A company on a mission

David S. Utley, M.D. graduated from Harvard Medical School (’92). He then completed his surgical training in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, as well as facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, at Stanford University Medical Center, where he was subsequently appointed to the faculty as clinical assistant professor of surgery (1992-2003).

In 2003, Utley founded BARRX Medical (GI endoscopy, ablative therapy for neoplasia) and served as CMO from 2003 to 2012. BARRX was acquired by Covidien in 2012, forming GI Solutions. Utley served as CMO for GI Solutions until 2014.

In 2015, Utley founded Pivot Inc. (fka. Carrot Inc.) to solve the global health crisis caused by tobacco use. Pivot addresses cessation for all forms of tobacco (combustible, vaporized and smokeless). Pivot is a scalable digital solution which is aligned with the HHS practice guideline and which delivers a mobile app experience with tailored behavior change content, pharmacotherapy, an FDA-cleared carbon monoxide (CO) breath sensor, a supportive peer community, and personal tobacco treatment coaching (www.pivot.co).

Dan is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of medical device experience, who has worked in small entrepreneurial companies, as well as Fortune 500 corporations.

Dan recently held C-level positions at DFINE, Inc. as Chief Development Officer until it’s acquisition in July of 2016 and prior to DFINE, as the President & CEO, and member of the Board of Directors, of BaroSense, Inc., a company focused on minimally invasive devices for the treatment of obesity.

Early in his career Dan held various senior management and engineering roles at Rita Medical (successful IPO in August 2000), Johnsons & Johnson Medical Inc., VA (as world-wide Director of R&D), Menlo Care (acquired by J&J in May of 1995) and American Pharmaseal.

Dan currently sits on the Board of Directors for BAROnova, a clinical-stage medical-technology company developing endoscopically-delivered devices for the chronic treatment of obesity.

Dan holds a BSME from California Polytechnic State University and is the author of over 120 patents or patent applications in the medical device field.

Shariq has over 20 years of experience leading engineering teams in building mission-critical software applications for venture backed startups in a variety of industries.

Prior to joining Carrot, Shariq held engineering management roles at Hotwire.com, Expedia, Jigsaw (acquired by Salesforce), FanIQ (acquired by PulsePoint), and founded Stayful (acquired by WorldVentures). He has also served as an advisor and consultant to several startups and Fortune 500 companies including Shell, AugmentCXM, Lyft and Deliverr (acquired by Shopify).  

Shariq holds a BS in Computer Science and a BA in Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin.

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Ha Van T. Le has more than 20 years of experience in budgeting, finance, and accounting for the high-tech industry, with an emphasis in business enterprise solutions and business intelligence.

Throughout her career, Ha Van has participated in multiple acquisitions and two successful initial public offerings: Accuray, Inc. in 2007 and Valicert, Inc. in 2000.

In 2003, Valicert merged with Tumbleweed Communications (NASDAQ: TMWD).

Prior to joining Carrot, Ha Van was the Corporate Controller and VP, Finance and Revenue Operations, at GetInsured, where she played an integral role in the company’s success and growth from 10 to 450 employees.

Ha Van joined Carrot in November of 2017, bringing an in-depth and a wide array of experience and expertise in Finance Operations. As Carrot’s Senior Director, Finance, she is responsible for all aspects of the company’s financial management.

Ha Van holds an MBA from San Jose State University of California and a BS in Managerial Economics from the University of California, Davis.

After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin’s business school, Kyle spent the following 20+ years in a variety of sales roles for technology companies including Business Objects, SAP, AppDynamics and, most recently, PagerDuty where he was Vice President of Global Solutions.  The bulk of those years were spent leading teams through extended periods of rapid growth which was achieved by delivering material value for customers.

At Pivot, Kyle is excited to continue delivering business value for companies while also dramatically improving and saving lives.

Dr. Marler received her BS in Neuroscience from UCLA, graduated from the Medical College of Virginia and trained in Radiology at the University of Virginia.

Prior to joining Pivot, she served as the Sr. Director of Global Medical Affairs for BARRX Medical (GI endoscopy, acquired by Covidien in 2012) from 2008 to 2015.

She had increasing roles of responsibility while at BARRX Medical and Covidien, ultimately managing the Medical Affairs team with oversight of the clinical evidence-based strategy, peer relationships, clinical education, and medical writing along with collaborative leadership in clinical trial design, reimbursement and regulatory strategy.

Sara received her BS in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane University and has over 15 years in the medical device and digital health spaces. 

Prior to joining Pivot, she has held positions in product development engineering and quality at various medical device companies including ev3 (now Medtronic), Terumo Cardiovascular and DFINE. 

While at Pivot, she has had increasing roles of responsibility including Quality, Regulatory, compliance and product development.  As VP of Development, Sara collaborates with other departments to develop and optimize a cohesive product, technology and regulation strategies.

Rachel has over 20 years of experience in marketing, strategy and corporate development at startup and established healthcare companies. Prior to joining Pivot in 2015, Rachel served as VP Marketing and Strategy at Xlumena, Inc. where she led marketing / strategy up to its acquisition by Boston Scientific. Prior to Xlumena, Rachel served as Director of Marketing, Laryngology and Emerging Therapies at J&J / Acclarent where she led strategic and commercial marketing for the Emerging Technologies group. Prior to that she held various product management, business development, and marketing roles at startup medical device companies. Rachel holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania