TURIN-MILAN, JANUARY 29 2018 – Giovanni Leo has been appointed partner by Innogest’s Board of Directors. Serial entrepreneur and successful innovator in the global medtech space, Leo joined Innogest in 2017 as venture partner. His role now scales into the investment team, strengthening the healthcare practice toward international excellence.

Prior to Innogest Giovanni was Vice President of Research & Development at St Jude Medical since the acquisition (€330M) in 2013 of Endosense, the company he co-founded to develop a novel technology for the catheter ablation treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. Endosense has been one of the most successful global startup exit in the cardiovascular space during the last five years.  Formerly he was the director of the Geneva offices for Acrostak Corp., a Boston-Scientific funded medical device company that developed the only European system for vascular brachytherapy. He was also co-founder of Isotopes and Metals Ltd., an emerging medical device company focused on technology for prostate and gynecological brachytherapy. Giovanni previously held a software quality manager position at LeCroy Corp. as well as a CERN fellowship to carry out development activity for the control system of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Giovanni Leo’s appointment follows by few weeks the entrance into the Innogest’s team of former Microsoft President and COO Richard Belluzzo.

«I am excited to join and contribute with my experience to the Innogest’s team. They have  shown over the years a distinct capability to identify innovative companies run by talented entrepreneurs and to partner with them to transform their ideas into game-changing products», commented Giovanni Leo.

«Innogest and Giovanni Leo’s business relationship has been built across few years. Giovanni brings strong technical compentence, serial entrepreneur track record. Moreover he brings a personal track record in investing in winners in the medical startup space: a sign of solid business sense that we look forward to leveraging in our healthcare practice», said Claudio Giuliano, partner and founder of Innogest.

«We are excited to welcome Giovanni in our partnership and work with him in his new capacity, following a successful cooperation on the board of our portfolio companies. Giovanni brings an extremely valuable know-how in project development and company building, acting as a true business partner for entrepreneurs», said Innogest’s partner Claudio Rumazza.

For further information and requests of interview:
Sergio Maistrello – Press Office
sergio.maistrello@innogest.it
+39 338 4649958