• Headquarters
  • 451 Aviation Blvd, Suite 107 A, Santa Rosa, CA 95403, USA
  • Phone: 707 576 0420 | Fax: 707 576 0430
  • Technology Center
  • 105 North Pointe Drive, Lake Forest, CA 92630-2225, USA
  • Phone: 949 707 0010 | Fax: 949 707 0020
  •  
  • info@directflowmedical.com

Management Team

Bernard Lyons, Ph.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Lyons joined Direct Flow Medical, Inc. in February 2006. He has over 24 years experience in the medical device field. Prior to Direct Flow, he served as President and CEO of Vasca, Inc. a later stage privately held medical device company focused on subcutaneous vascular access ports for hemodialysis treatment in patients with end stage renal disease. Previously Mr. Lyons was President and CEO of CardioClasp, Inc. a development stage start up medical device company focused on the treatment of congestive heart failure. Mr. Lyons has held several senior level positions at Boston Scientific Corporation where he was the Vice President, Sales & Marketing for Interventional Oncology; Vice President, Sales & Marketing of the Meadox Division; Vice President, Corporate Product Development; and President of Boston Scientific operations in Japan. Mr. Lyons is a member of the Board of Directors for Paramit Corp. and was previously a Director at Creganna-Tactx Medical. He also was an Instructor in Surgery at Dartmouth Medical School and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. Mr. Lyons earned his Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from Stanford University School of Medicine and a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Gordon Bishop
Vice President, Research & Development and Co-Founder
Mr. Bishop co-founded Direct Flow Medical in June 2004. Mr. Bishop was recruited from California Polytechnic State University to Arterial Vascular Engineering, Inc. (AVE) in 1999 where he lead various stent projects including the Driver™ stent currently on the market in the US and Europe. The Driver stent introduced interventional cardiology to the cobalt chrome era and it’s improved visibility, deliverability and radial strength due to the stent’s unique material properties. The Driver stent emerged as the preferred cobalt-based alloy stent in Europe, and is the market leading bare metal stent in Japan. In addition to leading the Driver stent Project at AVE, Mr. Bishop served on the ASTM F04 committee alongside agents of the FDA and other industry representatives to establish standards for stent testing and modeling. He also provided the patent litigation team with engineering support, and was responsible for failure analysis of returned goods. Hired as a Senior Engineer at MitraLife, Inc,. Mr. Bishop was a lead engineer on a novel percutaneous approach to lessen mitral regurgitation by implanting a device into the coronary sinus. As the first start-up company in this space, MitraLife spawned many other investments in the field. MitraLife was acquired by ev3, Inc. a Minneapolis based company. Mr. Bishop has a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from California Polytechnic State.

Brian Sheahan
Vice President, Clinical, Regulatory and Quality Assurance
Mr. Sheahan joined Direct Flow Medical, Inc. in April 2006. He has more than 23 years experience in the medical device field. Prior to Direct Flow Medical, he served as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance for Boston Scientific Santa Rosa (TriVascular). The focus of his responsibilities included all site submissions, approvals and communications for the ENOVUS (Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Stent Graft) product line with FDA. In addition he was responsible for all Boston Scientific site integration activities and corporate compliance. Previously Mr. Sheahan was the Vice President of Clinical & Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance for MitraLife Inc. an early stage start up company. Mr. Sheahan was responsible for all initial human use activities and clinical case support for the MitraLife percutaneous mitral annuloplasty technology. MitraLife was sold to eV3 in 2002. Previously Mr. Sheahan gained PMA approval of the AneuRx Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm stent graft and maintained market dominance during a period of intense FDA scrutiny. Today, the AneuRx stent graft continues to maintain market superiority in the U.S. Previously Mr. Sheahan held the position of Quality Assurance Director from the initial concept to US PMA approval for all Arterial Vascular Engineering stent product sales. Mr. Sheahan held a similar position at PS Medical, which designed and developed neurosurgical implants. Mr. Sheahan initially was hired into industry by Terumo Corporation and initiated the company’s first U.S. based manufacturing facility. Mr. Sheahan holds a BS degree in Biochemistry from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.

David R. Elizondo
Chief Development Officer
Mr. Elizondo joined Direct Flow Medical, Inc. in January 2011. He has over 20 years experience in the medical device field. Prior to Direct Flow, he served in the positions of Vice President, Research and Development; Vice President, Clinical Affairs; and General Manager, Tissue Operations at ATS Medical, Inc. a publicly owned surgical cardiovascular device company primarily focused on heart valve replacement and repair. ATS Medical, Inc. was acquired by Medtronic, Inc. a Minneapolis based company. Previously , Mr. Elizondo held several leadership positions at Boston Scientific Corporation where he was the Director, Catheter Research and Development and Director of New Business Development for the Cardiovascular Division. In addition, Mr. Elizondo has held Research and Development and Operational leadership positions at CryoLife, Inc. and St. Jude Medical, Inc., including Technical Manager at St. Jude Medical Biocor in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Mr. Elizondo has a B.S. and M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering and the University of Iowa, respectively.

Michael Burgess
Vice President of Finance
Mr. Burgess was named Vice President of Finance in May 2011 and previously held the position of Director of Finance. Before joining Direct Flow Medical in December 2006, Mr. Burgess was a senior business consultant for a variety of medical device and technology companies. Prior to working as a consultant, Mr. Burgess held several positions with increasing management responsibility in finance & accounting for Medtronic AVE and its predecessor, Arterial Vascular Engineering, Inc. , beginning in 1996 until 2002. Prior to 1996, Mr. Burgess was a Senior Auditor at Coopers & Lybrand located in San Jose, CA. Mr. Burgess is a CPA, holds an MBA degree from the University of San Francisco and a BA Accounting from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.