Our Management Team

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.

Antonella Favit-Van Pelt, MD, PhD

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Favit-Van Pelt is a rare disease expert and a pioneer in the field of applied theranostics for the development of disease-modifying treatments. As a board-certified neurologist, she holds a PhD in Pharmacology and has more than 20 years of drug development expertise in the pharmaceutical industry and academia. She started her clinical practice activity in 1994 with specialist clinics in Europe where she continues her involvement as a specialist consultant managing patients with movement disorders and rare neuromuscular disorders.

Dr. Favit-Van Pelt is currently serving as chief medical officer at Helius Medical. Previously Dr. Favit-Van Pelt served as head of US Medical Strategy for Neurology at Lundbeck and head of Medical Affairs at Luitpold.

In 2013, she founded Synaerion Therapeutics and its affiliate Thera Neuropharma, Inc (2016), 2 privately held biotechnology companies developing a small molecule regenerative therapy and RNAi-based integrated technology platform for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), where she oversaw all aspects of the companies’ management and strategy as chief executive officer, president ,and chairwoman of the board from 2014 to 2017 and continues to serve as president and chairwoman. In 2009, she founded StratMedica, LLC, a privately held company designed to provide corporate clients with contract senior management support and directed, as principal from 2009 to 2016, clinical development and medical programs for several healthcare companies, including Johnson & Johnson and Teva. She started her pharmaceutical career in 2001 as global clinical development lead at GE Healthcare (formerly Amersham Health), then as director of medical strategy at Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2005 and, in 2007, as senior director and global medical lead at Shire Pharmaceuticals.

Lawrence Picciano

Senior Vice President, Engineering, Quality and Regulatory Affairs

Mr. Picciano's medical device industry experience spans leadership responsibilities in regulatory, quality, engineering, and clinical. He has worked in large organizations such as Johnson & Johnson, Philips, and St. Jude and in start-up companies. His experience spans established medical device technologies as well as new novel technologies including AI. Mr. Picciano joined Helius Medical, Inc in late 2018 and serves as the senior vice president of product development, regulatory affairs, and quality. He has helped attain PoNS US FDA breakthrough device designations in multiple sclerosis (MS) and stroke, US de novo classification in multiple sclerosis, along with marketing authorizations in Canada and Australia. Mr. Picciano holds a BS in electrical engineering from Rutgers, a Master’s in Engineering Science, and an MBA from Penn State.