Board of Directors
Jack K. Ahrens II
Jack is a founding General Partner of TGap Venture Capital Funds, headquartered in Kalamazoo, a Midwest focused venture capital fund that has raised over $46 million. Jack has been a venture capitalist since 1979; first as President of United Capital Corporation of Illinois (an SBIC), since 1983 as a General Partner of Pathfinder Venture Capital Funds I, II, III. Prior to that he had seven years of experience in bank trust investments and operations. He has served on many Boards during his career including Afmedica, Inc., Central Data, Inc., Micro Business Applications, Inc., MedVantx, Inc., MinuteClinic, Inc., NeoChord, Inc., Rapid Diagnostek, Regenesis Biomedical and Vector General, Inc. He is a graduate of Indiana University, and he is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
John L. Brooks III
John Is the Managing Director of Healthcare Capital LLC which advises early-stage life sciences companies. Mr. Brooks is on the board of a number of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, and he recently managed as CEO and President a Phase III biotechnology company’s reverse merger. Mr. Brooks is the former President & Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Joslin Diabetes Center, a Boston based diabetes research, clinical care, and education organization. Mr. Brooks is a well-known life sciences executive. He has co-founded nine life sciences companies. He was a co-founder of Insulet (PODD) and Prism Venture Partners, a $1.25B venture capital firm. Prior to that, Mr. Brooks was a senior medical device executive at Pfizer, and a senior manager at Arthur Andersen & Co. in Boston, MA, where he focused on early-stage companies. A native of Massachusetts, he holds an M.S. in Business Administration and a B.B.A. cum laude from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and he is a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Financial Planner, and holds a NACD Directorship Certification.
Lawrence Bruder
Noxilizer’s Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors, brings over 25 years of leadership and operational experience in large and small life science companies, including Becton Dickinson, Applied Biosystems, Leica, Olympus, and Guava Technologies. Most recently, he was President and CEO of Noxilizer and, prior to that, venture-backed Guava Technologies, which was sold to Millipore Biosciences in 2009. Much of his experience prior to Guava was at Becton Dickinson, where he held a number of significant positions over a 10-year period. His responsibilities in both companies included the clinical and regulatory aspects of 510(k) submittals to the FDA for medical devices, significant commercial interaction with pharmaceutical companies, and high-level business development transactional activity. Mr. Bruder holds a B.S. from Rochester Institute of Technology and Master of Management in Marketing and Economics from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Charles Immel
Is an independent healthcare industry advisor with broad global experience in medical devices and biopharmaceuticals. He has served most recently in executive leadership roles in Gambro, a large European manufacturer of renal therapy products recently acquired by Baxter Healthcare Corporation. Chuck was President of the Healthcare Division of STERIS Corporation, a leading global provider of medical devices in infection prevention and surgical environments. He started his career with Baxter Healthcare Corporation in the Biosciences Division where he held a variety of commercial leadership roles in North America, Europe and Japan. During his career he has launched numerous successful new products and services in the healthcare market by focusing on solutions that improve the efficacy and safety of care, while addressing overall system cost. He is a former member of BioOhio (Board of Trustees and Executive Committee), AdvaMed, American Chamber of Commerce Japan and Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (Operations Committee). He is a graduate of The Ohio State University.
Mathias W. Samuel, J.D.
Samuel has an extensive background in business, technology and IP law. He retired from the Minneapolis office of Fish & Richardson, the world’s largest intellectual property law firm, after a 25-year career leading and successfully trying patent and technology cases in venues around the country. He has extensive experience on patent matters including due diligence, freedom to operate, and strategic portfolio development. He also has substantial experience working with start-up and early stage technology companies, especially in the medical device space. He is also a member of an angel investment group based in Minneapolis and regularly evaluates and considers investments in Midwestern start-ups. Mr. Samuel has also served on the board of directors of a number of non-profit organizations.
Stephen Schaefer, J.D.
Mr. Schaefer has 30 years of business leadership, engineering, and legal experience in the medical device field. He is currently CEO of Sora Neuroscience, Inc., an emerging brain functional imaging company whose mission it is to improve patient outcomes and lower cost-of-care for diagnosing and treating brain disease. In his legal career, Mr. Schaefer was a technology lawyer at the leading intellectual property law firm of Fish & Richardson PC, where he chaired the firm’s medical device practice group. While at Fish, he became a trusted advisor to many early-stage and venture-backed medical device companies and venture funds that back them. More recently, Mr. Schaefer has served in operational, business development, and board director roles for early-stage medical device companies across an array of medical device product areas. He also has been an angel investor for 25 years and is active in the Twin Cities Minnesota medical technology entrepreneur community where he resides.
PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Christopher A. Thatcher
Christopher A. Thatcher was named Noxilizer’s President and CEO in May 2024. He is a seasoned business leader with over 25 years of experience driving and turning around revenue and earnings growth in the global medical device, equipment, pharmaceutical, and healthcare products sectors. His extensive leadership experience includes roles as President of Integra LifeSciences’ Neurosurgery Division, Country Manager of Canada at Bausch and Lomb and Vice President of Global Strategy and Commercial Development at Bausch & Lomb. Additionally, as President and CEO he successfully raised significant capital and took Neuronetics public in an IPO in 2018. Christopher also serves on the Board of Directors for Noxilizer, Micro Interventional Devices and Strategic Advisor for Sinaptica Therapeutics. Mr. Thatcher holds a B.A. from Lafayette College.