Healthcare >> CEO Interviews >> October 17, 2003
VIJAYA VASISTA is Chief Operating Officer of Nanosphere, Inc. Ms.
Vasista has more than 18 years' experience in the medical device,
medical hardware and clinical diagnostics markets. Before joining
Nanosphere in November 2000, Ms. Vasista was Vice President, Global
Marketing at Baxter International, where she provided strategic global
marketing direction at Baxter International's Fenwal division, achieving
$500 million in sales. At Baxter International, Ms. Vasista held various
senior management positions in several divisions where she drove global
business-development initiatives, created and managed high caliber,
multifunctional teams, and established collaborative regional and global
relationships essential to product development and marketing. Ms.
Vasista received her MBA from the University of Chicago and was a
visiting student at the London School of Economics. She holds a BS in
Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School. Profile
BILL ATHENSON is Vice President, Business Development of Nanosphere,
Inc. Mr. Athenson brings to Nanosphere over 21 years of healthcare
experience in clinical diagnostics, medical devices and information
technology with Fortune 500 companies such as Baxter, American
Scientific Products, Allegiance Healthcare and two startup technology
companies. Before joining Nanosphere in January 2002, Mr. Athenson was
the General Manager for Allegiance Healthcare with P&L responsibility
for a $120 million revenue base. At Allegiance and in previous
leadership positions at Baxter Diagnostics and American Scientific
Products, he maintained a consistent track record for leading business
development, consulting, and operations teams which consistently
achieved double-digit revenue and EBITDA growth in the clinical
laboratory and point-of-care markets. Most recently he headed business
development teams in two new technology startup companies achieving
successful launches. Mr. Athenson holds an MBA from Kellogg School of
Business and a Bachelor's degree from Fordham University. Profile
TWST: Would you give us a brief introduction to Nanosphere?Mr. Athenson: Nanosphere is developing a universal platform for rapid
and accurate DNA detection for genetically-based