Our Advisors

  • Robert J. Abernethy
    University Emeritus Trustee, Johns Hopkins

    Bob is Chairman of American Standard Development Company and President of Self Storage Management Company. He is also the Managing Director of Metropolitan Investments, LLC. He is a Board Member of several organizations including the New Leaders Council. In 2010, he became a member of the U.S. Department of State Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy. He received his MBA from the Harvard Business School.

    • Naoki Aikawa
      Former General Director of Keio University Hospital

      Naoki is Professor Emeritus at Keio University and former General Director of Keio University Hospital. He worked as a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and Clinical & Research Fellow at MGH. He has served on numerous advisory committees for the Japanese Government, including the Drug Administration Committee of the PMDA and the Chair of the Medical Licensure Examination Committee. He is the Medical Advisor to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, a Director of Medical Excellence Japan, and a Councilor of Nippon Life Insurance. He received his MD Summa cum laude from the Keio University School of Medicine.

      • Sureyya Ciliv
        Chairman, SMC Family Fund

        Sureyya is a business executive who served as Chief Executive Officer of Turkcell, a mobile telecom company listed in NYSE with 72 million customers in 9 countries mostly in Eastern Europe (2007-2015). Before Turkcell, between 1997-2007, he held executive positions in Microsoft Corporation in Microsoft Office Division and Microsoft Worldwide Sales, Marketing and Services Group. Between 1988-1997, Sureyya served as Vice President, President and Chairman of Novasoft Systems, an enterprise document and workflow management company he co-founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He received his BSE degrees in Computer Engineering and Industrial & Operations Engineering from University of Michigan and MBA from Harvard Business School.

        • Christopher Coburn
          Vice President, Innovation at Partners HealthCare

          In his executive leadership role, Chris is responsible for the commercial application of the unique assets and capabilities of the $10 billion system, comprising MGH, Brigham & Women’s Hospital and McLean Hospital. Prior to joining Partners in 2013, Chris was the founding Executive Director of Cleveland Clinic Innovations where he helped spin off 57 companies. He received his MA in public administration from George Washington University.

          • Arthur L. Goldstein
            Trustee, Massachusetts General Physicians Organization

            Art Goldstein is the retired chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Ionics, Incorporated, a world-renowned business and technology pioneer in the field of water purification. During his 32 years as CEO, Goldstein led Ionics in its growth from a small R&D company to its position as the world leader in water desalination, purification, and supply, with over 4,000 installations in 62 countries, and 3,000 employees. General Electric purchased Ionics in early 2005.

            Goldstein is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, where he also serves as a member of the Trust. He was the recipient of the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award in Governance from the National Association of Corporate Directors, New England Chapter. He is a trustee of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization. He is chairman emeritus of Sun Catalytix Corporation (now part of Lockheed Martin Corporation) and is chairman emeritus of the board of overseers of the International Business School at Brandeis University. He previously served as a trustee, as well as the treasurer and chairman of the finance committee, of Partners HealthCare System; director of the State Street Corporation; director of the Cabot Corporation; chairman of the Massachusetts High Technology Council; director of Jobs for Massachusetts; trustee of Dana-Farber/Partners Cancer Care; board member of the MIT Energy Initiative; member of the visiting committees at the Harvard Business School and the Harvard School of Public Health; and president of the Rensselaer Council.

            The holder of 19 U.S. patents in areas relating primarily to the purification and processing of liquids, Goldstein received a BS in chemical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an MS in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware, and an MBA from Harvard University.

            • Martha L. Gray
              J.W. Kieckhefer Professor and Former Director of HST

              Martha has led a multifaceted career in which she has conducted research to better understand and prevent osteoarthritis, led a preeminent academic unit, and served the profession through work with organizations and institutions. Her research has centered over the past 15 years on ways to nondestructively visualize cartilage macromolecules in vivo and in vitro. Many in industry and academia are now using the MR method developed by her group known as dGEMRIC. Martha is the J.W. Kieckhefer Professor and former director of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST). During and since her 13 year tenure as head of HST, she shepherded its vigorous growth so that now it boasts a community of over 400 students, 65 faculty and nearly 200 affiliated faculty who create a multi- disciplinary and multi-professional environment in classrooms, hospitals and laboratories and seek to advance human health. Most recently her efforts have focused on advising other institutions and governments as they pursue similar efforts. Martha was the first woman to lead a science or engineering department at MIT. She is an elected fellow of the AAAS, the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers (AIMBE). She is associate editor of the Annual Reviews of Biomedical Engineering. Martha has been Director of the Madrid-MIT M+Visión Consortium during its entire duration. She now directs the MIT LinQ program, a new initiative at MIT unifying a portfolio of international innovation programs focused on improving healthcare through need-driven, interdisciplinary research and training. Martha received her MS in Electrical Engineering from MIT and PhD in medical engineering from HST.

              • Scott L. Rakestraw
                President and Co-Founder, Sojournix, Inc. and Founder and Managing Director, The Branta Group, LLC

                Scott is a hands-on healthcare technology entrepreneur and investor, who has held a number of executive officer, board, and advisory positions within The Branta Group portfolio companies, including Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (acquired by GSK), Javelin Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Hospira), SAGE Therapeutics, and Syros Pharmaceuticals.  Prior to founding The Branta Group in 2003, he was a co-founder of Orchid GeneShield, and served as a board member and Corporate Vice President of Business Development for Altus Pharmaceuticals.  Earlier in his career, Scott held various executive roles with DuPont Ventures.  Scott received his PhD as a Hertz Fellow in Bio/Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

                • Edward B. Roberts
                  Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management

                  Ed is the David Sarnoff Professor of Management of Technology, and the founder and chair of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He has also served as Co-Director of the MIT International Center for Research on the Management of Technology. Over the past 50 years, Ed has been actively involved as a co-founder, director, board member, or angel investor of numerous high-tech startups and emerging technology companies. He holds four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: an SB and SM in electrical engineering, an SM in management, and a PhD in economics.

                  • Satish K. Sanan
                    Chairman and CEO, Inspirata, Inc.

                    Satish is the Chairman and CEO of Inspirata, a company providing digital pathology solutions for cancer diagnostics. He was the Founder, Chairman, CEO and President of IMRglobal, a global information technology services company.  Satish served as the Executive Chairman and CEO of the Atlanta-based healthcare revenue cycle management company, Zavata.  He is a Founding Partner of Sanan Private Equity and President of Padua Stables, Inc., a leading thoroughbred horse racing, training, and breeding organization.  He received a Master’s degree in Computer Science at Liverpool University.  Satish also received a MAME in aeronautics from Southern College of Engineering and Technology in India.