Executives
Cameron Piron
Founder, President, and Chairman of the Board
Cameron is an industry recognized innovator and expert in the field of breast magnetic resonance. He was awarded the 2008 Premier’s Catalyst Award for the Best Young Innovator of the Year’ in Ontario, Canada. As a Masters student at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, he developed Sentinelle’s core technology. This research spanned breast MRI techniques, interventional procedure software development and multi-modality technology. Radio frequency coil development centered around a dedicated breast MR imaging and intervention table which is now the Vanguard™ product. This research spawned four academic papers (two of which won international awards), 15 invited talks (two winning awards), 22 abstracts and the core IP to Sentinelle Medical®. To date, Cameron has developed or co-developed two patents (granted), as well as 19 that are filed and 10 provisional patents.
Prior to founding Sentinelle, Cameron concurrently worked as VP Research and Development for two small medical device companies, Samarit Medical and Pinel Medical, where he was involved in product development, manufacturing process definition, sales, service and marketing functions.
Cameron completed the Systems Design Engineering program at University of Waterloo specializing in medical imaging and carried research through the Medical Biophysics program at University of Toronto, Sunnybrook Campus.
Gal Sela
Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Gal has over 11 years of experience working in research and new concept development in interventional radiology. Prior to joining Sentinelle Medical, Gal worked as a self-employed contractor providing software solutions to radiological imaging researchers. Before that he was involved in the design and installation of a novel intra-operative neurosurgical MRI system at the Toronto Western Hospital, was an integral part of the neuro-surgical support team, and was the primary software developer for the neuro-navigation visualization and tracking software used. Gal was also a member of the Imaging Research group at Sunnybrook Hospital throughout that period where he worked on analysis methods for classifying and visualizing white matter diseases and treatment monitoring.
He has a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from McGill University specializing in image processing and machine vision and is named in over 15 publications and conference proceedings in interventional radiology.
Chris Luginbuhl
Founder and Vice President Engineering
Chris has entrepreneurial expertise and is a recognized innovator. As a founder of Sentinelle Medical, Chris has lead the mechanical design of the Vanguard System, leading to a number of key patents. He has managed the development of the Vanguard system from prototype to commercial production.
Prior to SMI, Chris founded and managed Centerline Designs. This initiative provided Chris with valuable small business startup experience designing, developing and manufacturing custom equipment for a variety of communities including environmental sciences, manufacturing, medical devices, and medical imaging research.
Chris also has many engineering firsts to his credit including the world’s first MRI-compatible microstepping motor. While working for the University of Toronto’s Department of Medical Biophysics, Chris helped develop a number of early stage technologies in medical imaging research, including minimally-invasive thermal therapy probes which use ultrasound to destroy diseased tissue without the need for surgical intervention. Chris has publications and patents on diverse subjects such as ultrasound frequency control, Magnetic Resonance Elastography, and MR-guided intervention.
Ian Heynen
Chief Financial Officer
Ian brings strong operating and financial leadership capabilities to Sentinelle. Most recently, he was Controller and then National Business Development manager for GE Healthcare Canada, a $400 million operating division of General Electric. GE Healthcare offers a broad array of healthcare technology products to the clinical, diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT markets, and Ian has leadership experience spanning the entire portfolio.
Prior to joining GE, Ian held numerous finance, business and technology development roles in the energy and manufacturing sectors. He has built strategic alliances with government agencies (including a $7 million technology demonstration project for advanced Liquid Natural Gas applications), led Merger and Acquisition projects, and has led the capital and strategic planning functions for a $3 billion energy company.
Ian holds Bachelors (Waterloo) and Masters (UBC) degrees in Engineering and an MBA from Wilfred Laurier University where he graduated in 2005 as the Graduate Gold Medalist. He is a Professional Engineer, a Certified Management Accountant and currently serves on the Board Finance and Audit Committee for CMA Ontario.
Michael Burleigh
Vice President Operations
Mike brings a strong background of operational leadership to Sentinelle. Before taking his current role, he led the organizational development and operational improvement strategy for the company as a consultant, and now leads the implementation of this strategy for the Operations team. Previous client engagements included Chapters Indigo Books & Music Inc. ($850 million business, Toronto, Ontario), ArcelorMittal Tubular Products ($80 million operation, Brampton, Ontario) and Bioriginal Inc. ($130 million business, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) where he led various organization, operational and strategic improvements.
Before starting his consulting practice, Mike held numerous leadership positions including Global Quality Integration Leader of GE Power Generation ($8 billion operating division of General Electric, Schenectady, NY, USA), Global Director of Quality for GE Hydro ($400 million operation, Oslo, Norway), General Manager of GE Utility and Industrial Controls ($60 million business, Anasco, Puerto Rico), Operations Manager of GE Power Management ($80 million operation, Markham, Ontario, Canada). Throughout his career he has built effective organizations and processes positively impacting customer satisfaction and business results.
Mike holds a Bachelors Degree in Applied Science (Mech Eng) from Queen’s University and is a certified Six Sigma Master Blackbelt and Quality Leader through GE.
Paul Shea
Senior Vice President Sales
Paul brings over 30 years of sales and marketing management experience to Sentinelle. Most recently he was National Sales Manager of Philips Interventional Navigation, and prior to that, Vice President of Sales at Traxtal Inc., a company acquired by Philips in 2009.
Before joining Traxtal, Paul spent 16 years with AngioDynamics, serving as Vice President of Sales from 1997 through 2007, and from 1991 through 1997, held positions of National Sales Manager and Director of World Wide Sales. Paul led growth from zero to over $110 million during his tenure. Paul also held various sales and marketing management positions at Boston Scientific Corporation and American Hospital Supply Corporation.
Paul holds a Bachelors Degree in Economics/Accounting from the College of Holy Cross and an MBA from Boston University.
Michelle Macpherson
Vice President Sales and Market Development
Michelle is a proven business leader with extensive experience in both research and commercialization of breast imaging in the international market. Over the past two years, Michelle has helped to transition Sentinelle from a pure R&D company to a market focused organization. Prior to joining Sentinelle, Michelle spent two years in different marketing capacities with Guidant, a leading cardiac device manufacturer.
Michelle also brings significant healthcare start-up experience. She was an integral part of the sales, marketing, and applications teams for two other Canadian healthcare start-up medical imaging companies. With VisualSonics, a leading developer of high-resolution imaging systems, she was involved in the successful expansion of sales in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia from greenfield to over $22 million. With Hygeia, she helped grow the organization into a market-leading Preferred Provider Organization for major medical benefit plans.
Michelle began her research in breast imaging at the University of Toronto in the department of Medical Biophysics; an interdisciplinary research department focused on practical solution in cancer detection.
Paul Weber
Vice President Marketing and Strategic Business Development
Paul brings to Sentinelle a wide range of experience from the healthcare and technology sectors. Most recently Paul was the Director of New Business – Diagnostics for McNeil (a Division of Johnson & Johnson). In this capacity, Paul was responsible for licensing and acquisitions of diagnostic and devices for McNeil Canada.
Prior to joining Johnson&Johnson, Paul was a Senior Director and Portfolio Manager for the Control Room and Portable Projection group of a high end projection manufacturer. In this capacity, Paul successfully drove portfolio strategy including internal product developments, OEM partnerships, marketing and channel support strategies. These efforts resulted in 50% growth in the Control Room market and growth from near greenfield, to $18 million in portable projection over a two year period.
Paul also brings significant start-up and commercialization experience. He founded and served as interim President and CEO of a privately held, angel backed organic juice company. In this capacity, he developed the strategy, raised investment capital and established the operating infrastructure. Paul also spent two years developing a Business Accelerator Program for Waterloo Region Technology Association. This organization worked with over 100 start-up technology companies, service providers and sources of capital and focused on commercialization and financing.
Kurt MacWilliam
Vice President Supply Chain
Kurt is a seasoned business executive with 25 years experience driving successful, major change to support evolving business requirements in Fortune 500 and industry leading companies. He is a champion of profitability and efficiency with the proven competence to deliver significant results in a variety of business situations, especially high-growth and turnaround.
Kurt started his career at Procter & Gamble, where he held a number of management positions in operations, process development, quality assurance, and logistics in regulated businesses. His accomplishments included ISO certification of a food products plant, and in his last operating role at P&G, Kurt improved the operating efficiency of his business by 25% while reducing losses by 20%, resulting in $750k annual savings. At ICOM ($80 million marketing services business owned by Alliance Data Systems – NYSE:ADS) he led the operations expansion to support a 400% revenue increase over 4 years. This required growing the organization and expanding the supply chain from a base of local suppliers to a global supply chain with vendors in the Philippines and throughout the U.S. In his most recent role he led a number of lean and productivity initiatives that contributed $6 million in EBITDA improvements.
Kurt holds a Bachelors Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario.