We’re radically changing the way
vascular disease is treated

Our Story

Vascular disease isn’t going away. Real people continue to fight the progression and complications that result from PAD. We’ve won many battles but the war goes on and we don’t take our responsibility to create change lightly. As our company ages, many of our ideas have become realities yet we still lie awake at night devising plans to do more. We know many are counting on us to do more. We continue to be an ordinary group of individuals trying to achieve the extraordinary. For this opportunity we remain extremely blessed.

Leadership

Management
Board Of Directors

Jeffrey M. Soinski Chief Executive Officer

Jeffrey M. Soinski

Chief Executive Officer

Jeff Soinski has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of our Board of Directors since December 2014. From its formation in September 2009 until the acquisition of its Unisyn business by GE Healthcare in May 2013, Mr. Soinski served as Chief Executive Officer of Medical Imaging Holdings and its primary operating company Unisyn Medical Technologies, a national provider of technology-enabled products and services to the medical imaging industry. He remained a director of Medical Imaging Holdings and its remaining operating company Consensys Imaging Service until its acquisition in October 2017. Mr. Soinski served periodically as a Special Venture Partner from July 2008 to June 2013 and as a Special Investment Partner since October 2016 for Galen Partners, a leading healthcare-focused private equity firm. From 2001 until its acquisition by C.R. Bard in 2008, Mr. Soinski was President and CEO of Specialized Health Products International, a publicly-traded manufacturer and marketer of proprietary safety medical products. Earlier in his career, Mr. Soinski was President and CEO of ViroTex Corporation, a venture-backed pharmaceutical drug delivery company he sold to Atrix Laboratories in 1998. Mr. Soinski served on the board of directors of Merriman Holdings, parent of Merriman Capital, a San Francisco-based investment banking and brokerage firm, from 2008 until March 2016. He holds a B.A. degree from Dartmouth College.
Mark Weinswig Chief Financial Officer

Mark Weinswig

Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Weinswig joined Avinger in June 2018 and brings extensive strategic and operational financial experience, including almost 20 years in financial leadership positions in private and publicly-traded technology companies. Mr. Weinswig previously served as the CFO of Emcore, One Workplace, and Aqua Metals. Earlier in his career, he held senior financial positions at Coherent and Oclaro. Mr. Weinswig began his career in public accounting at PricewaterhouseCoopers and worked at Morgan Stanley as an Equity Research Analyst. He has held both Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designations, and received an MBA from Santa Clara University and a BS in Accounting from Indiana University.
Himanshu Patel Chief Technology Officer

Himanshu Patel

Chief Technology Officer

Himanshu Patel has served as Chief Technology Officer of Avinger since its founding in 2007. Mr. Patel brings over 25 years of design experience developing medical devices, primarily for cardiovascular and peripheral artery disease treatment. He has extensive experience leading R&D and manufacturing operations across several companies, and has served as a named inventor in more than 25 medical device patents. Mr. Patel founded Avinger in 2007, leading the company in the rapid development of new products that address specific unmet clinical needs in the treatment of peripheral artery disease. He spearheaded engineering efforts of the current platform of image-guided (“Lumivascular”) interventional devices at Avinger, and has played a central role in the development of products that have generated over $1 billion in shareholder value over the course of his career. Prior to Avinger, Mr. Patel led R&D activities as the Director of Advanced Technologies at FoxHollow, and spearheaded the engineering efforts of a $180 million revenue product. His other experience includes designing and developing shape memory alloy stents and multi-component stent-graft devices at EndoTex Interventional Systems, and improving the manufacturing processes of medical devices at General Surgical Innovations, amongst others. Mr. Patel has a proven track record of developing products that exceed customer expectations, with a focus on cost containment, speed to market, and manufacturability. Mr. Patel holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from M.S. University of Baroda, India, and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida.
Phil Preuss Vice President, Marketing & Business Operations

Phil Preuss

Vice President, Marketing & Business Operations

As the Vice President of Marketing and Business Operations, Philip R. Preuss manages a cross-functional team responsible for product management, marketing communications, competitive intelligence, deal desk management, sales operations, HR, and legal. Over the past 10 years at Avinger and Sawtooth Labs (which merged with Avinger in 2009), Mr. Preuss has played a significant role in building the business and commercial operations of the company from pre-commercial stage through several product launches and an initial public offering. Following his MBA program and prior to Avinger, he worked in corporate development at FoxHollow Technologies, acquired by ev3, where he focused on internal strategic priorities and the exploration of external business opportunities. Between undergraduate and business school Mr. Preuss spent almost five years in New York City working in equity research, eventually working his way up to the Associate Director level at UBS. Mr. Preuss holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a BA from Stanford University.
Corey Gibbs Vice President, Sales

Corey Gibbs

Vice President, Sales

As Vice President of Sales, Corey leads Avinger’s sales efforts and strategic partnerships. Mr. Gibbs joined Avinger with the launch of Lumivascular in 2013. His medical device career spans 16 Years in Medical Device Sales and Management covering a wide array of technologies with organizations such as Berchtold Corporation (now a division of Stryker), Intuitive Surgical and Karl STORZ Endoscopy. He holds a B.A degree from Louisiana State University along with a 2-year Varsity Letter in Football.
Thomas Lawson, PhD Vice President, Clinical & Regulatory Affairs

Thomas Lawson, PhD

Vice President, Clinical & Regulatory Affairs

Thom Lawson joined Avinger in October 2016 and serves as our Vice President of Clinical, Regulatory and Medical Affairs. After gaining a PhD in plant pathology from the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Lawson coordinated international preclinical and clinical studies at Cetus Corporation, then the 2nd largest biotech company in the US. Prior to joining Avinger, Dr. Lawson spent 25 years executing the preclinical, clinical and regulatory tasks for 8 different start-up medical device companies, involving over 80 studies in 13 different countries, and authoring over 50 regulatory filings for the commercialization of devices in 27 countries, including over thirty 510(k) submissions. To facilitate device promotion and education, he has provided first-drafts to physicians and researchers of over 140 abstracts and journal articles. An invited lecturer to professional society meetings and medical departments in the USA, Europe and Asia, he is the past editor-in-chief of the Journal of Vascular Access Devices and author of over 40 articles in both scientific and general audience journals in the fields of biology, pathology, and medical science.
Jaafer Golzar, MD, FACC, FSCAI Chief Medical Officer

Jaafer Golzar, MD, FACC, FSCAI

Chief Medical Officer

Jaafer Golzar, MD, joined Avinger in July 2018 and serves as our Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Golzar is a practicing interventional cardiologist with Advocate Medical Group and a key opinion leader in the treatment of peripheral artery disease. He is the Director of Limb Salvage and Endovascular Intervention at Advocate Trinity Hospital in Chicago. Dr. Golzar is also a leading educator on interventional techniques and technologies and is the founder of the Chicago Endovascular Conference (CVC), an international-scale annual conference designed to address the educational needs of physicians treating patients with peripheral arterial and venous diseases. Prior to joining Avinger, Dr. Golzar was also Medical Director – Interventional Vascular for BTG International. He has participated in multiple clinical research trials, including studies of PAD treatment with atherectomy, drug-eluting balloons and stents and has authored numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals. As a recognized leader in the endovascular community, Dr. Golzar has received multiple accolades including the prestigious Pioneers in Performance - North America Award in 2014. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions. Dr. Golzar has a B.S. from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and an M.D. degree from the University of Arkansas College of Medicine.

Jeffrey M. Soinski Chief Executive Officer

Jeffrey M. Soinski

Chief Executive Officer

Jeff Soinski has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of our Board of Directors since December 2014. From its formation in September 2009 until the acquisition of its Unisyn business by GE Healthcare in May 2013, Mr. Soinski served as Chief Executive Officer of Medical Imaging Holdings and its primary operating company Unisyn Medical Technologies, a national provider of technology-enabled products and services to the medical imaging industry. Mr. Soinski remains a Director of Medical Imaging Holdings and its remaining operating company Consensys Imaging Service. From July 2008 to June 2013, Mr. Soinski served periodically as a Special Venture Partner for Galen Partners, a leading healthcare-focused private equity firm, which has Medical Imaging Holdings as one of its portfolio companies.
From 2001 until its acquisition by C.R. Bard in 2008, Mr. Soinski was President and CEO of Specialized Health Products International, a publicly-traded manufacturer and marketer of proprietary safety medical products. During his tenure, Specialized Health Products ranked three consecutive years in the top half of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in North America. In 2008, Mr.
Mr. Soinski has served on the board of directors of Merriman Holdings, parent of Merriman Capital, a San Francisco-based investment banking and brokerage firm, since 2008. He holds a B.A. degree from Dartmouth College.
James G. Cullen Director

James G. Cullen

Director

James G. Cullen has served as a member of our board of directors since December 2014. During the last five years Mr. Cullen has held board and committee positions with various companies. Mr. Cullen is currently the non-executive Chairman of the board of Neustar, a director and member of the investment and finance committees of Prudential Financial, non-executive Chairman of the Board of Agilent Technologies, and director of Keysight Technologies. From 1993 to 2000, Mr. Cullen was President, Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Bell Atlantic Corporation (now Verizon). From 1989 to1993, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Bell Atlantic-New Jersey. Mr. Cullen holds a B.A. in Economics from Rutgers University and an M.S. in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
James B. McElwee Director

James B. McElwee

Director

James B. McElwee currently operates as an independent venture capitalist in Northern California with more than 30 years of experience in institutional venture capital and private equity. Mr. McElwee joined Weston Presidio as its third General Partner in 1992 serving until 2010. He was reponsible for Weston Presidio's private investments in Digital Theater Systems (NASDAQ: DTSI), RedEnvelope (NASDAQ: REDE), Vitria Technology (NASDAQ: VITR), Wild Oats Markets (NASDAQ: OATS), IC Works (acquired by Cypress Semiconductor), and Sassaby (Jane) (acquired by Estee Lauder). Mr. McElwee opened the firm's Menlo Park Office in 2000. Prior to Weston Presidio, Mr. McElwee was Senior Vice President of the Security Pacific Venture Capital Group and the founding Managing Director of its Menlo Park office. During his 13 years with the Security Pacific Venture Capital Group, Mr. McElwee was responsible for early investments in Costco, Universal Health Services, Cypress Semiconductor, Aspect Telecommunications, Xilinx, MIPS Computer Systems, Harmonic, Microchip, Vitesse and many others. Prior to entering the venture capital industry in 1979, Mr. McElwee was a Senior Consultant with Accenture working on a variety of clients in the retailing, healthcare and technology industries. In addition to Avinger, Mr. McElwee currently serves on the Board of Directors of Silego Technology, a semiconductor company headquartered in Santa Clara. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of SFJAZZ, the non-profit organization responsible for the San Francisco Jazz Festival. Mr. McElwee earned his B.A. from Claremont McKenna College where he serves on the Board of Trustees and is Chairman of the Financial Economics Institute. He earned his M.B.A. from the Wharton Graduate School of Business where he serves on the Wharton Entrepreneurial Advisory Board.
Donald A. Lucas Director

Donald A. Lucas

Director

Donald A. Lucas is a second generation venture capitalist who grew up in an environment steeped in the entrepreneurial spirit in Silicon Valley. He has spent his entire professional career focused on investing in private companies, working with entrepreneurs and their management teams, leveraging his vast network to create value throughout all stages of investments. Don’s father, Donald L. Lucas was one of the first practicing venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. Don worked alongside his father for more than a decade as an associate and private investor. In 1993 Don founded the RWI group of funds and then in 2007, Lucas Venture Group, with an investment focus spanning Mobile Internet, Social Commerce/Networking and Backhaul Transmission Technologies. Don’s current investments at Lucas Venture Group include Avinger, Chegg, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHGG), Leeo, Inc., Liquidspace, Inc., Mightybell, Palantir Technologies, Inc., Reverb, Inc., Theranos, TouchOfModern and Vorstack Corporation. Don’s past investments include Advanced Fibre Communications, acquired by Tellabs Inc. (NASDAQ: TLAB), BlueArc Corporation (acquired by Hitachi Data Systems Sept. 2011), Business Objects (NASDAQ: BOBJY) acquired by SAP, Cadence Design (NASDAQ: CDNS), Dexcom, Inc. (NASDAQ: DXCM), eSilicon Corporation, Force10 Networks (acquired by Dell Aug. 2011), Infinera Corporation (NASDAQ: INFN), Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG), Khimetrics (acquired by SAP), Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), and Macromedia, acquired by Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE).