OUR TEAM

Our leadership team is built for purpose and inspired by collaborating with our partners to empower solutions for healthcare

Veranex Leadership

tom-daulton

Tom Daulton

Chief Executive Officer

David Dockhorn

David W. Dockhorn, M.S., Ph. D.

Chief Operating Officer

Joe Ferrara

Joe Ferrara

Chief Strategy Officer

Dave Mathews

Dave Matthews

Chief Financial Officer

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Doug Dockhorn

Chief Administrative Officer

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Luc Behr, DVM, Ph.D.

Co-President, Preclinical Services

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Nicolas Borenstein, DVM, Ph.D.

Co-President, Preclinical Services

Mike Billig

Michael J. Billig

Executive Vice President, Regulatory, Clinical, and Quality

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Lisa Carmel

Executive Vice President, Strategic Partnerships

Soumitra Chowdhury

Soumitra Chowdhury, MBA

Executive Vice President, Data and Analytics

Darlene Crockett-Billig

Darlene Crockett-Billig

Executive Vice President, Regulatory, Clinical, and Quality

Robert Kieval Veranex

Robert Kieval, VMD, Ph. D.

Executive Vice President, Strategic Partnerships

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Kai Worrell

Executive Vice President, Corporate Development

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Amanda Briscoe

Senior Vice President, Business Development

Joanne Woolfall

Joanne Woolfall

Senior Vice President, Global Human Resources

Board of Directors

In 2020 David Dockhorn, M.S., Ph.D., and Patrick Donnelly decided to fill a long-held gap in the MedTech industry. Bringing together the industry’s leading companies, they formed the first end-to-end, integrated service provider solely devoted to MedTech.
In June 2021 private equity firm Summit Partners acquired Boston Healthcare Associates, Ximedica, and Quartesian, rolling them into Veranex. Experien Group came on board in July 2021 and IMMR joined in October 2021. Veranex then acquired Worrell in December 2021.

Patrick Donnelly, executive chairman at Veranex, has been a pharma services founder and executive for over 25 years. He was chairman and CEO of Advarra, Inc. until 2020, and chairman and CEO, from initial formation and sale, of Aptiv Solutions from 2009 to 2014. He also formed PRA International (now PRA Health Sciences, NASDAQ: PRAH) with three other partners, serving as CFO, COO, and CEO over the span of 14 years, taking PRA public in 2004.

He has initiated and closed over 39 acquisitions and global integrations and eight separate successful exit transactions, averaging over 4x investors’ money. Patrick has a B.S. in business and journalism from the University of Missouri and an MBA from the Pennsylvania State University.

David Dockhorn, COO at Veranex, has 32 years of life sciences operating experience in various leadership roles. Early in his career, he was a co-founder of a full-service CRO that was sold to Carlyle in 1997 and integrated into PRA Health Sciences, Inc. (PRA). Most recently, he was executive vice president and chief compliance officer from January 2012 until March 2018. In this role, David led several divisions at PRA including global quality assurance, regulatory affairs, project management office, process and learning management, investigator contracts, talent acquisition, and vendor management.

Additionally, he was the global head of Phase I Operations and the Clinical Pharmacology Laboratories. These businesses represented roughly 2,500 FTEs and a budget of ~$750 million. David received his M.S. in physiological psychology from Pittsburgh State University and his Ph.D. in neuroscience from Texas Tech University.

David Adair has 20+ years as an angel and venture capital investor and is a founding member of Solas BioVentures, which focuses on investing in biotech and MedTech companies. He has led investments and served on the boards of Francis Medical, Biostable S&E, Arrivo Bio Ventures, NX Prenatal, Elira, InterShunt Technologies, AEGEA Medical (acquired by Cooper Surgical), Veran Medical Technologies (acquired by Olympus Corporation of America), Addrenex (acquired by Sciele/Shionogi), NeuroNex (acquired by Acorda), Velo Bio (acquired by AMAG Pharmaceuticals), Aerial Bio (acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals), NxThera (acquired by Boston Scientific), and Knopp BioSciences (asset purchase by Biohaven Pharmaceutical). He is also an inventor and prior c-suite operator of a device and pharmaceutical startup.

David has served more than 20 years as a practicing physician and as a professor and vice chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. He has a B.S. in biology from Morehead State University, an MBA from Gary W. Rollins School of Business at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, and an M.D. from the Joan C. Edwards College of Medicine at Marshall University.

Marshall Stanton is a senior executive in healthcare focusing on medical devices, including management of worldwide businesses with >$1B revenue. His experience has included P/L management, launching new products and therapies, negotiating with FDA and CMS (Medicare), acquisition and integration of companies, and leading clinical research organizations. Dr. Stanton began his career at the Mayo Clinic as a cardiologist, where he was on staff for 10 years and an associate professor of Medicine. He has been a board member of medical device and services companies, a hospital, and academic institutions. Presently, Dr. Stanton is senior VP, Clinical Research, and CMO at Artivion (formerly CryoLife), where he joined in March 2021.

Prior to joining Artivion, Marshall spent 21 years at Medtronic as a CO and senior VP. While there, he was president of the $1.3B pain therapies business unit, general manager of the $1.4B implantable defibrillator business, and general manager of the Japan cardiac rhythm management and external defibrillator businesses. He also led clinical research departments including that of the $8B cardiac and vascular group. In addition to mentoring many employees, he was a member of the leadership team of the Medtronic Women’s Network. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.D. from the Medical College of Virginia.

Darren Black has years of experience in the healthcare and life sciences sector, and is currently serving as managing director at Summit Partners, a global investment firm focused on the technology, healthcare, and life sciences industries. Before joining Summit, he served as managing partner with SV Life Sciences, was co-founder and president of two companies — ClinCare and PharmaStar — and served as a healthcare consultant for Accenture.

Darren’s current board directorships include InnovaCare Partners, Leon Medical Centers, LifeStance Health, Paradigm Outcomes, PharmScript, Sound Physicians, TurningPoint Healthcare Solutions, U.S. Renal Care, and VaxCare, in addition to Veranex. Darren holds an AB in government from Harvard College and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Ali Dowd focuses primarily on the healthcare and life sciences sector, and in addition to her position as a board member at Veranex, is currently serving as vice president at Summit Partners, a global investment firm focused on technology, healthcare, and life sciences industries.

Prior to Summit, Ali worked in the Healthcare Group at Thomas H. Lee Partners. Previously, she worked at TA Associates and BlackArch Partners. Ali holds a B.A. in economics from Vanderbilt University.

Uri Geiger brings extensive entrepreneurial, management and investment know-how, having created and built many successful medical device enterprises.

Prior to founding Accelmed, Dr. Geiger founded served as CEO of Exalenz Bioscience Ltd. (TASE:EXEN), developer of an innovative breath-based technology for diagnosing liver and gastrointestinal disorders which Dr. Geiger took public in 2007 and later sold to Meridian (NASDAQ: VIVO). Prior to Exalenz, Dr. Geiger co-founded and was the CEO of GalayOr Networks, a developer of optical components, sold in 2003 to MEMSCAP (EuroNext: MEMS). Dr. Geiger is also the founding partner of Dragon Variation Fund, one of Israel’s first hedge funds, which was sold to Migdal in 2007. Dr. Geiger worked on Wall Street during the 1990s, where he gained a broad understanding of capital markets and significant experience, which he put to use after returning to Israel in 1999.

Dr. Geiger was formerly an adjunct professor at the Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University, where he lectured on private equity and venture capital. He is the author of the books: Startup Companies and Venture Capital (Tel Aviv University Press, 2001) and From Concept to Wall Street (Financial Times – Prentice Hall, 2003). He earned his doctorate from New York’s Columbia University Center for Law & Economics, where he majored in global equity markets. Dr. Geiger served as a major in the Israeli Air Force.

Dr. Geiger is also involved in an extensive philanthropic activity and is the Founder & Chairman of Friends of Poriya Medical Center in the US.

Samuel is a physician entrepreneur.

He started his career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company in New York before moving to Boston to attend Harvard Medical School. As a second-year medical student, Samuel co-founded Allurion Technologies and built a fully-integrated, global medical device company from the idea stage to commercialization in more than 30 countries.

Samuel is a graduate of Yale College (summa cum laude) and Harvard Medical School. He was a Fulbright Scholar to France at the Pasteur Institute.

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