Team

Our Team

Art Wallace, MD PhD

Marc J. Fine

Kai Kuck, PhD

John Almon

Jessica Kovash, MBA

Anusha Badathala, MD

Derek Tan, MD

Tim Heintz

Alfred Wallace

Dr. Barry Unger

Professor Maury Peiperl, MBA PhD

About Us

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Contact

Arthur Wallace

Arthur Wallace MD PhD is the founder and chief science officer of Atapir. He is also Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care at the University of California, San Francisco and Chief of the Anesthesiology service at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco. His clinical practice includes cardiac and non-cardiac anesthesiology. Dr. Wallace holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and his prior medical device design includes the ECOM & AVD systems, off-pump CABG, and left ventricular aneurysm repair.

* Links: UCSF - JHU Alumni

Marc J. Fine

Marc J. Fine is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience bringing medical devices to market. He has played a major role in leading teams through several breakthrough initiatives including Interson’s SeeMore USB ultrasound probe, Diasonics (first digital ultrasound imaging system), Teknar (first bi-plane prostate imaging system), SRI international (da Vinci Robotic Surgery System), Siemens (first 3D C-Arm), and Biosound/Esaote TEE system. His experience working with medical device companies has included the full life cycle of product development, from conception to prototype; from clinical testing, regulatory clearance, product launch, and successful exit through acquisition.

* Links:

Kai Kuck, Ph.D.

Dr. Kuck is Director of Bioengineering and Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Utah. He is also a former head of research at Dräger and past-president of the Society for Technology in Anesthesia. He has been involved with technology innovation in anesthesia and critical care since 1991.

* Links: University of Utah - Biomedical Engineering at U of Utah

John Almon

John Almon is a leader in digital transformation and global strategy, specializing in Internet, Cloud, High Bandwidth/Low Latency, and GPU systems. Expert in deep learning, neural networks, algorithmic optimization, and financial trading arbitrage. Broad experience includes Microservices Architecture, Node.js, WebGL, RabbitMQ, VxWorks, embedded systems, and Genetic Algorithms. Proficient in AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and Pub/Sub IoT systems. Developed real-time 3D IoT visualizations with C#/OpenGL. Built crypto AI trading systems; mined Bitcoin in 2009. Architected HPC clusters with CUDA and Infiniband. Holds US Patent 9160606. Led database integrations with Perl, PL/SQL, and Microstrategy BI. Skilled in scientific programming and mobile app development. Languages and platforms include Python, C++, Java, Swift, OpenCL, Angular, and Linux/Unix systems. John has joined Atapir to lead technology efforts and help with fundraising.

Jessica Kovash

Jessica Kovash, MBA, is a strategic healthcare growth and commercialization leader with nearly 20 years of experience helping scale healthcare technology and AI-driven platforms across complex health system environments. Most recently, she held senior commercial leadership roles at LeanTaaS, contributing to the growth of an AI-powered enterprise platform from approximately $2M to nearly $100M ARR across more than 100 health systems.

Dr. Barry Unger

Professor Unger’s academic and business focus is on innovation, entrepreneurship, technology commercialization, and strategies and models for business growth. As a founder of several successful businesses, as a teacher (at Harvard, MIT, and Boston University), a researcher, and as a U.S. Presidential Executive appointee (Senior Advisor on Science and Technology), his career has concentrated on technology-based business creation and venture capital, the management of innovation and new product development, and national government policies and programs that impact this.

* Links:

Professor Maury Peiperl

Dr. Peiperl is a Senior Fellow and Professor, George Mason University. He recently completed 5 years as Dean of Business at George Mason. He is an authority on change, talent, and leadership, particularly across markets and borders. His books include the market-leading Managing Change (McGraw-Hill), as well as The Handbook of Career Studies (Sage). His work has appeared in Harvard Business Review and multiple other outlets. He has advised Adecco, Carrefour, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, EY, GlaxoSmithKline, IATA, Otis, and Santander, among many others, and is a member of multiple boards. Maury holds a BS in Engineering from Princeton and an MBA and PhD from Harvard. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.