Featured Speaker(s)

Martha Farmer, PhD, is President, CEO and Founder of North Shore InnoVentures, a non-profit business incubator in Beverly, MA, that is dedicated to innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development through fostering life sciences and cleantech start-ups. She has corporate experience in management of R&D, development of biologic therapies and clinical indications and business development with large pharma and start-ups.

Dr. Elizabeth Reczek, an entrepreneur and biotech executive with extensive experience in technological innovation, enterprise strategy development, business development and alliance management in the context of novel therapeutic, diagnostic and technology programs, is CEO at SeqLL. SeqLL specializes in true single molecule sequencing of RNA or DNA.

Susan Jones, is a Program Manager who recently joined MedAcuity Software, a services company focused exclusively on developing and testing MedTech software. She has a passion for bringing people together to solve complex problems throughout the product development lifecycle on products that make a difference in people's lives. Her experiences as a software engineer, a software development manager and systems engineer for technology companies such as Medtronic, Dräger Medical, Juniper Networks, Siemens Medical, Boston Technology and Analogic have uniquely prepared her for this leadership role. Susan holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vermont, a Masters of Computer Science from Boston University and a Masters of Business Administration from Babson College. She is married with three children.

Poliana Yee is currently the Director of Program Management at Corindus Vascular Robotics, a global technology leader in robotic-assisted vascular interventions. The company's CorPath® System is the first FDA-cleared medical device to bring robotic-assisted precision to radial, coronary and peripheral procedures. Poliana has led numerous medical device development projects from concept through market launch in cross-functional team environments.

Erin Johnson has over 26 years of R&D experience in Orthopedics and Medical Device R&D. She is currently Vice President of Spine New Product Development at DePuy Synthes, a Johnson & Johnson company. During her career, she has also held VP level leadership positions in R&D of Trauma devices, Biologics and in front end Research (polymers, metals, and testing). She started her career as a development engineer developing Hip Products for Zimmer, Inc. She is extensively published and holds more than 15 patents.

Erin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Wichita State University, a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University, an MBA from the University of Phoenix, and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Notre Dame.