The Palmaz Scientific management and board of directors come from diverse backgrounds and have extensive management expertise. The combined team has created shareholder value in excess of $1 billion from sale transactions involving startup companies.
Julio Palmaz, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Scientist.
Dr. Palmaz currently holds the Ashbel Smith Professorship as a tenured professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He is the founder of Advanced Bio Prosthetic Surfaces, an R&D company devoted to advanced device concepts, which licensed certain of its intellectual property to J&J/Cordis in 2003. He also founded Palmaz Vineyards in 1997, an advanced winemaking operation based on underground gravity flow processing and the largest underground winemaking facility in the US. He received his doctorate of medicine in 1971 at the National University of La Plata, Argentina, and completed his radiology specialty training at the University of California, Davis, in 1980.
Dr. Palmaz began his professional career in 1974 at San Martin University Hospital, Argentina, and was chief of special procedures at Martinez Veterans Administration hospital in 1981. In 1983, Dr. Palmaz joined the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Department of Radiology as Chief of Angiography and Special Procedures until 1999, and as Chief of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology Research until 2005. He is the inventor of the Palmaz™ Stent and was a principal in EGP, a partnership that held the licensing rights to the Palmaz-Schatz Coronary Stent which was purchased by Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Palmaz has 20 issued patents, is the author of 29 books or book chapters, and has authored 104 peer-reviewed publications. He is a 2007 gold medalist of the Society of Interventional Radiology, 2006 inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, a 2005 Distinguished Scientist of the American Heart Association, and fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. For two years in a row, his patent on the balloon-expandable stent was recognized as one of the "Ten patents that changed the world," published in Intellectual Property International magazine in August 2002. His early stent research artifacts are now part of the medical collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., as well as the Texas History Museum in Austin, TX.
In January 2003 Palmaz received the Presidential Distinguished Scholar Award from the University of Texas, San Antonio. He has received the titles of "Master of Interventional Cardiology" from the Argentina College of Cardiology, and "Extraordinary Professor" from the National University of La Plata, Argentina. In addition, Palmaz has received honorary titles or awards from the American Heart Association, the International Society of Endovascular Surgery, the Society of Interventional Radiology, the German Roentgen Society, The Rotterdam Thoraxcenter in Holland, the Washington Cardiovascular Research Foundation, the Society of Cardiac Angiography, the Texas Heart Institute, the Texas Bar Association, the Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute, the Cardiovascular Institute of the South, and the Surfaces in Biomaterials Foundation.
Steven B. Solomon, CEO and Director.
Steven B. Solomon currently serves as the chief executive officer and a director of Palmaz Scientific, a leader in the research, development and commercialization of implantable medical devices manufactured with patented thin film physical vapor deposition technologies and processes. Mr. Solomon has served in executive and director roles with public and private companies for more than 20 years, with substantial experience in public and private equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and executive management.
Mr. Solomon served as chief executive officer, president and chairman of the board of directors of Citadel Security Software Inc. since its formation in December 1996 until its sale in December 2006 to McAfee, Inc. (NYSE: MFE). Mr. Solomon also served as director, president and chief executive officer of CT Holdings Enterprises, Inc. until the company's merger with Xcorporeal Inc. Mr. Solomon was the founder and served as chairman of the board, chief executive officer and director of Parago, Inc., an incubation venture of CT Holdings that is an application solution provider and internet-based business process outsourcer that provides an on-line suite of promotional offerings designed to automate promotional management and optimize the customer care services offered by its clients. Mr. Solomon led Parago in completing approximately $85 million in angel and venture financings and three acquisitions. From 2000 to 2006, Mr. Solomon also served as a director of River Logic, Inc., an incubation venture of CT Holdings that creates and operates integrated networks of decision support tools, E-learning solutions and E-commerce capabilities designed to enable decision makers to leverage knowledge and information to gain a competitive advantage.
Mr. Solomon has served on the board of directors of Boo-Koo Holdings and the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA) where he testified before a congressional oversight hearing on "Information Security-Vulnerability Management Strategies and Technology," providing an industry perspective on cyber security legislation and the importance of protecting our national infrastructure. Mr. Solomon is also active in the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) of North Texas.
Richard Connelly, Chief Financial Officer.
Richard Connelly is a financial executive with 35 years of financial management and operations experience at such companies as Texas Instruments (1980-1985), Sterling Software (1987-1997), Citadel Security Software (2001-2006), and Riptide Worldwide Inc. (2007-2008) where he held various financial management positions including controller, treasurer and/or CFO. In addition to these public companies, Mr. Connelly has been CFO of several technology start-up companies including Photomatrix Corporation (1985-1986), Answersoft Inc. (1997-1998), JusticeLink Inc. (1998-1999) and Asset-Intertech Inc. (1999-2000). He began his career as an auditor in the Chicago office of Ernst & Young (1974-1979). He holds a master's degree in finance from the University of Texas at Dallas (1988) and a bachelor's degree in accountancy from the University of Illinois (1974). He is a certified public accountant in Texas.