Vytas Pazemenas, Electrical Systems Engineer, Project Manager, President & CEO
Vytas is the founder and president of Aubrey Group and brings over 30 years experience in development of medical devices, computer systems, and sensors. He has led teams that developed and introduced into the marketplace more than 50 new medical products and has gained extensive experience in working with the FDA, TÜV, BSI, and other international regulatory agencies. His design experience includes blood pumps, ventricular assist device controllers, infusion pumps, pulse oximeters, ultrasound ablation systems, patient monitors, medical sensors, signal processing algorithms, analog and digital circuits, patient isolation systems, military sensor systems, RF communications systems, and various other medical systems. His previous management experience includes serving as Manager, Infusion Systems, for Abbott Laboratories, as Director, Design Engineering, for Nellcor, as Vice President, Engineering, for CareLink, and as Vice President, R&D, for Tokos Medical. He is also a guest lecturer in Biomedical Engineering at University of California, Irvine. Vytas holds five patents, three in sensors and two in medical devices. He received a BSEE from Penn State and an MSEE from the University of Santa Clara.

Milan Trcka, RF Engineer, Electrical Systems Engineer, Project Manager, Director of Electrical Engineering
Milan brings over 25 years of electronic and electromechanical system design and project engineering experience specializing in RF systems, wide-band instrumentation systems, analog and RF circuits, power electronics, analog, digital and RF PC board design and packaging. He has designed high-power, Class-D ultrasound ablation amplifiers and matching networks; variable-output switching power supplies; brushless, sensorless DC motor drivers and controls; portable high-capacity battery power management systems, low-level electro-chemistry and dynamic motion-sensing channels; systems using microprocessors and FPGAs; 2.4GHz digital radio applications, wireless modems, 25MHz wideband instrumentation systems, high-performance space-borne magnetic tape recorder systems, 250Mb/s low-error rate data channels, and RF filters and amplifiers. Milan is fluent in English and Czech. His papers have been published in Japan and by IEEE. He has two patents in magnetic recording and others pending. Milan holds a BSEE from University of Maryland and an MSEE from California State University, Los Angeles.

Don Ludolph, Electrical Systems Engineer, Project Manager
Don brings over 25 years of electronic systems design and project management experience, specializing in complex, multi-disciplinary systems. He has extensive experience in design of digital and analog circuits and software. Don began his career in aerospace and became a principal engineer working on image tracking systems, remote aerial refueling, space station robotics, and ground support equipment for launch vehicles. Don has done system design for the automatic test equipment of an implantable defibrillator and both system and detailed circuit design for production testing. In 2000, Don and his team were recipients of the Orange County Chapter of AEA “High Tech Product of the Year Award” for a breakthrough sub-miniature Rubidium Atomic Oscillator. Don holds a BSEE from Oregon State University.

Mechanical Systems Engineers

Clark Foster, Mechanical Systems Engineer, Project Manager, Director of Mechanical Engineering
Clark brings over 25 years of mechanical engineering and system design experience in development of medical devices, production technology, and aeronautics. He is listed with the USPTO as a Prolific Inventor with over 125 US patents. He has experience designing knee braces, medication inhalers, implanted artificial occluding muscle, safety syringes, blood draw and IV systems, surgical instruments, drug vials, and insulin injecting pens. He has designed production assembly tools for disposable pump cartridges and an intraocular lens centering arm trim machine. Clark has also worked on projects for space reentry vehicle surface cooling, jet engine location optimization, and the B2 Bomber wind tunnel. He has a private pilot’s license and is a certified assistant aerobatic judge. Clark holds a BSME from University of Washington.

Jerry Johansen, Mechanical Systems Engineer, Disposables Design Engineer, Senior Project Manager
Jerry has over 25 years of experience in the development of medical devices. His project management experience includes large companies, such as Medtronic (heart valves and interventional cardiology catheters and guide wires) and Guidant (catheters, guide wires and accessories), as well as start-ups, such as IntraLuminal Therapeutics and Hearten Medical. Jerry was one of the first employees at IntraLuminal Therapeutics, where, as VP of R&D, he lead a team of engineers to develop a device for gaining access to and treating chronic total occlusions in the human vasculature. The device, called the Safe Cross, used a combination of Optical Coherence Reflectometry (OCR) and Radio Frequency (RF) ablation, all delivered on a standard .014” diameter guide wire platform, to open totally blocked vessels. Jerry has two patents and one pending (a novel way to deflect a catheter tip using hydraulic pressure). He has a BSEE from Farleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey, and a Masters in Manufacturing Management (MMMS) from General Motors Institute, Flint, Michigan.

 

Physicians, Biomedical Systems Engineers, and Physicists

David Mishelevich, MD, PhD, Physician, Biomedical Systems Engineer, Project Manager, Director of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Affairs
David has 35 years experience in the development of information systems and medical devices, including respiratory devices, remote manipulation of catheters, and Stereotactic Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. At IntelliCorp (knowledge systems), he was Vice President and General Manager of the Applications and Research Division; at Circadian (disease management and medical devices), he was Vice President and General Manager of the AirWays Asthma Centers Division. He has been CTO of several start-up companies. While a faculty member at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School (Dallas), he chaired the Department of Medical Computer Science, the first such department in the U.S. He is a Consulting Professor of Neurosurgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine. David has three patents issued (two in respiratory devices in one in physician documentation using speech recognition) and four pending. He has over 100 publications. David received his BS in physics from the University of Pittsburgh and his MD and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Ron Diamond, PhD, Physicist, Systems Engineer, Project Manager
Ron has more than 22 years experience in engineering, product development, and program management in in-vitro diagnostic instrumentation and medical devices. He is experienced in the development of optical, fluidic, ultrasonic, and thermodynamic systems for complex laboratory instruments, and injection molded disposables. As Director of Technical Systems at Nichols Institute Diagnostics, he led the engineering group in bringing to market a chemiluminescence based immunodiagnostic instrument. At Baxter Paramax Chemistry Systems, as Manager of the Systems Engineering group and Sr. Staff Scientist, he led the development of novel spectrophotometer, ultrasonic dissolution, and sample delivery systems. Ron has four patents in fluidics and sample handling. Ron received his BS from Stanford and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin and taught physics at Florida State University and the University of Notre Dame.

Software Systems Engineers

Robert Lucero, Software Systems Engineer, Project Manager, Director of Software Engineering
Having served as a software engineering manager and project leader during his 20 plus years in software and firmware development, Robert has gained extensive experience in project management, medical product architecture development, software requirements development, software design, and software testing for medical devices. He has worked on medical products including core body temperature controllers, ventricular assist devices, medical laser imagers, nutritional gas analyzers, ultrasound tissue characterization systems, home patient monitors, and blood pumps. Robert holds a BSEE from MIT and an MS in Computer Engineering from USC.

Electrical Engineers

Richard Beck, Senior Electrical Engineer
Rick has 25 years of experience in digital and analog circuit design and software and firmware engineering and has managed a patient monitor, and single board computer projects. He is expert in the design of FPGA’s, CPLD’s, DSP’s, and microcomputer systems. He has designed single board computers for medical use including interfaces for; VGA displays, audio, modem, ADCs, high speed serial and Ethernet. He has designed motor controllers for medical use. He has designed and implemented test software in many languages, including C, C++, Visual Basic, and assembly. Rick holds a BSEE from California State University, Los Angeles.

Randy Ponitzman, Senior Electrical Engineer
Randy has over 30 years of circuit design experience with expertise in the areas of digital design and programmable logic. He has designed digital circuitry ranging from designs with only SSI/LSI logic devices to designs using memory such as SRAM and SDRAM to large FPGA designs that he implemented using VHDL and Verilog. He has done designs using ADCs and DACs. He has developed systems using many different microprocessors, including Intel i960 and StrongARM, Motorola ColdFire, Atmel ARM, and various processors from Cypress and AMD. In his four plus years at Aubrey Group, Randy’s contributions include the development of digital control of the RF power delivery system for a heart ablation system, adding an Ethernet interface to another product, and others. In addition to his expertise in VHDL and Verilog hardware design languages, Randy has developed software using C, C++ and assembly languages. He holds a BSEE degree (with honors) from the University of Florida.

Roman Slizynski, Senior Electrical Engineer
Roman brings more then 20 years experience in electronic instrumentation, test, and measurement. His expertise is in precision voltage and current measurement and generation, high-speed signal acquisition, signal integrity and calibration. He has worked at Tektronix and Credence Systems, and holds 3 patents in measurement techniques. Roman has a BSEE from the Akademia Gorniczo Hutnicza in Krakow, Poland, and has been on the adjunct faculty at the Oregon Institute of Technology.

Jeff Crockett, Senior Electrical Engineer
As an analog design engineer, Jeff has designed RF and analog circuits, atomic clocks, power supplies, EMC-compliant circuits, and low-power, low-noise DC-DC converters. Jeff began his 25-year engineering career in aerospace, where he designed custom hybrid microcircuits. More recently, he has designed low-noise RF power oscillators, phase-locked loops, frequency synthesizers, precision temperature controllers, analog filters, and amplifiers. He has also developed precision closed-loop control algorithms and systems for atomic clocks. Jeff holds three patents in atomic frequency standards and has authored a poster paper on power supply noise at a 2002 IEEE symposium. He has a Diploma from DeVry Institute of Technology.

Lawton C. Bates, Electrical Engineer
Lawton has over 20 years of professional experience in designing, prototyping, testing, and documenting electronic circuits. His innovations at Aubrey Group include a multiple channel temperature measurement system meeting extreme requirements for range, accuracy, and update time. In printed circuit board design, Lawton has consistently produced zero-error PCB prototypes, thus shortening the design-cycle time. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of California, Irvine.

Edris Rostami, Senior Electrical Engineer
Edris brings more than 8 years experience in the design of RF and digital circuits and systems. He has designed VHF, UHF, and SHF integrated circuits based on 0.18µm and 0.13 µm CMOS technology, as well as discrete-component RF/Analog boards. He also has designed very complex digital systems, including baseband signal processors, signal-processing ASICs, multi-processor systems, and complex systems using multiple FPGAs. His design experience also includes RF transceivers operating at 10MHz-10GHz (UWB, RFID, and WCDMA) and digital systems based on PCMCIA/Cardbus standards. Edris has strong programming skills in VHDL, AHDL, Assembly (ARM, Intel 80x86, Z80, MCS8x51), C, MATLAB, SIMULINK, and Windows. Edris earned a BSEE and an MS in Bio-Electrical Engineering at Sharif University of Technology, Tehran. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at UCLA, part time.

Blaine Murakami, Electrical Engineer
Blaine was the winner of the 2005 Alton B. Zerby and Carl T. Koerner Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineering Student Award, presented by Eta Kappa Nu, the national electrical engineering society, to the most outstanding electrical engineering student in the nation. Acting as the Principal Investigator, Blaine led a multidisciplinary team of 30 electrical and mechanical engineering undergraduates to design, build, and test two nanosatellites for launch into low Earth orbit. While a student, Blaine co-founded a local high-technology company that developed self-steering antenna technology. He is also the co-author of 13 conference papers. Blaine holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and two provisional patents.

Steve Gutierrez, Associate Electrical Engineer
Steve Gutierrez brings 10 years of experience supporting engineering activities and providing technical support for medical device manufactures. He has built prototype phacoemulsification systems and constructed PCB’s from component level designs. Certified biomedical engineer providing diagnostics on Johnson & Johnsons ASP gas plasma sterilization systems and Advanced Medical Optics phacoemulsification systems. Provided Level 2 technical support to field service engineers. When no schematics were available for service engineering. He reversed engineered peristaltic motor drive circuits for root-cause analysis of problem components and provided updated schematics to service engineering. He also has experience designing a robot using PWM technology for DC motors. Experience in circuit design including transistor power amplifiers and power supply design. Designed RF data communication system using 10bit serial decoder and encoders. Experience in programming ATMEL Atmega16 microcontroller in C++ environment using AVR Studio and WinAVR. Steve holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Electronic and Communication Engineering Technology and Associate Degree in Electronic Engineering Technology from ITT Technical Institute.
 

Mechanical Engineers and Designers

Russ Wade, Senior Mechanical Engineer
Russ has 23 years of product design experience and is expert in SolidWorks and ProEngineer. His design experience includes disposable sets, extracorporeal devices for treatment of sepsis, an instrument for collection of plasma by membrane filtration, and a self-contained, continuous-flow, centrifugal device that separates whole blood into various components. He has also developed key parts of a system that collects and disposes surgical waste fluid and evacuates smoke within a totally closed system. He has received several product design awards, and holds two design patents, with others pending. Russ has a Machinist’s certificate, and an AA in machine technology from Orange Coast College.

Patrick Nguyen, Senior Mechanical Engineer
During his 16-year mechanical engineering career, Patrick has designed and analyzed servomotors, linear motors and stepper motors, inkjet plotters, flow valves, infusion pumps, and disk drives. He has also led mechanical engineering teams in the development of high performance infusion pump and disposables. In addition, he has participated in the design and analysis of medical ventilators, inhalers, and miniature syringe pumps. Patrick holds BSME from California Polytechnic State University and an MSME from California State University at Fullerton. He is a Registered Professional Mechanical Engineer and has 10 patents, with additional patents pending.

Jeffrey Miller, Senior Mechanical Engineer
Jeff has over 15 years of expertise in developing static and dynamic mechanical devices, systems and test fixtures. Most of his experience has been in medical device fields including design and project management of surgical tools and spinal implants. He has devised hardware and tools for robotically assisted orthopedic surgery that were produced in accordance with FDA and ISO Quality Systems guidelines. Jeff has also performed design and finite element analysis (ANSYS) interacting with designing surgeons. In the area of artificial heart implantation, he devised a novel ratcheting wrench which simplified a formerly difficult procedure. He has extensive experience from concept through testing, experimentation and manufacturing of medical products and is proficient in solid modeling and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing. He has a B.S. and Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and was also a Design Engineer at the Robotics Institute.

Herbert Kraus, Senior Mechanical Engineer, Mechanical Systems Engineer
In his 20 plus years of mechanical engineering, Herb designed disposable medical devices and laboratory and production equipment, including gas, fluid, and dry-form diagnostic test kits, pharmaceutical processing, and check-weighing. Other products developed include ventilation therapy devices, dental instruments, plotters and printers, telescopes, and manufacturing automation systems. In addition to design, Herb has acted as project engineer, project manager, and head of engineering at several companies. Herb received his BS in Engineering and his MSME from UCLA. He holds several design and utility patents and is a Registered Professional Engineer.

Thomas Robinson, Senior Mechanical Engineer, Disposables Design
Tom has been successfully developing devices and manufacturing systems for the medical industry for over 35 years, focusing on high volume disposables and implantables. His projects have included optical catheters used for detecting rejection in heart transplant patients; automated whole blood collection and separation device; fiber optic probe used as measuring device for early breast cancer detection; fluid block cassette for automated urinalysis system; bio-artificial liver device; cell separation device; single incision port-access cannula for high-precision heart surgery; tubing circuit for pancreatic islet isolation and encapsulation; needlestick protection devices and opthalmics. At Bridge Medical, he was the Director of Engineering and developed a medication management system. At Quest Medical, he was Director of Product Development responsible for implantable spinal cord stimulators. At McGaw (now B. Braun), KippMedd (now Medegen) and Travenol Laboratories (now Baxter International), he served as Director of Product Development, VP of Operations, and Senior Project Manager of these medical device companies. Tom has been published in industry magazines, and his medical device engineering and design efforts have earned seven U.S. Patents. His educational training is in Mechanical Engineering.

Bruce Betts, Sr. Manufacturing Engineer
Bruce has over 25 years of experience in product design and support, product manufacturing, configuration control, and project management. His experience involves a variety of systems including Rubidium Atomic Oscillators, Timing and Frequency systems, GPS navigation, and Wireless communication products. Additionally, he has served on two ERP implementation teams. Bruce has an Associates degree in Applied Science from Delaware Technical and Community College.

Aaron Gifford, Senior Mechanical Engineer
Aaron has over 13 years of professional engineering experience in industries ranging from dry toner production, robotic assembly workcells, and high-speed semiconductor manufacturing equipment, to implantable medical devices. He has extensive experience with both R&D and manufacturing, designing equipment and assemblies, as well as the supporting tooling and fixtures. His experience with semiconductor test equipment, capable of a controlled temperature range of -76°F to 320°F while testing and sorting IC’s, included: cost-reduction and feature-enhancement activities; design upgrades; pneumatics; electro-mechanical systems; servo systems; temperature measurement and control; and even field support in the Philippines. He developed custom robotic tooling for circuit board assembly, used by firms such as Chrysler and Delphi. He developed a LIM molded implantable spinal cord stimulating lead for controlling pain, with R&D, process and tooling development, project management, and V&V tasks. While a student at Cal Poly, he earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering and worked on Cal Poly’s Tournament of Roses Parade Floats.

Software Engineers

Jahnavi Lokre, Senior Software Engineer
As a lead software engineer, Jahnavi has extensive experience designing and developing train control, communications, and propulsion software, as well as microprocessor-controlled medical sterilizers. She is experienced in all phases of product development, from concept and requirement definition to design, implementation, and verification. She has gained expertise in multiple operating systems, such as VxWorks, pSos, iRMK, iRMX, RTXC, and Unix, and numerous programming languages, tools, and environments such as C/C++, Tornado, CASE tools, and Matlab. She is also knowledgeable in verification of software and system behavior by using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, emulators, debuggers, and protocol analyzers. She was published in IEEE Transactions of Computers and holds a BSEE from the College of Engineering in Pune, India and an MSEE from Texas A&M University.

Sean Nash, Senior Software Engineer
During his 15-year career as a software engineer, Sean has developed software for surgical lasers, in-vitro diagnostics, pacemakers, ophthalmic devices, ablation systems, blood processors, intravenous body temperature controllers, patient monitors, home monitors, and infusion pumps. In addition, he has experience developing single and multi-user Windows software including design and development of an FDA-compliant medical device service and complaint-handling application, a manufacturing distribution supply chain management application, and a clinical trial data collection application. He is experienced in all phases of product development. He has experience with compliance to IEC 60601-1-8. He has worked with several real-time operating systems, including ThreadX and MicroC/OS-II. He holds a BS in Information and Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine.

Rob Reasons, Senior Software Engineer, Biochemist
Rob has more than 30 years of design experience in product and software development, and has developed software-controlled fluid handling systems, diluters/dispensers, and blood processors. Rob has developed embedded software for temperature measurement, cell separation, plasmaphoresis, blood analyzers, chemistry analyzers, telephone security systems, and medical telemetry devices. He has specific experience in software and firmware related to the Atmel ARM, Intel 80C188, Motorola 68HC11, Motorola ColdFire, and Microchip PIC microcontrollers. His CPU expertise covers: AMD, Hitachi, Intel, Motorola, NEC, OKI, Rockwell, Sanyo, Sharp, and Samsung. Well versed in C/C++, Assembly, Fortran, Cobol, Pascal, and Visual Basic, he holds a BS in Computer Science and a PhD in Biochemistry from Ohio University. Rob was the director of Advanced R&D at Boehringer Mannheim and holds 17 patents in the U.S. and Europe.

Ashwini Ananthateerta, Software Engineer
Ashwini designs and develops user interfaces for medical devices, including touch screen interfaces. She has experience developing networked embedded applications for automobiles. Ashwini is well versed in C, C++ and Java languages, Windows, Linux and QNX operating systems and has worked on TCP/IP networking and wireless communications. She has a BE in Electronics and Communications from the Karnataka Regional Engineering College, Suratkal, India and an MS in Computer Engineering from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Paul Harris, Software Engineer
Paul has varied experience designing, developing and maintaining high reliability computer systems. He analyzed and developed disk management modules for network storage devices and directed unit tests for module reliability. In the field of communications, he designed testing applications for serial-to-Ethernet tunneling devices and for computer libraries. While in the aerospace industry, Paul produced cotrol software programs consistent with rigorous FAA regulations and standards that were used on in-flight applications. He brings expertise in C, C++, C#, Java and Python languages as well as 186, ARM based (XScale) and C30 processors. He was graduated cum laude from the University of California, Irvine in Information and Computer Science.

Brian Lau, Software Engineer
Brian began his career in Network-Attached Storage (NAS) device development where he designed and tested software modules on file system management while interfacing with Fibre Channel networks. In aerospace industry, he developed and maintained safety critical control software for a fly-by-wire rudder control system under FAA regulation (DO-178 Level A and B), and organized the software and requirement verification effort. In addition, he has experience in developing military RF communication system from Datalink level to Application level. Well versed in C, C++, C#, Java, and Web development language such as Flash, Flex, ColdFusion and Javascript. He is also experienced in various software development models including CMMI. He holds a BS in Information and Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine.

Bill Welsh, Software V&V Engineer
Bill has more than 25 years of design and management experience in product, software, and hardware development for military, commercial, and medical systems. He has over 7 years of specialized experience in the development of risk analyses, documentation, and software verification and validation protocols that meet FDA standards. He holds a BSEE from Purdue University and an MS in Computer Engineering from California State University, Fullerton. He is also a Novell CNE.

Industrial Designers

Myk Lum, Industrial Designer, Founder and Principal of Lum Design Associates
For over 20 years, Myk has been an industrial designer leading creative teams and working for a diverse range of international clients. With his extensive experience in the field, Myk has been able to assist many companies in creating successful, innovative products by using design as a powerful strategic business tool. His background includes design work for DNA sequencers, pregnancy testers, and disposal cartridge systems. His award winning work has been recognized by I.D. magazine, the Industrial Designer’s Society of America, Graphis magazine, Business Week, Wired, Metropolis, and the International Housewares Association. He graduated with honors from CSU Long Beach with a B.S. in Industrial Design.

Technicians and Technical Associates

Andy Mangal, Technical Associate, Prototype Fabrication and Purchasing
Andy is responsible for prototype fabrication, component selection and purchasing, testing to meet IEC and UL safety standards, EMC compliance testing and troubleshooting. He has more than 35 years of experience in electronics and computers, including high-security surveillance systems, communications, and medical product development. Andy earned an Associate in Science degree in Electronics Technology from National Technical Schools in Los Angeles.

Soeung Yuen, Technician, Test Engineering and Technical Support
Sun holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from California Polytechnic University in Pomona. His work includes circuit design, breadboard and PCB assembly, EMC troubleshooting and testing, PCB repair, component selection and purchasing, and computer support.

Manufacturing, Quality Assurance, and Support

Keith Sather, Director, Manufacturing
Keith is a senior manufacturing manager experienced in medical device and other high tech industries. He has implemented Manufacturing Resource Planning systems in three companies, directed implementation of Just-in-Time manufacturing systems, developed statistical quality control systems, managed multiple manufacturing transfer projects and directed implementation of offshore production facilities in Europe and Mexico. Immediately before joining Aubrey Group, Keith was a senior manufacturing manager at Edwards Lifesciences. Most recently, he has been managing operations for a medical device company as part of an Aubrey Group project.

Jim Benard, Director, Quality Assurance
Jim has over 25 years experience in developing and managing quality systems at medical device companies including Sorin Biomedical, Baxter, Sutura, and Jostra Bentley. He has implemented and monitored all policies and procedures mandated by the FDA’s Quality System Regulation for startup and established medical device companies and has organized efforts required in obtaining UL Certification, ISO Registration, compliance with IEC Standards and EC Certification. He has developed systems to assure compliance to Medical Device Directives and ISO 13485. He has successfully facilitated large and smaller medical device companies through a variety of FDA/QSR and ISO audits. Jim is very experienced in FDA (product complaint) reporting requirements, as well as establishment and product classification registration. He has extensive experience in developing and managing out sourcing programs and supply chain management that meet all regulatory requirements. He has a technical degree from Wentworth Institute in Boston. Jim also has several certifications in QSIT and ISO auditing.

Brent Goldberg, Bioengineer, Associate Project Manager
Brent holds a BS in Bioengineering (Biotechnology), with a minor in Management Science, from UC San Diego. His laboratory experience includes Cartilage Tissue Engineering Laboratory at UCSD, where he performed tissue harvesting and culturing, biochemical analysis of tissue, and the design of electromagnetic research tools. He is also well-versed in biosystems and control, physiology, modern biochemical techniques, organic chemistry techniques, bioreactors, fermentation, bioseparations, metabolic engineering, tissue engineering, and bioinformatics.

Lydia Vasquez, Senior Buyer and Planner
As a Senior Buyer and Planner, Lydia brings more than 14 years of progressive procurement experience in the electronic, medical and aerospace Industries. She has been a buyer for production parts, and has experience with medical equipment, medical devices and surgical equipment manufacturing. In addition, Lydia has been a project manager in charge of logistics for PC board and computer production. She is also fluent in speaking and writing Spanish

Jim Kruthers, Quality Assurance Inspector, Material Control Specialist
Jim has 12 years experience as a quality inspector in the manufacturing field and 5 years experience in material control. He also has extensive ISO 9000 compliance experience.

Vanna Chhon, Electronics Assembly and Technical Support
Vanna has over ten years experience in the manufacture of surface mount printed circuit boards and cable and wire harness designs. She is experienced in surface mount and thru-hole techniques, and in-process quality inspection during PCB assembly. Vanna has trained in GMP and ISO 9002 compliance in PCB assembly. She is extremely capable in the detailed rework of fine pitch devices like FPGA’s.

Troy LaFrance, Network Administration and Technical Support
Troy is responsible for network administration, computer and network repair, and website development. He is skilled in various computer applications, and is knowledgeable in telephone systems. He also assists in data analysis, testing, and documentation for various projects. Troy is a Microsoft Certified Professional.

Lina Gabrielaityte, Engineering Associate
Lina graduated from Kaunas University of Technology with Bachelors degree in chemical engineering. She has worked in several food-technology-related companies and is proficient in Microsoft Office, Project, and Visio. Lina performs engineering testing, does engineering procurement and documentation and helps our administrative staff. In addition to English, Lina is fluent in Lithuanian, Russian, and German.

Management and Finance

Nicholas Mione, Vice President, Finance
Nick has more than 30 years of financial management, accounting and business consulting experience. Prior to joining Aubrey Group, he was a self-employed consultant, primarily of counsel to entrepreneurs in financial, accounting and general business matters. From 1984 through 1996, he served as Chief Financial Officer for Tokos Medical Corporation, a publicly traded medical device manufacturer and provider of perinatal nursing services for women. He subsequently was Chief Financial Officer for EDiX Corporation, a medical informatics company. Nick is a Certified Public Accountant, currently licensed to practice in California. He began his career at Ernst & Young’s Los Angeles Office and holds a BS degree in Business Administration with emphasis in finance from California State University at Los Angeles, as well as a Master of Arts Degree from Pacifica Graduate Institute.

Steve Maylish, Director, Business Development
With over 20 years experience in the medical device industry, Steve brings a marketing and business perspective to the group. He has experience in dialysis, ventilators, perfusion pumps, autologous blood transfusion systems, blood cardioplegia delivery, in-line blood gas monitors, computerized patient data acquisition, and hypothermia devices. His previous management positions include International Service Manager, Director of Marketing, and Director of a Hardware Division. He received an AS in Electronics with honors from R.E.T.S., a BS in business from the University of La Verne, and an MBA from the University of California Irvine.

Gil Peterson, Regional Director
Gil has more than 40 years experience in both Fortune 500 and early-stage technology-driven organizations.  During his career, he has held management positions in research and development, sales and marketing, business development, and general management. Prior to joining Aubrey Group, he was a self-employed consultant to early-stage healthcare companies, providing guidance and serving as an interim executive for innovative businesses in non-invasive cerebral blood oxygen saturation monitoring for surgery and critical care, intensity-modulated radiation therapy planning and delivery, web-based diagnostic image storage and management, and mobile information services for medical specialists. Earlier in his career, Gil was CEO of Virtual Imaging, a venture-backed developer of specialized hardware and software for diagnostic imaging workstations, Vice President and General Manager of Kodak’s Imagelink Business Unit, General Manager of Varian’s NMR Division, and Director of Perkin-Elmer’s Computer Aided Chemistry Department. These businesses won two IR 100 Awards for introducing one of the 100 most significant new technical products of the year. Gil began his career at Hewlett-Packard where held a number of product and marketing management positions. He holds a BSE degree in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Cindy Harman, Accountant
Cindy has over 10 years experience in the accounting field. Prior to joining the Aubrey Group she ran her own bookkeeping services company. She holds a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Phoenix.