Our Team

Eugene G. Chen, Chief Executive Officer

Eugene G. Chen, is co-founder and CEO of SPIWAY LLC. Eugene is a medical technology strategist, entrepreneur and innovator who has built and led many successful healthcare ventures over the last several decades. As a General Partner of Camino Innovation Holdings and CWC HealthTech, Eugene has created a hybrid venture capital/operating model to build successful companies in medical devices and genomics. As an entrepreneur, Eugene has led teams to advance the emerging fields of minimally invasive general surgery, urology, cardiovascular, GI and GYN surgery. Eugene has developed innovative new technologies and new operating models that align companies and investors to the realities of today’s healthcare markets. Eugene has over 50 issued patents.

Prior to leading SPIWAY’s innovations in minimally invasive neurosurgery, Eugene served as Executive Chairman of Prescient Surgical, a company focused on reducing surgical infections, Executive Chairman of iGenomX, a new generation sequencing (NGS) application company, Executive Chairman of Jumpcode Genomics, a CRISPR application company, Founder/CEO of USGI Medical; Co-Founder/CEO of FRESCA Medical; EIR and Venture Partner with Alta Partners; GM/Senior Vice President at Applied Medical Resources Corporation; and Founder/CEO of BioFlex/Kinesys Inc.
Eugene also serves as a board member of Feeding San Diego, a member organization of Feeding America. Eugene holds an M.B.A. from the Anderson School at UCLA and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University and is a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA).

Stephanie Frimond, President

Stephanie Frimond has spent the past 11 years as a healthcare marketing executive and entrepreneur. Stephanie also serves as Co-Founder and Managing Member of Camino Innovation Holdings, LLC, a hybrid VC/Operating company focused on building disruptive medical device companies.

Prior to joining SPIWAY, Stephanie served as the Director of Marketing for FRESCA Medical, a company developing a disruptive consumer focused system for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.  Before FRESCA, Stephanie served as a Business Analyst at Intersect Partners, a medical device incubator, where she was involved in the formation of three medical device startups, Altura Medical, EMBA Medical and FRESCA Medical.  As the President of SPIWAY, Stephanie drives the advancement of minimally invasive neurosurgery by combining her fresh take on the rapidly evolving field of healthcare with her experience developing innovative medical technologies.

Mike Thomas, Chief Commercial Officer

Mike Thomas is responsible for SPIWAY LLC’s commercialization efforts. He has over 32 years of sales, marketing, business development and product commercialization experience in the biotech, pharmaceutical and device industries, having focused in the surgical device space for the last 25 years.

Mike has extensive experience in every aspect of new market development and commercialization, having held positions in sales/sales management, marketing, business development, international/national key accounts, recruiting and training. Prior to joining SPIWAY, LLC in January 2022, Mr. Thomas served as Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Lumendi, LLC for the last 3.5 years where he successfully led their US commercialization efforts. For the preceding seven years, he was Vice President, Sales and Business Development for USGI Medical where he opened commercial markets in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, South America, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, he has served in sales, management and market development at Allergan Health, Ethicon Endo-Surgery and SmithKline Beecham.

Mike is an alumnus of Gulf Coast Community College and The University of South Florida where his studies were concentrated in the areas of Business Management and Marketing.

Paul Gardner, MD

Paul A. Gardner, MD, is the Peter J. Jannetta Endowed Chair in Neurosurgery and a Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Neurosurgical Director of the Center for Cranial Base Surgery as well as Executive Vice Chairman for Surgical Services for the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).

Dr. Gardner joined the faculty of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 2008 after completing his residency and fellowship training at the University of Pittsburgh. He completed his undergraduate studies at Florida State University, majoring in biochemistry, and received his Medical Degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Dr. Gardner completed a two-year fellowship in endoscopic endonasal pituitary and endoscopic and open skull base surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. His research has focused on evaluating patient outcomes following these surgeries and more recently on molecular phenotyping of rare tumors.  He is recognized internationally as a leader in the field of endoscopic endonasal surgery, a minimally invasive surgical approach to the skull base. His other surgical interests include pituitary tumors, open cranial base surgery, and vascular surgery.

Dr. Gardner is certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery and is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, and the North American Skull Base Society where he served as a Director-at-Large.  Dr. Gardner is co-editor of the textbook Vascular Challenges in Skull Base Surgery published by Thieme and co-director of The Pittsburgh Course: Endoscopic Endonasal Surgery of the Skull Base. He has authored more than 350 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and he presents frequently on the podia of local, national, and international scientific meetings and courses.

Carl Snyderman, MD, MBA

Carl H. Snyderman, MD, MBA, is Professor of Otolaryngology, with secondary appointments in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, and Co-Director of the Center for Cranial Base Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).  He is recognized internationally as a pioneer and leader in the development of the endoscopic endonasal approach, a minimally invasive surgical approach to the cranial base. Dr. Snyderman also has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh and is Vice Chair for Quality and Safety of the Department of Otolaryngology.

He received his Medical Degree from the University of Chicago and completed his residency in otolaryngology and fellowship training in skull base surgery at the UPMC. He is past recipient of a Clinical Oncology Career Development Award from the American Cancer Society and a FIRST Award from the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Snyderman is Past President of the North American Skull Base Society, he has received Presidential Citations from the American Head and Neck Society and The Triological Society, and is a two-time recipient of a Distinguished Service Award from the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Foundation. He is certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology and in addition to the North American Skull Base Society and the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, is a member of the American Head and Neck Society, the American Rhinologic Society, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a member of the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Surgeon Educators.

Dr. Snyderman is co-editor of the textbooks Skull Base Surgery, part of the Master Techniques in Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery series published by Wolters Kluwer, Vascular Challenges in Skull Base Surgery, and Operative-Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, 3^rd Edition. He has also published numerous peer-reviewed articles and presents frequently at local, national, and international scientific meetings and courses.  Dr. Snyderman is regularly recognized in Castle Connelly’s Best Doctors in America and Pittsburgh Magazine’s “Top Doctors”.

Dr. Snyderman has additional training in entrepreneurship through the Coulter Translational Research Partnership Program and is past recipient of multiple Coulter grants from the University of Pittsburgh Center for Medical Innovation and Pitt Innovation Challenge (PinCh).  He regularly participates as a clinical mentor in the Medical Product Ideation Course at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering and has multiple medical devices under development.

Current research interests include surgical simulation, minimally invasive surgical instrumentation, and medical devices that enhance surgical safety.  Dr. Snyderman is on the Executive Board of Pittsburgh CREATES (Collaborative Research, Education and Technology Enhancement in Surgery), a collaborative partnership of UPMC surgeons, engineers, and surgical device companies devoted to the advancement of minimally invasive surgery.

View a list of Dr. Snyderman’s publications at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22snyderman%2C%20carl%20h%22

Kris Moe, MD

Kris. S. Moe, MD, FACS, is Chief of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and a Professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery and Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle.

He obtained his undergraduate education at Harvard University, followed by his Medical Degree at the University of Washington. He pursued a residency in general surgery and otolaryngology-head & neck surgery at the University of Washington, after which he obtained subspecialty training in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, as well as skull base surgery, at the Universities of Michigan, Bern (Switzerland), and Zurich (Switzerland). He was an Oberarzt (Assistant Professor) at the University of Zurich, before joining the faculty of the University of California, San Diego. He then returned to the University of Washington where he now practices in the fields of facial plastic and skull base surgery.

Dr. Moe as has received numerous teaching and clinical awards including Best Doctors in Seattle; Washington State; and America. He has received significant research grant funding from multiple sources including the NIH, Coulter Foundation, American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Defense, and Washington Research Foundation. He is an innovator of medical devices and holds multiple patents.

He has also developed a number of surgical techniques, and is considered to be a founder of the minimally disruptive field of transorbital endoscopic skull base and brain surgery, as well as transoral neuroendoscopic surgery. He is regularly invited to lecture on and demonstrate these procedures internationally. He is a member of multiple professional organizations including the North American Skull Base Society, and is a fellow of the American Academic of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the Triologic Society, and the American College of Surgeons.

Dr. Moe has published well over 100 peer-reviewed articles and multiple book chapters, and is currently editing his second textbook. He reviews articles for journals in the fields of facial plastic surgery, oculoplastic surgery, skull base surgery, and neurological surgery. His current areas of research include surgical pathway innovation; complex surgical planning; surgical performance and safety analytics; advanced surgical navigation; real-time updating of surgical imaging; and innovations in surgical visualization and automated video editing.

The following is a link to some of his Pubmed publications:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/kris.moe.1/bibliography/public/