Meet the Team

Chief Executive Officer

Darin Hammers

Darin is a veteran business leader with an excellent track record of success. He has over thirty years of leadership experience in the medical device industry, and Darin has been President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of four companies before joining Axora Medical.

Most recently, he served as President and CEO of Minerva Surgical and prior to that he was President and CEO of EndoGastric Solutions (EGS), which was acquired by Merit Medical in July 2024. Before joining EGS, Darin spent four years in the women’s health space as CEO of DYSIS Medical, and prior to DYSIS, he served as the President and CEO of Cogentix Medical, which was acquired by Laborie in April 2018.

Additionally, Darin was Vice President of Sales for the Bard Medical Division of C.R. Bard, and he spent over twelve years with Boston Scientific as a leader of commercial teams focused on the promotion of urology and gynecology technologies.

Chief Financial Officer

Greg Simbro

Greg joins Axora Medical from Minerva Surgical, where he joined in August 2021 and was most recently the VP of Finance. Greg brings nearly 15 years of finance and accounting experience with a focus on companies in the healthcare and medical technology industry. Prior to joining Minerva Surgical, Greg held leadership positions within the accounting functions at both GRAIL and Counsyl, Inc. Greg began his career in public accounting as an auditor with BDO USA, LLP. He is an active Certified Public Accountant and holds a B.B.A. in Finance and Accounting, as well as a Masters in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Chief Commercial Officer

Brent Palmisano

Brent joins Axora Medical from Minerva Surgical, which he joined in November 2024. Brent, who is responsible for building and executing the company’s commercial strategy, brings more than 20 years of experience and a demonstrated track record in building and leading medical device commercial organizations. Previously, Brent was Chief Commercial Officer at Lumicell where he stood up all commercial operations, achieved multiple CPT codes, and built an initial pipeline 4x the company’s goal. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President of Global Commercial Operations at DYSIS Medical, where he oversaw building the business to new heights. He also spent 15 years at Boston Scientific, where he held multiple commercial positions with increasing responsibilities, including Area Vice President of Boston Scientific’s National Accounts team and Director of Marketing and Commercial Integration, where he oversaw the development of dozens of devices. Earlier in his career, Brent spent seven years at Black and Decker in various sales and marketing positions. He holds a B.S. in marketing from the University of South Florida.

VP Corporate Controller

Joanne Long

Joanne Long joins Axora Medical from Minerva Surgical, which she joined in February 2021. She has over 10 years of experience in accounting, with a focus on health care and medical technology industry. Prior to joining Minerva Surgical, Joanne was Vice President, Corporate Controller at Carbon Health Technologies. She also held financial leadership positions at two other health care companies including Counsyl, Inc., which was acquired by Myriad Genetics, Inc. Joanne began her career in public accounting, spending 6 years at KPMG, LLP, and earned her B.S. in Accounting from University of Queensland, Australia and is an inactive Certified Public Accountant.

VP Human Resources

Wendy Bowman

Wendy joins Axora Medical from Minerva Surgical, where she began in 2015 as Director of Human Resources. She brings over 20 years of experience in both in-house and consulting HR roles, spanning large corporations, emerging growth companies, and venture capital–backed organizations.

Prior to Minerva Surgical, Wendy served as an HR Consultant with Christine Mathews Consulting, where she partnered with leadership teams to develop and implement human resources strategies that supported business growth. Earlier in her career, she held positions at SurgRx (later acquired by Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a Johnson & Johnson company) and Procter & Gamble.

Wendy holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Costa Rica.

Director

Dr. Uri Geiger

Dr. Geiger brings extensive entrepreneurial, management and investment know-how, having created and built many successful medical device enterprises. Prior to founding Accelmed, Dr. Geiger founded served as CEO of Exalenz Bioscience Ltd. (TASE:EXEN), developer of an innovative breath-based technology for diagnosing liver and gastrointestinal disorders which Dr. Geiger took public in 2007 and later sold to Meridian (NASDAQ: VIVO). Prior to Exalenz, Dr. Geiger co-founded and was the CEO of GalayOr Networks, a developer of optical components, sold in 2003 to MEMSCAP (EuroNext: MEMS). Dr. Geiger is also the founding partner of Dragon Variation Fund, one of Israel’s first hedge funds, which was sold to Migdal in 2007. Dr. Geiger worked on Wall Street during the 1990s, where he gained a broad understanding of capital markets and significant experience, which he put to use after returning to Israel in 1999. Dr. Geiger was formerly an adjunct professor at the Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University, where he lectured on private equity and venture capital. He is the author of the books: Startup Companies and Venture Capital (Tel Aviv University Press, 2001) and From Concept to Wall Street (Financial Times – Prentice Hall, 2003). He earned his doctorate from New York’s Columbia University Center for Law & Economics, where he majored in global equity markets. Dr. Geiger served as a major in the Israeli Air Force. Dr. Geiger is also involved in an extensive philanthropic activity and is the Founder & Chairman of Friends of Poriya Medical Center in the US.

Director

Daniel Cohens

Dan has over 25 years of experience in medical technology finance, investment banking, and private equity. Dan was the Israeli GM of China-based Fosun Pharma, and a principal at France-based Credit Agricole. Dan holds an MBA from ESSEC MBA, a BSc in Computer Sciences, a BA in Mathematics, and graduate studies in Biology.

Director

Catherine Coste

Cathy is a qualified financial expert and has served as the Audit Committee Chairman of three public companies – Renalytix plc, Minerva Surgical, Inc. and Biomercia, Inc. As an independent director, Cathy’s experience related to governance initiatives, strategic planning, organizational development, financing and taking a company public, has expanded her appreciation for the Board member role on protecting the interests of shareholders and providing guidance to management.

Cathy retired from Deloitte in September 2020 as a senior executive with over 32 years of experience ranging from high growth private companies to complex global public companies. From Cathy’s unique combination of both corporate and professional services positions, she has a successful track record of delivering P&L growth by developing innovative strategies and leading global finance, internal audit and operations teams. Specifically, she is known for her expertise in governance, audit, risk and controls, and compliance. Cathy has led cross functional, global teams at clients such as Gilead Sciences, Amgen, Biogen, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Grail, Cepheid, Align Technologies, Genentech, NVidia, Extreme Networks, GoPro and The Clorox Company.

As an executive, Cathy actively participated in more than 200 Audit Committee meetings and regularly provided board-level materials. Cathy’s industry focus is in Life Sciences, Technology and Consumer Products as these three industries converge. Cathy is an active Certified Public Accountant and completed the Corporate Director’s Certificate Program from Harvard Business School. Cathy earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration – Accounting from California State University, Hayward.

Chief Executive Officer

Darin Hammers

Darin is a veteran business leader with an excellent track record of success. He has over thirty years of leadership experience in the medical device industry, and Darin has been President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of four companies before joining Axora Medical.

Most recently, he served as President and CEO of Minerva Surgical and prior to that he was President and CEO of EndoGastric Solutions (EGS), which was acquired by Merit Medical in July 2024. Before joining EGS, Darin spent four years in the women’s health space as CEO of DYSIS Medical, and prior to DYSIS, he served as the President and CEO of Cogentix Medical, which was acquired by Laborie in April 2018.

Additionally, Darin was Vice President of Sales for the Bard Medical Division of C.R. Bard, and he spent over twelve years with Boston Scientific as a leader of commercial teams focused on the promotion of urology and gynecology technologies.