Team
Team
Management Team
Tivic Health management is grounded in deep expertise. Tivic’s team of motivated professionals have a talent for innovation and a deep conviction for developing health-tech medical devices that are non-invasive, drug-free and address chronic healthcare conditions.
Jennifer Ernst
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
Jennifer is a co-founder and has served as our Chief Executive Officer and as a Director. Jennifer served as the CEO and Chief Strategy Officer of the U.S. subsidiary of Thin Film Electronics ASA. She worked for Xerox PARC for over 20 years, where she held multiple go-to-market roles, including as the Director of Business Development. Ms. Ernst previously served as a director of FlexTech Alliance, the U.S. national consortium for flexible and printed electronics, for three years, including one year as the Chair. Ms. Ernst earned her Master of Business Administration degree from Santa Clara University.
Jennifer has been featured in Inc., The HealthCare Technology Report, and Thrive Global as a female leader who is shaking up things in the industry.
Jennifer Ernst
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
Veronica Cai
Chief Financial Officer
Veronica is a strategic and collaborative executive with two and a half decades of finance and accounting experience, specializing in scaling finance organizations in early development stage to post commercial, large international corporations and IPOs. She has held various senior financial executive roles in both publicly listed and private-equity backed companies in the medical technology and life sciences industries, assisting with the navigation through transitions between the different phases of business and fundraising efforts. Prior to joining the Company, Ms. Cai was the Vice President of Accounting & Finance at RefleXion Medical, the Principal Accounting Officer and Corporate Controller at Catalyst Biosciences, the Assistant Controller at Zogenix, an Inspections Specialist at the Public Company Accounting Board (PCAOB), and a Senior Manager at Ernst & Young.
Veronica Cai
Chief Financial Officer
Blake Gurfein, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Blake leads Tivic Health’s clinical and scientific research. In addition to his full-time role at Tivic Health, he is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCSF. Blake is an expert in neuromodulation device development and has served as a research executive and consultant for medical device and pharma companies including Rio Grande Neurosciences and EMD Serono/Pfizer. Blake’s prior research in neuroscience and immunology has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and philanthropic donors, yielding high-impact journal publications.
Ph.D., Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Sc.B., Neuroscience, Brown University.
Blake Gurfein, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Ryan Sabia
Chief Operating Officer
Ryan serves as Chief Operating Officer with 18 years of experience in global supply chain, systems infrastructure, and sales operations in industries that range from automotive, medical supply, and consumer electronics. Ryan served as Global Director of Strategic Operations for Mars, Inc., General Manager of Operations for Medelita, LLC, a medical apparel and manufacturing company. Prior to that, he worked as Senior Director of Operations for Pinpoint Resources Group, a software technology consulting company and as Hedge Fund Financial Reporting Analyst for J.P. Morgan. He is is seasoned in environments that range from Fortune 500 companies (J.P. Morgan, BestBuy, and Toyota) to bootstrap startups, while specializing in scaling for global omnichannel logistics and e-commerce marketplaces.
Ryan Sabia
Chief Operating Officer
Sanjay Ahuja, Ph.D.
Senior VP, Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs
Sanjay is a hands-on technologist and strategist implementing and enhancing regulatory affairs, and quality systems for medical devices, diagnostic systems, biologics, evidence-based pharma, and combination products. He has been a lead regulatory and quality liaison responsible for developing and implementing key quality and regulatory functional strategies including obtaining complex approvals and clearances from the US FDA and international agencies. He has harmonized key quality & regulatory strategies and processes and has worked for several industry leaders in the past including Corning, Johnson and Johnson, and Thermo Fisher. Sanjay is certified as a Six SIgma Blackbelt and earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Alabama.
Sanjay Ahuja, Ph.D.
Senior VP, Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs
Chandrasekhar Durisety, PhD
VP, Engineering and Manufacturing
Chandrasekhar is in charge of product development, supply chain, procurement, manufacturing as well as identifying, building and optimizing partnerships with vendors related to product design and production. Since joining Tivic Health as the 1st full-time employee, Chandrasekhar has played an important role in the product development and manufacturing. Prior to Tivic Health, Chandrasekhar worked as Director of Field Applications Engineering at Thinfilm Electronics Inc. and built field teams across APAC, EMEA and North America. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Instrumentation from Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS, Pilani) , Master’s and Doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Chandrasekhar Durisety, PhD
VP, Engineering and Manufacturing
Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors bring their expertise and contributions in consumer health and technology to the Tivic Health team, as we scale up commercial operations and develop new bioelectronic therapies.
Jennifer Ernst
Jennifer is a consummate hi-tech business developer with a history of developing markets from new technologies such as Thin Film Electronics ($480M market cap in 5 yrs) with Xerox PARC. With over 20 years at Xerox PARC, she held multiple go-to-market roles and marketed multiple award-winning products. MBA, Santa Clara University. Jennifer has been featured in Authority Magazine and Thrive Global as a female leader who is shaking up things in the industry.
Sheryle Bolton
Sheryle is Professor of Entrepreneurship, Hult International Business School. She is an experienced public company CEO, international Board Member and serial entrepreneur. As CEO and Chairman of Scientific Learning Corporation, a neuroscience technology company, she built the company from pre-product to a highly successful IPO. Previously, she was vice president at Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, and a senior executive at Home Box Office and Rockefeller and Co. Two Stanford Business School cases have been written about her career, and she has been recognized as one of the most influential female Harvard Business School graduates.
Karen Drexler
In addition to the Tivic board, Karen currently serves on the boards of ResMed (NYSE: RSMD), OutSet Medical (NASDAQ: OM) and VIDA Diagnostics. She has extensive and operational experience building consumer health tech device companies. Karen is the former CEO and board member of Sandstone Diagnostics. Previously, she served as chairman of the board of Hygieia, Inc., and remains as an advisor to the CEO. Karen is an active mentor and advisor with Astia, a global nonprofit that supports high-potential female founders. She founded and ran Amira Medical until its sale to Roche Diabetes Care. She managed a variety of functions across the company at LifeScan and executed the sale of the company to Johnson & Johnson. She has received 11 patents, served on numerous boards and is active in non-profits that support female entrepreneurs. Karen was named Female Entrepreneur of the Year by the Stevie Awards, 2013, and Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year by Silicon Valley Women’s Fund, 2002.
Dean Zikria
Dean Zikria has served as a director since July 16, 2019. Dean brings deep industry experience in allergy and asthma as well as other chronic diseases to the Board. From 2019 to 2021, Mr. Zikria served as the CEO of Mind Machine LLC, a marketing/advertising agency, where he was also the Founder and continues to serve as Chairman. He has previously served as CEO of Spirosure, a FeNO detection company for asthma diagnostics, from 2014 to 2017. He has also previously served as head of global marketing for Johnson & Johnson’s Animas Corporation within their medical device & diagnostics division. He was head of strategy for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals U.S. Cardiovascular Unit, a division with approximately $7 billion in annual revenues. We believe that Mr. Zikria is qualified to serve as a member of our Board of Directors due to his experience in the allergy and asthma industries, as well as his experience in strategic planning, scenario planning and analysis, and mergers and acquisitions.
Medical Advisory Board
Thanks to our accomplished experts offering innovation and sound advice. We rely on high-quality expertise and scientific support from the medical community.
Subinoy Das, MD
- CEO and Medical Director at U.S. Institute for Advanced Sinus Care and Research (Ohio)
- Received multiple awards as one of America’s Best Doctors, voted into the top 5% of surgeons
- U.S. board-certified otolaryngologist
- Fellow of the American College of Surgeons
- Fellow of the American Rhinologic Society (received Presidential Citation in 2015)
- Awarded 2013 Fowler Award for NIH funded research (top basic science research award in otolaryngology) for detecting the cause of sinus infections
- Former Research Associate, Center of Microbial Pathogenesis at the Research Institute, Nationwide Children’s Hospital
- Former Director of the Ohio State University Sinus and Allergy Center
Michael B. Foggs, MD, FAAAAI, DFACAAI, FCCP
- Chief of Allergy and Immunology at Advocate Medical Group of Advocate Aurora Health
- Distinguished Fellow, American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology
- FDA Distinguished Service Award
- Fellow, American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology
- Fellow, American College of Chest Physicians
- Living Legend Lifetime Achievement Award, National Medical Association
Alan Goldsobel, MD
- Past president of the California Society of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology
- Voted “Best of Doctors in America” from 2001-2015
- Adjunct Professor, Stanford University Medical Center
- Allergy and Asthma Associates of Northern California
- Clinical Professor, UCSF
Howard Levine, MD, FACS, FARS
- Director, Cleveland Nasal Sinus and Sleep Center
- Adjunct staff of the Head and Neck Institute of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
- American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
- American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
- American College of Surgeons
- American Rhinologic Society
- Triological Society
Mitesh Popat, MD
- CEO, Marin Community Clinics
- Chief Clinical Officer, Sprinter Health
- Board-Certified Family Physician
- Board Member, Partnership Health Plan of California
- Former Board Member and Northern California Chair, American Cancer Society
- Spearheaded innovations in care delivery, with a focus on operational execution and financial viability
- Doctor of Medicine and Masters of Public Health, Tufts University School of Medicine
- Stanford University/O’Connor Hospital Family Medicine Residency
Annie Chern, MD
- Faculty Member, Stanford Family Medicine Residency Program
- Board-Certified Family Physician
- Faculty Development Fellowship, UCSF Dept of Family Medicine
- Certification, American Board of Obesity Medicine
- Residency, Stanford Family Medicine Program
- Doctor of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
- Professional interests: Integrative medicine, weight management, obesity prevention, chronic disease care