Meet The Team
John Major, JD, MBA
Board Member
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Safa Rahmani, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Safa was trained as a biomedical engineer at the University of Illinois at Chicago. During her Masters at UIC, she made the initial discoveries that led to the invention of the CLEAr Lens. Her interest in helping patients with visual impairments led her to pursue a career in medicine. She earned her MD and completed an ophthalmology residency program at Northwestern University and went on to complete her surgical vitreoretinal fellowship at Massachusetts Eye and Ear at Harvard University. Safa is now back on home turf, Chicago. She has a wonderful vision for RetMap technologies and is excited about using them.
Shresta Patangay
Director of Operations
Jailene Silveri
Operations Intern
Jailene Silveri
Operations Intern
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Derek Lindblom,
Interim Chief Commercial Officer
Derek is an experienced leader in healthcare, technology, and government. He brings to RetMap his eclectic experience, strong leadership skills and vast knowledge of growing a successful company. He was a part of Livongo’s original Executive leadership and played a key role in the company’s launch and it’s first several years of explosive growth (Livongo is now publicly traded as LVGO with a market cap. of $2.7B). Derek remained a Senior Advisor at Livongo as he transitioned over to help raise, invest, and manage the inaugural 7wire Ventures health tech Venture Fund (> $100M) and 13 portfolio companies. During his time Bain & Co. Derek was the lead consultant for various projects where he worked on critical C-level strategy and turnaround engagements. Derek graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard College and graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. At Harvard Law, he was the President of the Harvard Law & Policy Review. Derek also has strong experience in government; he was a part of several political campaigns where he served as a policy adviser to Sen. Charles Schumer and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Derek lives in Chicago with his wife and son and enjoys reading, doing triathlons, travel, and learning new things.
Shresta Patangay, PhD
Director of Operations
As a bioengineer and PhD, Shresta has been involved with all of the RetMap technologies. Her central contribution in the Neural Engineering Vision Lab was in the design, fabrication, characterization and validation of the Peri-Stim(TM) system. At RetMap, Shresta will support the design, validation, and production of our products.
Tamas Ban, PhD, MBA
Chief Operating Officer
As a Founder, President and COO, Tamas builds enterprise value and accelerates revenue by finding new revenue streams, new channels, new markets and new products. He excels in technical and business innovation, emerging trends and markets. Tamas received his MBA from Chicago Booth School of Business and his PhD in bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Tamas has 22 years of innovation/entrepreneurship experience spanning 6 years at Fortune 500 and 16 years in a small business environment.
John Hetling, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
John is a leader and expert in electrophysiology of vision, with many publications in the field. As a Co-Founder and CEO, John leads tech/product development; leads fundraising / team-building efforts and conveys RetMap’s vision. He is also an Associate Professor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the Director of the Neural Engineering Vision Laboratory, where the RetMap technologies were invented.
Advisory Board
Micah Litow
Advisor, Commercialization Strategy
Greg Vassmer
Manufacturing
Eric Citron
Product Development
Allan Baw
Business Development
Micah Litow, MBA
Advisor, Commercialization strategy
Micah brings with him more than 10 years of experience in the medical device and diagnostic market. He is extremely dynamic and has a passion for commercialization. During his career Micah has launched over a dozen products ranging from Class I to Class III.
Micah Litow, MEM, MBA
Advisor, Commercialization Strategy
Micah brings with him more than 10 years of experience in the medical device and diagnostic market. He is extremely dynamic and has a passion for commercialization. During his career Micah has launched over a dozen products ranging from Class I to Class III.
Key Consultants
Mark Kramer
Regulatory
John Schriner
Corporate law
Mark Amos
Immigration law
Nick Sickler
Corporate Taxes