Vice President, Global Business Development (Open Source Medical Devices)
Openwater
Company Overview
Openwater is pursuing a fundamentally unique open-source approach to creating next-generation medical technologies with the goal of dramatically increasing access to therapeutics and diagnostics that can treat cancers, mental disease, COVID/Long COVID, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and beyond. The company has demonstrated strong clinical feasibility results on a single device that could enable treatment across this broad spectrum of diseases. The company’s core technology was developed under Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, who is a tech pioneer, executive, and entrepreneur in physics, photonics, and consumer electronics. Openwater’s underlying platform uses modulation of light and sound waves to create dramatically higher performing therapeutic ultrasound and diagnostic imaging than possible before.
Importantly, in 2024, Openwater announced that it was becoming the world’s first for-profit open-source, open-patent, open-clinical data, and open-safety-sharing company. This decision was made primarily because it represents a less risky, more compelling business model: rather than spending decades and hundreds of millions of dollars developing a singular device for a single disease, open sourcing their technology allows Openwater to generate revenue by selling hardware and services, all the while spurring collaborators to test treatments across hundreds of diseases simultaneously. Similarly, by mirroring the impact of Moore’s law in the consumer electronics industry, expanding access to the technology will enable Openwater to capitalize on the efficiencies that come with high volume production – every 10x increase in production corresponds roughly to a 10x decrease in costs. Thus, a semiconductor-based platform with adaptable software for each disease and treatment could yield million-fold cost savings per treatment, spread across numerous diseases using the same hardware and software platform. The open-source model also allows the company to fulfill its mission to improve human health at unprecedented scale and dramatically increase access to life saving therapies. As such, Openwater is not just developing new technology, but pioneering an entirely new approach to healthcare.
Opportunity
Given the progress Openwater has made in developing and validating its technology, combined with ample fundraising and anticipated growth trajectory, it is the ideal time recruit a new VP of Global Business Development. We are seeking a visionary leader who will build on the tremendous progress the company has made and scale the business through an exciting phase of growth and commercialization.
Position
Openwater is currently organized under the leadership of Mary Lou Jepsen, Ph.D., Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chair of the Board. Dr. Jepsen is a technology pioneer whose inventions have been adopted across virtual and augmented reality, laptops and smartphones, and holography and health wearables. She has been named to Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People and is a former engineering executive of Facebook, Google, and Intel. She is also a former MIT Professor and founder of multiple hardware companies including One Laptop per Child (OLPC), in which she co-founded the company and served as Chief Technology Officer.
Additional members of Openwater’s Board of Directors include:
• Jeff Huber, Board Director, Founding Chief Executive Officer of Grail;
• Arjun “JJ” Desai, M.D., Board Director, Former Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Johnson & Johnson Innovation + JLABS; and
• Juan Enriquez, Board Director, Managing Director of Excel Venture Management.
Reporting directly to Dr. Jepsen, the Vice President of Global Business Development will be a key member of the leadership team. He or she will have primary responsibility to serve as an externally facing to our customers and potential customers and to grow our ability to make products to serve uses for 100s of diseases and millions of people. The position will involve working direction with many companies, governments, partners, customers, investors, and other key external constituents. Targeting customer interests, patients and product categories to develop actionable business strategies, objectives, and plans aligned with short and long-term goals
Additional responsibilities for the role include:
• Providing input to define product specifications to fit target indications for our customers
• Supporting and growing the rich open source community development of solutions
• Gathering and incorporating perspective from the end users into product strategy;
• Growing the company to revenue on sales of devices and support.
• Supporting fundraising efforts and actively participating in expansion activities such as acquisitions, partnerships, and investments;
• Articulating the strength of Openwater’s platform and refining it in the open to solve real problems and to build a following for the organization’s technology
• Participating in business discussions on behalf of the company as the key clinical and
regulatory subject matter expert, including discussions with major clinical partners and
potential customers, as well as investors.
Individual
In terms of professional background, we are seeking an entrepreneurial and visionary leader who is committed to open-source medical devices and driving transformative healthcare initiatives at scale. This individual must bring deep experience in medical devices, open source, and or/healthcare components and devices into fully formed, commercially scaled products with customer and regulatory acceptance. The VP of Global Business Development should have broad expertise across new product engineering (hardware and software) and product development and should have a proven track record in forging creative partnerships, leveraging extensive networks, and executing deals while employing analytical acumen to navigate business directions. We are seeking an individual who is familiar and comfortable operating in high-growth, fast-paced environments.
At a personal level, the position requires heightened intelligence, mature business judgment, decisiveness, an elevated work ethic, personal warmth, and rich imagination. This individual must possess well-developed leadership skills in order to motivate inside and outside of the organization. The VP of Global Business Development should be adept at leading highly talented multidisciplinary teams and unifying them in the achievement of goals and objectives. Experience working in a dynamic, high-growth environment is required.
From an educational perspective, it is likely that this individual will have achieved an advanced degree in a business or technical discipline. Education, while important as an indicator of character, intellectual ability, and achievement, will be subordinate to personal qualities and professional accomplishments as variables in the selection process.