Name: Bill Shields
New title: CEO, Versa Vascular
Previous title: Vice president and general manager, transcatheter mitral and tricuspid therapies, Medtronic
Bill Shields has been named CEO of Versa Vascular, a startup working on a minimally invasive treatment for tricuspid valve regurgitation.
Shields joins the Santa Cruz, California-based company from Medtronic, where he worked for 15 years, most recently as vice president and general manager of transcatheter mitral and tricuspid therapies. He led product development and multiple clinical studies over seven years. Before that, he directed marketing efforts for the company’s transcatheter valve programs.
Early in his career, he was an engineer with Stryker, inventing and developing orthopedic devices.
Founded in 2020, Versa is developing a transcatheter device to repair the tricuspid valve. The AdapTR device is designed to reduce tricuspid regurgitation, where the valve between the heart’s right chambers doesn’t close properly and leaks. Patients with the condition are often too frail for open heart surgery. Versa’s device is intended to preserve native leaflet function and is implanted using a percutaneous delivery system.
Versa raised a total of $42 million in a series C funding round, including a recent $15 million expansion. The investment will support completion of Versa’s first-in-human clinical study of AdapTR outside the U.S., an early feasibility study of the technology in the U.S. and further product development, the company said.
“I am thrilled to join Versa Vascular at a time when we are seeing positive results clinically, close to expanding our clinical work to the U.S., and receiving continued investor confidence,” Shields said in a statement.
In his new role, Shields replaces former CEO David Hovda, who is retiring and will remain an adviser to the company.
