Management Team

Brian Heaney. Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Heaney is a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur with over 20 years experience in building teams, products and companies. Prior to joining InnerOptic, he spent 5 years as vice president of Engineering for Bytemobile, a leading provider of wireless Internet products. In 1996 Mr. Heaney joined Navio Communications, leading the development of an advanced interactive TV platform. As vice president of Engineering, he participated in the acquisition by Liberate technologies in 1998 and Liberate's subsequent IPO in 2000. Mr. Heaney spent 5 years at Apple Computer as Director of Software for the Power Mac product line. Mr. Heaney began his career at General Electric, where he performed R&D on medical visualization, graphics acceleration and real-time visual simulation. He holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Duke University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College with bachelor's degrees in Engineering and Economics.

Kurtis Keller. Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Keller has previously founded two other technology-based companies, is a member of the board of three technology and biotech-oriented companies and is advisor with Funny Girl VC. Additionally, he has over 15 years of experience at UNC as a researcher in mechanical and optical design. Mr. Keller is one of the principal inventors on the 3D Laparoscope patents. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Integrated Manufacturing Systems Engineering from N.C. State University.

David Iannitti, MD, FACS, Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Iannitti is a pioneer in the field of microwave ablation treatment of liver cancer. He is Chief of Hepatopancreatobilliary Surgery at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC. David is working to establish the Center as a leader in the field of liver, pancreatic and bile duct cancer treatment. He has produced many publications in prestigious journals and plays an active role in several professional societies, including the American Hepato Pancreato Biliary Association and the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons. A Fellow in the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Iannitti attended medical school at Brown University, where he also completed his surgical residency, and he additionally completed a fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Hepatobiliary and Transplant Surgery.

Sharif Razzaque, PhD. Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Razzaque has 15 years experience as a researcher in the area of haptic interfaces, computer graphics, physiological monitoring and medical imaging. Dr. Razzaque is the principal inventor of the InnerOptic patents. He previously worked at Lockheed Martin and performed cochlear implant research at the University of Michigan. PhD, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, for work in virtual environment interfaces.

Sheila Mikhail, JD, MBA, CPA. Co-Founder and Legal Advisor. Ms. Mikhail has over 15 years of experience in the field of corporate and securities law and management consulting. She has completed over 300 licensing, technology transfer and other intellectual property agreements. She focuses on life science based startups with VC based transactions from $3 million to $600 million. Ms. Mikhail received an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago and a law degree from Northwestern University.