Board of Directors
Richard D. Shirk – Chairman
Mr. Shirk has been a Director of Regenesis since April 2012. Richard D. Shirk has more than 30 years of experience in insurance, employee benefits, and healthcare, and over 20 years of experience in investment management. Mr. Shirk was President, CEO and Chairman of Cerulean Companies, the holding company of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, and was President and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia from 1992 to 2001. Mr. Shirk also held senior officer positions with The Equitable Life Assurance Society, Equicor, and Cigna. He has served on the Board and as Lead Director of Amerigroup, as well as several privately held companies. He currently serves on the SSGA/SSIIT and Elfun mutual funds. His community service includes the Boards of the Metro Atlanta YMCA, the Woodruff Arts Center and its investment committee, and the Healthcare Georgia Foundation and its investment committee. He has served on the Board of the Southeastern Region American Red Cross Blood Services and as Chair of the American Red Cross Metro Atlanta Chapter Board. He is a Trustee Emeritus and graduate of Gettysburg College.
Jack Ahrens II
Mr. Ahrens is a founding General Partner of TGap Venture Capital Funds, headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan. TGap I is a $20 million early stage, Midwest focused venture capital fund established in August of 2002 and TGap II is a $26 million fund established in 2008. Jack has been a venture capitalist and fund administrator since 1979; first as President of United Capital Corporation of Illinois (an SBIC), since 1983 as a General Partner of Pathfinder Venture Capital Funds I,II, III. Prior to that he had seven years of experience in bank trust investments and operations. He became a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) in 1982 and has advanced training at the American Institute of Banking, NASBIC Management Institute, and Stanford Advance Management College. He has served on many Boards during his career including Afmedica, Inc., Central Data, Inc., Micro Business Applications, Inc., MedVantx, Inc., MinuteClinic, Inc., NeoChord, Inc., Vector General, Inc. and he is the Chairman of the Great Lakes Entrepreneur Quest. He has been on several 501C3, Not for Profit Boards, and has held various officer roles in these organizations. He is a graduate of Indiana University.
Tom Eisiminger, Jr. – President and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Eisiminger is President, Chief Executive Officer, and on the Board of Directors. Tom joined Regenesis Biomedical in 2006 after a short tenure with GlaxoSmithKline, and served in successive leadership roles culminating in his most recent position as Vice President of Sales. Tom served our country in the Army for 20+ years and is a decorated combat veteran. He held numerous leadership positions from platoon to battalion command. He managed the largest geographically dispersed Army Recruiting Battalion responsible for operations in SW Washington, Oregon, Northern California, Hawaii, Korea, Japan, Guam, American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, and the Freely Associated States of the Republic of the Marshall Island, Republic of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia. He twice earned awards as top recruiting unit in the Army. Tom is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, and the Disabled American Veterans. He is a veteran’s advocate and serves as President of the Veterans Medical Leadership Council (VMLC), a Phoenix based non-profit whose mission is to ensure quality medical & mental health care for Veterans and to encourage initiatives that honor the contributions made to the city, state & nation by Veterans and the men and women serving in the U.S. military. A former Board member of several veteran non-profits, he is also a member of the Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame Class of 2018. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) – Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. He earned his B.S. from the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, his M.A. in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College, and his MBA from Marylhurst University in Portland, Oregon.
Thomas Greer
Mr. Greer is a founder and Partner of Fulcrum Equity Partners. He has over 20 years of investment, financial and operating experience. Mr. Greer was the founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Regency Healthcare, Inc. (“Regency”) a provider of hospice services throughout the Southeast. He grew Regency to 5 offices, 120 employees in 3 years which culminated with the sale of a majority of Regency to EDG Partners, an Atlanta based private equity firm, in February 2006. Mr. Greer served as Chairman of the Board at the successor to Regency, Regency Healthcare Group, LLC, up until the sale of Regency to a Chicago based private equity firm in April 2011. In addition, Mr. Greer previously served on the boards of Implantable Provider Group and SunCrest Healthcare, both Fulcrum portfolio companies that had successful exits. Currently he serves on the board of directors/managers of Enduracare Acute Care Services, LLC. Mr. Greer is also on the board of Special Olympics Georgia. Prior to founding Regency he was Vice President of Healthcare Investment Banking for Robinson Humphrey where he worked on mergers, acquisitions, private placements, and public offerings for healthcare and life science companies. Prior to Robinson Humphrey Mr. Greer was a manager in the Corporate Finance and Investment Banking Group at Eli Lilly & Company in Indianapolis, IN. He worked exclusively on structuring and negotiating licensing arrangements, joint ventures, acquisitions and investments with domestic and international biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Prior to Eli Lilly, he served as Director in KPMG’s Corporate Finance practice where he executed equity raises, debt placements, sell side and buy side transactions. Additionally, he served as a Director in PriceWaterhouseCoopers Corporate Value Consulting group. Mr. Greer received his B.S. degree in Finance from Clemson University and his Masters of Business Administration degree from Wake Forest University.
R. King Nelson
Mr. Nelson has been a Director of Regenesis since July 2014. King Nelson has over 35 years of diverse experience and expertise with medical devices. He is currently CEO and Director of Q’Apel Medical, a Neurovascular company. He also served as CEO, President, and Director of Uptake Medical; as President and CEO of Kerberos Proximal Solutions, which was acquired by FoxHollow; and as President and CEO of VenPro, which was acquired by Medtronic. Prior to that, he spent 19 years with Baxter and American Hospital Supply Corporation in roles that included division President for Dade Diagnostics, Baxter Perfusion Services, and Bentley Labs. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for of CardieX (ASX: CDX), a lifescience digital company. He graduated from Texas Tech University and has an MBA from the University of Miami Herbert Business School.
Henry Newman
Mr. Newman is a co-founder and General Partner with Solstice Capital, a Boston based venture capital firm, and has over 35 years of venture capital investing, operations and public accounting experience. For more than seven years, Mr. Newman was a Vice President of BancBoston Ventures Inc., a venture capital subsidiary of Bank of Boston. Previously, he held various financial management positions at the Bank of Boston and was a CPA at Coopers & Lybrand. Mr. Newman is a Director of CodeRyte, and was formerly a Director of CellzDirect, Lipton Corporate Childcare and Proton Energy Systems, Inc. He serves on the Investment Advisory Committee of Commons Capital LLC, a positive impact venture fund. Mr. Newman graduated from Bowdoin College and received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Marvin Slepian, MD
Marvin J. Slepian, M.D. is a Regents’ Professor at the University of Arizona; with Professorships in Medicine, Medical Imaging, BioMedical Engineering (Associate Dept. Head), Materials Sciences and Engineering, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, as well as being a McGuire Scholar in the Eller College of Management. Dr. Slepian is the founder and Director of ACABI – the Arizona Center for Accelerated Biomedical Innovation – an across the university “creativity engine,” to drive innovation, novel solution development and real-world translation. In parallel with his clinical career Dr. Slepian has had an extensive research career leading to the development of innovative diagnostics and therapeutics for cardiovascular diseases. His work has focused on the development and use of novel biomaterials for tissue engineering, drug delivery and medical device development. His lab has developed many novel diagnostics and therapeutics which have found their way into clinical use today including: drug-eluting stent technologies, stent coatings, “polymer paving,” surgical anti-adhesive barriers, stretchable and biodegradable electronics, “wearables,” synthetic tissue sealants, myocardial revascularization and cell delivery methods and cardiovascular prosthetic devices – including the only FDA approved total artificial heart. He is the author or co-author of more than 250 articles, textbook chapters and abstracts, published in journals such as Science, Nature Materials, PNAS, PlosOne, Circulation, and the New England Journal of Medicine. He also serves on multiple editorial review boards. He is a prolific inventor with more than 100 issued and filed patents and has been the founder of numerous medical device companies including FOCAL (NASDAQ), Endotex, Angiotrax, Hansen Medical (NASDAQ), Arsenal, 480 BioMedical, MC10 and SynCardia, and has been involved in bringing many new devices through the FDA regulatory process into clinical use, including most notably the total artificial heart. He has received multiple awards for his academic and translational research activities including: the American Heart Association award for the most significant advance in cardiovascular medicine, the AZBio Pioneer Award (2017) for Lifetime Achievement in Biomedical Science Innovation, and in 2019 was named daVinci Fellow – the highest recognition of the University of Arizona College of Engineering; and received the Daniel Drake Medal – the highest distinction of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine for outstanding innovative medical research. In 2020 Dr. Slepian was selected as Founders’ Lecturer – the highest honor of the U Arizona College of Medicine. Dr. Slepian is an elected fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), and is an elected member of BEMA – the Biomaterials Engineering Materials and Applications (BEMA) Roundtable, of the National Research Council of the National Academies. He is the Immediate Past-President of the International Society for Mechanical Circulatory Support (ISMCS) is and was recently elected President of the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs (ASAIO).