Shahram Hejazi, PhD

As Chair of the Oversight Committee of the Philadelphia Pediatric Medical Device Consortium, Shahram Hejazi oversees the group of pediatric device and health technology business luminaries who evaluate the commercial potential of the projects eligible to receive PPDC seed funding. The Oversight Committee collectively decides the awardees.

Shahram is a life science investor and entrepreneur with general management experience in both early-stage ventures and large global companies. Over his 25+ year career, Shahram has founded and/or directed the growth of more than two dozen startup companies. As a Venture Partner with BioAdvance - he is responsible for leading investments in medical devices, diagnostics, and digital health - where he is on the board of 7 companies. He is also the founder and CEO of Optimeos Life Sciences, Inc., a venture funded biotech company, and the 2014 James Wei Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Princeton University where he is currently a faculty. Previously, Shahram was the President of Kodak’s life science division, where he had global responsibility for R&D, manufacturing, operations, sales, marketing, and service. Before Kodak, he was the founding CEO of Zargis Medical Corporation (a Siemens' spin off), where he led the company in raising capital to completion of clinical trials, FDA clearance, and product launch. The company was later sold to 3M. Prior to that, Shahram was the Global Head of the Strategic Business Development at Siemens Medical, responsible for identifying growth/investment opportunities. Earlier in his career, Shahram held R&D management positions within Kodak and IBM. His Past board responsibilities include FDA industry advisory panel member for Molecular and Clinical Genetic Devices, Fox Chase Cancer Center Fund, and Alpha Innotech Corp (Nasdaq: APNO). Shahram has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering (SUNY at Buffalo) and an executive business education (Stanford University).