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Key Vecna Team Members
Deborah N. Theobald Chairman / CEO

Deborah obtained her Aero/Astro degree from MIT and her Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland. Her education focused on human factors of space exploration with an emphasis on human-robot interaction. Her thesis included a video-based, comparative study of human posture in Earth gravity and an underwater simulated space environment. Deborah also led a research team to explore haptic robot workstation design through the study of human posture in a simulated micro-gravity environment on NASA's micro-gravity simulator, the KC-135. In addition to her talents in engineering, Deborah is a talented manager and leader. As the CEO of Vecna, she actively promotes market opportunities and a company culture that demands creativity, enables the pragmatic application of new technologies and makes a difference in our communities.
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Daniel A. Theobald President / CTO

The inventor of the BEAR robot, Daniel is well versed in the engineering sciences with extensive experience in software architecture, artificial intelligence (AI), electromechanical engineering and mobile robotics.  His interests and expertise include robot control and mobility systems, object-oriented design, enterprise system architecture, and system integration.  His graduate work at the MIT AI Laboratory included developing web-based control algorithms for a robotic Mars explorer, a progenitor of Spirit and Opportunity.  Graduating at the top of his class at MIT, Daniel is the recipient of the Henry Ford II Scholar Award and the Hertz Foundation Award, as well as a fellowship from the National Science Foundation.  Daniel holds BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from MIT.  
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Bill Donnell VP of DOD/VA Solutions

After graduating from Yale University, Bill served on Active Duty as a US Army Medical Service Corps Officer. As a graduate student, Bill focused on business operations and health care delivery systems, earning his Master's Degree in Health Systems Management from George Mason University. With over twelve years of health care industry experience, Bill specializes in information systems and business operations. Today, Bill serves as Vice President, overseeing Vecna's DoD/VA and Commercial Sector operations. Vecna clients call upon him to provide strategic direction for large-scale software development efforts and business policy decisions in such areas as Access To Care, Patient Safety, and Resource Management.
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Michael Bearman VP of State and Federal Solutions, General Counsel

Michael oversees Vecna's State and Federal government (non-military) business units. Vecna clients call upon him to provide strategic direction for large-scale software development efforts and business policy decisions. As General Counsel, Michael protects Vecna's legal, contractual and intellectual property rights, assists with business development, and interacts with clients on a variety of levels. Michael, while practicing at McKenna, Long & Aldridge's Washington, D.C. office, gained experience in appellate and commercial litigation, government contracts, products liability defense, IP litigation, and corporate law. Michael graduated Cum Laude from Georgetown with a degree in law. While at Georgetown, Michael was a member of the "Law & Policy in International Business" Journal and represented juveniles in connection with the Juvenile Justice Clinic.
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Mark VanderWerf Senior Account Manager

Mr. VanderWerf is a recognized world leader in the development of advanced healthcare delivery technologies. He is the founder and former CEO of AMD Telemedicine, the worlds leading provider of medical technology for telemedicine with over 6000 installations in 68 countries (and holds a patent for a leading home monitoring (telehealth) technology). Mark was also a New Ventures Manager for Digital Equipment Corporation. Mark brings expertise in the successful commercialization, distribution and quality customer support of products and services aimed at improving the efficiency of clinical delivery operations and extending care to the patients regardless of location. Mark is the Author of The American Healthcare System published by the UK Department of Trade and Industry and co-author of Telemedicine for Developing World Countries published by IOS press. He is a frequent speaker on the use and implementation of advanced technologies. Mark received the Industry Leadership in Telemedicine Award in 2006 from the the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) and the New England Business and Technology Leadership Award in 2003. He is a member a of the Board of Directors of the ATA, a founding Board member of the International Society for telemedicine and eHealth.

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Carrie Ingall Stein, RN-C, MSN Director of Clinical Services

Carrie brings to Vecna more than 20 years of health care expertise and the belief that technology can improve care and reduce costs by standardizing business processes and maximizing efficiency. She has led Product Management teams to design software for use by disease management companies, call centers, student health centers, and families with chronic illness. Having received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Carrie is a certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. She is also proficient in sign language.
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Patrick T. Campbell Director of Implementation Services

Patrick brings a unique blend of technical knowledge, public speaking credentials and Service Excellence Management experience to the Vecna team. Throughout the 90s, Patrick traveled the world, giving technical seminars on Windows NT and network security, and led General Sessions at conferences such as GovCom and the Digital Wizard's conference in Singapore. During this same period, he published two books through Sybex on Networking and Windows NT. Over the past few years, Patrick, who is a certified ISO 9001:2000 Lead Auditor, has led his organizations to full ISO certification. In the past year, Patrick led his organization to achieve the Maryland State Baldrige Quality Award, presented by Senators Sarbanes and Mikulski. Outside interests include piano, racquetball and Hawaii.
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Andreas Hofmann, PhD Director of Machine Learning R&D

Dr. Hofmann joins Vecna as one of the world's leading experts on robotic motion control systems, a field at the nexus of artificial intelligence, machine learning, expert systems and robotics. His expertise focuses on advanced planning and motion control tasks for humanoid robots, with an emphasis on balance control in the presence of disturbances. A senior scientist and manager at Lisp Machine, GE and Pegasystems, Dr. Hofmann co-founded Gensym Corp. (Trading symbol: GNSM.PK), a company specializing in automatic, supervisory-level control software for the chemical process and manufacturing industries. Among other duties he was responsible for the development of key components of Gensym's flagship G2 real-time expert system. Dr. Hofmann received a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering at MIT, a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT.
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Chris Larsen, PhD Senior Scientist, Grants Manager

Dr. Christopher Larsen directs Vecna's Research and Development Grants program, in addition to being a Senior Scientist. He came to Vecna from the Cognia Corporation where he developed a biological information curation system, Cognia Molecular. Prior to Cognia, Dr. Larsen pursued a Post-Doctorate in cell biology at Harvard Medical School, as well as a teaching sabbatical at Phillips Academy. In his spare time, Dr. Larsen loves running, teaching science to adolescents, nordic skiing and Yoga, in addition to playing trumpet, altohorn, and guitar for various community groups. Dr. Larsen earned a BS in chemistry and biology from Mercer University, and a Ph.D. from Emory University.
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Al Ramsey, PhD Senior Scientist

Dr. Ramsey brings a diversified background in technology-based products and services to Vecna. With a BS and MS from MIT and a PhD from UC Berkeley, his research areas include artificial intelligence, system dynamics, and aerodynamic design. Results from his doctoral dissertation were used to help design space probes for NASA missions to Mars. In addition to his research experience, Dr. Ramsey also brings business experience as a Product Manager at a global web hosting company, where he was responsible for managing the data storage business unit. Outside of work, his interests include martial arts, such as taekwondo and hapkido.
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Samuel Brown, MD Chief Medical Advisor

Dr. Brown conceived and was co-investigator for the NIH-sponsored research in infection control and surveillance that resulted in the QCPathFinder suite of applications and has been committed to the project throughout the transition from research to deployed product. He is a summa cum laude graduate of Harvard College in linguistics, with published work in theoretical syntax. He received his MD from Harvard Medical School with various honors including a National Scholarship, a Massachusetts Medical Society Scholarship, the Rosa Seegal award, and a Soma Weiss lectureship. He completed internal medicine training at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he served for two years as clinical physician and Instructor at Harvard Medical School. He received the first-ever Mentor Award from the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America for his work in global health, the epidemiology of nosocomial infections, clinical quality improvement, and antimicrobial resistance. He has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals and presented at several international conferences.

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Clayton M. Christensen Board of Advisors

Clayton M. Christensen is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, with a joint appointment in the Technology & Operations Management and General Management faculty groups. Professor Christensen holds a B.A. with highest honors in economics from Brigham Young University (1975), and an M.Phil. in applied econometrics and the economics of less-developed countries from Oxford University (1977), where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He received an MBA with High Distinction from the Harvard Business School in 1979, graduating as a George F. Baker Scholar. In 1982 Professor Christensen was named a White House Fellow, and served as assistant to U.S. Transportation Secretaries Drew Lewis and Elizabeth Dole. He was awarded his DBA from the Harvard Business School in 1992. Professor Christensen became a faculty member at the Harvard Business School in 1992. He is author of three books: The Innovator's Dilemma (1997), which received the Global Business Book Award for the best business book published in 1997; The Innovator's Solution (2003), also a New York Times best seller; and Seeing What's Next (2004). He presently is completing two books that examine the problems of our healthcare and public education systems through the lenses of his theories. Professor Christensen is also extensively involved in other activities in the community and exemplifies Vecna's commitment to making the world a better place. He and his wife Christine live in Belmont, MA. They are the parents of five children.

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