Board of Directors

John Nehra
Mr. Nehra joined New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in 1989, became a General Partner in 1993 and a Special Partner in October 2000. He focuses on a wide range of high-technology companies, with an emphasis on healthcare services, information systems, and medical devices. His current board memberships in addition to Acclarent include Aradigm, CVRx, Davita Corporation, Evalve, ExploraMed II, Nutron Medical, and TargetRx.

His prior board memberships include Bridge Medical, Celeris Corporation, EndoMatrix, Integrated Telecom, IRIDEX Corporation, Optical Sensors, Primax Recoveries, Proxima Therapeutics, Surgical Health, TELOGY Networks, TransVascular, and Vivra, Inc. Prior to joining NEA in 1989, Mr. Nehra was a managing director of Alex. Brown & Sons, with primary responsibility for developing that firm's healthcare research, investment banking, and capital markets businesses. Since 1989, Mr. Nehra also has served as the Managing General Partner of Catalyst Ventures. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Robert Anderson
Mr. Anderson co-founded Valleylab, Inc., in 1969. He served as CEO and Chairman until January 1986, when he relinquished his role as CEO and continued as Chairman until retiring in May 1996. The company, which focuses on electrosurgical and ultrasonics systems, was acquired by Pfizer, Inc., in 1983.

Mr. Anderson was named the first Boulder Entrepreneur of the Year in 1985. He is currently a director of four medically-related companies.

In 1999, he received the "Pioneer in Endoscopy" award from the Society of American Gastrointestinal Surgeons, for his early work in "keyhole" surgery. He received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota in June 1992. Mr. Anderson holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota (1963).

Ryan Drant
Ryan joined NEA in 1996 as a Principal, became a Partner in 2002, and a General Partner in 2004.  He specializes in healthcare investments in the specialty pharma, medical device and healthcare services sectors. Present board memberships include BENU, Concentric Medical, Esprit Pharma, ExploraMed II,  ForHealth Technologies, FoxHollow Technologies  (NASDAQ: FOXH), Intrinsic Therapeutics, PatientKeeper, Provation Medical, Spine Wave, Viacor and Windward Medical. 

Past board memberships include ESP Pharma (acquired by Protein Design Labs, Inc.) and Proxima Therapeutics (acquired by Cytyc Corporation), and Ryan co-led NEA’s investment in Xcel Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Inc.).

Prior to joining NEA, Ryan was with the Health Care Investment Banking Group of Alex. Brown & Sons in San Francisco where he focused primarily on the medical device, biopharmaceutical and healthcare services areas. Previously, he worked in the San Francisco office of Arthur Andersen & Co. Ryan received a BA from Stanford University.

Robert Croce
Bob joined NEA in February 2005 as a venture partner evaluating new healthcare deals and working with existing NEA healthcare portfolio companies.  Bob comes to NEA after a 36-year career at Johnson & Johnson where he held a series of senior positions, culminating with 12 years as Company Group Chairman.
 
Previously, he was Worldwide Franchise Chairman of Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson company. Prior to that, he was Worldwide Franchise Chairman for Ethicon Endo-Surgery. Bob began his career with Johnson & Johnson in 1968 as a Sales Representative for Ortho Pharmaceuticals, where he was named Vice President of Marketing.  In 1985, Bob moved to McNeil Pharmaceutical as Vice President of Business Development and later transferred to Ethicon, Inc. as Group Vice President, where he remained until he was named President in 1990.  In 1992 he was promoted to Worldwide President, Ethicon Endo-Surgery.

Bob is a graduate of Central Missouri State University, where he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Josh Makower, M.D
Joshua Makower, M.D. is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of ExploraMed II, Inc., a medical device incubator based on the west coast and is also a Venture Partner with New Enterprise Associates.  Dr. Makower serves as a Consulting Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University Medical School and is Director of Stanford’s Biodesign Innovation Program.

Prior to this, he was Founder, Chairman and Chief Technical Officer of TransVascular, Inc. a company focused on the development of a completely catheter-based coronary bypass technology, which was acquired by Medtronic, Inc. in 2003, and Founder and Chairman of EndoMatrix, Inc., a company focused on the development of a novel therapy for incontinence and GI Reflux, which was acquired by C.R. Bard in 1997.  Up until 1995, Dr. Makower was Founder and Manager of Pfizer’s Strategic Innovation Group, a group chartered to create new medical device technologies and businesses for Pfizer’s medical devices businesses. 

Dr. Makower holds over four dozen patents for various medical devices in the fields of Cardiology, General Surgery, Drug Delivery and Urology.  Dr. Makower holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from Columbia University, a Doctor of Medicine degree from the New York University School of Medicine, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Dr. Makower also serves as Chairman of the Board for Acclarent, Inc. - a venture backed company focused on the treatment of ENT disorders, and NeoTract, Inc. – ExploraMed’s most recent spin out, and on the Board of Directors for Intrinsic Therapeutics, Inc. - a venture backed private company developing innovative spinal therapies.