Vinayak Bhat is a co-founder and serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of Elixir Medical. Vinayak was previously the Vice President & General Manager at Avantec Vascular Corporation where he was part of the management team that secured the sale of the company to Japan based Goodman Co. Ltd. Previously, he has held several R&D leadership positions at Guidant Corporation (currently Abbott Vascular). He holds more than 40 US/EU patents, has over 25 pending applications and has published many peer-reviewed papers. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Bombay, India; and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University, North Carolina.