Board of Directors

Bill Willis serves today as the President and Chief Executive Officer of iRhythm Technologies, Inc. Prior to the formation of iRhythm, Bill founded iCardia Healthcare where the first “single-use” device technology was introduced. In 2003 he joined CardioNet Inc. as Executive Vice President overseeing the national field sales, operations, finance, and administrative functions for this cardiovascular device and clinical service company. Prior to this position he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of LifeWatch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Card Guard Scientific, and the nation’s leading provider of cardiac arrhythmia and holter monitoring services in the United States.

Bill has held a number of other executive management roles which include; President of Coram Prescription Services, President and Principal of Alternative Health Services, Inc., Regional Vice President of SafeSkin Corporation and General Manager of AMSCO International.  Bill has spent his entire career in the healthcare industry; over 27 years in total, and the last 24 of which have been devoted almost entirely to start-up ventures.  He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Southern California, and resides with his family in Lake Forest, Illinois.

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Dr. Uday N. Kumar, a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist by training, is the Founder and Chief Medical Officer of iRhythm Technologies, Inc., He has also served as an Adjunct Clinical Instructor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Lecturer in Bioengineering at Stanford University, where he previously was a Biodesign Cardiovascular Innovation Fellow (’05-’06).  As a Fellow there, he focused on identifying and developing solutions to unmet needs in the field of cardiac electrophysiology (EP); one of these ideas formed the basis for iRhythm Technologies, Inc., which he founded in late 2006. 

Prior to coming to Stanford, Uday completed fellowships in cardiac EP and cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 2005 and 2003, respectively.  He previously completed his training in internal medicine in 2001 at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital of Columbia University.  From 1998-1999, he helped launch Biomedical Modeling Inc., a company that created models from imaging data using rapid prototyping techniques for use in numerous medical areas.  He started work on this project when he was a student at Harvard Medical School, from which he received his M.D. in June 1998.  Prior to this, he received his B.A. magna cum laude in Biochemistry from Harvard College in 1994.  Uday grew up in Rhode Island and is originally from Bangalore, India.

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Josh Green joined MDV's investing team with a focus on Cleantech companies. Cleantech spans multiple, independent value chains ranging from solar to biofuels to clean coal. Josh applies his experience in a broad range of industries including semiconductors, biotechnology and networking to help Cleantech entrepreneurs define their markets and products.

Josh has more than 25 years of experience working with companies from startup phase to large public company, and has helped many management teams focus their energy on building value for the enterprise and its stakeholders. Throughout his career he has guided entrepreneurs and helped to build some of the most successful emerging growth companies in Silicon Valley including the Internet (Yahoo!), biotechnology (Geron), medical devices (Target Therapeutics), telecommunication/networking (Cerent) and semiconductors (Xilinx).

He has completed initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions and venture capital transactions that rank among the largest and most successful in Silicon Valley history. Together, these transactions total more than $10 billion dollars. His work was recognized when he was named to the Forbes Midas List.

Josh has a track record of growing and developing teams and organizations. He was instrumental in expanding Venture Law Group to over 110 lawyers and assisting in the successful merger with Heller Ehrman in 2003. Previously, he practiced law at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP, and developed the Palo Alto office from six to well over 100 lawyers.

Josh graduated magna cum laude from UCLA in 1977 and the UCLA School of Law in 1980 where he was on the Law Review.

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Roberta Reiff Katz is Associate Vice President for Strategic Planning at Stanford University, working in the Office of the President. In that capacity, she assists with the development and implementation of a variety of new University-wide initiatives.

She previously was one of the founders and the CEO of Flywheel Communications, Inc., a company specializing in the use of technology to manage rights-related transactions and dispute resolutions.  Prior to joining Flywheel Communications, Inc., Roberta was the President and CEO of the Technology Network (TechNet), a national bipartisan political network of technology industry executives.  Roberta had previously served for four years as the Senior Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel of Netscape Communications Corporation. Prior to her post at Netscape, she was the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (subsequently AT&T Wireless) and its subsidiary, LIN Broadcasting Corporation. Roberta was also a lawyer in private practice, specializing in corporate law. She was a partner with the firm of Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe, resident in the firm’s Seattle office.

Before becoming an attorney, Roberta was a cultural anthropologist. She holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University, where she specialized in issues of social and cultural change. She is the co-author of Justice Matters: Rescuing the Legal System for the 21st Century (1997), which discusses the effects of the Information Age on the American civil justice system.

Roberta has been named one of “The Fifty Most Influential Women Lawyers in America” by the National Law Journal, one of the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in California” by the Daily Journal, and one of the “2009 Women of Influence in Silicon Valley” by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal.  She has been a frequent public speaker on Internet law and policy issues, legal system issues, social change issues, and technology-workplace issues.

Roberta received her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, law degree from University of Washington Law School, and Ph.D. from Columbia University. She is married and has two children.

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Dr. Hardwin Mead practices cardiac electrophysiology and cardiology, primarily at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City. Dr. Mead has been instrumental in the development of numerous cardiovascular technologies and has worked with numerous start-up companies in the past.  He and Dr. Roger Winkle, another prominent Bay area cardiac electrophyisiologist, began the first private cardiac electrophysiology practice in the Bay Area in 1984.  Dr. Mead did his fellowship in Cardiology, chief residency, residency and internship at Stanford Hospital.  He also attended medical school at Stanford University.  Dr. Mead attended Northwestern University on an Evans Scholars golf caddy scholarship before leaving his home in Chicago to come to Palo Alto.

As a practicing physician and the only member of both iRhythm’s Scientific Advisory Board and Board of Directors, Dr. Mead is able to directly bring the concerns of the Scientific Advisory Board to the Board of Directors and vice versa.  He has served on various physician advisory boards, including Medtronic for the past 20 years and the initial scientific advisory board for Ventritex, now part of St. Jude Medical. 

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William N. Starling is General Partner of Synergy Life Science Partners, LP (www.synergylsp.com) and Chief Executive Officer of Synecor, LLC, (Synecor) a business generator of new Life Science companies based in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina, Santa Rosa, California, and Portola Valley, California. Synecor (www.synecor.com) has significant academic, scientific, physician, venture capital, corporate, and investment banking partnerships and is focusing its efforts on the identification and development of proprietary, disruptive technologies with extraordinary market potential in the life sciences field.

As CEO of Synecor, William is a cofounder of BaroSense, Inc., Bioerodible Vascular Solutions, Inc., (acquired by Guidant/Abbott in April 2004), InnerPulse, Inc. (formerly Interventional Rhythm Management, Inc.), TransEnterix, Inc., and Interventional Autonomics Corporation, the initial five companies founded and incubated by Synecor. William currently serves as Chairman of the Board of InnerPulse Inc., a RTP, NC - based cardiac rhythm management company, Chairman of the Board of Interventional Autonomics Corporation, and as a board member of TransEnterix, Inc., a RTP, NC - based less invasive GI Surgery company.

William received his BS degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his MBA degree from the University of Southern California. He began his 30 year career in the medical technology device industry at American Edwards Laboratories (Edwards LifeSciences - NYSE:EW). He was subsequently part of the founding management team and Director of Marketing for Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc. (acquired by Guidant/Abbott), and was a cofounder, Vice President and Board member of Ventritex, Inc. (acquired by St. Jude Medical). In 1992, William was a cofounder and Chairman of the Board of Directors and President/CEO of Cardiac Pathways Corporation (acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation), and was responsible for raising significant capital from the early venture capital period through an initial public offering in 1996.

William has been primarily responsible for raising over $300 million in private and public capital for the companies that he has co-founded and the combined revenues of these companies exceeds $2.75 billion annually. In addition to the companies that he has co-founded, William has made private investments in the initial equity financings of over 40 startup companies and has served/is a Board member in over 20 early stage life science companies.

William serves as Chairman of the Board of Visitors at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Board of Visitor member of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at UNC. He also serves on the External Advisory Board of the Stanford Stroke Center at the Stanford University Medical Center.

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