Our Board of Directors

Get to know the hearts and minds of the driven individuals that lead Helius Medical. With countless years of combined experience, our team of leaders not only steers the company in the right direction, but toward the goal of changing the standard of care in neuromodulation technology.

Dane C. Andreeff

President and Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Andreeff is the general partner and portfolio manager of Maple Leaf Partners, LP, and the president of Andreeff Equity Advisors, LLC. Mr. Andreeff has managed investment portfolios since 1996 for Andreeff Equity, LP, Andreeff Overseas Ltd, and Clover Partners, LP. Before to managing portfolios, Mr. Andreeff worked as an associate analyst at Furman Selz and Granite Capital International Group. Currently, Mr. Andreeff serves as a director of TraceSecurity Inc, HDL Therapeutics, Inc and Myocardial Solutions, Ltd.

Mr. Andreeff received his Master's and Bachelor's degrees in Economics from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1991 and 1989, respectively.

Jeffrey S. Mathiesen

Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Mathiesen is an accomplished senior executive and director of public and privately held companies with broad experience in the biopharmaceutical, medical device, semiconductor capital equipment, and water filtration markets. Mr. Mathiesen has served as director and audit committee chair of Panbela Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ: PBLA), a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company developing therapies for pancreatic diseases, since 2015, and was appointed vice chair and lead independent director in March 2020.

Mr. Mathiesen served as director and audit committee chair of NeuroOne Medical Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: NMTC), a publicly traded medical technology company providing neuromodulation continuous electroencephalogram monitoring and treatment solutions for patients with epilepsy and other nerve- related disorders, since 2017, and Healthcare Triangle, Inc (NASDAQ: HCTI), a leading provider of cloud and digital transformation, managed services and data analytics platform for the healthcare and life sciences industries, since April 2022. He previously served as director and audit committee chair for eNeura, Inc, a privately held medical technology company providing therapy for both acute treatment and prevention of migraine, from 2018 to 2020. Mr. Mathiesen previously served as the chief financial officer of Gemphire Therapeutics Inc, a publicly held clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing therapies for patients with cardiometabolic disorders, and as chief financial officer of Sunshine Heart, Inc, a publicly held early-stage medical device company, both of which completed successful initial public offerings and follow-on equity offerings.

Mr. Mathiesen has held executive and financial management positions with private and publicly traded companies dating back to 1987. He began his career at Deloitte & Touche LLP. Mr. Mathiesen received a BS in Accounting from the University of South Dakota and is also a certified public accountant.

Blane Walter

Member, Board of Directors
Member, Audit Committee

Mr. Walter is a partner at Talisman Capital Partners, a private investment partnership located in Columbus, Ohio.

Mr. Walter was the founder of inChord Communications, Inc, which he built into the largest independently owned, healthcare communications company in the world. In 2005, inChord was acquired by Ventiv Health, the largest provider of outsourced sales and clinical services serving the pharmaceutical industry to create inVentiv Health. In 2008, Mr. Walter became chief executive officer of the combined public company.

Through organic growth and more than 20 acquisitions, inVentiv Health became the leading provider of outsourced product development and commercialization services to the global pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. inVentiv’s client roster consists of more than 350 leading pharmaceutical, biotech, life sciences, and healthcare payer companies. In 2010, Mr. Walter led the successful $1.2 billion buyout of inVentiv Health by Thomas H. Lee Partners. Mr. Walter presently serves as vice chairman of inVentiv Health and also serves as chairman of the Governor of Ohio’s Executive Workforce Board.

Before joining inChord, Mr. Walter worked as a financial analyst in New York City for Smith Barney in a mergers and acquisitions specialty group. Mr. Walter actively pursues and oversees investments in healthcare, information technology, and marketing/professional services.

Mr. Walter graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and Finance from Boston College.

Edward M. Straw

Member, Board of Directors
Member, Audit Committee

Mr. Straw is the founder and managing partner of Osprey Venture Partners—a firm that finds investment capital and assists with business development for startup entrepreneurs. He is the retired president, Global Operations of The Estee Lauder Companies, and currently sits on the boards of the following companies: Academy Securities, Boston Consulting Group Federal, Odyssey Logistics, Helius Medical Technologies, and Lenitiv Scientific. He is the chairman of Odyssey Logistics.

During his 10 years as chairman of Odyssey, he has overseen the valuation of the company grow from $40M to $1.5B.

As president, Global Operations for Estee Lauder, Mr. Straw led Lauder’s research and development, package engineering, acquisition, manufacturing, distribution, inventory management, and information systems organizations that supported 20 Estee Lauder Companies around the world. In his 5 years at Estee Lauder, he is credited with directing significant improvements in their global supply chain and driving major stock price, impacting savings to the bottom line.

Before joining the Estee Lauder Companies, he was senior vice president, Global Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management at the $40 billion Compaq Computer Corporation in Houston. Before joining Compaq in late 1998, Mr. Straw was president of Miami-based Ryder Integrated Logistics—then the leading provider of third-party supply chain services in North America.

Sherry Perkins

Member, Board of Directors, Member, Audit Committee
Member Nominating and Governance Committee

Ms. Perkins currently serves as a member of the Venture Mentoring Service at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, providing guidance and perspective on commercialization-related topics that are important and relevant to the progression of various ventures. From 2017 to 2019, Ms. Perkins served as a consultant to LivaNova, PLC (NASDAQ: LIVN), a global medical technology company that designs, develops, manufactures, and sells innovative therapeutic solutions in the fields of neuromodulation and cardiovascular disease. She previously spent 17 years at LivaNova and its affiliates in several roles, including serving as vice president in the sleep apnea, new ventures space within the company from 2015 to 2017, and as vice president of Marketing and New Business Development of Cyberonics, Inc. from 2011 to 2015.

Ms. Perkins received a BS in Medical Technology from Mississippi State University and an MA in Management from Central Michigan University.

Paul Buckman

Member, Board of Directors, Member, Audit Committee
Member, Nominating and Governance Committee

Mr. Buckman is currently the president of LivaNova, PLC, for North America. Before joining LivaNova, Mr. Buckman served as chief executive officer of Conventus Orthopaedics, a Minnesota-based company specializing in peri-articular bone fracture fixation from September 2013 until March 2017. Mr. Buckman was chief executive officer of SentreHEART, Inc, a medical technology company focused on closure of various anatomic structures from February 2012 to September 2013.

Previously, Mr. Buckman served as chief executive officer and chairman of Pathway Medical Technologies, Inc, a medical device company focused on treatment of peripheral arterial disease from September 2008 to February 2012; as chief executive officer of Devax, Inc, a developer and manufacturer of drug-eluting stents from December 2006 to September 2008; as president of the cardiology division of St. Jude Medical, Inc, a publicly traded diversified medical products company from August 2004 to December 2006; and as chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of ev3, LLC, a Minnesota-based medical device company focused on endovascular therapies that Mr. Buckman founded and developed into an $80 million business from January 2001 to January 2004. Mr. Buckman has worked in the medical device industry for over 30 years, including 10 years at Scimed Life Systems, Inc and Boston Scientific Corporation, a publicly traded medical device manufacturer, where he held several executive positions before becoming president of the cardiology division of Boston Scientific in January 2000. Mr. Buckman also currently serves as a director for NeuroOne, Inc (chairman), Ablative Solutions, Inc, ActivOrtho, Shoulder Innovations, and Miromatrix, Inc (chairman). He previously served as a director of Conventus Orthopaedics, Caisson Interventional LLC, Velocimed, Inc, where he was a co-founder, EndiCor, Inc, Microvena, Inc, Sunshine Heart, Inc, a publicly held early-stage medical device company, NexGen Medical, and Micro Therapeutics, Inc In addition to having raised in excess of $500M in private capital, the combined exit value of those companies in which Mr. Buckman has served as either chief executive officer, director or cofounder is approximately $2.8B. Mr. Buckman received a Master’s degree in Business Administration and Finance and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Western Michigan University.