About Us

John Wheeler joined BioStable Science & Engineering as President & CEO in September 2015. Under John’s leadership, BioStable has obtained regulatory approvals and initiated a successful commercial launch of its technologies in the U.S. and Europe. Over his 25 year career in the medical device industry, john has held numerous leadership roles in both start-up and leading global medical device corporations. From 2005 to 2013, John served as Director of Product Development and Marketing for Austin, Texas based start-up Spinal Restoration, Inc. where John helped lead the company from early preclinical development to completion of a Phase 3 Investigational New Drug study. Prior to Spinal Restoration, John was the Director of U.S. Knee Marketing for Zimmer and held various marketing and product development roles during his 8 year career at Sulzer Orthopedics. John has extensive business strategy development and new technology commercialization expertise. John earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Bioengineering from Texas A&M University and a Masters of Business Administration from Baylor University.

Tom Williamson is a top producing commercial executive with both large company and start up experience. Under Tom’s leadership, the Stryker Interventional Spine sales team became a revenue growth leader and established a strong foothold in the competitive vertebral compression fracture market. He then joined Entellus Medical where his last role was VP, Commercial Operations. He helped Entellus grow to over $100M in sales and was integral in their acquisition of Spirox and the final exit of Entellus to Stryker for $682M. Tom holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana State University and has completed extensive leadership training at Harvard University.

Julie Thomas has over 29 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and medical device fields. She spent 20 years with Johnson & Johnson advancing through positions in quality, manufacturing and engineering, and ultimately served as plant manager for the McNeil Consumer Healthcare facility in Round Rock, TX. During her J&J career, she launched over 17 new products and managed the start-up of a new manufacturing technology in both the Austin and Puerto Rico plants. Julie has held quality and regulatory positions at several medical device start-up companies developing products for IVD, vision and spine applications. Since April 2011, Julie has served as an independent consultant supporting regulatory and quality initiatives for clients in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. She has a BS degree in chemistry and biology from Stephen F. Austin State University and an MS in Manufacturing Management from Kettering University. She is a Certified Quality Engineer and holds six sigma black belt certification.

J. Scott Rankin, M.D. is currently Professor of Surgery at the West Virginia University Heart & Vascular Institute. Dr. Rankin is Board Certified with the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. He is a member of the STS, AATS, ACS, and AHA. Dr. Rankin received a B.S. degree from Middle Tennessee State University and his M.D. from the University of Tennessee. He trained at the University of Alabama under John W. Kirklin MD, and in general and cardiothoracic surgery at Duke University under David C. Sabiston Jr MD. He has served on the faculties of surgery at Duke University, University of California San Francisco (Professor and Chief, Cardiothoracic Surgery), and Vanderbilt University. His current primary research goal is expanding application of valve repair procedures to all cardiac valves.

Prior to joining BioStable, Rusty served for 14 years as VP of R&D, and Chief Scientific Officer for CarboMedics. His research and development experience in biomaterials and implantable devices spans over 25 years. He holds 15 patents in the field of materials and medical product technology and has over 40 publications. He has served as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal of Biomaterials Applications, as past President of the Surfaces in Biomaterials Foundation, and currently is a Trustee for the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. Rusty has a B.S. in Chemistry from Texas State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of New Mexico.

Al has over 20 years’ experience in the medical device industry with 15 years of management responsibility in engineering, operations, quality systems, and R&D at CarboMedics and Intermedics Orthopedics. He was a technical contributor to development of porous titanium coating and pyrolitic carbon coating technologies. Al previously worked for 10 years in development of refractory materials for use in the HTGR nuclear reactor. He majored in materials science while earning a B.S. from Northwestern University and a M.S. from Cornell University.

Prior to the founding of BioStable, Don worked in various engineering, product development and operations management positions within CarboMedics and Medtronic. He has over 24 years experience in the medical device industry primarily in replacement heart valves. With a proven track record of on-time project delivery, Don has successfully coordinated projects in the United States, Canada and Italy by combining dedication with teamwork. He is a graduate of Clemson University with a degree in Ceramic Engineering.

Charles D. Griffin has nearly 30 years of experience in the medical device industry. Mr. Griffin served as President of CarboMedics from 2001 through 2006 and as SVP of Sorin Group following their acquisition of CarboMedics. Griffin joined CarboMedics as a Research Engineer in 1982 and was promoted to head of engineering within four years. From 1990 through 2001 he served in several Vice President roles within CarboMedics. Prior to joining CarboMedics, Griffin was with Zimmer USA.

Mr. Griffin earned a B.S. in civil engineering from Auburn University and an M.S. in material engineering from the University of Alabama-Birmingham. He was recently inducted as a Fellow in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and in 2006 was named to the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame. Griffin holds two U.S. patents and has published and presented regularly to the engineering profession.

Joe Cunningham is Managing Director and founding partner of Santé Ventures, an early-stage life science and healthcare venture firm in Austin, Texas. Prior to founding Santé, Joe was a healthcare Venture Partner with Austin Ventures and was previously the Vice Chair of the Ascension Health Ventures investment committee. He is also the former Chief Medical Officer of the Providence Health System and Executive Director of the 300-physician Providence Health Alliance, both of which belong to the Ascension Health system. He has extensive management experience and is recognized nationally for his expertise in healthcare delivery systems, physician associations and compensation models. Joe currently serves on advisory boards for both Health Services Corporation (BC/BS) and United Healthcare. He is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Quality Assurance and Peer Review. Joe received his BS and MD degrees from Texas A&M University and his MBA from Baylor University.

Joseph F. Lovett is Managing Director of The Louisiana Fund, an early stage venture firm based in Baton Rouge, Lousianna. Mr. Lovett has over 34 years of venture capital and operations experience in the healthcare areas of biotechnology, medical devices and equipment, diagnostics, imaging and services. Operations experience included increasingly responsible positions in marketing and general management at CR Bard, Mallinckrodt and Damon Biotech. Venture capital experience includes three venture capital funds (1988-2003) as general partner in affiliation with Harvard University managing $70,000,000 which resulted in 13 IPOs, 6 sales of private companies, 3 private companies. Mr. Lovett has a BA in economics from the University of Vermont and an MBA from California State Polytechnic University (Pomona).

John Wheeler has more than 20 years of experience in the medical device industry having held numerous leadership roles in both start-up and leading global medical device corporations. From 2005 to 2013, John served as Director of Product Development and Marketing for Austin, Texas based start-up Spinal Restoration, Inc. where John helped lead the company from early preclinical development to completion of a Phase 3 Investigational New Drug study. Prior to Spinal Restoration, John was the Director of U.S. Knee Marketing for Zimmer and held various marketing and product development roles during his 8 year career at Sulzer Orthopedics. John has extensive business strategy development and new technology commercialization expertise. John earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Bioengineering from Texas A&M University and a Masters of Business Administration from Baylor University.