Velentium Medical Leaders

Our people make the difference

Dan Purvis

Co-Founder &

Chairman of the Board

Primary Location

Houston, TX

Dan Purvis is Velentium Medical's Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board. His career began at National Instruments in Austin, TX and then Ann Arbor, MI. Then, he started a branch of the consulting company Optimation Technology in Houston, TX. After growing Optimation for 14 years, Dan joined Tim Carroll to start Velentium Medical.

“Leading an intensely culture-forward organization in the corporate world affords moments of human connection that are my favorite aspect of the job,” Dan says. “We get to build these longstanding relationships that meld the professional with the personal. It allows all of us – staff, partners, clients, and executives – to be fully human in our work, to let loose and productively channel our whole passion to change lives for a better world.”

Dan loves to ski, hike, and read. And he is fiercely competitive: “If there is a winner and a loser, I’m in!”

Experience & Recognition

B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University
MBA from Rice University
Co-founded Velentium Medical

Matt Hanks

Chief Executive Officer

Primary Location

Houston, TX

Matt Hanks is Velentium Medical's Chief Executive Officer. He began his manufacturing career at Form Technologies, where he grew through successive responsibilities in supply chain, operations and IT, subsequently delivering critical innovation and breakout growth through senior operations leadership roles at Paragon Medical, United Technologies, and General Electric.

Matt says, “Today more than ever, business success is about earning trust through consistent, quality customer service. As a leading Med Device CDMO, we strive every day to maintain a default mindset of ‘How will what I’m doing right now benefit the customer, clinician, and patient?’”

Matt is motivated by the opportunity to build lifelong relationships with his customers, colleagues, and shareholders. He sees Velentium Medical's passion of Changing Lives for a Better World as the animating force of the company’s success.

Matt is an avid reader and learner. He enjoys spending time with his wife and family, traveling, and being in the great outdoors.

Experience & Recognition

30+ year distinguished operations professional
American Production and Inventory Control Society, Dale Carnegie Trained
Broad & deep multidisciplinary expertise

Tim Carroll

Co-Founder & COO

Primary Location

Houston, TX

Tim Carroll is Velentium Medical's Co-Founder & Chief Operations Officer. He started his career at Intermedics working in test engineering - but was very active in other areas including tachycardia R&D, bradycardia R&D, integrated circuit design, and manufacturing engineering.

After Intermedics was purchased by Guidant (now Boston Scientific), Tim joined Dan Purvis at a technical services company. Initially, many contracts were for medical device testing, but as the division continued to grow, it expanded beyond testing and into device development. Then, in 2012, Tim left to launch Velentium Medical with Dan, focused on building out a world-class medical device design and development firm.

An influential moment in Tim’s career happened early on while he was at Intermedics. He learned that a close friend of his was not only 100% dependent on a pacemaker, but had recently been outfitted with a model that Tim and his team had helped bring to market. This reinforced Tim’s passion for wanting to positively impact as many people as he can – and he started Velentium Medical with Dan to make more of a difference: one device at a time.

Tim enjoys all outdoor activities, especially hiking and camping, as well as traveling internationally for both work and pleasure.

Experience & Recognition

30 years of experience working in active implantable design, test, and manufacturing engineering
His passion for medical devices is what led Velentium Medical to the industry
Co-founded Velentium Medical with Dan Purvis

Randy Armstrong

CTO

Primary Location

Houston, TX

Randy Armstrong is Velentium Medical's Chief Technology Officer. He has worked for over three decades in medical device development and has been issued 54 patents during his career. He’s written embedded firmware that is currently residing in over half a million people today. Randy has also worked on the ISO Standards committees, where he helped create standards for neurostimulators, and has co-chaired the AAMI Neurosurgery and TENS committees.

Randy is passionate about the elegant solution – simpler, consuming less energy, with fewer components, smaller, requiring less maintenance, and less costs – producing designs throughout his career which become flagship and platform technologies that return value far beyond their original goals.

Over his career, Randy has seen that the most common culprit for flaws in design and development is arrogance. “Being Honorable requires honesty about the strengths and weaknesses of a design and its designer, as well as being able to put aside your ego when analyzing the best fits for a job.”

Randy is a U.S. stamp collector, specializing in grilled stamps created during a four-year period in the 1860s. His collection is over 100,000 strong.

Experience & Recognition

B.S. in Biomedical & Electrical Engineering from Duke University
Has been issued 54 patents for medical devices
Been with Velentium Medical since 2014

Travis Bird

CFO

Primary Location

Houston, TX

Travis Bird is Velentium Medical's Chief Financial Officer. Travis has enjoyed a robust career in finance and public accounting for over 20 years. He began his career as an entrepreneur (he operated his own painting business in college). He has held various financial and operational roles within various emerging growth organizations. Travis has been the operational CFO for various venture capital/private equity-backed growth companies, has built multiple finance and accounting organizations, and has been responsible for the international expansion of a product sales business.

When weighing a new career opportunity, Travis evaluates three things: the people, the organization’s vision and purpose, and if the job will be both engaging and challenging. Velentium Medical easily checked all three boxes. He believes that “Velentium Medical separates itself from its competitors by its culture and speed.”

Travis enjoys anything that takes him outside to be active.

Experience & Recognition

B.S. in Corporate Finance from Brigham Young University
M.S. in Accounting from University of Notre Dame
Is a licensed CPA

Mark Harris

Senior VP, Research & Development

Primary Location

Houston, TX

Mark Harris is Velentium Medical's Senior VP of Research & Development, responsible for design, development, and program management. Mark has over 30 years of experience in the medical device industry. His career started as a test systems engineer at Intermedics, where he developed solutions for implantable pacemakers, defibrillators, device leads, and programmers. He has held prior leadership positions in R&D, program management, product development, and operations (including managing international teams) during his tenure at Medtronic and Stryker.

Velentium Medical's values spoke to Mark, as they resembled those he set for himself throughout his professional life. The company’s passion of wanting to change lives for a better world, with an emphasis on helping families, resonated strongly. Mark believes the senior leadership team’s unwavering vision for growth, their drive for building out capabilities, and the wealth of talent found within the company will carry it successfully forward.

Mark enjoys hiking, biking, camping, barbecuing, and international travel. He has also created a couple of unique barbecue sauce recipes that will knock your socks off!

Experience & Recognition

B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston
Has led multiple groups, including international teams, at Medtronic and Stryker
Been with Velentium Medical since 2020

Lisa Gee

Vice President, Human Resources

Primary Location

Houston, TX

Lisa Gee is Velentium Medical’s Vice President of Human Resources, responsible for the global people strategy in a high-growth, innovation-driven environment. With more than 20 years of HR leadership experience, Lisa has built a reputation for transforming workplace culture, strengthening leadership capability, and aligning human capital strategies with business goals.

Lisa’s expertise spans the full spectrum of HR, including talent acquisition, workforce planning, leadership development, compensation and benefits, and HR technology. She served as CHRO and HR executive roles in private equity-backed and publicly traded firms, leading organizational transformation, global HR integration, and initiatives that boosted engagement, retention, and performance."

Lisa champions emotional well-being and workplace mental health. In 2023, she founded Prevailing Hope Counseling Ministries, a nonprofit expanding mental health access in underserved communities. She believes, “Honorable leadership means creating spaces where people feel seen, supported, and empowered—putting people first in principle and practice.”

Lisa enjoys mentoring, faith-based service, and international travel.

Experience & Recognition

MBA and B.S. in Marketing and Management from Indiana University
M.A. in Clinical Mental Health from Liberty University
Founded Prevailing Hope Counseling Ministries in 2023

Terry Daglow

VP, Mechanical Design & Advanced Process Engineering

Primary Location

Houston, TX

Terry Daglow serves as Velentium Medical's VP of Mechanical Design & Advanced Process Engineering. Terry began his corporate career at Medtronic, followed by Intermedics Inc., Sulzermedica, ANS, and St. Jude Medical before pursuing independent interests and professional consulting. Terry’s expertise and ingenuity have been applied to a broad range of disciplines and product lines including cardiac rhythm management (pacemakers/defibrillators and peripherals), pain and spasticity (drug pumps), neuromodulation (spinal cord stimulation, deep brain stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation), hearing loss (implantable hearing device), CMF and orthopedics (single-use surgical tools). He holds fifty-five US patents, with a additional patents pending.

Medical devices is something Terry must do because “once you see a device you created helping someone in real life, it’s addictive. I have to create.” He joined Velentium Medical to pursue his life-long interests in improving the quality of life for patients by increasing awareness and accessibility to superior technologies.

Terry enjoys teaching his granddaughter how to swim (“she’s doing great!”), traveling (especially hanging out on beaches with a fruity rum drink), going to the rodeo, hunting with his son, and inventing things.

Experience & Recognition

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Western Michigan University
Holds fifty-five US patents, with additional patents pending
Has been with Velentium Medical since 2020

Egui Cruz

Senior Director of Manufacturing

Primary Location

Houston, TX

Egui Cruz is our Senior Director of Manufacturing. He started in pre-med before switching to Mechanical Engineering. During his 27+ years of experience, he has worked in the medical device, pharmaceutical, and electronics industries – with tenure at Guidant, Hewlett-Packard, Baxter, Fenwal, Maquet Cardiovascular, Boston Scientific, Cyberonics, and Livanova.

Egui is a people-oriented family guy who loves Velentium Medical's vision of having 1,000 families. His deep and instinctive care for others leads to serve everyone who needs him.

Egui loves to plan and go on humanitarian mission trips. He also enjoys family time on the beach and visiting new places around the world.

Experience & Recognition

Magna Cum Laude graduate from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus
Subject matter expert in new product introduction, process development and controls
Experienced with design for manufacturability, lean manufacturing, project management, validations, and quality

JoAnn Burnside

Senior Director of Quality and Regulatory

Primary Location
Houston, TX

Denver, CO

JoAnn Burnside began her career at Diagnostics Systems Laboratories (acquired by Beckman Coulter) where she ensured quality of immunodiagnostic kits and worked with customers to resolve any product issues. She has spent 15 years working with active implantable medical devices and has led multiple teams to investigate field failures, control nonconforming product, and release product for distribution. She is experienced at implementing process efficiencies and cross training to ensure continuous improvement and output. Her knowledge of the quality system and application of the regulations to various business processes allows her to successfully interact with auditors and inspectors and achieve positive outcomes.

A career in the medical field has always been a passion of JoAnn’s who guiding principle is to leave everything in a better state than she found it. Working at Velentium has given her an opportunity to create processes from ground up and build high-performing teams that reflect Velentium’s values of Honorable and Results++.

When JoAnn isn’t working, she spends time trying out new baking recipes and tending to her plants as these activities provide an immediate reflection of the effort applied.

Experience & Recognition

BS in Biology with a Chemistry Minor from Sam Houston State University
23 Years Medical Device Experience with a Quality focus
Been with Velentium since 2023

Garrett Schumacher

Business Unit Leader,

Product Security

Primary Location

Denver, CO

Garrett Schumacher is the Business Unit Leader for Product Security. His entire career has focused on the intersection of medtech/biotech and cybersecurity since his early days as a geneticist, and he has extensive experience training technical and nontechnical graduate students and professionals in cybersecurity, often traveling around the globe to do so. He is passionate about serving customers to improve their security postures, ultimately for the benefit of patients everywhere.

Garrett’s loves Velentium Medical's engagement in bringing new, high tech medical solutions into reality. He says, “I am learning daily by working on challenging and impactful problems with really great people."

Garrett enjoys solving problems even outside of work – his primary hobbies are rock climbing, wood working, model building, and spending time with family.

Experience & Recognition

MS in Genetics from CU Boulder and MS in Cybersecurity from University of Denver
Teaches graduate-level Embedded Cybersecurity course at CU Boulder
Experience founding and advising tech startups

Albert Rodriguez

Director, Human Factors

Engineering & Software

Primary Location

Houston, TX

Albert Rodriguez is Velentium Medical's Director of Human Factors Engineering (HFE) & Software. One of his early projects out of school was in robotics, designing a system that trained astronauts to operate a robot arm in space. The training took place in gravity, but the software and mechanics of the training system had to mimic zero-gravity behavior. After that project, “I surrounded myself with books and learned everything I could about HFE,” he recalls.

Asked what drew him to Velentium Medical, Albert says that “Software is everywhere, helping run everything. I never wanted to use my skill set in the service of anything that could potentially cause harm. Velentium Medical's passion to Change Lives for a Better World through medical devices is a natural fit.”

Albert loves anything outdoors - the wilder the better. Kayaking, fishing, hunting, competitive sailing, cycling, nature photography… anything that takes you “out”.

Satyajit “Sat” Ketkar

Director, Systems Engineering

Primary Location

Houston, TX

Satyajit “Sat” Ketkar is the Director of Systems Engineering at Velentium Medical. His 20-year career includes electrical, firmware, software, and systems engineering experience, including two years with a European Union notified body conducting medical device reviews and audits for safety, quality, performance, and security.

Sat explains that corporate culture is both what attracted him to Velentium Medical and what forms the basis of Velentium Medical's competitive advantage. “Honesty and transparency are part of being Honorable,” he said. “We do right not because it’s a ‘rule’ written on a piece of paper. We do it because that’s who we are. We go above and beyond. Internally, our culture reinforces your desire not to let your team down.”

Sat is an avid reader and strategy board game player who loves the Astros and the UofH Cougars.

Experience & Recognition

B.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Houston
MEng in Computer Engineering from the University of Houston
Been with Velentium Medical since 2019

Scott Armstrong

Director,

Electrical Engineering & Firwmare

Primary Location

Houston, TX

Scott Armstrong is the Director of Electrical Engineering and Firmware at Velentium Medical. He began his career at Intermedics, developing implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICD) and managing the Advanced Technology Group. Scott then worked in St. Jude’s Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM group) after Intermedics was acquired, before returning to Texas where he was the Director of Engineering at Cyberonics, responsible for Hardware, Firmware, Software, Mobile, and Labeling at various times.

As the CTO and VP of engineering at MicroTransponder, he helped specify the products, then work with internal design as well as contract design and manufacturing firms to develop a product that was successfully taken through clinical trials, FDA approval and commercialization.

In addition to his experience in implantables, Scott also has several years’ experience at Smith and Nephew, Dentsply and Seno Medical developing endoscopic surgical, radio frequency ablation, dental, and medical imaging equipment.

Scott says “I enjoy the fast-paced development and wide variety of medical products that we work on at Velentium Medical. Doing work that helps to improve people’s lives has always been a passion of mine, and motivates me (and others at Velentium Medical) to continuously give it are all.”

Scott enjoys playing tennis, pickleball and just about any sport as well as time with family.

Experience & Recognition

B.S. and MS in Electrical Engineering, specializing in Biomedical Applications, from Purdue University
30+ Years Medical Device development experience
Problem solver and Inventor, with 20+ patents

Rebecca Smith

Director, PMO

Primary Location

Houston, TX

With over 12 years of experience in medical device development, manufacturing, and project management, Rebecca has developed stereotactic neurosurgical systems, cardiovascular catheters, fetoscopic surgical tools, robotic cochlear surgical systems, and gallbladder cryoablation systems. She has guided Class I, II, and III medical devices from early-stage concepts to commercially viable products including successful 510(k) and De Novo submissions to the FDA.

Rebecca has led cross-functional teams across local and global environments, managed international supply chains, and overseen both clinical and pre-clinical trials.

Rebecca is passionate about the fast-paced, technically challenging environment of Velentium Medical. She encourages her teams to strive for data-driven decision making, and getting "1% better every day."

Rebecca has visited over 25 national parks with her family and enjoys birdwatching, backpacking, and hiking. When she is not out in nature or volunteering at her kid’s swim meets, Rebecca is usually reading, running, or playing board games.

Experience & Recognition

BS in Biomedical Engineering from Texas A&M University
MS in Medical Sciences from Texas A&M University
Certified Project Management Professional (PMP)

Chris Wright

Director, Test Systems

Primary Location

Houston, TX

Chris Wright is the Business Unit Director for Test Systems at Velentium Medical. Chris brings nearly a decade of test and measurement experience across various industries, from designing instrumentation for the latest 6G NR standards to building test systems for neuromodulation devices. He has led the development of test and measurement systems during both design verification and manufacturing test stages, covering the development process from end to end.

Chris is passionate about bringing safe, effective medical devices to as many patients as possible. Having his life changed by medical devices himself, he challenges his team to test a device as if they were to use it themselves. He believes that Test is truly the bridge between great innovations and translation to patients, and aims to drive excellence in this process to change more lives for a better world.

Outside of work, Chris enjoys playing chess, nonfiction reading, and movies. He also loves to travel with his wife, his favorite place to be is Ka’anapali Beach in Maui.

Experience & Recognition