Entrepreneurship in BME Panel Speakers

David Pistrui, Ph.D., is the Director of Entrepreneurship at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago, Illinois USA. Dr. Pistrui holds the Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship, and is Industry Professor of Business at IIT. He has held a number of scholarly appointments in the US and Europe including service as the founding Managing Director of the Wharton Enterprising Families Initiative, in the Wharton School, at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, Dr. Pistrui held the Raymond Chair in Family Business, and served as the founding Director of the Center for Family Business and Entrepreneurial Leadership at Alfred University ( Alfred, NY).

Dr. Pistrui is an active researcher focusing on the growth and societal impact of entrepreneurship, family business and enterprise development. He is the co-author of groundbreaking work including, Growth Intentions and Expansion Plans of New Entrepreneurs in the Former Soviet Bloc, (Ashgate, 1997), A Millennium Perspective on Family Business Research, (Family Business Review, 2002-03), Entrepreneurship in the new Germany, (Ashgate, 2003), and Family and cultural forces shaping entrepreneurship and SME development in China, (Elgar, 2006).

Dr. Pistrui currently serves on the Kern Family Foundation Entrepreneurship Education Network Advisory Board. Dr. Pistrui served on the Board of Directors, Executive Committee, and was Vice President, of the Family Firm Institute (Boston, MA, 1998-2001). He served as Program Chair, for the Family Firm Institute 2000 Annual Conference ( Washington, DC). He is Book Review Editor and has served as Special Issue Co-Editor of Family Business Review. Presently he is serving as a Guest Editor for the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management Special Issue on the Influence of Family and Culture (2008).

With over 25 years of business experience, Dr. Pistrui also serves as the Managing Director of Acumen Dynamics, LLC, a strategy based education, training and research firm that focuses on practical knowledge and skills that help organizations align vision and strategy with execution and performance. Dr. Pistrui appears frequently on TV and radio programs. He often provides commentary to business publications and the popular press having appeared in Crains’ Chicago Business, Family Business, MEED, CNN, INC. Magazine, Entrepreneur, Los Angeles Business Journal, Chicago Tribune, Bahrain Tribune, Alwasat, Rochester Business Journal, Buffalo Business First, the Illinois Entertainer and Screen Magazine.

Dr. Pistrui holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration (Cum Laude) in Entrepreneurship, Strategy, and Management from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, ( Spain), and a Ph.D., in Sociology from the University of Bucharest, ( Romania). He earned a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree from DePaul University, ( Chicago, IL), and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing and Economics from Western Michigan University.

Jack Linehan, Professor Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University

John H. Linehan, PhD was appointed professor of biomedical engineering and medicine at Northwestern University in Fall 2007. Since 2005, he has been a consulting professor of bioengineering in Stanford University's Program in Biodesign and the Department of Bioengineering. At Stanford, he led an Institute of Health Technology Study to develop a comprehensive model of the medical device iterative-development process. The goal was to elucidate the way medical devices are developed, approved, brought to market, and subsequently improved/evolved. He is also the Executive Editor of Bmesource.org, a new open-source information portal for the biomedical engineering technology community.

At Stanford Biodesign, he took the lead in the development of a new program to train young physicians and PhD engineers from developing countries in the medical-technology innovation process. The goal is train leaders able to create innovation programs in their countries that address clinical needs in a resource-challenged environment.

Dr. Linehan was vice president of the Whitaker Foundation from 1998 - 2005. Prior to joining Whitaker in 1998, Linehan was the Bagozzi professor of biomedical engineering and the founding Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Marquette University in Wisconsin and adjunct professor of physiology and medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Linehan is a fellow and past-president of the Biomedical Engineering Society, a founding fellow and past-president of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a member of the Science Board of the FDA.

Ron Kirschner, , M.D., President of Heartland Angels, Inc.

Ronald L. Kirschner, M.D. is President of Heartland Angels, Inc. Dr. Kirschner has a broad background in healthcare, start-ups and private equity. Dr. Kirschner practiced medicine for 23 years and anesthesia for 17 of those years. He taught at Illinois Masonic Medical Center and was an Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. He was President of Irving Park Chapter of the Chicago Medical Society.

While practicing medicine, he started 3 companies of his own in the healthcare field dealing with Nutrition, Managed Care, and Utilization Review. He has been a consultant on healthcare issues to the State government and on funding and market strategies to both entrepreneurs and early stage companies. He was the VP of Technology Development for CDIB Biotech, Inc., a Midwest Biotechnology Venture Fund (started by China Industrial Industrial Bank) where his roles was to assist in the discovery and funding of early stage biotechnology in the Midwest and Canada. He was principal in the funding decisions concerning, among others, Aegera Therapeutics, Immunicon, and VitaGen (now Vital Therapies, Inc.). He was active in advising local companies, e.g., Neuronautics, on options relating to funding opportunities and was involved with the Board of Directors forPhytoceutica.

Dr. Kirschner received his BA from Beloit College and was awarded his Medical Degree from St. Louis University. He has completed residencies in Emergency Medicine at the University of Chicago and in Anesthesia at West Virginia University. He received his MBA in Finance from DePaul University.

Roger C. Hahn, Partner, Hahn & Voight PLLC, Washington DC.

Mr. Hahn is a patent attorney representing technology companies in biomedical inventions, chemicals, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. He is focused on bridging the gap between engineering skills and medical applications and bringing the ideas of inventors and entrepreneurs to market. Mr. Hahn is a frequent lecturer and writer on these and other intellectual property issues and is dedicated to providing the information IP stake holders need to be successful. He currently serves as co-chair of the Biomedical Engineering committee of the Licensing Executives Society (LES).

His law degree is from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago Kent College of Law. His B.S. in Bioengineering is from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and his M.S. in Biomedical Engineering is from The Johns Hopkins University.

Miles N Wernick, PhD
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor of Biomedical Engineering Director, Medical Imaging Research Center (MIRC) Illinois Institute of Technology

Miles N. Wernick, Ph.D., is Director of the Medical Imaging Research Center at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), where he is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Wernick is also President of Predictek, Inc., a technology company focused on medical imaging and image analysis. Dr. Wernick received the Ph.D. in Optics from the University of Rochester's Institute of Optics, and was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Radiology at the University of Chicago. Dr. Wernick is an active researcher in medical imaging, focusing particularly in phase-sensitive x-ray imaging, tomographic image reconstruction algorithms, computer-aided diagnosis, functional neuroimaging data analysis, and ophthalmic imaging. Dr. Wernick is Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Image Processing and SPIE/IS&T Journal of Electronic Imaging. He was lead editor of the book Emission
Tomography: The Fundamentals of PET and SPECT, which has been distributed free of charge to hundreds of researchers worldwide under support from the U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Wernick’s broad research efforts have been supported by many different NIH institutes, including NHLBI, NCI, NEI, NINDS, NIMH, and NIAMS.