The Ferolyn Fund Advisory Board, which was formed this spring, has been hard at work to shape the direction of the Ferolyn Fellowship and select its first-year awardees.
The Fellowship was created as a tribute to the late Ferolyn Powell, an invaluable contributor to the medical device industry, with the goal to improve patient care by supporting promising entrepreneurs with strong leadership skills, passion and aptitude to transform healthcare.
After a thorough review process, the Advisory Board selected three fellows: Kate Garrett, a Biodesign Innovation graduate and co-founder and CEO of Ciel Medical; Matthew McClean, senior R&D manager at Medtronic; and Julia Fox, senior group manager, Upstream Innovation, at Abbott Vascular.
The three fellows will undergo a nine-month program that will help accelerate and advance their careers by providing them with individualized leadership development opportunities to succeed in the healthcare industry. They’ll receive goal-setting assistance, personalized mentorship, exposure to diverse industry experts and leaders, and the opportunity to attend select industry events. The fellowship will culminate with a presentation to the Board on lessons learned, accomplishments and suggestions for program enhancements. All associated costs are covered by the fund.
“We had a very impressive pool of applicants to choose from, and we selected the three we thought were at a stage of their career where they would most benefit from our program,” said Liz McDermott, former vice president of Evalve, Inc., Advisory Board co-founder, and Ferolyn’s sister. “Kate, Matt and Julia, with their distinct backgrounds, each bring a different perspective to medical technology, yet they all exhibit strong leadership styles and share the same passion for advancing the field. We could not have asked for better first-year ambassadors for the program.”
In addition to Liz McDermott, the Advisory Board members include: Allan Will, founder of The Foundry and chairman, president and CEO of EBR Systems; Andrew Cleeland, vice chairman of The Foundry and vice president and general manager TMVR, Medtronic; Angela Macfarlane, president and CEO of ForSight Labs; Ann Fyfe, former CEO of the Fogarty Institute; Fred St. Goar, vice chairman of the Fogarty Institute; Jamey Jacobs, divisional vice president, Global Product Development at Abbott; Jonathan Coe, co-founder, president and CEO of Prescient Surgical; Maria Sainz, president and CEO of CardioKinetix; Mike Buck, president of the Medical Products division at Cardinal Health; Paul Yock, Weiland Professor of Medicine at Stanford and founding co-chair of the Department of Bioengineering; and Marian Powell, partner and co-founder of Bamboo Partners.