Nalu Medical, Inc. is a privately held early-stage medical device start-up company. Our team of seasoned entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists are developing the next generation of medical devices. Our novel devices will address a number of poorly treated clinical conditions.
Our company is located in Carlsbad, California with a vision to modernize and improve the technology in medical devices, thus improving lives of people.
Over the last twenty-five years Mr. Harper has founded and led 12 medical device companies. The companies have been clinically focused in the areas of electrophysiology, cardiology, pulmonology, biologics, spine and neurostimulation. He has built world class management teams, structured multiple acquisitions and closed on 22+ rounds of venture capital totaling more than $400 million in invested capital.
Earl Fender joined Nalu in April 2020 and serves as the CEO. Earl has over 30 years of successful experience in building and leading medical technology companies, most recently for the last 12 years in the chronic pain space as the CEO of Vertiflex, Inc., which was acquired by Boston Scientific in June 2019. Previously, Earl served as Worldwide President, DePuy Spine, a Johnson & Johnson company. Under his leadership, global sales grew from $8M to over $1B, operating in 54 countries, and making it the world’s second largest spinal implant company. Earlier, he led the U.S. sales organization for Synthes USA, the industry leader in orthopedic trauma products, orchestrating a five-year period of sales force expansion and accelerated growth. Prior to joining Vertiflex, Earl served as Vice President & General Manager of Osiris Therapeutics, a global leader in adult mesenchymal stem cell technologies. In less than two years, he led the Osiris Osteocel business from scale-up to become one of the world’s leading commercialized cellular technologies.
Earl holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Thiel College. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development.
Jon Ruais joined Nalu in December 2017 and serves as the Chief Commercial Officer. His previous experience brings a wealth of neuromodulation and commercial expertise to Nalu. After college, Mr. Ruais spent 6 years in the US Navy serving as a Nuclear Submarine Officer, eventually earning qualifications as a Submarine Warfare Officer and Nuclear Engineer. After the Navy, he worked in a number of upstream and downstream commercial roles for numerous companies, including Advanced Neuromodulation Systems (later St. Jude Medical), Thoratec, Diadexus, and Opsens Medical. Mr. Ruais’s career in medical devices has given him extensive experience, from early product concept and development through launch and commercialization. Mr. Ruais received a B.A. in Political Science from The George Washington University, studied P.P.E at Oxford University, received an MBA from University of West Florida, and qualified as a Nuclear Engineer Officer from the Nuclear Power School while in the US Navy.
Lee Hartley participated in the founding of Nalu in 2014 and serves as Chief Technical Officer. Prior to joining Nalu, he served as Vice President, R&D at Advanced Bionics, a cochlear implant company, overseeing all aspects of product design and development. Between Jan 2000 and Jan 2014, Dr. Hartley held several technical leadership positions of increasing levels of responsibility at AB; beginning in Systems Engineering. From May 1989 to December 1999, he led an Analog and Mixed Signal IC Design team and held various related Engineering positions with IBM Research specializing in wireless optical and other communication technologies. Mr. Hartley received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University in Kingston and M.S. & Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Calgary.
Jeff joined Nalu in 2020 as CFO. Prior to Nalu, he spent 13 years with Vertiflex Inc. as CFO helping lead the company through a successful premarket approval, commercial launch and acquisition by Boston Scientific in 2019. Jeff’s previous professional experience includes Invitrogen Corporation, where he served as Finance Director & Americas Controller, and seven years with medical device company Guidant Corporation. In his early career, he held auditor and consultant roles at Arthur Andersen and Coopers & Lybrand. Jeff earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in international business from Pepperdine University. He is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive).
Michele Chin-Purcell serves as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance. Dr. Chin-Purcell has leveraged her degrees in Mechanical Engineering to pursue adventures in the Medical Device Industry, with responsibilities of increasing complexity and challenges in Quality, Regulatory Affairs, Compliance, and Research and Development with companies such as Guidant (later Boston Scientific), St. Jude Medical (later Abbott) and small start-up companies such as Spinal Modulation and Corventis. Her experience has given her hands-on strategic and tactical Regulatory and Quality experience throughout the medical device product life-cycle. Dr. Chin-Purcell has received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of California Berkeley and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota.
Jim Makous joined the Nalu team in 2015 and serves as Vice President of Scientific and Clinical Affairs. Prior to joining the company, Dr. Makous served as Director of Emerging Indications and Director of Deep Brain Stimulation at Boston Scientific. He has also held high level positions at numerous companies including Advanced Bionics, Nevro and Senseonics, and he is a named inventor on over 40 patents and patent applications. Dr. Makous received a B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of Rochester and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Florida.
Lakshmi Mishra participated in the founding of Nalu in 2014 and serves as the Vice President of Research & Development. Prior to joining the company, he served 14 years at Advanced Bionics holding multiple positions which eventually lead him to the multi-disciplinary Systems Engineering team as Senior Director. Throughout his career, he has architected and launched several products thereby experiencing the entire lifecycle of development and post-market activities. Mr. Mishra received a B.E. from Bangalore University and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas.
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