At FemPulse, our mission is to not only help women suffering from OAB but do it in a way that is dignifying and affordable. With our proprietary bioelectronic device, women experiencing OAB will be able to take back control of their body and ultimately their life. Invented and designed by our Founder, Dr. Alexandra Haessler, an accomplished urogynecologist, the device is on the leading edge of bioelectronic medicine. Personalized, affordable and discreet– FemPulse truly is the elegant solution.
Leadership Team
Don Deyo, Chief Executive Officer
Don is a former Medtronic executive, where he served in executive roles in the Neuromodulation and Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management (CRDM) sectors, including 8 years as Vice President, R&D, Neuromodulation. During his 29-year career, he led delivery of more than fifty class III medical devices to global markets and collaborated on concept-to-commercial delivery of eight first-in-history innovations. Don served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Medallion Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage company formed as a spinout from the Alfred Mann Foundation for Biomedical Research. Don is also Founder and President of MedTech Execs, LLC, a consultancy specializing in medical device innovation and commercialization. Don serves on the boards of LindaCare NV, as Chairman, and Nyxoah SA. He previously served on the boards of Medallion Therapeutics, Trod Medical and Sapiens Brain Steering BV, which was purchased by Medtronic in 2014. Don holds a M.B.A. from the University of St. Thomas and earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Iowa State University.
Peter Fredericks, Chairman
Peter has over 30 years of experience as a technology entrepreneur and investor. In the mid-1980s, Peter founded his first company, ManageWare, which developed the award-winning software, Compete!. Peter served as CEO until the company's successful sale to Computer Associates (Nasdaq: CA). Since then, Peter has helped found and finance numerous technology companies, several of which have gone public or been acquired. He has served on numerous private and public technology company, charity, and fund boards. He was recognized by the Republic of Austria for contributions to that country's technology economy and selected as Honorary Consul for Austria in San Francisco. Peter began his career at The Boston Consulting Group in Munich. Peter holds an B.A. with distinction from Stanford, an M.B.A. with high distinction as a Baker Scholar from the Harvard Business School, and a Ph.D. from the Vienna School of Economics.
Jeff Korn, Secretary and Corporate Counsel
Jeff has been a corporate attorney in practice since 1982. From 1982 to 1999, he was a partner in the law firm of Kosto & Rotella, PA, where he specialized in commercial litigation and business practice. Since 1999, Jeff has served as corporate counsel and board member of several public companies, including Prosofttraining.com and Flanders Corporation (both NASDAQ companies now sold), and Crexendo, Inc., a NYSE company, where he serves as Chief Legal Officer. Jeff has also served as corporate counsel, business advisor, and early investor for numerous private technology startups. He holds a J.D. from Stetson University and a B.A. from the State University of New York at New Palz.
David Williams, Director, Finance
David brings a combination of financial, legal, technical, and tax expertise to FemPulse. Since 2004, David has served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Equity Management Group, which provides asset management, tax consulting and financing. From 1996 to 2004, David acted as an independent consultant in financial transactions, taxation, and venture capital. Mr. Williams is a CPA in California and Nevada and holds a J.D. degree in law and taxation from the McGeorge Law School at University of the Pacific. Mr. Williams graduated from Stanford University with an M.S. in engineering finance and a B.S. in biological science with honors.
Board of Directors
Peter Fredericks, Chairman
Peter has over 30 years of experience as a technology entrepreneur and investor. In the mid-1980s, Peter founded his first company, ManageWare, which developed the award-winning software, Compete!. Peter served as CEO until the company's successful sale to Computer Associates (Nasdaq: CA). Since then, Peter has helped found and finance numerous technology companies, several of which have gone public or been acquired. He has served on numerous private and public technology company, charity, and fund boards. He was recognized by the Republic of Austria for contributions to that country's technology economy and selected as Honorary Consul for Austria in San Francisco. Peter began his career at The Boston Consulting Group in Munich. Peter holds an B.A. with distinction from Stanford, an M.B.A. with high distinction as a Baker Scholar from the Harvard Business School, and a Ph.D. from the Vienna School of Economics.
Alexandra Haessler, MD, FACOG, President & Founder
Dr. Haessler invented and refined the technology underlying FemPulse. She is a fellowship trained Female Pelvic Medicine & Reconstructive Surgeon. She currently serves as the Director of Urogynecology at California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC). She is a volunteer member of many committees, including the GYN Quality, GYN New Technology and CPMC New Technology Committees. She provides free surgical care to the underinsured as a volunteer at Operation Access. Prior to joining CPMC, Dr. Haessler founded and ran her private practice, San Francisco Urogynecology. She has served as a consultant to leading companies in female urology, including Allergan, American Medical Systems, and Ethicon/Johnson & Johnson. Her training includes a 3-year accredited fellowship in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery at UCLA/Harbor LA County, following OBGYN residency at UCLA. She earned her M.D. from Dartmouth Medical School and her B.A. in zoology summa cum laude at the University of California Santa Barbara. Her professional memberships include the American Urogynecological Society (AUGS), the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists (AAGL), the International Continence Society (ICS), the International Urogynecologic Society (IUGA), the Society for Urodynamics and Female Urology (SUFU), and the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS).
Flip Gianos, Member, Board of Directors
Flip is General Partner Emeritus at InterWest Partners, a venture capital firm located in Menlo Park, CA. He joined the IW team in 1982 and built a highly successful career in venture investing. With a background in engineering, he has invested in multiple areas of information technology, including semiconductors, computing and networking equipment, and infrastructure and applications software. Flip was a board member of Xilinx (XLNX), a publicly held company, from 1984 to 2016 and Chairman from 2009 through 2015. He is a board member of several privately held companies, including Microfabrica (an InterWest company). Flip also serves on the advisory board of Storm Ventures II and is a past president of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists. From 1973 to 1980, Flip worked in engineering management at IBM, where he managed both chip design and systems integration for several IBM office automation products. Flip earned his M.B.A. from Harvard University and received his M.S. and B.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He has one international and two U.S. patents.
Darrin Uecker, Member, Board of Directors
Darrin has over 20 years of experience in product development, R&D, operations and business development in a variety of medical device markets. He currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Pulse Biosciences (Nasdaq: PLSE), a medical device company using a proprietary platform technology called nano-pulse stimulation. Previously, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Progyny, a female health care company. He also served as the CEO/President at Gynesonics, a venture backed women's health care company focused on the minimally invasive treatment of symptomatic uterine fibroids, where he led the company from an early development stage to a mature clinical stage while raising more than $40 million in venture investment. He also served as the Executive Vice President of R&D, Clinical Research, Regulatory Affairs and Operations at Conceptus Inc., a publicly held women's health care device company, then acquired by Bayer. Earlier in his career, he served as the Chief Technology Officer of RF ablation company RITA Medical Systems, where he was responsible for R&D, operations, and business development functions. Darrin began his medical device career advancing to CTO at Computer Motion, a robotic system manufacturer acquired by Intuitive Surgical. Darrin is a named inventor on 57 U.S. patents and has led the development and launch of more than a dozen medical devices during his career. He received his M.S. and B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Don Deyo, Chief Executive Officer
Don is a former Medtronic executive, where he served in executive roles in the Neuromodulation and Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management (CRDM) sectors, including 8 years as Vice President, R&D, Neuromodulation. During his 29-year career, he led delivery of more than fifty class III medical devices to global markets and collaborated on concept-to-commercial delivery of eight first-in-history innovations. Don served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Medallion Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage company formed as a spinout from the Alfred Mann Foundation for Biomedical Research. Don is also Founder and President of MedTech Execs, LLC, a consultancy specializing in medical device innovation and commercialization. Don serves on the boards of LindaCare NV, as Chairman, and Nyxoah SA. He previously served on the boards of Medallion Therapeutics, Trod Medical and Sapiens Brain Steering BV, which was purchased by Medtronic in 2014. Don holds a M.B.A. from the University of St. Thomas and earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Iowa State University.
Jeff Korn, Secretary and Corporate Counsel
Jeff has been a corporate attorney in practice since 1982. From 1982 to 1999, he was a partner in the law firm of Kosto & Rotella, PA, where he specialized in commercial litigation and business practice. Since 1999, Jeff has served as corporate counsel and board member of several public companies, including Prosofttraining.com and Flanders Corporation (both NASDAQ companies now sold), and Crexendo, Inc., a NYSE company, where he serves as Chief Legal Officer. Jeff has also served as corporate counsel, business advisor, and early investor for numerous private technology startups. He holds a J.D. from Stetson University and a B.A. from the State University of New York at New Palz.
Advisory Board
Roger Dmochowski, M.D., Member, Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Dmochowski is a professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Urologic Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is also a clinical assistant professor in surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. He has published more than 85 articles and book chapters, 200 abstracts, and has given over 100 presentations at various national and international meetings. He serves on the editorial board for the World Journal of Urology, Neurourology and Urodynamics, International Journal of Urogynecology, and the American Urological Association Office of Education CD-ROM Series, and as a reviewer for the Journal of Urology and Urology. Dr. Dmochowski has been granted the Zimskind Award from the Urodynamics Society for his accomplishment in clinical treatment for incontinence. Dr. Dmochowski is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of the American Urological Association and the International Continence Society. His current research interests are outcomes of incontinence therapies, with an emphasis on quality of life issues, and practice standardization and guidelines. Dr. Dmochowski received his M.D. from The University of Texas and his B.S. from Trinity University.
Dr. Krames is recognized as a worldwide thought-leader in the field of pain medicine and neuromodulation. He was until recently Medical Director of the Pacific Pain Treatment Center in San Francisco, which he founded in 1987. Dr. Krames was the immediate past-president of the International Neuromodulation Society (INS) and the founding Editor (now Editor-in-Chief Emeritus) of Neuromodulation, a peer reviewed medical journal of the INS. He is a co-founder of the National Pain Foundation (NPF) and a founder member of the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS). Dr. Krames presently sits on the Board of the INS and has served on the Boards of the NANS, the American Academy of Pain Medicine, The American Board of Pain Medicine, the World Institute of Pain and the NPF. Dr. Krames is co-author of three books titled, “Pain Medicine, Tools of the Trade”, “Operative Neuromodulation” and “Neuromodulation”, has authored or coauthored more than 90 publications and has spoken worldwide over 350 times on pain medicine and neuromodulation. Dr. Krames has been honored by numerous awards and honors from his colleagues, most recently the “Giants in Neuromodulation” award by the INS in 2013. Dr. Krames received his Anesthesiology training at UCSF and completed a fellowship in Obstetrical Anesthesia at UCSF. Dr. Krames received his M.D. from the University of Maryland and his B.A. from the University of North Carolina.
Ben Pless, Member, Scientific Advisory Board
Ben joined the five other medical and medical device experts on the FemPulse Advisory Board, after previously advising the founders informally. He currently serves as CEO of Celero Systems, a privately held FinTech company. Ben is an MIT-educated engineer, who has become a leading medical device executive and innovator in Silicon Valley over the past 30 years. Ben has served as Vice President of product development at Ventritex (implantable defibrillators, acquired by St. Jude Medical), Vice President of R&D for Pacesetter, CTO/COO of NeuroPace (responsive electrical stimulation for epilepsy), and most recently CEO of Autonomic Technologies (neurostimulation for headache). He has served on the boards of numerous medical companies, including Inspire Medical Systems, Angelmed, and Proteus Digital Health. He serves on the board of the recently launched Neurotechnology Innovations Translator (NIT) formed in collaboration with over a dozen partners, with a mission to develop and commercialize pioneering neurotechnology solutions. Ben is a named inventor on over 100 patents and patent applications. Ben received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering and his B.S. in electrical engineering from MIT.
Jim Long, Tech Entrepreneur & Venture Adviser
Since 1982, Jim has been a founder, CEO, and investor, building successful businesses in the technology industry, as well as developing new technologies and patents, and advising startups and venture capital firms. He currently serves as CEO of Didja Inc, mobile app and web service company. His previous work includes Gabriel Venture Partners, where he invested in consumer internet and cleantech deals. Jim began his venture capital career in 1982 with Fred Adler Ventures. In his four years at the firm, Jim was acting CEO at several turnarounds and worked with veteran venture capitalists, Jim Swartz and Arthur Patterson, prior to them founding Accel Partners. Jim has since done projects with leading venture firms such as Accel Partners, Crosspoint Venture Partners, IT-Farm (Japan), and Sequoia Capital. His venture capitalist experience includes Linkware (acquired by Ungermann-Bass), TiMetra (acquired by Alcatel), Ruckus Wireless (NYSE: RKUS), Ready Systems (acquired by Mentor), and Jibe Networks (acquired by Citrix). His entrepreneurial experience includes being founder/CEO of RioPort, founder/CEO of Starlight Networks, and founder/VP marketing of Tolerant Software, which became Veritas (VRTS). Jim also lead one of the first digital music pioneers, RioPort, Inc. Jim serves on numerous technology company and community service boards. He holds a M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science from UC Berkeley.
FemPulse Corporation announced the issuance of two patents from China and Australia covering methods of stimulation of autonomic nerve plexuses in women. Read the Rest of the Article
FemPulse Corporation announced the first participant has been enrolled in the Company’s clinical trial evaluating physiological responses to therapy delivered with the FemPulse System. Observations from this feasibility study can further help elucidate the mechanisms of action and facilitate tailoring treatment plans for individual patients. Read the Rest of the Article
FemPulse Corporation announced that Donald Deyo, President and CEO, is scheduled to participate in the Entrepreneur Panel I session on bioelectronic medicine in the 2019 Bioelectronic Medicine Forum taking place Thursday, April 4th, in New York City. This is the second annual meeting of the Bioelectronic Medicine Forum, a management and investment conference focused exclusively […]
