Board of Directors

Ward Sparacio – Chief Executive Officer

Ward Sparacio holds over 20 years experience working within the medical device and medical imaging industries. At SonoSite, Ward was a member of the management team that introduced the world’s first hand-carried ultrasound imaging system. Ward also worked as the VP of Global Sales at Confirma, a leading developer of MRI CAD breast diagnostic software. Along with managing domestic sales, clinical and field operations, Ward served as an officer of the company and the managing director of the European subsidiary, Confirma GmbH, based in Berlin, Germany.

Doug Curl – Founder

Doug Curl has 20 years of experience in the hospital and healthcare industry. He was the founder and CEO of SmithCurl Communications. Over a 15-year period, he built SmithCurl into the premier supplier of Nurse Call and other communication systems to hospitals in New England. Based on his experience designing and integrating healthcare technologies, he conceived, prototyped and installed Carrot Medical’s first system. SmithCurl was sold to a strategic buyer in January 2009.

Thomas A. Barocci, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board

Tom Barocci is the Founder and President of TAB Associates, Inc., a Boston-based Management consulting firm (tabconsults.com). Tom has been working with entrepreneurial firms since the late 1970’s when he was on the faculty of the Economics Department and MIT Sloan School of Management. Since 1986, Tom has participated in the founding, funding and development of over 10 start-ups. His competencies range from Strategic formulation and implementation to financial analyses. TAB Associates has been working with clients in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries for over 20 years.

Steven Einhorn, FAIA

Steve Einhorn is a proven leader in developing highly profitable, rapidly growing professional service business enterprises. He founded, developed and successfully sold two internationally recognized professional service firms: one to TA Associates, a global private equity investment company and the other to HP, a worldwide technology leader. Steve retired from HP in December 2009. Throughout his career he has been a leader at the intersection of design and business. With his new company, Stardog Consulting, Steve continues to pursue his passion – developing client’s ideas into sustainable businesses.

Dr. Laurence M. Epstein – Medical Advisor

Dr. Epstein is the Chief of the Arrhythmia Service and Director of the Electrophysiology and Pacing Laboratory of the BWH. Under his leadership, the Arrhythmia Service of the BWH has become the premier center for the treatment and care of the most challenging patients. Dr. Epstein oversaw the design, construction and opening of a new state-of-the-art electrophysiology suite and clinic in the Shapiro Cardiovascular Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His knowledge of the market and technology is ideally suited to serve Carrot as a clinical and medical advisor in the development of new products and other strategy.

Steven Lorch

Steve Lorch joined the staff of the Massachusetts General Hospital as an in-house consultant in the 1960’s. He was the third employee of the Harvard Health Plan and has an extensive practice of counseling senior leaders in health care including the Deans of Medicine at Harvard, Syracuse University, the University of Chicago, and Brown University, the President of the University of Chicago Hospitals and the Presidents of the AAMC and HIAA. Steve has participated in the founding and funding of numerous businesses.

Richard Missner, MBA

Richard Missner is President of R.H. Missner & Company, Inc., a private investment firm. The firm invests in private equities and publically traded securities. During the course of his career, Mr. Missner has served in leadership and director roles in multiple entrepreneurial companies. He has an undergraduate degree from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Don Ronchi, Ph.D

Don Ronchi served as the lead consultant on a score of major leadership transition and organizational turnaround projects in both large private sector and government organizations. He has extensive experience in transportation, heavy manufacturing, health care, criminal justice and emerging growth industries, and has helped numerous organizations formulate strategy and reorganize to execute those strategies.

Don was one of the founding members and Graduate Director of the Department of Labor and Human Resources at Ohio State University where he served as a professor for twelve years. In addition to his role in developing the department’s curriculum in the area of organizational behavior, Don managed a major research program on productivity and morale. He was the founder of the university’s Quality of Working Life Program, which was responsible for the initiation of several of the first labor-management cooperative programs in the country. He has also served on the graduate faculty of La Universidad de Carabobo in Valencia, Venezuela and several major research projects in that country.

Don has authored of over 50 articles on leadership, conflict management and organizational design. He is currently preparing a book on “organizational mapping,” a concept he defined. He received a B.A. in psychology and an M.A. in psychology and industrial relations at Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in social and organizational psychology from the University of Chicago.

Bob Saunders

Bob Saunders began his career at the Boston Consulting Group in 1978. Mitt Romney recruited Bob to Bain and Company in 1982 and he eventually became the Acting Director of Competitive Strategy Analysis for the firm. He has been a private equity investor since 1988, when Saunders Capital Group was founded. He moved to Louisville in 1993 to become Senior Vice President and Managing Director of the Accumulation and Investment Group of Capital Holding Corp. (subsequently renamed Providian Capital Management), a NYSE financial services holding company, where he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Capital Management group, which managed approximately $25 billion in assets. In 1997 Bob was actively involved in the sale of Providian Corp. to Aegon NV, a large Dutch insurance company.

Subsequent to the sale to Aegon, Bob joined Chrysalis Ventures as one of two managing partners of the firm. Bob retired from active day-to-day involvement with Chrysalis in 2009. The firm is one of the leading venture capital firms in the Midwest with approximately $500 million under management. During his investment career, Bob has brought various companies public on the NSADAQ and has successfully lead the sale of several portfolio companies to various large strategic investors in his role as either lead investor, Board Chair, or Board Vice Chair. Although Chrysalis is an active investor in health care services, it is not typically a life science or medical device investor. Bob has invested actively in life science and device companies over the last decade through Saunders Capital Group and Saunders Murdock, LLC.

Bob was a founding Board Member of Metacyte, the life science incubator at the University of Louisville. He was an original investor in Aptamera LLC, a cancer drug development company that was sold to Antisoma PLC at a 10X cash-on-cash gain. He was an early investor in Med Ventures, a device development company which was recently sold to Ampersand at a substantial gain. He is also an investor in several other life science and device companies including: US WorldMeds, BioScale Inc, AppoImmune, Advanced Cancer Therapeutics (ACT), Vivorte LLC, NxPharmagen, and DeviceWerks LLC.

In addition to Carrot LLC, Bob sits on or chairs the boards of five other early stage companies.