Team | MedVenture

Team

Our Leaders

Our team is led by experts in finance, science, technology, operations, regulatory compliance, and intellectual property. At our core we are entrepreneurs, problem-solvers, and company builders.

Dell Loy Hansen

Managing Partner

Travis Sessions

Managing Partner

Joel Larson

Managing Partner

Steve Berhow

Managing Partner

Kelly Powers

Executive Advisor

Luke Larsen

Senior Associate

Zane Lyons

Senior Analyst

Aidan O’Sullivan

Analyst

Dan Higgs

Chief IP Counsel

Amie Charlton

Paralegel & Office Manager

Jonathan Holmes

Senior Manager of Regulatory Affairs

Brandie Moore

Regulatory Affairs Specialist

Summer Barrus

Accountant

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Managing Partner

Dell Loy Hansen

Dell Loy Hansen is the founding partner of MedVenture Health and oversees the investment strategy and capital structure of portfolio investments. Dell Loy has over 30 years of experience in finance, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, and business development. Dell Loy has a storied business career. He is the Founder of the Wasatch Group, an integrated real estate group with over $4 billion in assets under management. Mr. Hansen has founded or invested in dozens of companies in the areas of healthcare, waste disposal, utility management, media, advertising, sports, food, and finance.

Dell Loy has served as a chairman of the Governor’s Board of Business and Economic Development for the State of Utah under Governor Mike Leavitt, and on the committee for Utah’s Industrial Assistance Fund. Dell Loy is a major contributor to education, healthcare, and other philanthropic causes. A lifelong Utah resident, Mr. Hansen continues to keep deep roots in Cache Valley, with other residences in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Carlsbad, California.

Managing Partner

Travis Sessions

Travis is a founding partner of MedVenture Health and manages its investment strategy. Travis has over 20 years of business management experience, including business development, mergers and acquisitions, and operations. Travis has successfully started and grown multiple medical device technology companies. He has held key leadership positions at Microsoft Corporation, The Dow Chemical Company, Parker Hannifin Corporation, and Biomerics.

Travis has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Michigan. Travis serves on various industry boards and private education organizations including BioUtah, Salt Lake City’s Lifescience Angels, Brigham Young University’s Industry Board, and American Heritage School.

Managing Partner

Joel Larson

Joel has been managing partner of MedVenture Health since 2015. He has many years of experience in managing a variety of platforms in real estate, financial analysis, budgeting, property and asset management. Joel is currently the CEO of Wasatch Acquisition & Capital, part of the Wasatch Group, and has been with Wasatch for the past 20 years. As CEO, he oversees the divisional operations and venture capital investments for many of Wasatch Group’s portfolio assets.

Joel is passionate about working with businesses to help them grow in capacity and financial stability and loves discovering ways to overcome unique business challenges when they arise. He loves to find new and innovative solutions to problems and capitalize on those opportunities to find success in business. Prior to the Wasatch Group, Joel worked for Deloitte in Houston, TX while completing his certification as a licensed CPA. Joel received his Masters of Accounting from Utah State University in Logan, Utah.

Managing Partner

Steve Berhow

Steve is a managing partner of MedVenture Health. Steve has over 30 years of experience in the medical device industry, specializing in medical device development. He started his career in 1985 at AngioMedics, where he developed a thorough understanding of devices utilizing balloons, stents, and delivery systems for percutaneous access and treatment of diseased vessels. Steve then moved to Everest Medical, which was the first company in the U.S. to primarily focus on developing bipolar electro-surgical devices for minimally invasive surgeries using bipolar RF energy.

Steve is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in physiology. His understanding of the anatomy and physiology behind the devices he created has helped numerous physicians bring their ideas from concept to medical device throughout the industry. Over the last 20 years, Steve has founded five medical device-based companies in the U.S., Asia, and Europe. These companies have brought many new devices and technologies to the medical industry. He holds numerous patents in the medical field and is always seeking to help create new devices and technologies for the advancement of medicine throughout the world.

Executive Advisor

Kelly Powers

Kelly, recently retired, was Staff Vice President of Science and Technology for C.R. Bard Inc. (now Becton Dickenson). For the previous 15 years, Kelly served as Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Bard Access Systems in Salt Lake City (C. R. Bard). During his tenure as SVP of R & D, Bard Access Systems was the fastest growing division of C.R. Bard for more than a decade. It became the world market leader in long-term vascular access devices, growing 50X over $1B in sales annually.

Kelly holds over 70 issued U.S. patents in medical devices and other technical areas and more than 200 additional international patents or patents pending. In 2011, Kelly was awarded the Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology by Governor Gary Herbert for his body of work. In 2012, on behalf of a 14-state delegation, Kelly addressed both Senate and House of

Representatives subcommittees regarding the government’s role in the innovation of medical devices. In 2018, Kelly was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from BioUtah (Utah’s Health Sciences Trade Association).

Kelly continues to be active in the health sciences field in the United States and worldwide with advisory roles and the Board of Directors for several medical device companies. He resides in Utah with his wife, Sandra.

Senior Associate

Luke Larsen

Luke is a Senior Associate at MedVenture Health. Leading the investment team, Luke is responsible for the firm’s investing activities, including sourcing and screening new opportunities, conducting market research, developing investment theses, and managing general due diligence teams.

Prior to his time with MedVenture, Luke held various corporate finance, market research, and business development positions within Koch Industries and Ford Motor Company. Luke is originally from Bountiful, Utah, and holds a B.S. in Accounting and Management Information Systems from Utah State University’s Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, where he was also a member of The Association of Management Accountants and Financial Professionals in Business (IMA) and the Finance and Economics Club.

Senior Analyst

Zane Lyons

Zane is a Senior Analyst for MedVenture Health. In this role, he helps identify growth-stage companies and performs due diligence on prospective transactions by researching investment targets, performing competitor analyses, and providing input for strategic growth of our portfolio companies, including mergers and acquisitions.

Prior to joining MedVenture, Zane performed equity research at Sax Angle Partners, a long-short equity hedge fund, and consulted for UCS, a soft-goods manufacturing startup. Zane holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business.

Analyst

Aidan O'Sullivan

Aidan is an Analyst at MedVenture Health. As a member of the investment team, Aidan is responsible for supporting the origination, structuring, and underwriting of investment opportunities by performing due diligence, constructing financial models, and conducting industry research.

Prior to working at MedVenture, Aidan was an Investment Banking Analyst at Oberon Securities in New York, where he supported middle-market M&A transactions across a broad range of industries. Originally from New Jersey, Aidan graduated from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, where he earned a B.B.A. in Finance and Investments. While in school, Aidan worked in lower middle-market direct lending and private equity at Star Mountain Capital, as well as private wealth management at HighTower Advisors. Aidan is also an alumnus of the Alpha Gamma chapter of the Beta Alpha Psi honor society.

Chief IP Counsel

Dan Higgs

Dan is Chief IP Counsel for MedVenture Health. This role includes analyzing potential investments with respect to intellectual property risks and opportunities and, for portfolio companies, crafting and implementing intellectual property strategies and procuring patent and trademark protection.

Before joining MedVenture in 2017, Dan practiced patent law with Knobbe Martens in Irvine, California, for two years and subsequently Stoel Rives in Salt Lake City, Utah, for nearly a decade. During that time, Dan primarily represented medical device companies in strengthening their intellectual property positions. Dan’s practice focused on preparing and prosecuting patent applications and conducting due diligence for asset acquisitions to grow his clients’ patent portfolios, and further focused on invalidating competitors’ patents through reexamination and inter partes review proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in the federal courts. Dan graduated from the University of Utah, summa cum laude, with a degree in applied physics and earned his law degree at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Dan is admitted to practice in Utah and California and before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Paralegel & Office Manager

Amie Charlton

Amie is an IP Paralegal for MedVenture Health. In this role with the legal team, Amie supports patent and trademark filings with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, manages patent annuities, oversees docketing and invoicing, and corresponds with U.S. and foreign counsel and portfolio companies.

Amie joined MedVenture in 2020, leaving her position as the Head Legal Administrator of Arivo Acceptance, LLC to do so. Amie previously served three years as Corporate Global Intellectual Property Manager for Arysta LifeScience North America, LLC. Amie’s more than 20 years of general legal and corporate administrative experience further includes legal assistant tenures at Energy Solutions and the Utah law firms Parsons, Behle & Latimer; McCarthy & Sadler (where she also served as Office Manager); Berman & Savage; and Robert J. Debry & Associates

Senior Manager of Regulatory Affairs

Jonathan Holmes

Jonathan is the Senior Manager of Regulatory Affairs for MedVenture Health. Jonathan and the regulatory affairs team are responsible for providing strategic regulatory and quality system consulting for MedVenture Health projects, corresponding, and negotiating with regulatory bodies, and preparation of regulatory submissions and document review.

Since joining MedVenture in 2019, Jonathan has led various successful regulatory projects, including five successful 510(k) clearances in 2021 alone. Jonathan has a wealth of industry experience from over a decade in the medical devices industry. Originally from Fremont, California, Jonathan attended Utah State University, earning a B.S. in English. Prior to joining MedVenture Health, Jonathan worked in quality assurance at Nelson Laboratories and then in regulatory affairs at BD-Bard

Regulatory Affairs Specialist

Brandie Moore

Brandie is a Regulatory Affairs Specialist II for MedVenture Health. As part of the regulatory team, Brandie responsibilities include preparation of regulatory submissions, document reviews, internal audits, and handles Reach, RoHS, Prop-65 compliance requests.

Since joining MedVenture in 2016, Brandie has contributed to various regulatory projects, including successfully clearing multiple 510(k)’s and a CE Mark. With the knowledge and experience that Brandie has gained, she was able to complete of the Regulatory Affairs Certificate for Medical Devices in 2018.

Accountant

Summer Barrus

Summer is an Accountant at MedVenture Health. As a member of the accounting team, Summer is responsible for supporting the daily accounting needs of MedVenture Health and the portfolio companies to ensure accurate and timely financials.

Prior to joining MedVenture, Summer was an Accountant for a renewable energy development company and managed the budgets and accounting for their projects across the US. While in school, Summer worked for a CPA firm where she worked closely with a variety of small business owners to increase their financial profitability. Summer holds a B.S. in Accounting from Utah Valley University’s Woodbury School of Business.