Meet Our Team

Meet Our Team

Executive Management

Executive Management

Frank Cheng

Frank Cheng

CEO

Pramod Butte, MBBS, PhD

Pramod Butte, MBBS, PhD

Co-Founder & CTO

Jack Weissberg

Jack Weissberg

VP of Operations

Scientific Team

Bart Bortnik, PhD

Bart Bortnik, PhD

Chief Engineer

Mike O’Brien, PhD

Mike O’Brien, PhD

Data Analytics

Scientific Team

Scientific
Team

Mike O’Brien, PhD

Mike O’Brien, PhD

Data Analytics

Bart Bortnik, PhD

Bart Bortnik, PhD

Chief Engineer

Board Members

Board
Members

Keith Black, MD

Keith Black, MD

Jack Kavanaugh, MD, MBA

Jack Kavanaugh, MD, MBA

Robert Snukal

Robert Snukal

D. Verne Sharma, MBA

D. Verne Sharma, MBA

Interested In More

Information!

Find out what’s the next chapter in
biochemical imaging and how you can
become a part of it.

Interested In More Information

Find out what’s the next chapter in biochemical imaging and how you can become a part of it.

Frank Cheng

Frank Cheng

CEO

Frank spent the last 30 years in chief executive and top commercial roles with both established and emerging medical technology companies.

Frank started his career with GE Healthcare in diagnostics imaging and patient monitoring businesses, where he led company-wide marketing and strategic planning projects and supported a major M&A transaction. After that Frank served as Vice President at Roche Diagnostics leading global business development initiatives.

Subsequently for over seven years, Frank was Senior Vice President and the top commercial/operations leader at Stereotaxis, Inc., a publicly-traded company focusing on robotic surgery innovations for cardiac/vascular procedures, with product portfolio included a million-dollar robotic system and multiple FDA approved surgical disposables. The company achieved hundreds of million dollars in revenue during this period.

During 2019-2023, Frank was President & Chief Commercial Officer at Eyenuk, Inc., an innovative diagnostic company with autonomous AI technology that was FDA-cleared, Medicare-reimbursed, supported by a new Category 1 CPT code, and adopted around the world.

Before joining BlackLight Surgical, Frank led Caristo Diagnostics as CEO for about four years. Caristo has developed a portfolio of imaging-based and AI-assisted platforms for diagnosis of heart and vascular diseases. Caristo was named by Newsweek as one of world’s Best Digital Health Companies, and was selected by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as a Technology Pioneer. Under Frank’s leadership, Caristo received FDA de novo authorization for its coronary inflammation detection technology, and received FDA 510(k) clearance for its coronary plaque quantification technology. Caristo has been experiencing rapid commercial growth after American Medical Association approval of new CPT codes for Caristo technologies.

Pramod Butte, MBBS, PhD

Co-Founder & CTO

Dr. Butte is a co-inventor of the core technology of BlackLight Surgical and is co-founder of the company. He also serves as Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and director of the Fluorescence Neuro-Imaging lab at Cedars- Sinai in Los Angeles. He holds several patents in fluorescence imaging of biological tissues, and his expertise is in optical design, image processing, and conducting clinical trials to verify fluoroscopic signatures with histology. Dr. Butte completed his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at University of Southern California.
Jack Weissberg

Jack Weissberg

VP of Operations

Jack is a Quality, Operations, and R&D leader with a track record of over 30 years of product development, with over 20 years in new-to-the-world medical devices. He has held leadership positions at Medtronic, the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering, and several successful startups spanning robotics and bioinformatics. His expertise bridges quality systems, operational execution, and R&D strategy, with particular strength in guiding novel medical technologies from concept through commercialization.

Jack holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, and an M.B.A. from the USC Marshall School of Business.

Dr. Bart Bortnik, PhD

Chief Engineer

Dr. Bortnik is a subject matter expert in the design and implementation of optical technologies for use in various markets such as medical devices and aerospace applications. He led the team at JPL/NASA responsible for a laser-based optical communications system which was successfully installed onto the International Space Station. He has substantial experience in dynamic research settings as well as in delivering complex optical assemblies in a highly regulated environment. Dr. Bortnik received his doctorate in Photonics from the Electrical Engineering Department of UCLA in 2007. He has authored or co-authored over 20 peer-reviewed publications and conference proceedings

Mike O’Brien, PhD

Data Analytics

Dr. O’Brien received his doctorate at UCLA in Applied Mathematic with a dissertation in computational neuroscience. At Hughes Research Laboratories, Dr. O’Brien developed models of the brain based on fMRI imaging data collected while subjects read sentences of varying complexity. He has also worked on early fault prediction systems for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Apache Helicopter systems using system telemetry sensor arrays. At Neural Analytics, Inc., he developed the AI and robotics technology for a transcranial doppler ultrasound system, which has received FDA clearance and is now commercially available.

Keith Black, MD

Co-Founder & Co-Chairman

An internationally renowned neurosurgeon, researcher and thought leader in the Neurosciences. Founding Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. An accomplished entrepreneur, Dr. Black has founded several successful medical device and biotechnology companies.

Jack Kavanaugh, MD, MBA

Co-Chairman

Dr. Kavanaugh has built and managed companies at every stage – from inception to successful exit – creating industry-leading products and substantial investor returns. Although his work spans a number of industries, he has focused on the health and science technology sectors, capitalizing on his background in medicine and business to lead early-stage development, mergers, acquisitions, turnarounds, and corporate strategic initiatives. Dr. Kavanaugh is especially proud that the companies he has led have had a significant positive impact on society and the welfare of people everywhere.

Robert Snukal

Board Member

Mr. Snukal is a successful entrepreneur and businessman. He founded Fountain View, Inc. in 1985 (now Skilled Healthcare) where he served as CEO. Under his leadership, Fountain View grew to operate 50 skilled nursing facilities, three institutional pharmacies and two therapy companies. The company was sold in 2005. Mr. Snukal joined ZetaRx Biosciences, Inc. as a Board member in 2009, and was integrally involved in its sale in 2013 to create Juno Therapeutics, which itself was sold to Celgene in 2018 for $10.1 billion.

D. Verne Sharma, MBA

Board Member

Has served as Chairman, CEO and President, and on the Boards of both public and private medical device companies over the past 25 years. Has been a key part of the leadership teams involved in several multi-billion dollar exits. He led the highly successful commercialization of the vision-correction procedure known as LASIK, and from 2008 to 2015 was Chairman and CEO of the company that developed the world’s first and only light-adjustable intraocular lens, Rx Sight, Inc. (Nasdaq: RXST).