Founder and CEO

Morteza Naghavi, M.D.

Dr. Naghavi is an innovative physician scientist and entrepreneur with special interests in the fields of cardiovascular medicine and medical technologies. As a former cardiology faculty at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and Director of the Vulnerable Plaque Research Department at the Texas Heart Institute, he made several inventions and contributed to creating the field of “vulnerable plaque”, the immediate underlying cause of heart attacks. Early works by Dr. Naghavi and colleagues resulted in the foundation of Volcano Corporation (NASDAQ: VOLC), the leading vulnerable plaque detection company. Dr. Naghavi invented the Digital Thermal Monitoring of vascular function which provides a noninvasive, inexpensive, and easy-to-use tool for screening asymptomatic at risk patients and monitoring vascular response to therapy. Through his years of active contribution to the field of early detection and prevention of cardiovascular disease, Dr. Naghavi founded the Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication (SHAPE) and is the Chairman of the SHAPE Task Force, a non-profit international coalition focusing on the advancement of cardiovascular risk assessment. Dr. Naghavi is the founder and CEO of Endothelix Inc.

COO and

VP of Medical Affairs

Albert Yen, M.D.

Dr. Yen received his M.D. degree from Baylor College of Medicine in 1994. He then specialized in Clinical Neurology after completing a residency and fellowship at BCM and The Methodist Hospital in Houston. Dr. Yen has over 10 years of experience in basic and clinical research in the areas of neurovascular and neuroinflammatory disorders. His first medical startup business experience was with Power 3 Medical, Inc., a proteomics company based in The Woodlands, Texas. Later, Dr. Yen served as the COO of In3 Ventures, a Houston-based bio-incubator specialized in medical device startups. He joined Endothelix in 2007 as VP of Medical Affairs and helped advance the company through clinical trials. He is currently serving as the COO of Endothelix.

VP of Manufacturing

Tim O'Brien

Tim is a well-known temperature engineer who co-founded Temperature Specialists, Inc., based in Minneapolis, MN. He has specialized in the manufacturing of custom built temperature sensors, resistance temperature detectors (RTD’s), thermocouples, and thermistors.

Companies served include Arizant Medical, Boston Scientific, C.R. Bard, Medtronics and St. Jude Medical DIAG. Temperature Specialists, Inc. manufactures sensors that go into the control of processes for the manufacture of medical devices and also in the devices like small thermocouples to go into catheters, sensors for blood warmers and R & D for the medical industry.

Interim VP of Research and Development

Gary McQuilkin, M.S.

Mr. McQuilkin obtained his M.S. degree from Purdue University in electrical engineering with an emphasis on biomedical applications. His 30 years of experience include Doppler ultrasound, ultrasonic catheters, acoustic field mapping, arterial pressure measurement, medical telemetry, physiological sensors, mathematical modeling of the cardiovascular system, digital and analog signal processing, and thermal image processing. As a Medtronic engineer, he helped establish a technical basis for early telemetry systems used with implantable devices. He founded Medwave to develop continuous, noninvasive blood pressure technology, progressing from concept, through development, attracting five successful rounds of venture capital investment serving as President, Chairman, and Vice President of Research and Development. He holds patents in the areas of pacemaker telemetry, detection of fibrillation thresholds, blood pressure measurements, thermal imaging and volumetric scanning. He serves Endothelix as Interim VP of Research and Development.

VP of Product Development

Haider Hassan

Haider Hassan is a distinguished Systems Engineer with degrees in both Mathematical Sciences and Computer Systems Engineering. Haider has extensive experience in project management and product development in the fields of biomedical devices, software engineering, embedded systems, robotics, real-time DSP, and automation. Haider is in charge of the product development for all Endothelix projects including the VENDYS^® product line. He oversees the product from concept development to finished goods. He also actively participates in research, software/hardware development, and regulatory affairs.

VP of Public Relations

Mark Johnson

Mark is the founder of Amerra, Inc. – a Houston-based multimedia company specializing in medical visualization and interactive procedural training.  He has worked with numerous medical companies and institutions to develop intuitive software platforms for training and educating others on medical devices, technologies and procedures.  His expertise has been applied to the development and virtual product demonstration of Endothelix’s VENDYS^® device.  Mark is a graduate of Texas A&M University.

Product Engineer

David Panthagani

David Panthagani received a Bachelor degree in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Mathematics from the University of Houston, graduating with University Honors and Honors in Major. He has a strong background in system identification, fluid mechanics and thermodynamics. David has extensive experience in designing computer interfaced temperature and resistance measurement systems. He was the founding vice president of the Biomedical Engineering Society and Engineering World Health organizations at the University of Houston.

David contributes to VENDYS^® product development and is also in charge of R&D in the company.

General Counsel

Greg Hennig, J.D.

Greg Hennig graduated with a BA from the University of New Mexico and then earned his law degree from the University of Houston Law Center. He spent the first part of his career in small business development and business litigation but later moved into building the business world as his primary emphasis, serving as outsource general counsel for small start-ups and as in-house general counsel. Mr. Hennig oversees corporate structure, transactional needs and compliance, HR, and general legal aspects. His work includes internal strategic and capitalization development for a number of small businesses in the biomedical and technical industries.