Dedicated experts with a proven record of success.
Management Team
Joshua Makower
M.d., Founder and executive chairman
Josh Makower the Founder and Executive Chairman of ExploraMed. Josh is also the Yock Family Professor of Medicine and BioEngineering, and Director and Co-Founder of the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign at Stanford University.
Notable transactions from the ExploraMed portfolio include NeoTract, acquired by Teleflex in 2017, Nuelle, acquired by Aytu in 2017, Acclarent, acquired by J&J in 2010, EndoMatrix, acquired by C.R. Bard in 1997 and TransVascular, acquired by Medtronic in 2003. On-going ExploraMed ventures include X9, Moximed, Willow, Revelle Aesthetics and ExploraMed V.
Josh currently serves on the board of directors for Exploramed, X9, Moximed, Willow, Coravin, Venture Well, and Elevate, and is a Senior Advisor to Patient Square Capital and an Advisory Venture Partner at Sofinnova Partners.
Josh holds over 300 patents and patent applications for various medical devices in the fields of cardiology, ENT, general surgery, drug delivery, obesity, orthopedics, women’s health, and urology. He received an MBA from Columbia University, an MD from the NYU School of Medicine, and a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. Josh is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the American Institute of Biomedical Engineering and National Academy of Inventors.
Earl "Eb" Bright
J.D/MBA, President & General Counsel
At the ExploraMed incubator, Eb Bright has many years of technology development, company formation and financing experience. He is a founder of several companies, a patent attorney and has served on the executive management teams of many start-up companies in multiple capacities (Acclarent, Neotract, Vibrynt, Moximed, Nuelle, Willow).
He is a co-founder of and serves on the Alliance for U.S. Startups & Inventors for Jobs (USIJ) Advisory Committee. He is a member of the United States Patent Public Advisory Committee. Previously, Eb was Director of Intellectual Property West Coast Operations at Guidant Corporation where he directed a 9 member team involved in litigation and the strategic development of over 1,300 patent and trademark applications related to the Vascular Intervention, Cardiac Surgery and Endovascular Solutions divisions as well as handling legal issues for Guidant Japan and the Compass Group, the unit responsible for Guidant’s venture capital and merger and acquisition activities.
Eb is an inventor on fourteen U.S. issued patents with others currently pending. He holds M.B.A.s from Columbia University and University of California, Berkeley, and Juris Doctorate and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering degrees from the University of Oklahoma.
Board of Directors
David R. Amerson
Board Director
David is the former President (retired 2021), of NeoTract Interventional Urology at Teleflex. He served as President and Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors for NeoTract, Inc. from July 2011 to October 2017 when the company was successfully acquired by Teleflex for $1.1B. Mr. Amerson led NeoTract to become a best-in-class medical device company, achieving significant milestones including FDA De Novo clearance, new CPT 1 codes, a New Tech APC code and ~300M U.S. covered lives. Both NeoTract and Mr. Amerson have been recognized as one of the most successful Medical Device Companies in recent years.
From 2006 to 2011, Mr. Amerson was Global Vice President, General Manager for the Surgical Urology division of Coloplast, a publicly traded medical equipment company based in Denmark.
In addition to ExploraMed Development, he currently serves on the following Boards: Palette Life Sciences, Executive Chairman of New Enterprise Associates (NEA) funded company Revelle Aesthetics, Inc, Chairman of the Board and Board Member of Calyxo Medical, and Board Member of Relevant Medical.
Mr. Amerson holds an MBA from Argosy University and a BA in Political Science from the University of West Georgia.
Susan E. Morano
Board director, Retired Healthcare Executive
Susan is a Healthcare executive with 30+ years of senior leadership in strategy, business development, commercial operations, finance, and portfolio optimization in the medtech, pharmaceutical, and consumer health care industries.
She is currently a member of the Boston Scientific Board of Directors and has significant experience leading strategy, complex merger, aquisition, divestiture, litigation settlement and licensing transactions, with >$90 billion in transactions executed.
Susan recently retired from Johnson & Johnson, where she led business development and strategic operations and was a member of the leadership team for Johnson & Johnson’s $30 billion medtech group. She was responsible for developing the medtech strategy to drive growth, accelerate value creation, and enhance competitive standing, including investment and portfolio optimization, mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning, pricing, competitive intelligence, insights and analytics, and US commercial operations.
She also served on the boards of multiple J&J business units and JJDC, Johnson & Johnson’s Venture Capital arm, and managed key relationships with external partners in the innovation ecosystem.
Susan received her BS in accounting from Villanova University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Bob Anderson
Board director
Bob Anderson co-founded ValleyLab Inc. in 1969 and served as its Chairman until May 1996 and Chief Executive Officer until January 1986.
He has served and serves as a Director for eight medically-related companies, including: SurgRx, Inc., BaroFold, Inc., Vibrynt, Inc., Iris Medical Instruments, Inc., NeoTract, Inc., Moximed, Inc., Acclarent, Inc., and IRIDEX Corporation.
Additionally, Bob has served as a Board Member of more than 30 companies.
Mr. Anderson was named the first Boulder Entrepreneur of the Year in 1985. He received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota in June 1992. In 1999, he received the “Pioneer in Endoscopy“ award from the Society of American Gastrointestinal Surgeons, for his early work in “keyhole“ surgery. Mr. Anderson holds a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering (B.E.E.) from the University of Minnesota.
Nina Richardson
Board Director, Zayo, Silicon Labs, CallidusCloud
As a senior executive, engineer and operating officer, Nina Richardson has over thirty years of experience ranging from start-up environments to multi-billion dollar corporations in a variety of disciplines including manufacturing, design engineering management, operations, and account management.
Most recently, Nina served as the Chief Operating Officer at GoPro, a publicly traded maker of the world’s most versatile camera system, one of the world’s fastest growing technology companies and a globally recognized lifestyle brand. During her tenure as COO, Nina was responsible for engineering, operations, sales, sales operations, customer support, quality, human resources, IT and workplace services. Nina was instrumental in scaling leadership and processes at GoPro. In addition to delivering outstanding operating results, Nina was a key member of the executive team that drafted the S1 and took GoPro public in June of 2014.
Nina is a member of the board of directors of public companies, Zayo, Silicon Labs and CallidusCloud; private company, Willow; and the non-profit organization, We Care Solar.
She was previously a director at SGI, until its successful sale to Hewlett Packard Enterprise. She is currently an advisor with Eargo, a hearing instrument company, and Zoox, an autonomous mobility company. Nina is also a managing director of Three Rivers Energy, an energy services company she co-founded in 2004.
Nina holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University and an Executive MBA from Pepperdine.