Management Team

David Thrower joined TriAgenics as a Director in October 2020 and now serves as CEO, leveraging more than 30 years of leadership in the medical device sector, with a focus on companies operating at the intersection of the healthcare and consumer markets.

Throughout his career, David has led strategic initiatives and commercial growth at several innovative firms. His roles have included Vice President of Global Marketing at Align Technology, makers of Invisalign, CEO of InSound Medical, a disruptive hearing device company acquired by Sonova Holding AG as well as CEO of Asante Solutions, where he successfully led the development, FDA clearance and early commercialization of an insulin pump.

David began his career at Bain & Company, where he spent six years in strategic consulting. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Mathematical and Computational Sciences from Stanford University.

From 1995 through 2015 Dr. Colby was the founder, CEO and sole shareholder of Oregon Dental Care, a successful group dental practice in Oregon that delivers high quality patient care in a zero defect operating environment. Oregon Dental Care was acquired by InterDent in late 2015 where he served as the Managing Clinical Director. Prior to starting Oregon Dental Care in 1995 Dr. Colby was involved with three high-tech startups that all remain in successful operation today.

In 1980 he was the principal founder of Laserdyne Corporation and wrote the ground-breaking specifications for the successful high-resolution Beam Director general-purpose CNC laser machining system. The Beam Director system remains the #1 selling general-purpose laser machining system worldwide. In 1984 he assisted the PhD EE founder of Cyberoptics Corporation in defining their initial product specifications and market applications to establish initial distribution channels for their unique high resolution, non-contact laser gauging and automated inspection products.

Dr. Colby worked with CyberOptics to develop and implement a marketing plan which drove initial product sales, and propelled them to a market leader, where they remain today. In 1986 Dr. Colby teamed up with three PhD-level biochemists as their Vice President of Marketing to define and establish their first commercial operations for Surmodics, Inc. His 10-year effort at Surmodics ultimately resulted in revenues approaching $100M annually for the use of PhotoLink high-reliability biocompatibility enhancement technology on a variety of widely recognized implant and disposable medical devices. Surmodics remains a publicly traded operation. Dr. Colby has earned his M.B.A. degree from Northwest Christian University, D.D.S. and B.S. degrees from the University of Minnesota, B.S. degree from St. John’s University and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt.

Dave Watson brings 25 years of leadership experience to the management team at TriAgenics, Inc. Mr. Watson worked for 15 years with IBM in Engineering, Manufacturing, and Product Development where he held key technical and senior management positions, including critical strategist at IBM Technology Products Division headquarters. He filled the positions of Director of Technology at Planar Systems, Inc., Director of Engineering at Fujitsu Ltd., Director of Manufacturing at Biotronik, Inc and VP of Engineering at Unilife Medical Solutions, Inc. Mr. Watson has patents in the fields of automated equipment and technology products. Mr. Watson is the Chief of Operations at TriAgenics, Inc. and is responsible for quality assurance, regulatory affairs, product development and manufacturing. He holds an MSME from the University of Texas and a BSME from California Polytechnic State University in California.

Mr. Chopack is a Principal and founding partner of Inspiros. Mr. Chopack manages the day to day operations of Inspiros and is responsible for investment origination, portfolio company management and investor relations. Mr. Chopack has 14 years of experience in venture capital investing in medtech companies. As a General Partner at HealthpointCapital, a $800 million AUM medtech focused private equity firm, Mr. Chopack played an integral role in the firm’s most profitable investments – Nexa Orthopedics, BioHorizons and Blue Belt Technologies. These investments brought significant advances to the healthcare field and provided top quartile returns to investors.
Prior to his career in venture capital, Mr. Chopack was an orthopedic sales representative for Wright Medical and Encore Orthopedics. Following his experience as an orthopedic sales representative, Mr. Chopack worked on Wall Street with Investec and Techvest as a medtech analyst.
Mr. Chopack has been recognized as a “40 under 40 Medtech Innovator” by Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry Magazine.
Mr. Chopack received a BA from Lafayette College and an MBA from Fordham University Gabelli School of Business.

Jeff M. Jacobs is the former Chief Executive Officer and a co-founder of Stradis Healthcare, bringing more than twenty years of experience in the medical device and contract manufacturing industry. He led the company through multiple acquisitions after successfully exiting the business in 2021 selling to Henry Schein, a Fortune 500 Healthcare distributor. Prior to founding Stradis Healthcare Jeff served in a sales and marketing role for the multi- billion dollar technology services company Vanstar Corp. launching their Nashville office focusing on the healthcare sector.
Jeff has served as a board member and advisor to several early stage companies as well for numerous non-profit organizations during his career.
Mr. Jacobs earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Alabama in Public Relations/Political Science.

David Jahns is a managing director of Galen Partners. With more than 25 years of experience, David has developed substantial expertise and leadership in working with entrepreneurs to build market-leading healthcare companies in the areas of technology-enabled services, medical devices, diagnostics, and more.
He has taken a leadership role for CBL Path, Chamberlin Edmonds, and many other healthcare companies. David is currently a member of the board of directors and the Quality and Clinical Affairs Committee of Stamford Health System, Inc.
Prior to joining Galen Partners in 1993, David was an investment banker and financial advisor. He worked in the Corporate Finance Department at Smith Barney, Inc., where he specialized in public offerings, mergers, acquisitions, and public debt financings.
David earned an M.B.A. from the Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management. He earned his B.A. in political science and economics from Colgate University.