Meet The Team
David Vigil
Chief Executive Officer
Tamas Ban
Board Member
John Hetling
Chief Technology Officer
Tamas Ban, MBA, PhD. As a Co-founder, Dr. Ban 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. Dr. Ban has 25 years of innovation/entrepreneurship experience spanning 8 years at Fortune 500 and 17 years in a small business environment. He is also a management consultant at Systems Evolution, Inc. He holds an MBA from Chicago Booth School of Business and a PhD in Bioengineering from UIC.
John Hetling, PhD, is a Co-Founder and the Chief Technology Officer at RetMap. He is a leader and expert in electrophysiology of vision, with many publications in the field. Dr. Hetling is the Director of UIC’s Neural Engineering Vision Laboratory, the birthplace of current and pipeline RetMap products. At RetMap, he leads product development and scientific research. He also supports fundraising efforts and is excellent at building great teams! Dr. Hetling is an Associate Professor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Bioengineering at UIC. He has a B.S in Biology from Bates College, Maine and a PhD in Bioengineering and Neuroscience, UIC.
David joined RetMap in January of 2021. He is a Fortune 100 senior executive with global experience. During his 20 years with Qualcomm, Dave led Business Development in the US, Europe and Southeast Asia, as well as Sales and Marketing and Product Development for Qualcomm subsidiaries. More recently he has served as CEO and President of two L CATTERTON companies. His experience includes communication technology, but also medical devices and veterinary products (he's a dog guy!). Dave has a passion for, and experience in, leading early-stage companies with good technology through critical growth phases toward healthy exits. He holds a B.S in Finance and an MBA from San Diego State University.
Safa Rahmani
Chief Medical Officer
John Major
Board Member
Shresta Patangay
Director of Operations
Safa Rahmani, MD, MS, is a Co-Founder and RetMap's Chief Medical Officer. As CMO, Dr. Rahmani will focus on translating RetMap’s innovations and scientific insights into collaborative clinical initiatives. She’s an Ophthalmologist at Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital and an Assistant Professor at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Rahmani is also a trained Biomedical Engineer - she made the initial discoveries that led to the invention of the CLEAr Lens. She holds an M.S in Bioengineering, UIC and is a Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine grad. She completed her Ophthalmology Residency at Northwestern University and was the co-Chief fellow at Massachusetts Eye and Ear at Harvard University, where she completed her surgical Vitreoretinal Fellowship.
John Major is a Board member and RetMap’s mentor. He is Founder and President of MTSG, a strategic consulting business specializing in emerging opportunities. He was the Chairman and CEO of Apacheta, Novatel Wireless (led Novatel Wireless to a successful IPO in the fall of 2000), and Wireless Knowledge - a joint venture of QUALCOMM Incorporated and Microsoft Corporation. He was also the Sr. VP and CTO at Motorola. John Major holds a B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Rochester, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, an M.B.A. from Northwestern University and a J.D. from Loyola University. He has twelve US patents.
Shresta is RetMap’s Director of Operations. She is a Biomedical Engineer by training with a PhD from University of Illinois at Chicago. At RetMap she is responsible for research, product development, supply chain operations, and sales and marketing. Shresta is the company liaison and works closely with the CEO and CTO to interface with customers, scientists and clinicians. She also plays a key role in the company’s business development. Her central contribution in the Neural Engineering Vision Lab (Hetling Lab) was in the design, construction, characterization and validation of a patented ERG system for early detection of Glaucoma, Peri-Stim(TM) – a RetMap pipeline product.
Jailene Silveri
Intern
Operations
Micah Litow
Advisor
Business Development
Greg Vassmer
Advisor
Manufacturing
Micah is the President and COO at Kalderos, Inc., a Chicago based health tech startup. Their goal is to increase transparency and trust by solving challenges faced by the US healthcare system. Micah is a high energy, impact-oriented entrepreneur and has 10+ years of professional commercialization experience with more than a dozen global healthcare product launches under his belt. His advice on commercialization and Go-to-Market strategy helped RetMap have a smooth RM Electrode Canine launch. Micah has an MBA from Kellogg School of Business, a M.E.M in Biomedical Entrepreneurship and a B.S in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western University.
Greg is the principal engineer and owner at Fluid Sealing Science, LLC., a design and manufacturing consulting company. He is a customer-focused executive with proven experience delivering results for operations in the US, Europe and Asia. He’s worked with tier 1 supplier companies in the medical, vehicle, aerospace and construction industry. His primary focus includes product development, technical and quality systems, business system metrics, business and operational excellence. Greg’s guidance has played an instrumental role in manufacturing and production of the human RM Electrode. He is a Six sigma Black Belt and holds an M.S in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arizona and a B.S in Physics from Northern Illinois University.
Eric Citron
Advisor
Market Analysis
Allan Baw
Advisor
RetMap, Inc is now an EvoNexus portfolio company
