the 1998 recipient of the Bradford Fellowship for achievements in corporate finance, Carter worked in equity research at J.C. Bradford & Co. while attending business school at Vanderbilt.
 
Carter has achieved numerous highly profitable exits in healthcare services and medical technology, including Suros Surgical Systems, Accelecare, SurgiQuest, OrthoHelix, Invivodata, PerfectServe and Orthoscan. He currently serves on the boards of Nico, OrthAlign and TissueTech. Carter is also an independent board member of Ischemia Care.
 
Carter holds a BA in Classical Studies from Trinity College (Hartford, CT) where he was awarded the James Goodwin Prize, the oldest academic honor at the college, and received his MBA from Vanderbilt University.

Gregory R. Johnson, Ph.D. has served as a Director for Veran since April 2008. Dr. Johnson co-founded Prolog in 2000 following a thirteen-year career as a General Partner with Gateway Venture Associates. Prior to Gateway, Dr. Johnson served as Vice President of Monsanto Venture Capital Company. He sits on the boards of several private portfolio companies in the biomedical area and holds Ph.D. and M.A. in Physics from the University of Rochester. He graduated with a B.S. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Prior to joining NxThera in 2009, Bob was President, Chief Executive Officer, and a Director of Restore Medical, which was acquired by Medtronic in July 2008. Bob has held multiple finance and marketing leadership positions at Endocardial Solutions, Medtronic and General Mills. In addition to NxThera and Veran Medical, Bob serves as a Director of Sun Biopharma, Inc. and is a Director and Chairperson for several charitable foundations: Sister Kenny Foundation, Pillsbury Neighborhood Services and the Washburn Child Guidance Center. Bob received his J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law and holds an M.B.A. from the University of St. Thomas. He has a B.A. in Accounting, Economics & Political Science from Luther College.

Kevin Hykes is the CEO and President of Relievant Medsystems, a privately held medical device company that has developed the Intracept® procedure, a breakthrough treatment for chronic lower back pain. Prior to Relievant Kevin was an Operating Partner at Versant Ventures and Chairman and CEO of Metavention, Inc., a privately held medical device company focused on the development of interventional therapies for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Prior to Metavention, Kevin was President and CEO of Cameron Health, developer of the subcutaneous implantable defibrillator, until its acquisition by Boston Scientific in 2012. Prior to Cameron Health, he was the Chief Commercial Officer of Visiogen, Inc., a privately held ophthalmology company which was acquired by Abbott Medical Optics in 2009. Previously, Kevin spent over sixteen years at Medtronic, where he held leadership positions in the CRM, Neurostimulation, and Cardiac Surgery businesses in the US and Europe. Kevin received his MBA from Northwestern University and a BBA from the University of Wisconsin. Kevin serves as an independent director at Metavention and Veran Medical Technologies.

At Versant, Kirk has co-led investments in several medical companies such as Biotie (public), CardiAQ (sold), Cameron Health (sold), Lutonix (sold), Holaira, Inari Medical, Metavention, NeuWave Medical, Respicardia, Sequent Medical, Veran and Zyga Technology. Before Versant, Kirk held several commercial positions in Medtronic’s Cardiac Rhythm Management division and, before his business career, he was a professional hockey player. He obtained his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar, and graduated with a B.S. in Biology from Harvard College, where he received the John P. Reardon, Jr. Award as the college’s most outstanding scholar-athlete.

Mr. Cramer runs his own consulting business, has over 30 years’ experience and is a proven and focused medical device & diagnostics CEO. He has significant experience driving change by instilling a culture of high performance and implementing growth strategies as well as operational improvement initiatives, resulting in a track-record of successful exits.

Scott joined Accriva Diagnostics in December 2013 as the President & CEO. The Company had a portfolio of diagnostics devices for coagulation and platelet function testing. The Company closed all NJ operations and moved to a new facility in San Diego. Accriva was successfully sold to Werfen Life in January 2017 for $380M.

Prior to Accriva, Scott worked as an EIR with Warburg Pincus in 2013. From March 2010 to Dec. 2012 Scott was President and CEO of Novasys Medical. The Company was focused on treating women with stress incontinence. Novasys was sold to Roper Industries in Dec. 2012.

Prior to joining Novasys, he served as President and CEO of Bacchus Vascular, a company focused on peripheral vascular disease, where he successfully negotiated the sale of the Company to Covidien plc in March 2009.

Previously, Scott was the Senior Vice President of U.S. Sales and Services for VNUS Medical, which was also acquired by Covidien plc. Scott joined VNUS in 2000.

From 1997 through 2000, Scott was Vice President Sales at EndoSonics, a cardiovascular device company which later became Volcano Corporation. From 1996 to 1997, he served as NSM at Cardiometrics, Inc., which was acquired by Endosonics Corporation. From 1990 to 1995, Scott held several positions at Baxter Healthcare Corporation’s cardiovascular division.

Scott currently serves on the Board of Directors of Veran Medical, and is Chairman of Biocoat Incorporated. Scott served as Executive Chairman of NeuWave Medical (Sold to J&J April 2016, $300M), and has also previously served on the Board of Directors of Accriva, Vascular Insights, AccuVein, Venous Health, Novasys and Bacchus. He serves on the Investment Advisory Committee for Venture Investors. He holds a B.S. degree in Finance from Philadelphia University.