Board of Directors

Azin Parhizgar, PhD – Chair

Dr. Parhizgar is the Chair of the CVPath Board of Directors and has been a member of the Board since 2008.

Dr. Parhizgar is an experienced and highly successful medical device industry executive and a serial entrepreneur currently serving on a number of industry and academic boards. Most recently, in her five-year tenure serving as President and Chief Executive Officer of Claret Medical, Inc., an embolic protection company, she transformed the company from an early stage venture-backed company to a highly successful commercial entity. The company was acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation in late 2018.

Before joining Claret Medical, she served as the Chief Operating Officer of Conor Medsystems Inc., a reservoir-based drug-eluting coronary stent company, which led to the acquisition of the company by Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson Company in 2007. She spent one year post-merger with Johnson & Johnson Corp for the successful integration of the companies.

Between 1996-2002, she held the position of Executive Vice President of Clinical, Regulatory, and Quality Engineering at Arterial Vascular Engineering (AVE), an innovative broad portfolio interventional cardiology, peripheral and Endovascular Company, which was acquired in the year 2000 by Medtronic Inc. She spent two years at Medtronic post-merger in increasing roles & responsibilities leading to her position as Executive Vice President of Emerging Ventures and New Technologies.  Prior to AVE, Dr. Parhizgar held management positions at Jhonson & Johnson, CR Bard, and Summit technologies.

Dr. Parhizgar has received both her Ph.D. in Cell, Gene therapy, and Tissue Engineering and her M.Sc. in Biomechanical Engineering and Artificial Organ Design from Brown University, Providence, RI.

Moshe Flugelman, MD – Vice Chair

Dr. Flugelman has been a member of the Board since 2009.

Dr. Flugelman specializes in interventional cardiology and vascular biology. He is the Director of the Department of Cardiology at the Lady David Carmel Medical Center. He was a visiting scientist at the National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, and fellow in experimental angioplasty at Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC. Dr. Flugelman has broad experience in the fields of experimental cardiology and vascular biology. Dr. Flugelman earned his medical degree at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology (Haifa, Israel) and completed his cardiology training at the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Dr. Moshe Flugelman is also the co-founder of VESSL Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focusing on the treatment of peripheral and coronary artery disease.

Chester E. Finn, Jr. – Secretary

Chester E. Finn, Jr. joined the CVPath Institute Board in 2006.  As a scholar, educator and public servant, he has devoted his career to improving education in the United States. At Fordham, he is now Distinguished Senior Fellow and President Emeritus. He’s also a Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution.

Finn served as Fordham’s President from 1997 to 2014, after many earlier roles in education, academe, and government. From 1999 until 2002, he was John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and previously at Hudson Institute. In 1992-94, he served as a founding partner and senior scholar with the Edison Project. He was a Professor of Education and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University from 1981 until 2002. From 1985 to 1988, he served as Assistant Secretary for Research and Improvement and Counselor to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education. Earlier positions include Staff Assistant to the President of the United States; Special Assistant to the Governor of Massachusetts; Counsel to the U.S. Ambassador to India; Research Associate at the Brookings Institution; and Legislative Director for Senator Daniel P. Moynihan.

Finn has served on numerous boards, including the National Assessment Governing Board (which he chaired) and the Maryland State Board of Education (where he was vice-chair) and currently serves on the National Council on Teacher Quality, the Core Knowledge Foundation, and Maryland’s Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education.

Dr. Finn is also the author of 19 books and more than 400 articles in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and Boston Globe.

A native of Ohio, he holds an undergraduate degree in U.S. history, a master’s degree in social studies teaching, and a doctorate in education policy, all from Harvard University.

Steven C. Krause, J.D. – Treasurer 

Steven Krause joined the board in 2021.

Mr. Krause is Investment Counsel, Analyst, and Partner at Owl Creek Asset Management, L.P. since 2013, where he focuses primarily on process-driven distressed and special situation opportunities. Before joining Owl Creek, Mr. Krause was with Davis Polk where he was an attorney in the Insolvency & Restructuring Practice advising debtors, creditors, and investors in distressed and bankrupt companies. Prior to that, he was with White & Case as a Bankruptcy Associate. Mr. Krause s varied experience also includes time as the chief operating officer of a toy company, in business development at a San Francisco-based dot-com, in commercial finance at GE Capital, and as a business re-engineering consultant for Accenture.

Mr. Krause earned a B.A. with honors in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University, an M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. Mr. Krause is on the boards of several charities, not-for-profit organizations, and private businesses.

Andrew Braumann, CFP®

Andrew Braumann has been a member of the Board since 2006.

Mr. Braumann, is a Senior Vice President, with Trust Financial. He has over 30 years of banking experience serving in various positions in the banking and financial services industries. He is an advisor who provides comprehensive advice and customized financial solutions.

Mr. Braumann earned his MBA in Finance from George Washington University, in Washington, DC. He holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, NASD series 7, 63, and 65 licenses, and the Virginia Life Annuities & Health Insurance license.

Craig Kennedy

Craig Kennedy joined the CVPath Board in April 2018.

Mr. Kennedy is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, a Senior Advisor at Tapestry Networks and an external advisor to the Moroccan company, OCP. Prior to joining Hudson, Kennedy served as president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States for 18 years.  In addition to his work at Hudson, Kennedy advises several nonprofit and for-profit entities on strategy and resource development. He also serves on the boards of First Solar, The US-Russia Foundation and the Accountability Lab.

Mr. Kennedy received a Bachelor of Arts in Civilization Studies from The University of Chicago in 1974. In 1980, Kennedy completed a joint degree program, simultaneously acquiring both a Master of Arts in Social Work and a Master of Business Administration from The University of Chicago.

Charles C. Hong, M.D., PhD

Dr. Hong joined the CVPath Board in November 2024.

Dr. Hong is currently the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine’s Chair of Medicine.  Before joining Michigan State University, he held academic appointments at  Harvard Medical School, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and University of Maryland where he was Co-Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine from 2020-2023.

Dr. Hong received his Bachelor of Science in Life Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his medical degree from the Yale School of Medicine.  He went on to receive his PhD from the Yale School of Medicine.

Renu Virmani, MD

Dr. Virmani, an internationally renowned cardiovascular pathologist who is recognized as a leading researcher in cardiovascular disease treatments, founded CVPath Institute in 2005.  She has served as the President of CVPath until 2024 and has been a member of the Board since 2006.

Dr. Virmani lectures at many scientific meetings and conferences, both nationally and internationally.  She is responsible for multiple research grants in the field of cardiovascular pathology and has authored or co-authored over 600 publications in peer-reviewed journals on topics of atherosclerosis, vulnerable plaque, stents, and other cardiovascular diseases.  Dr. Virmani has edited more than 7 books and written over 100 book chapters, and also serves a manuscript reviewer for many scientific journals.

Among numerous outstanding honors and awards ESC Andreas Gruntzig award in 2006, Dr. Virmani has delivered the Laennec Clinician/Educator Lecture Award for the American Heart Association in 2010; she has received the TCT Career Achievement Award from the Cardiovascular Research Foundation in 2012; the ICI Innovations in Cardiovascular Interventions Award in 2013; the Female Luminary Award from the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions Foundation in 2016; TCTAP “11th Master of Masters 2021 Award, and European Society of Cardiology Gold Medal in 2023.

Aloke Finn, MD

Dr. Finn joined the staff of CVPath Institute as the Medical Director, Chief of Research, and Head of the Institute’s basic and translational research laboratory in 2016, before being appointed President and Chief Scientific Officer in 2024.  Before joining CVPath, he was at Emory University, where he served as Assistant Professor of Medicine and directed a basic and translational research laboratory funded by grants from the NIH and the American Heart Association.

Finn has published over 100 peer-reviewed research articles, editorials, and reviews.  He is an editorial board member of Coronary Artery Disease and of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.

Dr. Finn obtained his medical degree from Vanderbilt University.