Velano Vascular Adds Medical Device Industry Veterans to Leadership Team

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Sep 25, 2017) - Velano Vascular announced today that Drew Pieprzyk and Al Burdulis have joined the company's executive leadership team as Vice President of Sales and Marketing and Vice President of Research and Development. Pieprzyk most recently served as Vice President of Global Marketing for the Teleflex ARROW® Vascular Access division, and Burdulis served as Vice President of Mechanical Systems for Spinal Modulation (acquired by St. Jude Medical/Abbott). The addition of these veteran medical and vascular technology executives will further enable the company to scale its commercial relationships with health systems, thought leaders, and care providers around the world while broadening its portfolio of critical vascular access devices. 

In early 2017, the company earned its third FDA clearance for the next generation of its PIVO™ needle-free blood draw device. It announced $17 million in financing from new and existing investors, with plans to scale and commercialize a family of vascular access technologies. The company also disclosed a collaboration with Sutter Health in Northern California, and Intermountain Healthcare (Salt Lake City, UT) announced its adoption of PIVO system wide across more than 20 hospitals to advance a needle free standard of blood collection.

"The addition of these two industry veterans to the Velano leadership team is a fundamental step in setting the stage for rapid growth, reinforcing our trajectory of impact for patients, practitioners, and providers," said Velano Vascular Chief Executive Eric M. Stone. "I look forward to partnering with Al and Drew to further accelerate our growth and in the pursuit of a new, more humane standard of care."

Burdulis has led engineering and development teams for a wide range of products and companies, including Abbott Vascular Devices, St. Jude Medical, Johnson & Johnson, Kinamed, and others. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Pieprzyk's fifteen years with Stryker and Teleflex, based in the U.S. and overseas, will inform his oversight of Velano's commercial organization. He holds an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Syracuse University.

About Velano Vascular
Velano Vascular is committed to reducing the pain, risk, and inefficiencies of vascular access and blood collection practices. Velano Vascular's PIVO device enables blood draws from Peripheral IV catheters, aiming to enable more compassionate care for hospital inpatients, a safer practice for caregivers, and a more financially responsible alternative for health systems. Velano Vascular is backed by First Round Capital, Griffin Hospital, Kapor Capital, Safeguard Scientifics, Sutter Health, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), White Owl Capital, and a number of health-industry veterans. Company collaborators include several of the leading hospital systems in the United States. More information is available at www.velanovascular.com and @velanovascular.