Guido Neels , MBA

Palo Alto, CA

Guido Neels served as Chief Operating Officer of Guidant Corporation, a world leader in the development of cardiovascular medical products, from May 2004 until retiring in November 2005. He was responsible for the global operations of Guidant's four operating units: Cardiac Rhythm Management, Vascular Intervention, Cardiac Surgery, and Endovascular Solutions. From December 2002 to May 2004, he was Group Chairman, Office of the President at Guidant, responsible for worldwide sales operations, corporate communications, corporate marketing, investor relations and government relations. From January 2000 to December 2002, he was President of Guidant for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Canada. He previously served as Vice President of Global Marketing for Vascular Intervention and as Managing Director for German and Central European operations. From 1982 to 1994, until Guidant was spun off as an independent public company from Eli Lilly and Co., Mr. Neels held various general management, sales and marketing positions at Lilly in the U.S. and Europe. From 1972 to 1980, he held positions in information technology, finance and manufacturing at Raychem Corporation in Belgium and the U.S. Mr. Neels joined Essex Woodlands in 2006. He holds Board positions at ROX Medical, Inc., Nellix Endovascular, Inc. Entellus Medical and Oraya Therapeutics, Inc. as well as Arsenal Medical and EndGenitor Technologies. He holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University and a Business Engineering degree from the University of Leuven in Belgium.