Richard B. Emmitt Joins InnovaHealth Partners as Senior Advisor

Veteran medical device investor Richard (“Dick”) Emmitt has joined InnovaHealth Partners (“InnovaHealth”) as Senior Advisor. Mr. Emmitt will continue as a General Partner of The Vertical Group, which he co-founded in 1988.

Mr. Emmitt is one of the most experienced and successful investors in the medical device industry. His career spans the industry’s transition from just a few companies in the early 1970’s to thousands of companies today, with global sales of over $500 billion. Drawing on his deep experience and industry network, Mr. Emmitt will contribute to InnovaHealth’s established core competency in medical device investing by contributing to the firm’s strategy development, research capabilities, transaction sourcing and value maximization.

Mortimer (“Tim”) Berkowitz III, InnovaHealth President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “I’m very pleased to welcome Dick to the InnovaHealth team as we continue to advance our long established private equity investment strategy that is responsive to the opportunities of a growing and fast changing medical device industry.  Dick brings a successful track record and an extensive network of physician and industry management relationships that will be instrumental in executing our investment strategy.  The entire InnovaHealth team looks forward to working with Dick as we invest in high growth medical device companies on a global basis.”

Recognized as one of the medical device industry’s most strategic investors, Mr. Emmitt’s experience includes all stages of private equity and venture capital.  Among his former investments and board of director memberships are companies in virtually all major sectors of the medical device industry: American Medical Systems (acquired by Endo Pharma); ENTrigue Surgical (acquired by Arthrocare); ev3 (acquired by Covidien/Medtronic); Galil Medical (acquired by BTG); Lifecell (acquired by KCI); OsteoBiologics (acquired by Smith & Nephew); SciMed Life Systems (acquired by Boston Scientific); Tornier (acquired by Wright Medical); Velocimed (acquired by Saint Jude); Wright Medical Group (NASDAQ: WMGI); and Xomed Surgical (acquired by Medtronic).  Mr. Emmitt currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Biorez, MicroVascular Tissues, Monteris Medical and Tepha Medical.

Mr. Emmitt commented, “I am pleased to be working with the InnovaHealth team.  Their success and proven track record in orthopedics, biomaterials and biologics is a superb fit for me and is an excellent platform for future investments which will create value for shareholders, physicians and their patients.”