About Us

Kurt A. Dasse, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Dasse, Inspired Therapeutics’ CEO, has spent over thirty-five years developing and commercializing medical devices and drugs to treat cardiac, respiratory and kidney disorders. He received his doctorate in physiology from Boston University. Dr. Dasse held academic positions at Boston University and Tufts University Schools of Medicine and is currently Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Bioengineering at the University of Louisville Medical School in Louisville, Kentucky. He has written more than100 journal articles and multiple book chapters and holds 14 issued and 3 pending patents.
Dr. Dasse was one of the founding officers of Thermo Cardiosystems (TCI), and played a key role in commercializing the first implantable left ventricular assist systems (HeartMate IP and XVE) for end-stage heart-failure patients. The company went on to develop HeartMate II and HeartMate3, the market leading left ventricular assist devices used as a bridge to cardiac transplantation and destination therapy
Dr. Dasse was Chief Scientist and Vice President of Thermo Electron Corporation’s $700-million Biomedical Group. He served as Cofounder, President and CEO of Levitronix, a developer and manufacturer of the first generation of MagLev blood pumps for the medical industry including the CentriMag and PediMag devices for adult and pediatric patients. The company also co-developed the MagLev system for HeartMate3 (Abbott Laboratories). He recently served as CEO of GeNO LLC developing combination products (device and drug) to deliver inhaled nitric oxide for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension.

Jack Whiting, CFO and General Counsel

John K. Whiting, IV, Esq. (“Jack”) is Inspired Therapeutics’ CFO & General Counsel. He has substantial transactional and regulatory experience supporting both privately held and publicly traded companies, including medical device, healthcare services, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies. Jack’s focus is advising senior management and boards of directors and providing legal counsel to businesses developing and commercializing medical devices, healthcare services, and biopharmaceutical products. He has managed strategic and financial transactions and has provided support for research and development activities and clinical trials, regulatory approvals, commercial strategy and agreements, and healthcare compliance activities. Jack has long experience in acquisitions and divestitures, joint ventures, and licensing and collaboration agreements. He has also worked with strategic partners and venture capital investors on strategic and financial transactions, including debt and equity investments, IPO preparation, exchange listing, and governance matters.

Jack holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science cum laude from the University of Vermont, a Juris Doctor from Boston University School of Law and a Master of Business Administration from F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.

Barry Gellman, Chief Technology Officer

Barry N Gellman is Inspired Therapeutics’ CTO and has spent all 48-years of his career developing and implementing medical devices for small to large medical device companies in capacities from individual contributor to Sr. VP of Engineering and eventual co-founder of Inspired Therapeutics. Having a diverse background, including product development for cardio-thoracic extracorporeal and active implant design & support, cardiology, bio-pharmaceutical respiratory support, women’s health, urology, GI endoscopy, general surgery including mechanical wound closure and in-vitro diagnostics resulted in 142 US issued patents and numerous contributions to white papers/publications and NIH grants. This experience has given Barry the ability to gain a strong surgical background as well as leverage engineering technologies and strategic planning to provide solutions to a wide range of healthcare problems.

Barry received a BSME from Newark College of Engineering and an MS in Biomedical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is versed in product, instrument and equipment design and analysis, FDA design control standards, conducting design reviews, pre-clinical product testing with university partners, provide technology assessment and concept generation.

Thad Coffindaffer, Chief Commercialization Officer

As Chief Commercialization Officer, Thad is responsible for the development and execution of the commercial strategy for our clients’ products. This role includes all aspects of commercial operations including forecasting, marketing, sales / distribution strategy and portfolio strategy. Thad has over 20 years of Sales Executive / Management experience in the medical device industry.
After receiving his MBA from Indiana University, Thad spent 6 years with GE Medical Systems, rising to National Account Manager. In 1997, Thad entered the Cardiovascular medical device industry with Thermo Cardiosystems. While helping to build the revolutionary HeartMate LVAD business, Thad quickly rose to the Western Regional Manager position in 2000. Since that time, Thad has been in Sales Executive, Director or Management roles, including VP of Sales for ATS Medical and VP of Sales and Marketing for Levitronix. In both of his VP positions, Thad played a major role in the development of the sales organization and sales strategies that led to significant growth and success of novel products that were ultimately sold to larger organizations. Thad’s sales leadership experience and business development expertise will be an invaluable resource in the development of our clients’ product portfolios.

Priscilla Petit, Director of Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs

Priscilla serves as the Director of Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs (QA/RA) for Inspired Therapeutics LLC. She is responsible for the development, implementation and execution of applicable FDA mandated Quality Systems for our clients. Priscilla’s contributions for our clients include assuming responsibility for all aspects of FDA related Quality System affairs including complying with Quality System implementation, SOP development, Training, Internal Audits, Supplier Audits, Corrective and Preventive Actions, Complaint Handling, ISO 9001, and ISO 13485 Medical Device implementation and certification.

Priscilla also guides our clients with their Regulatory Strategy and planning, Labeling requirements, and overall FDA correspondence. Priscilla has over 15 years of Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs experience in FDA regulated industries including medical device, combination product (medical device/drug), and Biologic industries.

Priscilla was employed for nine years by L-3 Communication CyTerra, a top military defense contractor. She ultimately served as Senior QA Internal and Supplier Auditor responsible for ISO implementation and maintenance of the key business quality system certifications including management of government audits.

In 2012, Priscilla was employed by GeNO LLC (now Vero BioTech) to focus on a family of inhaled nitric oxide products. These products were regulated as combination products (medical device/drug combinations). She was instrumental in acquiring ISO 13485 Certification for GeNO LLC. Since then, Priscilla has proven to be a strong leader in the QA, RA, and Operational areas providing invaluable leadership for our clients in the development of their product portfolios.