Management Team
HyperBranch's executive team members each average more than 20 years of experience in running commercially successful organizations and understand the business needs and commercial realities of the markets that the Company is focusing on.
John Conn, President & Chief Executive Officer
John has been in the medical device industry for over 30 years. His introduction to the industry was in research and development for Baxter International. He spent 10 years as General Manager for Baxter’s Asian operations, living in Singapore and building ventures in various Asian countries, including China.
Prior to HyperBranch, John’s most recent position was President of Onux Medical, Inc., including involvement in the start-up and eventual sale of Onux to CR Bard. He was also President of the Renal Products Division of Fresenius Medical Care North America.
John also worked as Vice President of IVAC Medical Systems. While there he was involved in the acquisition from Eli Lilly and was responsible for the restructuring of operations during the turnaround and eventual sale of the company.
John has an undergraduate degree from the University of New England, an MBA from Roosevelt University, and Executive MBAs from Duke University and the University of Limerick. He is a board member of two medical device companies and a former member of the Advisory Board of the College of New Jersey.
Jeff Clark, Chief Operations Officer
Jeffrey G. Clark is uniquely qualified to lead HyperBranch in commercializing its biodendrimer medical devices. Jeff was formerly vice president of research and development for Closure Medical Corp., Raleigh, N.C., led the product development efforts from start-up to a $250 million cap publicly-traded company and has over 30 years of product development experience. In addition to being acknowledged for his role in leading Closure Medical's efforts to develop and manufacture medical-grade adhesives, now known as Dermabond® Topical Skin Adhesive, Jeff also designed and developed a complete line of polypropylene specialty sutures for Sharpoint, Inc.
Dermabond® adhesive was the first cyanoacrylate medical product to receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for closing lacerations and incisions. Jeff was named the 2001 recipient of the John W. Hyatt Award for Service to Humankind, which was sponsored by Dow Plastics and awarded by the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) during its 59th Annual Technical Conference (ANTEC) in Dallas. Jeff received an M.S. degree in Chemistry from Drexel University.
Mark Grinstaff, Co-Founder
Dr. Mark W. Grinstaff is Co-founder and Chief Science Officer for HyperBranch Medical Technology, Inc. Grinstaff is also an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry at Boston University.
Prior to this appointment Grinstaff was Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Ophthalmology, and Biomedical Engineering at Duke University and Duke Medical Center. While at Duke University, he was instrumental in attracting approximately $6 million in research funding for his laboratory team. He and his research team invented the novel dendrimer chemistry, which forms the technology base of HyperBranch Medical Technology, Inc.
Dr. Grinstaff received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow and a Senior Research Fellow at the California Institute of Technology. He has published more than 60 manuscripts and his work has appeared in journals such as Science, Nature, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., and J. Am. Chem. Soc. He has also received several national awards for his research including the ACS Nobel Laureate Signature Award, an NSF Career Award, a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship.