Business Advisory Board

Nan-Wei Gong

Advisory Board Member

Dr. Nan-Wei Gong is a serial entrepreneur, technologist, and digital health innovator. She is the founder & CEO of FIGUR8 Inc, the industry leader in transforming musculoskeletal (MSK) care with objective data and AI-driven biomarkers. She is also a research affiliate at the MIT Media Lab. Throughout her entrepreneurial journey, Dr. Gong has amassed valuable experiences, beginning with her pivotal role as the co-founder of 3dim Tech, which specialized in gestural control for mobile devices—a company that was later acquired by Google. She founded Circular2, an engineering consulting firm, boasting a client roster that includes institutions such as MIT and Harvard, as well as industry giants like Google, Microsoft, and Samsung. Dr. Gong received her BS/MS in Materials Science Engineering from NTHU and her PhD from the MIT Media Lab. As an innovator driven by rigorous scientific and engineering training, she has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers including best paper awards at ACM CHI, and has filed and been granted over 10 US patents to date.

Martin J Madden 

Advisory Board Member

Mr. Madden retired after a 30-year career at Johnson & Johnson (from 1986 to 2017), where he most recently served as Vice President of R&D for DePuy-Synthes and Vice President of Medical Device R&D Transformation from February 2016 to January 2017; as Vice President of New Product Development, Medical Devices from July 2015 to February 2016; and as Vice President of R&D for the Global Surgery Group from January 2012 to July 2015. Earlier in his career, Mr. Madden was a medical device engineer and innovator and a leader of cross-functional teams charged with incubating, developing, and launching new products. He also serves on the board of Microbot Medical Inc. Mr. Madden graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Dayton, earned a Master’s degree with honors in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University, and graduated first in his class with honors from Columbia University’s M.B.A. program.

Jim O’Connor

Advisory Board Member

Jim O’Connor brings 25 years of experience advising private and public companies on corporate finance, joint ventures, investor relations, intellectual property, governance, securities law, licensing, compliance, product safety, and regulatory matters.  Jim currently serves as General Counsel & Chief Financial Officer at Axena Health, a commercial stage medical device company focused on pelvic floor disorders.  Prior to Axena Health, Jim O’Connor served as General Counsel & Chief Financial Officer at Renovia Inc.  He joined Renovia after 12 years at United Technologies Corp. (UTC), a Fortune 100 company, where he served as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Carrier Corporation.  Prior to that, he was Chief of Staff to the CEO of UTC’s commercial businesses.  He also served as Senior Counsel at Noble Environmental Power, a renewable energy developer, where his work focused on project finance, regulatory and employment law matters.  He started his legal career at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, where his practice focused on securities law, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing transactions for private and publicly traded technology companies. He holds a J.D. from Cornell Law School and a B.A. in Economics from Boston College.