Tim joined BGF in 2018, played a key role in setting up BGF’s early stage investment efforts and currently co-leads BGF’s early-stage investment team. He has a scientific background, more than 25 years’ experience in venture investing and enjoys working with ambitious founders building high-potential businesses based on deep-tech innovation.

Kelly has 20 years of experience in early-stage technology scouting, new company formation, business development, and corporate venture capital.  As a Director at Broadview Ventures, Kelly focuses on new investment activity and portfolio management and leads Broadview’s MedTech practice.

Prior to joining Broadview, Kelly was a Senior Director of Business Development at Mayo Clinic Ventures, where she was responsible for sourcing new business opportunities aligned with Mayo’s intellectual property portfolio and strategic priorities, and leading investment due diligence. She led investments across the medical technology and biotechnology sectors and was an investment committee member. Prior to her time at Mayo Ventures, she managed one of Mayo’s four Institutional Review Boards after transitioning from her work developing gene expression microarray protocols in support of Mayo Clinic research projects.

Kelly holds a B.S in microbiology from the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse and an M.B.A. from the Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas.  She is also a registered Patent Agent with the USPTO.

Dr. Azin Parhizgar is a highly accomplished medical device executive, a serial entrepreneur, and a seasoned medtech investor.  Currently Dr. Parhizgar is a Senior Venture Partner at 415 Capital Management GMBH, a cardiovascular focused early-stage venture investment fund, Chairwoman of the board of CVPath Institute, Inc. and serves as an independent director at SoundBite Medical Inc., InnovHeart s.r.l, and Moray Medical, LLC, Women As One, among other held positions. In her five-year tenure as the President and CEO of Claret Medical, an embolic protection company, Dr. Parhizgar led the venture-backed company to a successful global commercial launch with a subsequent acquisition in 2018 by Boston Scientific, Inc.  Prior to Claret Medical, she was the COO of Conor Medsystems, a drug eluting Stent Company acquired by Johnson & Johnson, Inc. in 2007. Prior to Conor Medsystems Dr. Parhizgar was Senior Global Vice President at Arterial Vascular Engineering (AVE), which was acquired by Medtronic Inc. in 2000. Dr. Parhizgar earned both her Ph.D. in Cell, Gene and Tissue Engineering and her M.Sc. in Biomechanical Engineering and Artificial Organ Design from Brown University in Providence, RI, USA.

Helen has over 25 years’ experience in the Medical device industry, including as CEO of Creganna Medical and R&D roles at Medtronic and Covidien. She has demonstrated the ability to scale, including acquiring and integrating companies, establishing strategic joint ventures and raising of debt and equity financing. She now works with Irish companies supporting them to scale. She serves as a director for Enterprise Ireland and a number of early stage medical device companies and charities. She acts as an advisor to Atlantic Bridge Ventures University Bridge Fund and is currently the Chair of the Implementation Group on Police Reform, having recently served as a member of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. Helen has a Bachelor of Engineering from NUI Galway, a Masters in Project Management from UL, and has completed a Senior Executive Programme at Stanford University. Helen has received an honorary Doctorate from NUIG and is a fellow of the Institute of Engineers of Ireland and a member of the Irish Academy of Engineers.

A medical device industry veteran with more than 25 years experience, Chip was CEO of Creganna Medical, a leading Ireland based supplier to the minimally invasive medical device industry. After a successful three-year effort to focus the company on higher growth markets and improve operational performance, Creganna Medical was sold to TE Connectivity in 2016. In 2012-13, Chip was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Center for Devices and Radiological Health within the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he co-led the Innovation Pathway team focused on streamlining aspects of medical device clinical trials in the US. Prior to his FDA experience, Chip was most recently President of Abbott Vascular, the cardiovascular device division of Abbott. Over a decade in interventional cardiology at Abbott Vascular, he led the organization to global leadership in the drug-eluting stent market through the launch of Xience in the US, Japan and China. Chip also led the development and CE marking of Absorb, a bioabsorbable scaffold for the treatment of coronary disease and the acquisition and international expansion of Mitraclip, a percutaneous mitral valve repair device. Chip earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

As the chairman of CroíValve, Dr Bernard Collins brings a wealth of business experience. He serves on the Board of Directors of several US and Irish life-science companies. Prior to forming Lifemed, his consultancy company, Dr Collins served for 10 years as Vice President of International Operations at Boston Scientific Corporation and before this held senior executive positions in life-science companies including Baxter Corporation. His general management experience in the medical device and health care industry spans start-ups, turnarounds, leveraged buyouts and IPOs for both large and small businesses. Dr Collins holds a BA Honors in Applied Industrial Psychology/Business from University College Cork, Ireland and an honorary Doctorate in Law from the National University of Ireland Galway. He is a recipient of the prestigious RDS Gold Medal for Industry in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to the development of the biomedical industry in Ireland.