• About Us
  • Executive Team
  • Board of Directors
  • Scientific Advisory Board
  • Our Locations
• Products
  • Product Overview
  • Thoracolumbar
    • ILLICO MIS
    • ZODIAC
    • Isobar
    • Aspida
    • Xenon
    • CORE
  • Cervico-Thoracic
    • Avalon
    • Solanas
    • Trestle
    • Deltaloc Reveal
  • Interbody
    • Cervical - NOVEL XS & CIS
    • NOVEL Corpectomy
    • ALIF - NOVEL ALS
    • PLIF - NOVEL SD & LCC
    • TLIF - NOVEL TL, SD, and Tapered TL
    • Alphatec Solus
  • Biologics
    • AlphaGRAFT DBM
    • Vacuum Infusion Packaging | "VIP"
    • AlphaGRAFT ProFuse
    • Structural Allografts
    • AmnioShield
  • Minimally Invasive Solutions
    • ILLICO Retractor
    • ILLICO Posterior Fusion
    • Guided Lumbar Interbody Fusion
  • Aging Spine
    • OsseoFix
    • OsseoScrew
    • HeliFix
  • Vertebral Compression Fracture
    • OsseoFix+
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Executive Team

Leslie H. Cross

Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer

Leslie H. Cross is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Cross is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of DJO Global, Inc. Mr. Cross continues to serve as a Director of DJO Global. In calendar 2010, DJO Global's net sales were $966 million, with adjusted EBITDA of $262 million. DJO Global is a manufacturer and worldwide leading distributor of electrotherapy products for pain therapy and rehabilitation, clinical devices for the treatment of patients in physical therapy clinics, knee, hip and shoulder implant products, and orthopedic rehabilitation products, including rigid knee bracing, orthopedic soft goods, cold therapy systems, vascular systems and bone growth stimulation devices. Mr. Cross has held principal executive roles at DJO Global and its predecessors since 1995. From 1990 to 1994, Mr. Cross held the position of Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development of the Bracing & Support Systems division of Smith & Nephew. He was a Managing Director of two different divisions of Smith & Nephew from 1982 to 1990. Mr. Cross earned a diploma in medical technology from Sydney Technical College in Sydney, Australia and studied business at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa.

Dirk Kuyper

Director, President, Global Commercial Operations

Dirk Kuyper has served as a Director of Alphatec Holdings and Alphatec Spine since February 2008. Dirk Kuyper joined Alphatec Spine as President and Chief Executive Officer in June of 2007. Mr. Kuyper came to Alphatec Spine from a successful career at Aesculap, Inc. From 2004 to 2007, he served as the President; from 2001 to 2004, he served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; from 1998 to 2001, he served as the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Aesculap; and from 1990 to 1998 he held various sales positions of increasing responsibility. Mr. Kuyper served on active duty for four years in the U.S. Army where he achieved the rank of Captain. Mr. Kuyper holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of Miami and an Executive Education Certificate from the Graduate School of Sales and Marketing at Syracuse University

Patrick Ryan

Chief Operating Officer

Patrick Ryan came to Alphatec Spine from Abbott Vascular Devices, where he served as Divisional Vice President, North Asia since August 2010. This division of Abbott Vascular has annual revenues of $200 million. For the two years prior to his role in North Asia, he served as Divisional Vice President, Canada and Latin America. Prior to that, Pat held senior roles in Operations, including, Divisional Vice President, Worldwide Operations, Abbott Vascular and Divisional Vice President, Operations, Cardiac Therapies. Before joining Abbott, Mr. Ryan held positions of increasing responsibility with Guidant Corporation, including Vice President, Manufacturing, Vascular Intervention and Vice President and Managing Director, Guidant Ireland. Prior to joining Guidant, Mr. Ryan served 14 years on active duty in the United States Navy. He received a MS, Petroleum Management, from the University of Kansas and a BS Economics, from the United States Naval Academy.

Michael O'Neill, FCMA

Chief Financial Officer, Vice President and Treasurer

Michael O’Neill has served as the Chief Financial Officer, Vice President and Treasurer since October of 2010. From November 2007 to March 2009 he served as the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Mentor Corporation, a surgical aesthetics manufacturer. Mentor Corporation was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in January 2009. Prior to joining Mentor Corporation, Mr. O'Neill had spent the previous twenty years with Johnson & Johnson, with his most-recent position being Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Johnson & Johnson Worldwide Information Technology. From 2001 through 2007 Mr. O'Neill served as the Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer for LifeScan, a division of Johnson & Johnson, a leading supplier of blood glucose monitoring systems. Mr. O'Neill began working for Johnson & Johnson in 1987 and moved through a series of progressively more responsible positions including International Controller, Operations Controller, Finance Director, and Group Finance Director. Mr. O'Neill received a B.A. in Economics and Statistics from the University of Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of Great Britain.

Mitsuo Asai

President, Alphatec Pacific, Inc.

Mitsuo Asai has served as President of Alphatec Pacific, Inc. ("API"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphatec Holdings, Inc. since April 2008. Prior to joining Alphatec, Mr. Asai was the President of Tokai Co., Ltd., a manufacturer of consumer goods with annual sales of approximately 10 billion yen (approximately US $100 million) and over 285 employees, since 2006. From 2002 to 2004, Mr. Asai served as General Manager and President of Virbac Japan Co., Ltd., a company that focused on veterinary pharmaceuticals and healthcare products. From 1998 to 2002, Mr. Asai served as President and CEO of Vital Link Corporation, a distributor of cardiovascular medical devices in Japan. From 1985 to 1996, Mr. Asai held various positions of increasing responsibility with Beckman Coulter, K.K., a leading manufacturer of biomedical testing instrument systems. Mr. Asai earned a Bachelor of Arts in Law from Kyoto Ryukoku University in 1979.

Ebun S. Garner, Esq.

General Counsel, Senior Vice President and Secretary

Ebun S. Garner, Esq. has served as General Counsel and Vice President, Compliance since August 2006 after originally joining Alphatec Spine in 2005 as Vice President of Legal Affairs. Prior to Alphatec, Mr. Garner was a corporate associate in the New York office of the law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. While at Mintz Levin, Mr. Garner provided counsel to a variety of orthopedic device and drug discovery companies, and prior to Mintz Levin, he was a corporate associate in the New York office of the law firm of Squadron, Ellenoff, Plesent and Sheinfeld, LLP. Mr. Garner is admitted to practice law in the State of New York. He received a B.A. from University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

Curt Jennewine

Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Asia Pacific

Curt Jennewine joined Alphatec Spine in December 2011 as Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Asia Pacific. In this role he is responsible for the development and execution of Alphatec’s global Marketing and Asia Pacific commercial strategies. Prior to Alphatec Mr. Jennewine was responsible for upstream and downstream Marketing within Zimmer Holdings’ $250MM Trauma division. Before joining Zimmer Mr. Jennewine held a number of Sales and Marketing roles of increasing responsibility at Abbott Laboratories and Guidant Corporation. His educational background includes an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA from Duke University. In addition, he has studied at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka, Free University in Berlin and Hong Kong International School. Mr. Jennewine is fluent in Japanese, conversational in German and able to speak basic Mandarin.

Heather Rider

Senior Vice President, Global Human Resources

Heather Rider has served as Senior Vice President, Global Human Resources since November 2010. Prior to joining Alphatec Spine, Ms. Rider served as Vice President of Human Resources for Intuitive Surgical, Inc., which is located in Sunnyvale, California. During Ms. Rider's tenure at Intuitive Surgical, the company grew from $227M to $1.3B in revenues and went from being primarily a U.S.-based company to becoming a global leader in the surgical robotics industry. Prior to joining Intuitive Surgical Ms. Rider was the Senior Vice President, Global Human Resources for Sunrise Medical Inc., a medical equipment manufacturer based in Carlsbad, California. Prior to Sunrise Medical, Mrs. Rider served in vice president level positions at several other medical device and healthcare companies, including Biosense Webster, a division of Johnson and Johnson, and City of Hope, a leading cancer treatment and research center. Mrs. Rider received her MBA from Pepperdine University and her B.A. from Claremont McKenna College.

Gary Fredericks

Vice President, Corporate Accounts

Gary Fredericks has served as Alphatec's Vice President, Corporate Accounts since April 2008. Prior to joining Alphatec Spine, Mr. Fredericks served as Vice President of Corporate Accounts and Channel Development for Aesculap, Inc. the world's largest manufacturer of surgical instrumentation. Mr. Fredericks has more than 30 years of experience in the medical device industry developing and implementing long term corporate accounts programs that include developing relationships with Integrated Delivery Networks (IDN's) and Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO's).

Frances Harrison

Vice President, Regulatory, Clinical Affairs and Quality

Frances (Fran) Harrison joined Alphatec Spine as Vice President, Regulatory, Clinical Affairs and Quality in October of 2011. In her role, she plans and directs our company’s global Regulatory and Quality strategies in support of new and improved product development activities as well as clinical research in support of clinical studies. For the past 20 years, Fran has held executive- level positions in all three dimensions of her position with Alphatec. Since 2009, Fran held the position of Global Vice President, Regulatory Affairs for Covidien in Boulder, CO. She was responsible for global registrations, regulatory compliance and product labeling for a $1.2B global business unit. The scope of her responsibility included three business franchises, seven manufacturing facilities and three development centers. Prior to Covidien, Fran worked was the Global Vice President, Regulatory/Clinical Affairs and Quality Compliance at Lumenis, Ltd., a company focused on Surgical, Ophthalmic and Aesthetic laser systems and Class II disposable products as Global Vice President, Regulatory/Clinical Affairs and Quality Compliance. Before Lumenis, Fran held a series of progressively more responsible senior Regulatory Affairs roles at C.R. Bard. Fran received a BS in Biochemistry from San Diego State University and completed the Executive Development Program for senior regulatory professionals through the Kellogg School of Management.

Kristine M. Jacques

Vice President and General Manager, Biologics

Kris Jacques assumed the role of Vice President and General Manager, Biologics for Alphatec Spine, one of our three key platforms for growth effective in July 2011. Previously, she served as Vice President, Marketing at Alphatec Spine. Ms. Jacques joined Alphatec Spine in September 2007 with a dual role as Marketing Director, Interbody and Biologics and Director, Business Development, Asia-Pacific. Prior to joining Alphatec Spine, Ms. Jacques spent 15 years with several divisions of General Electric Corporation and three years with Smith & Nephew PLC where she had increasing roles in the Global Product Management, Business Development, Sales and Corporate Finance departments. Ms Jacques earned a B.A. degree in Finance from Michigan State University.

Peter Kohlbecher

Vice President, General Manager - Europe

Peter Kohlbecher joined Alphatec Spine in November 2008. Prior to joining Alphatec Spine, Peter most recently served as the worldwide Director of Group Product Management and Director of Operational Marketing Power Systems at Aesculap AG, one of the world's largest manufacturers of surgical instrumentation. Mr. Kohlbecher worked at Aesculap for over 20 years, and had increasing roles of business development and sales responsibility including international markets. While at Aesculap he directed the turnaround of Aesculap's Strategic Business Area Power Systems and led the unit to the achievement of double digit revenue growth. Between 1998 and 2002 he was Director of Healthcare Services for Aesculap's U.S. operations, during which time he introduced Aesculap's pay-per-use procedural cost management systems for endoscopy. Mr. Kohlbecher received his MBA from Heriot Watt University, which is located in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Stephen A. Lubischer

Vice President, Sales

Stephen A. Lubischer has served as Vice President, Sales for the U.S. since November 2006. He originally joined Alphatec Spine in 2005 as Regional Vice President for the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic and led the territory through seven consecutive quarters of significant growth. Prior to Alphatec Spine, Mr. Lubischer's background includes 11 years of experience in senior sales management at Interpore Cross International, including Eastern Vice President of Sales and National Sales Manager of Distribution. He began working for Interpore Orthopaedics when the orthopaedic division was first established in 1990 and was instrumental in building the division. In addition, Mr. Lubischer's experience includes six years as Vice President of Sales at Immedica, Inc. and at Bionx Implants, both east coast orthopedic companies. Mr. Lubischer received his B.A. from Boston College.

Michael Plunkett

Vice President, Operations

Mike has held numerous positions in Operations, Information Technology, and Program Management and was most recently a Managing Director with First Marblehead Corporation in Boston, MA. Prior to joining First Marblehead, Mike served over 24 years in the U.S. Navy and retired with the rank of Captain in July 2003. While in the Navy he served in a variety of ashore and afloat positions, including Supply Officer, USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) and the primary assistant to the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Fleet Readiness and Logistics. Mike received a B.S. from Saint John Fisher College, a M.S. from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a M..A. from the Naval War College.

J.P. Timm

Vice President, Research and Development

J. P. Timm has served as Alphatec's Vice President, Research and Development since February 2008. Prior to joining Alphatec Spine, Mr. Timm served as Vice President of Research and Development at Applied Spine Technologies Inc. since 2004. From 1999 to 2004, Mr. Timm served in various engineering and research and development capacities at Interpore Cross International, most recently as Director of Development, Anterior Fusion and Disc Systems. From 1997 to 1999, Mr. Timm served as a Development Engineer with Biomet, Inc. Mr. Timm has had deep involvement in developing new products for spinal pathologies, is a named inventor on several patents, and an author of several peer-reviewed publications. Mr. Timm is a charter member of the Spine Arthroplasty Society and earned a B.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

Armin Weichert

Vice President, General Manager – Latin America

Armin Weichert joined Alphatec Spine in May 2010 as Vice President and General Manager Latin America. Previously, Mr. Weichert spent his career with the B. Braun Group. In 1995, he was instrumental in starting to build up the Aesculap Division as Sales Manager, Aesculap Orthopedics and Spine; from 1997 to 2010, as Division Director he was responsible for the entire Aesculap Division in Brazil; from 1989 to 1995 he served as Area Sales and Marketing Manager for the B. Braun Pharmaceutical Division for Asia Pacific, Southern Europe and Western Europe; from 1987 to 1989 he served for B. Braun Biotech Ltd. as Export Manager for Asia Pacific, Southern Europe and Western Europe; from 1986 to 1987 he made his apprenticeship as Industrial Manager. Mr. Weichert holds a B.A. in Administration and Economics from the Business Academy for Administration and Economics of the city of Kassel, State of Hessen and a MBA in Corporate Marketing from the Federal University Fluminense from Rio de Janeiro (UFF – Universidade Federal Fluminense). From 2008 to 2009, Mr. Weichert was member of the ABIMED, the Brazilian Association of Importing Companies of Medical Devices and Equipment, sister entity in the U.S. is the Advanced Medical Technology Association.