FRANK A. FORNARI, PHD

Chairman and Founder

Dr. Fornari, co-founder of BioMech, brings more than 35 years of research, scientific and executive experience to this biotechnology group. Previously Dr. Fornari co-founded and was the CEO and medical director of Dominion Diagnostics, one of the country’s leading pharmaceutical monitoring laboratories and served there from 1997 to 2011. 

Prior to Dominion, Dr. Fornari was a research scientist and consultant to the pharmaceutical industry. He has extensive experience in basic scientific research, clinical medicine, toxicology, chemistry, teaching and drug development and has managed several academic, industrial and clinical laboratories and research facilities. Dr. Fornari has authored numerous scientific publications, has regularly presented at national scientific meetings, has been a member of many scientific societies, holds several patents and is a frequent speaker and industry expert in molecular genetics and pharmacology. 

Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Fornari earned a B.S. degree in Biology from St. Vincent College, received Master’s training in Neurophysiology at Ohio University and holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology with postdoctoral training in medicinal and analytical chemistry, biophysics, drug design, and molecular genetics from the Medical College of Virginia.

CARTER BROWN

President, Chief Executive Officer and Board Member

Mr. Brown, President of BioMech Holdings, brings decades of experience at senior operating level.

Prior to joining BioMech, Mr. Brown was a Partner and Chief Financial Officer of Gee Holdings, LLC a boutique private equity holding company with portfolio companies that spanned the mobility and software spectrums. While at Gee, Carter’s responsibilities included the strategy, finance, M&A, accounting, legal and HR functions. Carter served as an operating executive for a number Gee’s portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Gee, Carter was co-founder and Chief Financial Officer for KGRA Energy Corporation, where he raised and managed seed and secondary rounds of venture capital funding. In his 20+ year career, Carter has participated in or led the negotiation and execution of approximately $4 billion of transactions. Carter has an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a BA from Vanderbilt University.

ERAJ SHIRVANI

Board Member

Eraj Shirvani, Chairman – Emerging Markets at Credit Suisse, serves on BioMech’s board of directors. In this capacity, Shirvani acts in an advisory role, utilizing his vast experience in global finance to provide strategic counsel as BioMech expands into diverse markets. Eraj’s decades of experience in corporate leadership provides our company with an invaluable and practical application of his business acumen and corporate strategy, which is pivotal as BioMech strengthens its global brand.

As Chairman – Emerging Markets at Credit Suisse, Shirvani works across all divisions to build, maintain, and grow relationships and strategic dialogue with key clients, regulators, and sovereign entities. Prior to his current role, he was Head of Global Markets in EMEA and Global Head of Solutions.

Shirvani has also served on a number of boards throughout his tenure, including the Board of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) for 12 years. He has also been on the Board of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) and the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). On the philanthropic side, Mr. Shirvani serves on the Accion Board of Directors, a global non-profit committed to creating a financially inclusive world, with a pioneering legacy in microfinance and fintech impact investing. He is currently the Senior Sponsor of Credit Suisse’s Steps to Success Mobility Scholarship Program, which funds outstanding students from underrepresented and underprivileged backgrounds.

Mr. Shirvani received his B.A. in International Relations and French from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.B.A. from Columbia University.

ATHANASSIOS DIPLAS

Board Member

Athanassios Diplas, the founder of Diplas Advisors, LLC joined BioMech’s board of directors in November, 2022.  Diplas brings decades of experience in science and global finance to the BioMech team.  As Principal at Diplas Advisors, LLC, Diplas functions as the advisor to major financial institutions and law firms with expertise on derivatives related to issues with emphasis on CDS, Initial Margin, CCPs, Counterparty Risk, and Bankruptcy related Derivatives Closeout issues. He also served as the Senior Advisor to the Board of ISDA, leading the industry efforts for development of Standard Initial Margin Model for uncleared transactions. Prior to that Diplas led the industry efforts in the reform of the global CDS markets, including the development of the CDS auction methodology and the transition of CDS to clearing.

Prior to his current role, Diplas was the Global Head of Systemic Risk Management, Global Head of Counterparty Portfolio Management Group, and Chief Risk Officer/Deputy COO – Global Credit Trading at Deutsche Bank for a combined nine years and Vice President – Credit Derivatives at Goldman, Sachs & Co. for six years.

Diplas received his B.S. in Physics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, his PhD in Astronomy from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and his M.B.A in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

DAN FERENS

Board Member

Mr. Ferens was a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers front office for nearly 35 years until his retirement in 2022. Dan was appointed to BioMech’s board of managers in 2021 to steer the organization’s vision, mission, and strategic planning goals.

Mr. Ferens began with the Steelers in 1981 and was one of the NFL’s original capologists. He had a long career as the club’s chief negotiator/business coordinator, with the exception of seven years away from the franchise. Dan was Vice President of Football Operations for the Houston Texans from 2000 – 2006. He was a key part of the franchise since their return to Houston in 2001. Ferens also spent one year as vice president for McCormack Advisors International in Cleveland, the financial arm of International Management Group (IMG), one of the world’s largest athlete management and sports marketing agencies.

A Pittsburgh native now living in Atlanta, Dan played college football at Kent State University for two years before transferring to St. Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. Ferens earned a B.A. from St. Vincent College and later received an MBA from Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.

JOHN CUNNINGHAM

Executive Vice President and Board Member

John Cunningham has been an integral member of BioMech’s growth from its inception in 2014 and was appointed to BioMech’s board of managers in 2021. As EVP, Mr. Cunningham oversees business development, cultivates relationships, manages accounts and ensures partnership and customer needs are exceeded.

Prior to joining BioMech, John was in sports and entertainment management at Bingham McHale LLP. A former professional golfer himself, John managed a variety of athletes and musicians. John earned his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University. While attending Indiana University, John was also a part of the Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) fraternity.

GWEN B. BAUER, PHD

Chief Science Officer

Dr. Bauer, co-founder of BioMech, brings more than 35 years of research, scientific and executive experience to venture. Previously, Dr. Bauer co-founded and was the Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Dominion Diagnostics, a nationally recognized clinical laboratory with locations in Rhode Island, Vermont and North Carolina, serving there from 1997 to 2011.

Prior to Dominion, Dr. Bauer was an assistant professor at the Medical College of Virginia. She held a position at Stanford University Hospital and has designed, built, staffed and managed several research and clinical laboratories while holding director certificates in several states, including but not limited to: New York, Florida, California, and Maryland. She has extensive research experience, has authored numerous publications and has presented at many national meetings.

Dr. Bauer is originally from San Francisco, California. She earned a B.S. degree in Clinical Science from San Francisco State University and a holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology with postdoctoral training in medicinal and analytical chemistry, biophysics, drug design, and molecular genetics from the Medical College of Virginia.

JIM TROVATO

Senior Vice President of Sales

Jim Trovato is the Senior Vice President of Sales and leads the BioMech national sales team, providing leadership, direction and resource stewardship to the organization. With his 30-plus years of experience creating business strategies that drive growth, operational performance and profitability, Trovato’s background showcases his expertise for aligning sales goals and objectives with the firm’s business strategy.

Trovato has extensive experience leading heavily regulated companies as they navigated transactions including start-up financing, industry roll-up, mergers and acquisitions, rapid growth, turnaround and post-acquisition integration. With an emphasis on the healthcare industry, Jim’s passion and gregarious personality has led him to develop contacts worldwide and grow multiple successful companies.

A Pennsylvania native, Trovato earned his bachelor’s degree from Clarion University in business administration and marketing. In his spare time, Jim enjoys golfing and giving back to the youth in his community by coaching and mentoring student-athletes in football and basketball. Trovato is married and has three daughters and a son and lives in Sewickley, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh along the Ohio River.

ALEX MASLENNIKOV

Chief Technology Officer

Alex brings more than 20 years of technology and software development experience focusing on enterprise cloud systems, electronic records management, mobile application development, healthcare imaging as well as applications performance and stability.

Before joining the BioMech team, he worked at Aderant and was responsible for multiple products including enterprise search and document management, office integration, and case management system and later at TractManager Inc, managing data interchange technology and advanced search technologies. Mr. Maslennikov also worked for the National Institute of Health, where he enhanced the world’s biggest biomedical library, and at the National Naval Medical Center he developed innovative algorithms to improve medical image qualit.

Mr. Maslennikov earned his B.S. degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and also studied at the Technical University in St. Petersburg, Russia majoring in cybernetics, computer science and mathematics. Alex enjoys playing soccer and ice hockey as well as co-coaching his son’s youth soccer team. Alex resides in North Potomac, MD with his wife and two children.

IGOR PERIĆ

Director of Research and Development and Managing Director of BioMech Sensor (Bosnia)

Mr. Perić is responsible for architecting an AI experimentation platform, developing data processing pipelines and deploying high performance algorithms on mobile devices in his role as the Director of Research and Development at BioMech. He also serves as Managing Director of BioMech Sensor (Bosnia), running legal, financial and human resource aspects of the business, while at the same time educating young, ambitious people and helping them build their careers.

With more than ten years of software engineering experience, Igor has successfully helped various businesses grow and expand internationally by attracting talented people, building and leading development teams and managing foreign investment capital.

Originally from Bosnia, Republic of Srpska, Mr. Perić earned an M.S. in computer vision and robotics in France and pursued a Ph.D in computational neurobiology in Germany. Mr. Perić won multiple international competitions in algorithms, data structures and software development, during his academic career in computer science. As a Senior Microsoft Student Partner he was a guest speaker on multiple Microsoft conferences and universities. Mr. Perić was employed as a high-performance computing engineer on the European Human Brain Project, integrating neuromorphic hardware into a neurorobotics platform. He has published seven papers in international robotics journals, two of which won the best paper awards for modeling of memory formation in spiking neural networks. He has also presented at numerous international conferences.

Igor authored his first US patent in 2020 while working with BioMech and has multiple pending patient submissions for artificial intelligence and machine learning systems.

JEFF ROWBERG

Director of Engineering

Jeff has been designing and supporting wireless hardware and firmware platforms for more than a decade. His roles have comprised the entire manufacturing process, from initial schematic design all the way through final assembly, testing, and certification, including firmware development on the assembled hardware. His personal focus has been body-worn designs incorporating motion detection and control.

Prior to BioMech Sensor, Mr. Rowberg worked as a Principal Software Engineer at Cypress Semiconductor to create a flexible turn-key communication platform for a major line of Bluetooth wireless modules. He also created detailed reference documentation, example projects, and test software for this platform. Prior to Cypress Semiconductor, Mr. Rowberg worked as a Senior Applications Engineer at Bluegiga Technologies (later acquired by Silicon Labs) providing design support and troubleshooting for all US-based customers using Bluegiga’s wireless module products. He also published knowledge base articles and dozens of example projects to help shorten customer design timelines.

Mr. Rowberg graduated from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, CA with a B.S. in Computer Science, with additional studies in Mathematics and Physics.