Credence is under the care of a seasoned team with extensive experience founding, leading and growing successful companies in the medical technology and drug delivery space. The Credence team brings curiosity, a fresh perspective and an intense desire to understand the needs of both the end-user and pharmaceutical manufacturer to the overriding goal of improving patient care.
Executive Management Team
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Jeff Shanley
President and CEO
John F. (Jeff) Shanley is the President and CEO of Credence MedSystems and is a member of the Board of Directors. Jeff is also a Founder and Managing Member of Reprise Medical LLC, a medical device incubator that has developed technologies in Interventional Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, Minimally Invasive Surgical technology, and Orthopedics.
Previously, Jeff was the Founder and CTO of Conor Medsystems, where he invented and developed the Conor Reservoir-based drug eluting stent technology. Conor Medsystems conducted a successful IPO in 2004 and was subsequently acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2006.
Prior to Conor, Jeff had over 25 years of executive and management experience across a broad range of industries, including medical devices, microelectronics and semi-conductor technology, food and chemical processing systems, and advanced materials technology.
Jeff received his B.S. in Engineering Science, and M.S. in Materials Science from the University of Notre Dame. He has 45 issued U.S. patents, and over 100 published U.S. patent applications in the areas of implantable medical devices, local drug delivery, cardiac and orthopedic surgical devices, and micro-manufacturing processes.
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John A. Merhige
Chief Commercial Officer
John A. Merhige is Chief Commercial Officer at Credence MedSystems, leading the business development, sales and marketing activities. Previously, John was Vice President, Market Development at Sanofi BioSurgery. He came to Sanofi upon its acquisition of Pluromed in 2012, which John joined in its early stages and where he was a member of the executive management team. He led the commercial activities at Pluromed, which developed and commercialized highly innovative rapid transition polymers for use in cardiovascular and other surgical procedures.
Prior to Pluromed, John founded Prelude Devices to target early stage medical device technologies for development and commercialization, and previously he gained general management and commercial leadership experience at Ford Motor Company and Avery Dennison.
John graduated from Dartmouth College earning a BA, a BE in mechanical engineering, and a Masters in Engineering Management from Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering and Tuck School of Business.
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Jeff Tillack
Chief Operating Officer
Jeff Tillack is Chief Operating Officer at Credence MedSystems, leading the development, quality/regulatory and operations teams. Previously, Jeff was Vice President, Operations at Calibra Medical, a start-up insulin patch company acquired by Johnson and Johnson in July 2012.
Prior to this, Jeff was Vice President of Operations at Conor Medsystems, a drug-eluting stent company acquired by Johnson and Johnson in February 2007 and Vice President / General Manager for MedSource Technologies, which produced devices for interventional cardiology and orthopedic companies.
Earlier in his career, Jeff worked domestically and internationally for several other medical device and pharmaceutical companies, including Arterial Vascular Engineering (AVE), Ohmeda and IVAC (a division of Eli Lilly) where he experienced multiple successful exits via IPO or acquisition.
Jeff received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC and his MBA from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC. Jeff is married with two children and lives in Menlo Park, CA.
Board of Directors
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Frank Litvack, MD, FACC
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Dr. Frank Litvack is a Board Certified Internist and Cardiologist and is Chairman of the Board at Credence MedSystems.
He began his career in Academic Medicine and was formerly Co-Director of the Cardiovascular Intervention Center at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles and Professor of Medicine at UCLA. There he led a prominent clinical and research program known for its excellence in innovation, care and leadership in Translational Medicine. He has published extensively and is the recipient of several awards including the Leon Goldman Medical Excellence Award for contributions to the field of biomedical optics and the United States Space Technology and Space Foundation Hall of Fame for pioneering work with the excimer laser. Dr. Litvack left full time practice and academics in 2000 to concentrate on entrepreneurial activities.
Dr. Litvack has founded and/or operated several healthcare ventures both as Chairman and/or CEO including Advanced Interventional Systems Inc. (merged with Spectranetics Inc.), Progressive Angioplasty Systems Inc., Savacor Inc., Conor Medsystems Inc. and Reprise Medical Technologies LLC, a Medtech incubator. Dr. Litvack is a Co-Founder and General Partner in Pura Vida Investments LLC, a health care focused Hedge Fund, and he serves on several Boards.
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Robert Beart, MD
Director
Dr. Robert W. Beart, M.D., is a board certified colorectal surgeon and a member of the Board of Directors at Credence MedSystems. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, he completed his surgical training at the University of Colorado and fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.
Dr. Beart served as Chairman of the Department of Colorectal Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and Chairman of the Department of Surgery in Scottsdale. He then joined the University of Southern California as a tenured Professor of Surgery and Chairman of the Department of Colorectal Surgery.
He is Emeritus Professor of Surgery, Keck School of Medicine at USC. In addition, he is the Medical Director of the Colorectal Surgery Institute at Glendale Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Beart pioneered many innovations including the ileal pouch-anal anastomosis, the development of laparoscopic colon surgery, and the advancement of complex rectal cancer care. His unique clinical expertise and research interests include continence preservation, colostomy avoidance, and the management of complex areas such as recurrent colorectal cancer.
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Norman S. Gordon
Director
Norman Gordon is a member of the Board of Directors at Credence MedSystems. He is currently Senior Director, R&D, Global Joint Repair for Smith & Nephew, who recently acquired Arthrocare Corporation, where Mr. Gordon had a similar role. He has served as General Manager of their Irvine, California office.
Previously, he was Vice President, R&D for Opus Medical (acquired by Arthrocare), Vice President of Engineering for Laurus Medical (acquired by Boston Scientific), Director of Engineering at Applied Medical, and Director of Engineering at Gish BioMedical. He has had primary responsibility for New Product Development, as well as oversight and management of Regulatory and Quality departments.
Mr. Gordon graduated from the University of California, Irvine, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
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Benjamin Hall
Director
Benjamin Hall is a member of the Board of Directors at Credence MedSystems. He is the President of GSMS, Inc., a generic pharmaceuticals company founded in 1986 and headquartered in Camarillo, CA.
Born and raised in Ohio, Benjamin was a football player at University of Louisville, before transferring to Miami University to receive his B.S. in Finance.
Prior to his career at GSMS, Benjamin spent 12 years in investment banking. He served as a Managing Director at MRCworldwide and previously worked with McGladrey Capital Markets and their predecessor firms. Benjamin worked for Star Bank in the middle-market lending division analyzing businesses.
In 2008, Benjamin relocated from Orange County to Camarillo to join GSMS. In his six years with GSMS, Benjamin has grown the company into an industry leader serving the federal government via the Veteran Affairs (“VA”) and Department of Defense (“DoD”) along with other government agencies.
He is active in several local community organizations and the Camarillo RoadRunners football team. He is a devoted husband to wife Seda, and a proud father of five.
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Rob Sckalor
Director
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Jeff Shanley
President and CEO
See Executive Management Team
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Brian M. Webber
Director
Brian has been a successful investment banker and investor for over 30 years. Brian co founded American Discovery in 2017 and since that time has overseen the firms growth in both private equity and investment banking. Before co-founding ADC, he was a Partner at Moelis & Company and focused on clients in the technology and business services sector. Brian completed numerous mergers & acquisitions and a number of successful merchant banking transactions while at Moelis & Company, including UELS and North American Partners in Anesthesia (NAPA).
Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Brian was Global Head of Technology Investment Banking at UBS Investment Bank, where he oversaw UBS’ technology investment banking business on a global basis. During Brian’s tenure, he expanded the business by over 100 bankers and reached a record level of $300 million of revenue in 2007, when it was recognized as the fastest-growing industry group throughout UBS on a global basis. Brian joined UBS from Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) in 2001, following the sale of DLJ to Credit Suisse.
At DLJ, Brian co-founded the firm’s technology group and worked on a number of significant IPOs, high-yield, merger & acquisition and merchant banking transactions primarily in the technology sector. Under Brian’s management, DLJ commanded a leading market share in software and technology services for 6 years, and resulted in Brian being promoted to Managing Director in just 7 years.
Brian graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS) in 1993. Prior to attending HBS, he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Utah in 1989. He and his wife, Megan, have been married for 26 years and have three children.