Management Team

Maria Sainz

Maria Sainz was named General Manager of Concentric Medical, Inc., a business unit of Stryker Neurovascular in October 2011. Prior to joining Stryker, Ms. Sainz has served as our President, CEO, and as a member of our board of directors of Concentric Medical, Inc. since April 2008. From February 2003 through July 2006, Ms. Sainz served as President of the Cardiac Surgery division of Guidant Corporation. From January 2001 through February 2003, Ms. Sainz served as Vice President, Global Marketing for the Vascular Intervention division of Guidant Corporation. From late 1998 through early 2001, Ms. Sainz served as Vice President of the Intermedics Cardiac Rhythm Management business of Guidant Corporation in Europe after the acquisition of Intermedics by Guidant. Prior to that Ms. Sainz held several sales and marketing assignments of increasing responsibility in Guidant’s European operations. Ms. Sainz received an M.A. in Languages from the University Complutense in Madrid, Spain and a Masters in International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management.

Kimberly Bridges

Kim Bridges was named Vice President, Sales of Concentric Medical, Inc., a business unit of Stryker Neurovascular in October 2011. Prior to joining Stryker, Ms. Bridges has served as our Vice President of Sales of Concentric Medical, Inc. since February 2008. From July 2006 to February 2008, she served as the Director of Sales for Cardiology & Endovascular within the Cordis division of Johnson & Johnson. Prior to Johnson & Johnson, Ms. Bridges spent two years as a Director of Sales at Guidant Corporation, and held sales management positions at a variety of medical device firms including EV3 and Microvena. Ms. Bridges received a B.S. in Management from Pepperdine University and is currently pursuing an Executive M.B.A. at the USC Marshall School of Business.

Jodie Fam

Jodie Fam was named Vice President, Europe of Concentric Medical, Inc., a business unit of Stryker Neurovascular in October 2011. Prior to joining Stryker,Ms. Fam has served as Vice President, Europe of Concentric Medical, Inc., since February 2010 operating out of the United Kingdom. Prior to joining Concentric Medical, Ms. Fam fulfilled several roles in taking US-based startups to clinical and commercial operations in Europe. Prior to this, Ms. Fam served in several roles, previously at Concentric Medical leading commercial marketing efforts, and prior to that at Guidant Corp in clinical, sales and marketing. While at Guidant, Ms. Fam led a direct operation in Asia Pacific that brought new technologies to the fore in upstream marketing efforts globally, and developed strategic alliances in Drug Eluting Stents in the United States. Ms. Fam has vast experience in leading clinical and commercial efforts in interventional technologies in Asia, Europe and the United States. Ms. Fam received a Diploma, Nuclear Medicine Technology from Sydney University, and was awarded an MBA from University of Technology, Sydney.

Brett Hale

Brett Hale was named Vice President, Finance of Concentric Medical, Inc., a business unit of Stryker Neurovascular in October 2011. Prior to joining Stryker, Mr. Hale has served as our Chief Financial Officer of Concentric Medical, Inc. since February 2010. From February 2009 until January 2010, he served as our Senior Director of Finance and Administration. From 2002 to 2008, Mr. Hale held several finance management positions of increasing responsibility at Guidant Corporation / Boston Scientific and Emphasys Medical, an emerging interventional pulmonology company. Mr. Hale began his career at PriceWaterhouseCooppers LLP, where he served as an Assurance Manager. Mr. Hale received a B.S. in Accounting and an M.B.A from Indiana University. He is a certified public accountant.

John H. Miller

John Miller was named Vice President, Research and Development of Concentric Medical, Inc., a business unit of Stryker Neurovascular in October 2011.
Prior to joining Stryker, Mr. Miller has served as our Vice President of Research and Development of Concentric Medical, Inc. since November 2005. Previously, Mr. Miller served as our Program Manager for the Ischemic Stroke Group from March 2000 until March 2002 and as our Director of Research and Development from March 2002 until November 2005. From April 1998 until March 2000, Mr. Miller served as a Senior Project Engineer for Corvascular, a developer of a combinational drug and device approach to cardiac surgery. Mr. Miller received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

Robert A. Nicholas

Bob Nicholas was named Vice President, Operations of Concentric Medical, Inc., a business unit of Stryker Neurovascular in October 2011. Prior to joining Stryker, Mr. Nicholas has served as our Vice President of Operations of Concentric Medical, Inc. since April 2007. From November 2006 until March 2007, Mr. Nicholas served as our Senior Director of Operations and as our Director of Operations from August 2002 until November 2006. From October 2001 until July 2002, Mr. Nicholas served as the General Manager of West Coast Operations for Medsource Technologies, a contract Medical Device OEM manufacturer, which was acquired by Accellent (formerly UTI) in June 2004. Mr. Nicholas received an A.S. degree in Design and Drafting Technologies from the College of San Mateo.

Kirsten L. Valley

Kirsten Valley was named Vice President, Technology and Regulatory Affairs of Concentric Medical, Inc., a business unit of Stryker Neurovascular in October 2011. Prior to joining Stryker, Ms. Valley has served as our Senior Vice President of Technology and Regulatory Affairs of Concentric Medical, Inc. since November 2005. From June 2002 until November 2005, Ms. Valley served as our Vice President of Research and Development. From September 1998 until May 2002, Ms. Valley served as Vice President of Research, Development, Regulatory and Quality for RadioTherapeutics, a developer of radio frequency devices for soft tissue ablation, which was acquired by Boston Scientific in December 2001. Ms. Valley received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Davis.