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Salona Global
Leadership
Mike Seckler
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Salona Global
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Mike Seckler was appointed Permanent Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Salona Global in July 2023, following one month as interim CEO. He has more than 30 years of life sciences experience commercializing and developing innovative medicines, medical devices, and diagnostics for patients across a wide range of therapeutic areas.
Prior to Salona, Mike was the COO of FerGene where he was responsible for establishing a groundbreaking joint venture between Blackstone Life Sciences and Ferring International Center SA. He led the global development and commercialization efforts for ADSTILADRIN, an innovative gene therapy approved for the treatment of bladder cancer.
Mike has also held several executive leadership positions with Ferring Pharmaceuticals, a multi-billion-dollar company based in Switzerland, where he was the General Manager of its $100M Canadian subsidiary; Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Corporate Communications; and Orthopedics Business Unit leader.
Mike honed his expertise at Pfizer and Merck, where he held various leadership positions in marketing, sales, and market access. Mike obtained a B.S. in Health Sciences as well as an M.B.A. from The Pennsylvania State University. He was previously a board member of GlyPharma, a Montreal-based developer of innovative therapeutic medicines, and K2 Biotechnology Ventures, an organization dedicated to founding and operating life science companies emerging from universities
Rick Greenwald
Co-Founder and President of Simbex
Rick Greenwald is the President of Simbex, a wholly owned subsidiary of Salona Global and Salona Global’s second acquisition. Rick was also Co-Founder of iWalk (now BionX, acquired by OttoBock). He is co-founder and Executive Director of the non-profit National Institute for Sports Science and Safety and is an Adjunct Professor at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. He has led two federally funded medical technology Commercialization Centers as Co-Director of the NIH funded Center for Translation of Rehabilitation Engineering Advances and Technology (TREAT), a national rehabilitation infrastructure resource, and Co-Director of the previously FDA funded New England Pediatric Device Consortium (NEPDC). Dr. Greenwald’s research interests include biomechanics, injury prevention, sports equipment, product development, and technology commercialization.
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Rick has developed Simbex into a recognized leader in the development of biofeedback and data acquisition products for the medical and rehabilitation industries. Dr. Greenwald and Simbex have received numerous research and development awards, including ones from NIH, NSF, and the Department of Defense, for product development through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
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He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Rick serves as a Trustee for the Visiting Nurse and Hospice of Vermont and New Hampshire and is on the Board of Trustees of the New Hampshire Academy of Science.
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Rick holds a Biomedical Engineering PhD degree from Duke University, a Master of Science in Engineering from Thayer School of Engineering and received his PhD from the University of Utah.
Dennis Nelson
Chief Financial Officer
Dennis Nelson is the Chief Financial Officer of Salona Global. Most recently he was Corporate Controller of Manscaped Holdings, LLC based in San Diego, California. Dennis was previously Principal Financial Officer of Alphatec Spine, Inc., a medical technology company trading on the NASDAQ. Dennis is a Corporate Finance Executive and Certified Public Accountant with 25 years of experience building and leading teams and companies, both private and publicly traded, through periods of rapid growth, acquisition and divestiture, complicated restructurings, international expansion and complex financing transactions. He is a seasoned leader with a track record of creating improved financial performance, heightened productivity, and enhanced compliance. Dennis earned his BA in Business Economics from University of California, Santa Barbara.
Salona Global
Board of Directors
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Executive Chairman
Les Cross
​Former CEO & Chairman, DJO Global (NYSE:DJO)
Former CEO & Chairman, Alphatec Spine (NASDAQ:ATEC)
​Les Cross focused on acquisition and integration as a means of strategic growth during his tenure as CEO of DJO Global, resulting in significant returns and a lucrative private equity exit to Blackstone. His extensive US capital market and medical device company acquisition experience will be the driving energy behind the acquisition of companies in the pipeline.​
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He led the IPO of DJO Global, raising US$150 million and the sale of DJO Global to Blackstone for US$1.6 billion
Executive Director
Mike Seckler
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Salona Global
Mike Seckler was appointed Permanent Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Salona Global in July 2023, following one month as interim CEO. He has more than 30 years of life sciences experience commercializing and developing innovative medicines, medical devices, and diagnostics for patients across a wide range of therapeutic areas.
Non-Executive Director
Ken Kashkin, MD
​COO of Chromocell Corporation
Former CMO, Ferring Pharma (Valued at over US$1B)
Former Sen. Executive at Abbot Laboratories (NYSE:ABT)
Former Vice President at Baxter (NYSE: BAX)
Former Professor, Yale University Medical School
​Dr. Ken Kashkin brings over 30 years of experience in medical devices, research and development, and corporate governance to the board. An expert physician, Dr. Kashkin serves as a technical medical expert on all transactions for the Company. Dr. Kashkin received his undergraduate and medical degrees from University of California, Los Angeles and completed his education at the Yale University School of Medicine.
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Non-Executive Director
Kyle Wilks
Former Senior Manager at Baxter (NYSE: BAX)
Former Senior Manager at Shire (NASDAQ: SHPG)
Former Executive Director, Montgomery Pacific Group
Former U.S. Naval Officer
​Kyle Wilks graduated from the US Naval Academy at Annapolis. After his time as a Naval Officer, he worked at Montgomery Pacific Group, a mid market healthcare private equity group as an Executive Director managing portfolio companies. A former senior manager at Baxter in the rare immune deficiency therapies division, and Shire in the rare disease division, he was later a professor of Leadership at the US Naval Academy. He has substantial expertise in finance, leadership and management; medical device and biologics manufacturing and global healthcare market strategy.
Luke earned a B.S. in Engineering from Michigan State University (MSU); and an M.S. in Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He previously served on the boards for Alphatec Spine (Sym. ATEC) and Microdental, Board of Director Member and Chairman of the Board for the Association of Manufacturing Excellence (AME) and most recently was a Board of Director Member of Orthofix (Sym. OFIX) where he was chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee and a member of the Finance and Audit Committee. Currently he is a member of the Rady Children's Hospital Foundation Board of Trustees.
Non-Executive Director
Lana Newishy
Lana Newishy is a senior executive with over 20 years of cross-functional leadership experience in transformation, operations, strategy and finance with Fortune 500 companies. Her expertise extends to collaborating with top-notch consulting and M&A firms, where she's worked on transformation and acquisition or divestment deals and has had her own practice in the field.
Lana is also an accomplished entrepreneur, having launched and operated two startups, and has a passion for the not-for-profit world where she served as a COO of a global organization.
Outside of her career, Lana enjoys mentoring entrepreneurs at different stages of their business lifecycle and participating in the Alumnae Network for Harvard Women as a steering committee member.
Salona Global
​Advisors
Salona's board and management team brings decades of combined experience in medical device M&A and operational integration. Management's deep industry connections have created a deep and robust pipeline of potential acquisition targets.
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The Company has retained Michael Dalsin (Former Chairman of PHM) and Roger Greene (Former Vice Chairman of PHM, Harvard Law School, JD) as industry advisors.
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In addition to the board and advisor driven pipeline, the internal M&A team in the California corporate office systematically searches for potential acquisition targets globally. The internal acquisition team is structured around the key metrics and infrastructure that drove both DJO Global and PHM to success. Using a well-honed 12 point process, our internal M&A team has developed and continues to develop a deep pipeline of acquisition targets.