Corporate Governance

Mr. Williams has served as a member and chairman of the Vivani Medical Board since the company’s merger was completed in August 2022. Mr. Williams also serves as a member of the Audit and Compensation Committees and Chair of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Prior to the merger, Mr. Williams had served as a member of the Second Sight Board since June 2009, Chairman of the Second Sight Board since March 2018 and also as a member of the Nano Precision Medical Board. Mr. Williams is the Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Williams International Co., LLC (“Williams International”), a leading developer and manufacturer of gas turbine engines and one of the largest privately owned companies in the aviation industry, positions he has held since July 1999.

Previously, Mr. Williams held several key managerial positions within Williams International including serving as its President and Chief Operating Officer, Vice President, Advanced Technology, Director, Program Management and Director, Engineering. In addition, Mr. Williams is Chairman and majority owner of Ramos Arizpe Manufacturing, a high-volume automotive engine parts manufacturing company located in Mexico. Mr. Williams received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah and holds numerous patents related to gas turbine engines, turbo machinery, rocket engines and control systems. He is a board member of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association and former member of the Henry Ford Hospital Board.

Since founding Vivani in 2009, Dr. Mendelsohn has served as its Chief Executive Officer and sets the strategic vision for the company. Dr. Mendelsohn received his Ph.D. in bioengineering at the UC San Francisco/UC Berkeley Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering, Class of 2011, during which he was awarded an NSF fellowship to perform research at Kyoto University and published multiple peer-reviewed articles describing new treatment options for Type 1 diabetes through the immuno-isolated transplantation of insulin-producing cells under the direction of Professor Tejal A. Desai. While in graduate school, Dr. Mendelsohn served as the director for the Venture Innovation Program in Life Sciences and completed his certificate in Management of Technology with the Haas School of Business. Dr. Mendelsohn has served as a Technical Advisor to the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at USC, a fellow of the Startup Leadership Program, the President of UCSF’s Graduate Division Alumni Association and is currently a board member of the Maestro Foundation.

Mr. Mendelsohn has served as a member of the Vivani Medical Board since the company’s merger was completed in August 2022. Prior to the merger, he was a founder and member of the Board for Second Sight Medical Products, as well as a member of the Nano Precision Medical Board. Mr. Mendelsohn has been involved in financing in the medical field, including several Al Mann companies such as MiniMed, MRG, and Advanced Bionics. He served as a director of MRG from its formation in 1998 until it was sold in 2001 to Medtronic, Inc. He served on the board of Advanced Bionics for many years until it was sold to Boston Scientific in 2004. He served as a director of the Alfred Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at USC from its inception in 1998 until after Al Mann’s death in 2016. During that time, he was a member of the 3-man committee that served as the CEO.

Mr. Mendelsohn also is a founder and has served as Chairman of the Maestro Foundation since it was organized in 1983. The Maestro foundation is a leading non-profit musical philanthropic organization which hosts what is considered to be the nation’s premier chamber music series and has an active instrument lending program which lends approximately 100 professional-level string instruments and bows to young, career-bound classical musicians. Mr. Mendelsohn holds a Bachelor’s Degree with honors from UCLA and holds a JD from Loyola University School of Law.

Dr. Baker has been a director of Second Sight since 2021. Dr. Baker has served on the Board of Directors of NPM since 2013 and on the Board of Directors of Transonic Imaging, a medical imaging startup, since 2018. Dr. Baker served on the Board of Directors of Advanced Bionics, a global leader in developing advanced cochlear implant systems, prior to its sale to Boston Scientific, a manufacturer of medical devices. In addition, he was the founding director of the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at USC, and served for nine years on the Board of Directors (including serving on compensation, audit, and governance committees) for Semtech, a publicly traded semiconductor company. Dr. Baker was also a vice president of Northrop Grumman, a multinational aerospace and defense technology company, for 16 years from 1983 to 1999 including overseeing a division with $1 billion in annual sales.

Ms. Popoff has served as a member of our Board of Directors since the Merger in 2022. She was previously a director at Second Sight from 2021 until the Merger in 2022. Ms. Popoff currently serves as the Program-Related Investments Pipeline Director and General Counsel to the Venn Foundation, a national nonprofit foundation that facilitates concessionary capital through donor-advised fund investments into for-profit and non-for-profit enterprises, utilizing the U.S. Tax Code's Program-Related Investments tool. Prior to joining Venn, Ms. Popoff served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Williams International, a privately held designer and manufacturer in the aerospace and defense industry, from 2019 until June 2024. Prior to Williams International, Ms. Popoff was Legal Director and Associate General Counsel at Amcor Rigid Packaging, a global packaging company, from 2013 to 2019. Ms. Popoff also served as Corporate Counsel at Compuware Corporation, a software company with products aimed at the information technology departments of large businesses, from 2012 to 2013, and Associate in the Mergers & Acquisitions practice of the global law firm Baker and McKenzie, in its New York office, from 2008 to 2012. Ms. Popoff has also held roles at the New York Stock Exchange, Enforcement Division, and the United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division. Ms. Popoff is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School (Ann Arbor), Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Haslam College of Business’s Aerospace & Defense MBA Program. We believe Ms. Popoff is qualified to serve on our Board due to her extensive legal and business experience, and strategic leadership skills.

Mr. Bradbury is the former President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of drug candidates for the treatment of serious metabolic diseases. He served as Amylin’s Chief Executive Officer from March 2007 until its acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company for $7.1B in August 2012. Before joining Amylin in 1994, he worked in marketing and sales roles for 10 years at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals.

Bradbury serves on the board of directors of Castle Biosciences, Inc. and Equillium, Inc., and several private companies and philanthropic organizations. Bradbury previously served on the board of directors of Biocon Limited, Corcept Therapeutics Inc., Geron Inc., Illumina Inc. and Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc. He earned a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from Nottingham University and a Diploma in Management Studies from the University of West London in the United Kingdom.