Xoft Executive Management Team

Michael Klein, Chief Executive Officer

Michael S. Klein, joined Xoft in December 2004, Previously, he served as President and CEO of R2 Technology—a breast cancer detection company. Over his 4 years at R2 he grew revenue from $5 million to nearly $60 million. Before that, he was General Manager of Varian Medical Systems Oncology Group where he managed businesses ranging from $25 million to $250 million. He has also managed a $500 million Sales and Marketing Group within Becton Dickinson, called BD Medical. Mike received his MBA from the New York Institute of Technology.

Paul Farmer, Chief Financial Officer

Paul Farmer joined Xoft in February 2008. Previously he served as CFO of numerous public and private companies, including IPIX, Buzzsaw.com, CCAi, TCSI and TSCC.  He is a results oriented financial executive with over 25 years of experience working with growth-oriented companies, Wall Street and the venture capital and PEG communities.  He managed fund raisings in many forms, including four public offerings.  Paul was also a partner with Tatum, LLC, a nation-wide senior financial executive consulting firm, and a Senior Audit Manager with Price Waterhouse.  He is a CPA and has an accounting degree from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Robert L. Mathews, Chief Operating Officer

Robert Mathews (Bob) joined Xoft in November 2007. Bob has extensive medical device management experience having most recently served in various capacities at Laserscope, Inc., including Group Vice President, Product Development /Operations as well as Executive Vice President. During Bob’s tenure, Laserscope was purchased by American Medical Systems. After the acquisition, Bob remained with AMS for a transitional period as Vice President/Director, Innovation Center San Jose leaving the company in November 2007.  Bob has 37 years experience in the medical electronics field in a variety of capacities ranging from field sales and service through General Management. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University.

Marga Ortigas-Wedekind, Sr. Vice President,  Clinical, Marketing and Development

Marga Ortigas-Wedekind, has been working with the company since early 2002. Prior to that time, she was the VP of Sales and Marketing for ProDuct Health Inc, a start-up in breast cancer early detection and risk-stratification, which was acquired by Cytyc Corporation. Marga also spent nearly 11 years in various global sales and marketing positions with Guidant Corporation where, among other roles, she was the director of marketing for the early effort in coronary brachytherapy. Marga has an MBA from Stanford University.

Kelly Elliott, Vice President, Clinical Affairs

Kelly Elliott joined Xoft in October 2007.  Kelly has more than 20 years experience in the medical device industry, and 10 years experience in global medical device clinical research as well as a strong clinical background from her positions as a registered nurse earlier in her career.  Previously, Kelly has held various clinical research positions from Manager to Vice President requiring design and execution of multi-center FDA regulated studies that supported 510(k) premarket notifications as well as multiple post market studies to further demonstrate product safety and efficacy.  She is highly experienced in working with key opinion leaders in designing multi-center pivotal studies and then executing these studies to support the 510(k) premarket notifications resulting in clearances for new products and indications.  Prior experience as Director of Clinical Research for Novoste Corporation included  two randomized controlled vascular brachytherapy trials. Kelly holds a B.S.N degree from California State University, San Jose CA, and a Masters of Science degree from University of California, San Francisco, CA.

Stephen Whisenhunt, Vice President of Sales

Stephen Whisenhunt joined Xoft in April of 2007. Stephen has more than 20 years experience in the radiation oncology industry. He has a solid technical background having begun his career with Varian in engineering and manufacturing. He also has a strong clinical background having worked with Quantum Physics in the early 90’s supporting a variety of clinical facilities in Atlanta, GA. After completing his MBA, Stephen joined Picker Medical Systems as the Vice President and General Manager of the Oncology Business. Later, following the acquisition of Picker by Philips Medical, Stephen served as the Division Vice President for the Computed Tomography business in North America where he was responsible for more than $400 million dollars annually in revenues. Stephen has a very well rounded background in Marketing and Sales and has launched a variety of new products in his career including the ACQSIM CT Simulation system, the Large Bore Oncology CT, the Image Guided Linear Accelerator, and 64 channel Cardiac CT.

Connie Hoy, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs & Quality Assurance

Connie joined the company in December 07.  She comes to Xoft with 22 years of experience in regulatory affairs and quality assurance having most recently served as Vice President, RA/QA at Cutera. She has vast experience with Class III sterile implantable devices as well as extensive experience with medical lasers.  Connie is a successful team leader for ISO implementation/CE Marking and international regulatory processes.  

Office of Advanced Technology and Science  (OATS)

The Office of Advanced Science and Technology (OATS) is tasked with defining the future technological and clinical roadmap for Xoft. It is staffed by both permanent and ad hoc members, and operates in conjunction with members of Xoft’s scientific advisory boards, as well as prominent members of the oncological, surgical and medical physics community. OATS explores emerging areas of opportunity that fit strategically with Xoft’s goals and technological expertise in the areas of treatment planning, delivery and verification, both as in-house development and partnering opportunities.

Thomas W. Rusch, Ph.D.

Dr. Thomas Rusch., is co-founder of Xoft Inc. and Chair of the Office of Advanced Technology and Science.  Dr. Rusch has been centrally involved in developing Xoft’s miniaturized X-ray source technology and introducing this unique treatment capability into the radiation oncology clinic. As Chair of the Office of AdvancedTechnology and Science, Tom will focus on expanding the technical and clinical foundations for new therapeutic methods.  He has over 35 years of experience with electron, ion and X-ray optics development at Xoft, Perkin Elmer Physical Electronic Division, 3M, and Los Alamos National Lab.  Dr. Rusch has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and an M.S. in Management of Technology from the University of Minnesota.

Paul Lovoi, Ph.D.

Dr. Paul Lovoi is co-founder of Xoft Inc. and a serial entrepreneur and inventor. He has 34 years of experience in Silicon Valley having started seven companies. Before Xoft, Dr. Lovoi founded Candescent Technologies, a flat panel display company and INTA, a high temperature materials company. Dr. Lovoi has 30 patents issued and 18 pending applications. He has a Ph.D. in physics and attended the Stanford Executive MBA program.

Steven Axelrod, Ph.D.

Dr. Steven Axelrod joined Xoft in December 2003 as Principal Physicist, establishing Xoft’s X-ray source measurements and dosimetry program.  He previously served as Director of Measurement Hardware R&D at Honeywell-Measurex. At Measurex, he developed numerous high precision on-line sensors, scanning and data acquisition systems, involving nuclear, X-ray, electromagnetic, infra-red, laser and optical techniques. Steven received a Ph.D. in experimental elementary particle physics from Yale University. He held a post-doctoral research position in the Physics Department of Stanford University. Currently Dr. Axelrod is Senior Director of Physics and Measurement, and co-chairman of OATS.