Select Page

Chas McKhann

Position: Chief Executive Officer

Chas McKhann is the Chief Executive Officer of Silk Road Medical. Prior to Silk Road Medical, Chas was President and CEO of Apollo Endosurgery, where he created and led a transformational growth strategy for this publicly traded manufacturer of minimally invasive technologies for gastrointestinal and bariatric conditions. Apollo was acquired by Boston Scientific in April 2023. Previously, Chas served as Chief Commercial Officer at Torax Medical before its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson, and CCO at Intersect ENT, leading the commercial organizations, including sales, marketing, health economics & reimbursement, and strategic planning. Earlier in his career, Chas was CEO at Apnex Medical, Worldwide Vice President of Marketing for cardiac rhythm management at Boston Scientific, and Director of Marketing at Cordis, where he launched CYPHER®, a sirolimus-eluting coronary stent that was the first cardiac drug-eluting stent. Chas holds a BA in Political Science and an MBA from Stanford University.

Chas McKhann

Chief Executive Officer

Lucas Buchanan

Position: Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer

Lucas Buchanan leads manufacturing and operations, finance and accounting, IT, commercial operations and analytics, health economics and reimbursement, and corporate development efforts for Silk Road Medical. Prior to joining the company full time in 2012, Lucas was an investment professional with The Vertical Group, the founding investor in Silk Road, where he helped lead the company through early development and financing milestones while charting the company’s commercial strategy. Also while at The Vertical Group, Lucas led investments in Atheromed (acquired by Volcano Corporation) and Lutonix (acquired by CR Bard). Lucas has also held various leadership positions in marketing and corporate development/M&A at Impax Laboratories and Medtronic and began his career at Ernst & Young Corporate Finance LLC where he advised healthcare companies on financing and M&A transactions. Lucas holds a B.A. in Economics from Duke University and an M.B.A. in Health Care Management from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lucas Buchanan

Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer

Andrew S. Davis

Position: Chief Commercial Officer

Andrew Davis joined Silk Road Medical in May of 2015 and is the Chief Commercial Officer. Andrew brings to Silk Road Medical over 20 years of experience in the medical device field with deep expertise in launching innovative, minimally invasive therapies that increase patient access and solve unmet clinical needs in cardiovascular diseases. Prior to joining Silk Road Medical, Andrew was the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Acelity’s Advanced Wound Therapy Group. Prior to Acelity, he spent 15yrs at Medtronic and held Vice President of Sales positions for Structural Heart CoreValve, Endovascular AAA/TAA, Peripheral and Spinal/Biologics divisions. Andrew began his career in pharmaceutical sales at Johnson and Johnson after receiving a B.S. in Political Science from Florida State University.

Andrew S. Davis

Chief Commercial Officer

Kevin Klemz

Position: Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary

Kevin Klemz joined Silk Road Medical in August 2022 as our Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary. Kevin brings over 35 years of legal experience, having spent the last 15 years as Chief Legal Officer to 3 different companies in the medtech sector. Most recently, Kevin served as EVP and Chief Legal Officer at Vyaire Medical, a global leader in the respiratory therapies space. For the 10 years prior to Vyaire Medical, Kevin was Chief Legal Officer at two different high-growth, public medtech companies. Tornier NV was a leader in the orthopedic extremities space prior to its acquisition by Wright Medical in 2015. ev3 was a leader in the peripheral vascular and neurovascular markets before its 2010 acquisition by Covidien plc. Kevin spent the first 20 years of his professional career in the private practice of law at the national law firm of Oppenheimer Wolff and Donnelly (now Fox Rothschild LLP). In the past, Kevin has also served on the Board of Directors of Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare. Kevin holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Hamline University and a J.D from William Mitchell College of Law.

Kevin Klemz

Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary

Richard Ruedy

Position: Executive Vice President of Clinical, Regulatory Affairs & QA

Ric Ruedy joined Silk Road in 2011 and is the Executive Vice President of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs, and Quality Assurance. Ric brings to Silk Road Medical 25 years of experience in the Regulatory, Clinical and Quality areas for both multi-national corporations and venture-backed start-ups. Prior to Silk Road Medical, Ric served as Vice President of Regulatory, Clinical and Quality for Nevro Corporation and, earlier, at Cardica, Inc. Ric also served as Director of Regulatory Affairs at Abbott Vascular, where he obtained the second carotid stent approval in the United States. Ric is a co-founder of Acta Vascular (acquired by Covidien) and held positions of increasing responsibility at Edwards Lifescienses, Medtronic, TriPath Imaging (acquired by Becton Dickinson), and Parallax Medical (acquired by Arthrocare). Ric has a B.A. in English and International Relations from Bucknell University.

Richard Ruedy

Executive Vice President of Clinical, Regulatory Affairs & QA

Bill Whealon

Position: Executive Vice President, Research & Development

Bill Whealon joined Silk Road Medical in September of 2020 as Executive Vice President of Research and Development. Prior to joining Silk Road Medical, Bill was Vice President of R&D for the Peripheral Vascular business at Medtronic. He was responsible for product development across three worldwide sites and supported the entire peripheral vascular portfolio as well as being responsible for all new product development, both organic and inorganic, for the peripheral vascular business. Bill has a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Wisconsin Madison and holds over 15 issued patents. Bill previously founded and owned his own company and spent time in the electronics industry with Seagate, where he received black belt certifications in both Design for Six Sigma and Six Sigma.

Bill Whealon

Executive Vice President, Research & Development

Alison Highlander

Position: Vice President, Human Resources

Alison joined Silk Road Medical in late 2017 as its first Vice President of Human Resources. Alison brings over 20 years of HR leadership in both start-up and large multinational corporations leading recruitment, total rewards, employee engagement and organizational development activities. Prior to joining Silk Road, Alison was the Vice President of Human Resources at Roche Molecular Diagnostics, the leader and pioneer in the field of molecular diagnostic testing. At Roche, Alison also held positions in both the US and Switzerland developing compensation, performance and recognition programs to ensure the recruitment and retention of talent necessary to ensure business success. Prior to Roche, Alison worked at SRI International and two of its spin-off companies including SRI Consulting and Atomic Tangerine.

Alison Highlander

Vice President, Human Resources

Tammy Leitsinger

Position: Compliance Officer & Vice President, Medical Affairs

Tammy Leitsinger joined Silk Road Medical in 2017 and is the Vice President of Professional Education & Medical Affairs and Compliance Officer. Prior to joining Silk Road Medical, Tammy was Vice President, Global Clinical Solutions, Cordis Corporation, Cardinal Health, and has over 26 years of clinical education and global market development in the endovascular, cardiovascular, neurovascular and endoscopy arenas and has an extensive understanding of carotid revascularization via transfemoral carotid artery stenting (TF-CAS). Tammy began her medical device career with Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a Johnson & Johnson company, in 1991 and held many positions of increasing responsibility throughout her career related to marketing, professional education, sales training and healthcare compliance. In her global roles at Johnson & Johnson and Cardinal Health, Tammy has led efforts to bring advanced education programs to physicians in the emerging healthcare markets. Tammy has vast experience in collaborating with Patient Advocacy Groups and Professional Medical Societies, many of which she maintains board membership. She has been published on industry collaboration with healthcare providers as well as medical device education.

Tammy Leitsinger

Compliance Officer & Vice President, Medical Affairs

Dr. Sumaira Macdonald

Position: Executive Medical Director

Sumaira Macdonald, MD, PhD is the Executive Medical Director at Silk Road Medical. Prior to joining Silk Road Medical Inc., Dr. Macdonald was a Vascular Radiologist and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at Newcastle University and the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Dr. Macdonald is well regarded for her career-long efforts to improve endovascular interventions. In addition to being the Co-Editor of the Springer “Carotid Stenting; A Practical Guide”, Dr. Macdonald has authored over 70 medical publications on vascular disease, is the recipient of many academic society honors, serves on the editorial boards of a number of scientific journals and is highly sought after as a speaker, having given over 300 international lectures.

Dr. Sumaira Macdonald

Executive Medical Director

Julia Anastas

Position: Vice President, Regulatory

Julia Anastas joined Silk Road Medical in May 2020 and brings with her over 25 years of regulatory affairs experience in medical devices, serving in both large organizations and small start-ups. Julia most recently served as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at BTG plc, a specialist healthcare company focused on interventional medicine, where she was responsible for the Interventional Vascular and Interventional Pulmonology groups.  Prior to BTG Julia led regulatory affairs groups supporting a variety of therapy areas including bariatrics, reproductive medicine, diabetes, urology, and virology.  However, the majority of her career has been spent supporting interventional vascular devices, including positions held at Abbott Vascular and Guidant Corp., where she authored the PMA for the first FDA-approved carotid stent system.  Julia holds a B.A. in Chemistry and Master of Public Health degrees, both from Boston University.

Julia Anastas

Vice President, Regulatory

Alex Au-Yeung

Position: Vice President, Healthcare Economics & Reimbursement

Alex Au-Yeung is the Vice President of Healthcare Economics and Reimbursement.  Prior to joining Silk Road Medical in November 2019, Alex was with Medtronic for 17 years on the Health Economics, Policy and Payment team supporting the global Coronary, Aortic, Peripheral and Venous businesses.  Alex held various leadership functions responsible for developing and executing global health economic and reimbursement strategic plans.  Alex also has 13 years’ experience working for Kaiser Permanente in the Central Office, Hawaii, Northern California and Mid-Atlantic Regions supporting the Medicare Claims Compliance and Medicare Administration functions.

Alex holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Davis and a M.P.H. from the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.  Alex is also a certified interventional radiology and cardiovascular coder (CIRCC) and a certified professional coder (CPC).

Alex Au-Yeung

Vice President, Healthcare Economics & Reimbursement

Mhairi Jones

Position: Vice President, Finance and Chief Accounting Officer

Mhairi Jones joined Silk Road Medical in February 2018 and brings over 20 years of financial management experience in public accounting and the medical device industry, across both established and early-stage companies. Previously, Mhairi served as the Vice President of Finance at Avinger, Inc., a publicly traded company engaged in the treatment of peripheral arterial disease. Prior to Avinger, she was with C8 MediSensors, Inc., a privately held noninvasive glucose monitoring company, as their Vice President, Finance and Administration. Immediately prior, Mhairi was with Xoft, Inc., a privately held oncology company, as their Vice President, Finance and Administration through its 2011 acquisition by iCAD. Before Xoft, she was with Kyphon Inc. as their Corporate Controller and became part of Medtronic through its 2007 acquisition of Kyphon. Prior to Kyphon, Mhairi served as a Senior Manager in the audit and assurance practice with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. As a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the State of California, Mhairi earned her B.S. degree, in accounting from Santa Clara University.

Mhairi Jones

Vice President, Finance and Chief Accounting Officer

Robert Nicholas

Position: Vice President, Operations & Engineering

Bob joined Silk Road Medical in August of 2017 as Vice President of Operations. Bob brings over 20 years of experience in Medical Device operations in both early and later stage companies. Prior to joining Silk Road, Bob was the VP of Operations at Cardiokinetix, pioneering a novel structural heart implant. Bob served as VP of Operations at Stryker and Concentric Medical (Acquired by Stryker in 2012) where he oversaw all Concentric Medical’s operations. Bob was the GM, of Operations, for MedSource Technologies with overall responsibility for the manufacturing of the Ethicon/J&J acquired Heartport line of products. Prior to MedSource, Bob was the Sr. Director of Operations at Heartport through the Ethicon acquisition in 2002. Bob spent the first 10 years of his career in the electronics industry, where he held several roles with increasing responsibility in production, planning, operations, supply chain, and logistics after receiving his A.S Degree in Design and Drafting Technologies from the College of San Mateo.

Robert Nicholas

Vice President, Operations & Engineering

Shari Rideout

Position: Vice President, Quality

Shari joined Silk Road Medical in August of 2018 as Vice President, Regulatory & Quality. Shari has 20 years of Quality Engineering and Quality Assurance with medical device and combination product experience in both large organizations and start-up companies. Prior to joining Silk Road, Shari was the VP of Quality and Regulatory at VitalConnect, where she developed and scaled the quality system to support development of a wireless biosensor for continuous patient monitoring. Previously, she worked at Johnson & Johnson with increasing responsibilities in New Product Development Quality Engineering, achieving the position of Quality Director for New Product Development, while working with spinal, cardiovascular and endovascular implants and instrumentation. Shari has also worked at a startup company establishing, developing and maintaining the quality system for a combination biomaterial-based injectable device. She is a Biomedical Engineer with a BS in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an MS in Biomedical Engineering from University of Virginia.

Shari Rideout

Vice President, Quality

Frances Versprille

Position: Vice President, Commercial Operations & Analytics

Frances Versprille leads Commercial Operations and Analytics. Prior to joining Silk Road Medical, Frances held various Analytics and Commercial Operations leadership roles at Cardinal Health, Johnson & Johnson and Biocompatibles Ltd. (now BTG Interventional Medicine). Frances has more than 20 years’ experience in medical device companies focused on vascular intervention, using her quantitative background to improve the predictability of the outcomes of business decisions and processes. Frances is Six Sigma Blackbelt certified and holds a BS in Finance and an MBA with a concentration in statistics and psychometrics from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA.

Frances Versprille

Vice President, Commercial Operations & Analytics

Jorge O’Hara

Position: Vice President, Marketing, Business Development, and Strategy

Jorge O’Hara joined Silk Road Medical in October 2022 as the Vice President, Marketing, Business Development, and Strategy. Prior to joining Silk Road Medical, Jorge was the CEO of Clinica aviva, a community hospital system targeting the emerging middle class of Peru, which he led from a green-field start-up. Jorge has also held global marketing responsibilities in Medtronic Endovascular and the Peripheral Vascular and Neurovascular divisions of ev3. Besides the Medtech sector, Jorge has also held leadership positions in marketing in leading consumer packaged goods companies like Procter & Gamble and Alicorp in Perú. Jorge holds and M.B.A from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Electronic Engineering from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

Jorge O’Hara

Vice President, Marketing, Business Development, and Strategy

John Liu

Position: Vice President, International Business Development

John Liu leads Silk Road Medical’s global diversification efforts and has over twenty years of P&L, Business Development, and supply chain experience across international markets. He joined Silk Road from the neurovascular company Wallaby Medical, where he was the Senior Director of Business Development and International, based out of Shanghai. He drove Wallaby’s international expansion, including the commercial launch into Japan and the acquisition and integration of Phenox, which added operations in Germany, U.S., and Ireland. Earlier in his career, he ran the China operations including seven subsidiaries for a UK multinational, the Asia commercial and manufacturing business for a U.S. company and had also founded a consulting firm that helped medical device companies expand into China. John holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. in Finance and Entrepreneurship from Columbia Business School.

John Liu

Vice President, International Business Development

Dipti Sahoo

Position: Vice President, Clinical Affairs

Dipti Sahoo joined Silk Road Medical in 2020 and brings over 20 years of experience executing clinical programs globally across multi-national corporations and venture backed start-ups in the medical device industry, as well as in academic research. Prior to joining Silk Road, Dipti led clinical evidence development at Velano Vascular (acquired by Becton Dickinson) after building a consulting business for clinical affairs and clinical marketing services with 12+ medical device clients over 3 years. She has held positions of increasing responsibility at Intersect ENT (acquired by Medtronic) by expanding their ENT bioresorbable clinical programs during the post-IPO growth phase, and at Abbott Vascular where she managed clinical trials in the US, Europe and Asia for the coronary and peripheral vascular businesses. Dipti holds a MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and a BA in Biological Basis for Behavior from UPenn.

Dipti Sahoo

Vice President, Clinical Affairs