Joshua Makower, MD
Dr. Makower is the Chairman of the Board of Acclarent, and is also one of the Company's founders. He is also the Founder and CEO of ExploraMed II, Inc., an NEA XI portfolio company created to be a medical device incubator. He is a Venture Partner with New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and works with the NEA med-team focusing on the medical technology and healthcare area. Dr. Makower serves as a part-time faculty member of the Stanford University Medical School as a Consulting Associate Professor of Medicine, and is Co-Director of Stanford's Biodesign Innovation Program. Prior to this, he was Founder, Chairman, and Chief Technical Officer of TransVascular, Inc., a company focused on the development of a completely catheter-based coronary bypass technology. He was also Founder and Chairman of EndoMatrix, Inc., a company focused on the development of a novel therapy for incontinence and GI Reflux.

Up until 1995, Dr. Makower was Founder and Manager of Pfizer's Strategic Innovation Group, chartered to create new medical device technologies and businesses for Pfizer. Dr. Makower holds over three dozen patents for various medical devices in the fields of cardiology, general surgery, drug delivery, and urology. He has an M.B.A. from Columbia University, an M.D. from the New York University School of Medicine, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Makower also serves on the Board of Directors for Intrinsic Therapeutics, Inc.


William Facteau
Mr. Facteau joined Acclarent, Inc., in November 2004. He brings over 13 years of medical device experience, including 11 years in management. Prior to joining Acclarent^TM, Mr. Facteau was at Abbott Vascular Devices (AVD) where he held a number of sales, marketing, and general management positions. In his most recent assignment at Abbott, he served as the General Manager for Endovascular Technologies. During his tenure as General Manager, Mr. Facteau took the business from infancy and grew it into a $32 million dollar business unit within 2 years.

Mr. Facteau joined Abbott Laboratories via the acquisition of Perclose, Inc., a vessel closure company where he was the Eastern Area Sales Director. Prior to joining Perclose, he worked at U.S. Surgical for 5 years. Mr. Facteau is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and has completed multiple sales, marketing, and management courses throughout his career.


Robert Anderson
Mr. Anderson co-founded Valleylab, Inc., in 1969. He served as CEO and Chairman until January 1986, when he relinquished his role as CEO and continued as Chairman until retiring in May 1996. The company, which focuses on electrosurgical and ultrasonics systems, was acquired by Pfizer, Inc., in 1983. Mr. Anderson was named the first Boulder Entrepreneur of the Year in 1985. He is currently a director of four medically-related companies.

In 1999, he received the "Pioneer in Endoscopy" award from the Society of American Gastrointestinal Surgeons, for his early work in "keyhole" surgery. He received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota in June 1992. Mr. Anderson holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota (1963).


Coy Blevins
Mr. Blevins currently consults for early stage medical device companies, including ForHealth Technologies and TargetRX.  He brings over 25 years of medical device Sales and Marketing experience, primarily in Interventional Cardiology.   His previous roles included Director of Sales for three divisions of Baxter Healthcare, Area Sales Manager for Devices for Vascular Intervention, and Vice President of Sales for Perclose, Inc.  At Perclose, he was a key member of the management team that led the company through their product development, clinical trials, and sales launch.

Mr. Blevins is a former member of the Board of Directors of Proxima Therapeutics, Inc., and currently sits on the Board of Directors of Viacor, Inc.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Baylor University (1971).


Bob Croce
Mr. Croce joined New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in 2005 as a venture partner evaluating new healthcare opportunities and working with existing NEA healthcare portfolio companies.  Before joining NEA, Mr. Croce was at Johnson & Johnson for 36 years where he held a series of senior positions, culminating in 12 years as Company Group Chairman.  Prior to this position, he was Worldwide Franchise Chairman of Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson company, and was Worldwide Franchise Chairman for Ethicon Endo-Surgery.  In 1968, Mr. Croce began his career with Johnson & Johnson as an Ortho Pharmaceuticals' Sales Representative. After continued success with Johnson & Johnson, he was named Vice President of Marketing. In 1985, Mr. Croce moved to McNeil Pharmaceutical as Vice President of Business Development and later transferred to Ethicon, Inc. as Group Vice President. He remained at Ethincon, Inc. where he was named President in 1990. Two years later, he was promoted to Worldwide President, Ethicon Endo-Surgery. Mr. Croce holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Central Missouri State University.


Ross Jaffe, MD
Dr. Jaffe was one of the co-founders of Versant Ventures in 1999, and also serves as a General Partner at Brentwood Venture Capital, where, since 1990, he has invested in medical devices, drug delivery, and healthcare information systems companies. Dr. Jaffe is a board-certified internist, having completed his residency training in Internal Medicine / Primary Care at the University of California, San Francisco, where he remained a part-time attending physician until 1995. Before and during medical school, he was an analyst for Lewin and Associates, a healthcare consulting firm, and a Research Associate at Dartmouth Medical School. Dr. Jaffe has served as a director at Therasense, Novacept, Micro Interventional Systems, Aradigm, Webster Laboratories, Atrionix, and ProoDuct Health. He currently serves on the boards of Insulet, St. Francis Medical Technologies, Calypso Medical Technologies, Ablation Frontiers, and Fovioptics. Dr. Jaffe earned his B.A. in Policy Studies from Dartmouth in 1980, his M.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1985, and his M.B.A. from Stanford in 1990.


John Nehra
Mr. Nehra joined New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in 1989, became a General Partner in 1993 and a Special Partner in October 2000. He focuses on a wide range of high-technology companies, with an emphasis on healthcare services, information systems, and medical devices. His current board memberships in addition to Acclarent include Aradigm, CVRx, Davita Corporation, Evalve, ExploraMed II, Nutron Medical, and TargetRx.

His prior board memberships include Bridge Medical, Celeris Corporation, EndoMatrix, Integrated Telecom, IRIDEX Corporation, Optical Sensors, Primax Recoveries, Proxima Therapeutics, Surgical Health, TELOGY Networks, TransVascular, and Vivra, Inc. Prior to joining NEA in 1989, Mr. Nehra was a managing director of Alex. Brown & Sons, with primary responsibility for developing that firm's healthcare research, investment banking, and capital markets businesses. Since 1989, Mr. Nehra also has served as the Managing General Partner of Catalyst Ventures. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan.


Hank Plain
Mr. Plain joined The Foundry, Inc., as Vice Chairman in July 2000. The Foundry is a medical device incubator which collaborates with leading physicians to invent, evaluate, fund, and build innovative medical device companies. The Foundry has started seven successful commercial and development-stage medical device companies. In addition, Mr. Plain is the Chairman of the Board of Emphasys Medical, Satiety, and AccessClosure. He is also a director of Radiant Medical, Cierra, Ardian, and the Pacific Foundation for Cardiovascular Research.

From June 2000 until March 2001, Mr. Plain was Chairman of the Board of Embolic Protection, Inc., helping to negotiate its acquisition by Boston Scientific. He also was a Director of TransVascular, Inc.

Previously, Mr. Plain was President and CEO of Perclose. From 1993 until May 2000, he led Perclose through product development, regulatory approvals, and successful market launch to become the worldwide leader in vascular access site closure devices. Mr. Plain directed Perclose through an IPO, and successfully negotiated the company's acquisition by Abbott Laboratories in November 1999. Prior to joining Perclose, Mr. Plain was with Eli Lilly and Company for 12 years in various marketing and general management positions.


Chris Smith
Mr. Smith joined Cochlear Americas, an implantable hearing company, in August 2004 as their President. He brings many years of leadership and sales experience in the medical devices sector. Prior to joining Cochlear Americas, Mr. Smith was a consultant for Warburg Pincus, a direct equity healthcare investment firm. Prior to that, he was Group President with Gyrus Group, which develops, manufactures, and distributes surgical products in the abdominal and ENT surgery markets. He held the positions of President and CEO of Gyrus North American Sales, President and CEO-Director of Gyrus Medical, Inc., and also Group President. Prior to his success at Gyrus, he held positions with Prism Enterprises, Midmark Corporation, Comprehensive Reimbursement Consultants, and American Health Sciences. Mr. Smith is a graduate of Texas A&M University.


Tom Timbie
Mr. Timbie has served as a member of our board of directors since April 2007. Mr. Timbie is currently the President of Timbie and Company, a financial consulting firm he founded in 2000. From January 2005 to June 2005, Mr. Timbie served as Interim Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for ev3, an endovascular company. From January 1999 to October 2000, Mr. Timbie served as Interim Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of e-dr. Network, a business-to-business exchange in the optical device market. Mr. Timbie currently serves on the board of American Medical Systems Holdings, Wright Medical Group, and ev3. Mr. Timbie received his B.S. in Accounting from the University of Florida and his M.B.A. from Stetson University.