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Rick is a proven executive in the medical device industry, having successfully developed and commercialized innovative products at both industry-leading public corporations and privately funded start-up entities. Most recently as SVP, Technology and Development at Triple Ring Technologies, Rick led all business units and R&D and brought multiple incubated medical technologies to production. In the pain management field, Rick led the development and commercialization of the first wearable and implantable dorsal root ganglion neural stimulator (VP, Engineering and Operations at Spinal Modulation, acquired by Abbott). In the cardiac space, he developed and brought several generations of implantable cardiac defibrillators and surgical devices to market (Director of R&D at Ventritex, acquired by Abbott and Guidant Corp, acquired by Boston Scientific).

During his 25 years in medical devices, Rick has raised multiple rounds of capital at Lectus Medical, Spinal Modulation and Triple Ring Technologies. He has led organizations through multiple acquisitions and integrations (Hill-Rom, Abbott, Boston Scientific), while successfully leading R&D, operations, quality, marketing and sales teams. Rick began his career in the United States Air Force, where he served as Captain and led F-22 and A-10 developmental flight test engineering. He has 32 issued patents, a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Clarkson University and an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco.

Mike Masterson is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Supermoon Capital. Mike has spent his career in venture capital across investing, starting companies, and fundraising. He co-founded Sutter Post Advisors, where he advised and raised capital for private funds and companies, primarily in healthcare and technology, as well as real estate opportunities. Mike held a number of roles with Bay City Capital, a healthcare-focused venture capital firm. Most recently as a Vice President, he sourced and evaluated investment opportunities and supported portfolio companies across several funds. Mike also co-founded Nevro (NYSE:NVRO), a medical device company, where he was responsible for strategy, finance, and operations and also actively involved in fundraising; the company went public in 2014.

Mike received an MBA from INSEAD and an AB with honors from Harvard University, majoring in Economics.

Dr. Ismail Kola joined Forepont in 2019 as a General Partner in charge of all scientific decisions. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Athersys Inc. (ATHX, Nasdaq) and a Director of GPN vaccines (Australia).

Before Forepont, Ismail held several senior executive positions in the pharmaceutical industry. He has published 159 papers in top scientific journals (17,000 citations). His teams have brought numerous major medicines to the market.

Through 2018 Ismail was the CSO of UCB. Previous positions include SVP, Discovery Research & Early Clinical Research, and CSO, Schering Plough; SVP Basic Research and chairman WW Antibacterial Business Strategy, Merck; and VP Research, Genomics at Pharmacia Corporation.

Before his move to Industry, Ismail was a Professor of Human Molecular Genetics, at Monash University Medical School and Director of Research for 15 years.

He holds a Ph.D. (Med) in Medicine, the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Erik Engelson is currently the CEO of Lucira Health, as well as a board member and strategic advisor to Arrinex Inc and ARANZ Medical, Ltd. Previously, he was CEO of Medina Medical, which he sold to Medtronic. Previous associations include Partner at The Foundry, a medical device incubator, CEO of two Foundry companies, CFO of Fluidigm Corporation, and a Venture Partner at both Versant Ventures and Institutional Venture Partners.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Engelson spent 13 years in various operating roles at Target Therapeutics where he led the early-stage startup into the then nascent field of Interventional Neuroradiology, developing its first products and helped take the company public. He is also the inventor of 50+ medical device patents.

Mr. Engelson holds B.A. and M.S. degrees in Microbiology and Bioengineering from UC San Diego, and an Executive MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Founder and Managing Partner of GreatPoint Ventures, Andrew is a serial entrepreneur who has led multiple companies from inception through exit. He began his career at 19, when he dropped out of college to start his first business. In the time since, Andrew has co-founded nine venture-backed companies in industries ranging from semiconductors to natural resources to life sciences. Andrew was also Chief Executive Officer of GreatPoint Energy, which set the record for the most capital raised in China by a U.S. venture-backed company. Andrew is also co-founder of Jetti Resources, a developer of cutting-edge technology to help the mining industry extract vast trapped copper resources. Previously, Andrew co-founded two pharmaceutical companies that went public on the NASDAQ Stock Market. Andrew was profiled by the Wall Street Journal as one of its leading young entrepreneurs “on the move,” chosen by MIT Technology Review as one of its “35 Innovators Under 35” and selected by Crain’s Chicago Business as one of its “40 leaders under 40.”

A Partner at Eclipse VC, Seth invests in technology companies at the nexus of human-computer interaction. He has a deep focus on integrated systems that improve the movement of people and goods, and is eager to build products that help consumers quantify and improve their wellness. Prior to joining Eclipse VC, Seth was a Partner at GE Ventures, where he invested in industrial hardware technologies across robotics, additive manufacturing and industrial IoT. Seth is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College.