Mr. Pyott was recognized by many prominent and well-respected business organizations: by Harvard Business Review as one of “The 100 Best Performing CEOs in the World” in 2014 (ranked #4), 2013 (ranked #26) and 2009 (ranked #50), and was recognized as the “#1 CEO in Specialty Pharmaceuticals” by Institutional Investor magazine in 2005, 2007, and the “Best CEO Healthcare – Pharmaceuticals” in 2012 and 2013.

In 2006, Mr. Pyott was bestowed with the honor of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Her Majesty the Queen in acknowledgement of his contribution to British business excellence and management skills in the United States. In 2010, he received an honorary degree, the UCI Medal, and the Moacyr Gold Medal for services to Brazilian ophthalmology.

Before joining Allergan, Mr. Pyott served as the Head of the Novartis Nutrition Division and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Switzerland-based Novartis AG, working over 17 years in several positions in strategic planning, marketing and general management in Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Malaysia and the United States. Key brands and businesses were: Ovaltine, Wasa crispbread, Isostar sports drink, Gerber baby food, hospital and nursing home based enteral nutrition, diet products, and organic nutrition.

Mr. Pyott holds a Diploma in International and European Law from the Europa Institute at the University of Amsterdam, a Master of Arts degree from the University of Edinburgh and a Master of Business Administration degree from the London Business School. Mr. Pyott is Lead Director and a member of the Board of Directors of Avery Dennison Corporation. He is Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Chapman University, a member of the Governing Board of the London Business School, President of the International Council of Ophthalmology Foundation and is on the Advisory Board of the Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He formerly served on the Board, on the Executive Committee and as Board Secretary of the Biotechnology Industry Organization as well as a member of the Board of Edwards Lifesciences Corporation.

Joe Kiani, Founder, Chairman, and CEO Masimo Corporation (www.masimo.com)

Joe Kiani is the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Masimo Corporation, a global medical technology innovator credited with revolutionizing pulse oximetry and noninvasive patient monitoring for more than 20 years.

Kiani founded Masimo in 1989. Under his leadership, Masimo has grown from a “garage start up’ into a successful publicly traded company (NASDAQ: MASI) employing over 2,000 people worldwide and providing its market-leading measure-through motion and low perfusion pulse oximetry technology to leading OEM patient monitoring manufacturers such as GE Medical and Medtronic. Masimo Rainbow SET® Pulse CO-Oximetry™—the first noninvasive blood constituent monitoring platform to measure multiple blood constituents that previously required invasive procedures and help reduce risky blood transfusions. Masimo’s innovative technology pioneered products such as Masimo Patient SafetyNet™—the first remote monitoring and wireless clinician notification system designed to help hospitals improve patient safety and clinical outcomes by dramatically decreasing rescue events and costly ICU transfers; and Masimo Rainbow SET® Acoustic MonitoringTM—the first noninvasive and continuous acoustic respiration rate (RRaTM) monitoring technology.

Kiani and Masimo have over 575 issued and pending patents worldwide. Kiani and Masimo have garnered more than 50 awards and honors, including the Frost and Sullivan CEO of the Year Award, the Society for Critical Care Medicine Technology Excellence Award, and the Ernst & Young (Orange County) Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In addition to his role as Chairman and CEO at Masimo, Kiani serves on the board of SABA (a publicly traded software company, and previously served as Chairman of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA).

Kiani is active in efforts to reform U.S. health care and encourage medical innovation. In 2010, Kiani established the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation, and Competition in Healthcare, which is dedicated to encouraging and promoting activities that improve patient safety and deliver advanced healthcare worldwide.

Kiani earned both his bachelor's (B.S.E.E) and master's (M.S.E.E) degrees in electrical engineering from San Diego State University.




Nazli Azimi Pharm.D., Ph.D., Founder and CEO

Dr. Azimi is the Founder and CEO of Bioniz an emerging biopharmaceutical company located in Orange County, CA. Bioniz has a unique technology that allows development of peptides that can selectively inhibit more than one cytokine in immune system. This technology substitutes multiple monoclonal antibody therapies that are exceedingly expensive and burdensome on patients. The lead programs are targeting immune-mediated diseases including auto-immune diseases and some types of blood cancer.

Dr. Azimi founded Bioniz in 2010. Prior to that, she was a research member at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) in Seattle, WA where she studied the immune response to herpes virus and some other viruses in the context of cytokine modulation. Before joining FHCRC, Dr. Azimi was at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for over 10 years. She started her career at one of the leading laboratories at the National Cancer Institute as a post doctoral fellow. In the following years and as an independent scientist, she and her team studied cytokine responses to retroviral infection. She published numerous peer-reviewed articles in leading biomedical journals. As the result of her work, a monoclonal antibody against IL-2/15 receptor-beta was entered into clinic for treatment of an orphan MS-like neurological disease. These clinical trials are currently being conducted at the NIH.

Dr. Azimi was an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Washington and an adjunct associate professor at the American University in Washington DC. She also was a guest lecturer at the McGill University in Montreal. Dr. Azimi has been invited to numerous national and international meetings to present her scientific work.

Dr. Azimi got her degrees from the University of Tehran and University of Maryland. She also attended post-graduate courses at the NIH. She is a trained painter and artist and has had several exhibitions of her original art work in the Washington, DC area. Currently, she resides in San Juan Capistrano, CA with her husband and their two children.




Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D.

Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D., is a serial entrepreneur whose passion is building healthcare companies focused on innovation. Dr. Xanthopoulos has over two decades of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical research industries as an executive, company founder, chief executive officer, investor and board member. Dr. Xanthopoulos has founded three companies, introduced two life science companies to NASDAQ, and financed and brokered numerous creative strategic alliances and significant partnership deals with large pharmaceutical partners.

Dr. Xanthopoulos is currently the Executive Chairman of IRRAS AB, a medical device and drug delivery company, and a Partner at the Vandel-Group focusing on investing and building innovative biotechnology companies. Dr. Xanthopoulos served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Regulus Therapeutics Inc. [NASDAQ: RGLS] from the time of its formation in 2007 until June of 2015. Prior to that, he was a managing director of Enterprise Partners Venture Capital. Dr. Xanthopoulos co-founded and served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. [NASDAQ: ANDS] from its inception in 2000 to 2006, and remained a Director until its acquitision by Roche in 2011. He was Vice President at Aurora Biosciences (acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) from 1997 to 2000. Dr. Xanthopoulos participated in The Human Genome Project as a Section Head of the National Human Genome Research Institute from 1995 to 1997. Prior to this, he was an Associate Professor at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden after completing a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at The Rockefeller University, New York. An Onassis Foundation scholar, he was named the E&Y; Entrepreneur of the year in 2006 in San Diego and the San Diego Business Journal’s Most Admired mid-size company CEO in 2013. Dr. Xanthopoulos received his B.Sc. in Biology with honors from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and received both his M.Sc. in Microbiology and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Stockholm, Sweden.

In addition to his role at IRRAS and the Vandel-Group, Dr. Xanthopoulos is chairman of the board of directors of Apricus Biosciences [NASDAQ: APRI], a member of the board of directors of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), a director of Zosano Pharma, Inc., [NASDAQ: ZSAN], and the co-founder and a member of the board of directors of privately held Sente Inc.