Eric Olson
Chief Executive Officer, President & Director
Eric Olson is the Chief Executive Officer & President of AMEDICA. Mr. Olson has over 20 years' experience in the orthopedic and spinal device markets. Most recently, he was the Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Axial Biotech, Inc. Previously, he was the Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Facet Solutions, Inc. He has also held senior sales and marketing positions with Medtronic Neurological and Smith & Nephew.
Mr. Olson holds an undergraduate degree in Behavioral Science and Health Administration from the University of Utah, and has also completed a Masters level internship program from the same institution.
W. Karl Farnsworth
Chief Financial Officer
Karl Farnsworth is the Chief Financial Officer of AMEDICA. Mr. Farnsworth has over 25 years’ executive-level experience with growth-oriented, publicly traded companies in multiple industries. Before joining AMEDICA, Mr. Farnsworth was Senior Vice President & Treasurer for EnergySolutions, Inc. (NYSE:ES) and its 21 affiliated companies, 2011-2012. From 2005 to 2011, during a period of consecutive, record-breaking profit years, Mr. Farnsworth served as Chief Financial Officer for Alcan Products Corporation with Alcan Inc. (NYSE:AL), acquired by Rio Tinto Corporation (NYSE:RIO) in 2007. While there, he led significant high-tech investments in China, oversaw $200 million of working capital cash generating initiatives throughout Europe and North America and served as Director of the following corporate boards: Alcan Cable (Canada), Inc.; Stabiloy De Mexico; EPA Holdings Ltd. – Hong Kong; APC Holding Corporation – USA; Alcan (Tianjin) Alloy Products Corporation – China.
Mr. Farnsworth grew up in Fairfax, Virginia, graduated from Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management with a B.S. in Accounting and earned an M.B.A. degree in Finance from The Ohio State University – Max Fischer School of Business. He is fluent in German, holds an active license as Certified Public Accountant in Utah, is a member of The Ohio Society of CPAs and is certified in Lean Six Sigma.
Bryan J. McEntire
Chief Technology Officer
Bryan J. McEntire has served as Vice President of Manufacturing since August 2004 and as our Vice President of Research since December 2006. Mr. McEntire has more than 30 years of experience in advanced ceramic product development, quality engineering and manufacturing.
Prior to joining AMEDICA, Mr. McEntire served as a Senior Director of Supply Chain Management at Applied Materials in Silicon Valley from April 1998 to August 2004, where he managed a portion of the supply chain. This segment included the negotiation of supply contracts and supervision of vendor production of various parts, including precision ceramic components, which were integrated into the capital equipment made and sold by Applied Materials.
Prior to joining Applied Materials, he was General Manager of Norton Advanced Ceramics, a division of Saint-Gobain Industrial Ceramics Corporation, from 1993 to 1998. Here, he managed four ceramic product manufacturing plants in the United States, including the largest US-based production facility for precision Silicon Nitride bearing components.
From 1987 to 1993, Mr. McEntire served in various positions for a joint-venture between Norton Company and TRW, Inc., including Vice President and Technical Director. The purpose of this joint- venture was to explore the use of Silicon Nitride-based ceramics in automotive and turbine engine applications. During his tenure with the joint-venture, Mr. McEntire managed several multi-million dollar R&D contracts for the U.S. Department of Energy.
From 1978 to 1987, Mr. McEntire was successively promoted from Manager of Ceramic Production and Development to Plant Manager for Ceramatec, Inc., a small innovative producer of ionic-conducting and structural ceramic components in Salt Lake City, UT.
Mr. McEntire holds B.S. and M.B.A. degrees in Materials Science and Engineering, and Operations Management, respectively, both from the University of Utah. He is an author or co-author of over 30 technical papers on ceramic materials, processing and characterization, and served as an invited short- course lecturer on Forming of Ceramics at the Annual Meeting of the American Ceramic Society from 1986 to 1995.
Kevin Davis
Chief Operating Officer
Kevin Davis joined AMEDICA in 2009 as a Business Development Consultant, where he focused on strategic positioning and costing of AMEDICA products and has served as Vice President of Business Development, President of AMEDICA’s manufacturing division, and currently as the Chief Operations Officer. Mr. Davis was the Chief Financial Officer of Nevada Chemicals, Inc., a publicly-held sodium cyanide chemical manufacturer. Prior to his position with Nevada Chemicals, Mr. Davis worked for NPS Pharmaceuticals, a publicly-held biopharmaceutical company, where he served as Assistant Corporate Controller. Mr. Davis graduated from the University of Utah with a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting.
Kevin Ontiveros
Chief Legal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer
Kevin Ontiveros is the Chief Legal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer of AMEDICA. Kevin has over 20 years of experience serving as in-house and outside corporate counsel for publicly traded and privately held medical device and biotechnology/pharmaceutical companies. Before joining AMEDICA, Kevin served as the Vice President- Legal Affairs, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for ImaRx Therapeutics, Inc. (IMRX) and Vice President-Corporate Law and Assistant Corporate Secretary for NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NPSP). When not serving as in-house corporate counsel Kevin has worked in private practice focusing exclusively on providing seasoned and experienced strategic legal counsel to the life science industry. Kevin has provided legal and business counsel on a wide range of matters including technology licensing transactions, corporate financing opportunities including public and private equity and debt offerings, public company SEC reporting compliance, and clinical trial, manufacturing, distribution, and research and development agreements. Kevin also advises on corporate governance matters including advising public and private company boards and committees and overseeing the maintenance of corporate minute books and records.
Kevin earned his earned his J.D. from University of Utah School of Law, his LLM Taxation from University of Florida and his B.A. from University of Arizona.
James Abraham
Senior Vice President, Global Sales
James Abraham joined Amedica in January 2013 and brought with him over 27 years of experience in Orthopedics, holding several senior positions in Sales, Marketing, and Business Development on a Global basis. Mr. Abraham was an Officer and Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for IsoTis Orthobioligics, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Regeneration Technologies Inc. and most recently, held several leadership positions at Stryker Orthopedics including General Manager, Area Vice President and Sales Development. Earlier in his career, Mr. Abraham was one of the founders of Encore Orthopedics and simultaneously held the position of Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
Mr. Abraham has an extensive track record of building and leading teams that drive above market growth. His experience managing the complexities of healthcare sales and marketing across varied medical device markets is a tremendous asset to Amedica.
Mr. Abraham holds a Bachelor of Science Business Administration from Creighton University (Omaha, NE) where he graduated with honors after majoring in Finance and minoring in Philosophy.
Vytas Rupinskas
Vice President, Marketing
Vytas Rupinskas is the Vice President of Marketing for Amedica, a position he has held since January 2013.
In this position Mr. Rupinskas has global marketing responsibility for all of Amedica’s products.
Mr. Rupinskas brings more than twenty five years of experience in the orthopedic, spinal and neuromodulation medical device markets. Most recently, he was the Director of Product Management for Leads & Accessories for the Neuromodulation division of St Jude Medical. Previously, he held various senior global marketing and international sales management positions at DePuy Orthopedics, DePuy International and DePuy Spine.
Mr. Rupinskas is a graduate of the University of Illinois with a Bachelor of Science degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences (Chicago) and a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering (Champaign-Urbana).
Gordon Esplin
Vice President, Finance
Gordon Esplin joined AMEDICA in 2007 as our Controller, and has served as our Vice President Finance since November 2012. Mr. Esplin has more than 18 years of financial and management experience working with both public and private companies, with responsibilities for business planning, budgeting, forecasting, and internal controls. Prior to joining AMEDICA, Mr. Esplin served in a variety of financial roles, including Corporate Controller, with NPS Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: NPSP) from 2004 to 2007. Mr. Esplin began his career with Arthur Andersen in Houston in 1994 and later worked as an audit manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers in their Salt Lake City, Utah and Phoenix, Arizona offices, as well as a three year assignment with the PwC Silicon Valley high-tech practice in San Jose, California, where he specialized in working with start-up companies in the software and internet space.
Mr. Esplin holds a B.S. in accounting and an M.S. in business information systems and education from Utah State University, and is a certified public accountant.
Peter Harris
Vice President, Engineering
Peter Harris is the Vice President of Engineering for AMEDICA's Spine Division. Mr. Harris more than 12 years' spine experience and has been responsible for the development of many successful medical products from initial concept through to commercialization. Prior to this role, Mr. Harris was Vice President of US Spine, Inc. before the merger with AMEDICA. He previously worked for K2M, Inc. from 2004 to 2007 as a Senior Project Engineer, and as one of its first employees, played a key role in the successful growth of the company. Mr. Harris also worked as a Project Engineer for Interpore Cross (now Biomet's Spine Division) from 2000 to 2004. Mr. Harris graduated with a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.
Paul Sendro
Senior Vice President, Strategic Market Development
Paul Sendro comes to AMEDICA with 20 years of experience in the Orthopedic, Trauma and Spine Medical Device Industry. He has held leadership positions with publicly-traded and as well as privately- held companies, where he established strategic sales plans, managed national sales forces, and developed strategic corporate branding.
He most recently served as Vice President of Sales for US Spine, where his role was to restructure the sales and marketing department and re-launch their Facet Fusion Devices. Prior to US Spine, Paul served as the President and CEO of Vertebron, where he was brought in to rebuild the organization and increase the company sales and profitability, which he did, before the company was sold to Cardo Medical in 2009. Before Vertebron, Mr. Sendro spent 6 years at Blackstone Medical where he began as the Vice President of Marketing, and eventually took over as Vice President of Domestic Sales. During his tenure at Blackstone, Paul developed and implemented the company's strategic sales plan for accelerated growth and profitability, and he restructured the sales management and distribution organization.
The 10 years prior to Blackstone were spent at Stryker Inc., where Paul began his orthopedic career in 1990. He started as Engineering Manager of the Knee Reconstructive Development Team. After a short stint at Synthes USA as the Marketing Manager of their Maxillofacial Division, he returned to Stryker as the Director of Product Development and Marketing for Stryker Japan. For 3 years, he led the product development and marketing for their reconstructive joints, as well as trauma and spine. Ultimately, he was promoted to Director of Marketing of Stryker's Global Trauma Division.
Paul holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Business from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and his M.B.A. from Adelphi University in Garden City, New York.