Nephros Instates New President-CEO-Chairman

River Edge, N.J.-based Nephros Inc. has named Daron Evans its new president and CEO. Effective upon Evans’ appointment, Paul Mieyal, Ph.D., stepped down as acting CEO of Nephros and will remain as a member of the company’s board of directors. Additionally, Lawrence Centella has been appointed board chairman.

“We appreciate Paul’s leadership through this period of transition, especially in creating strong momentum for 2015 by capitalizing on the 510(k) clearance of our hospital ultrapure filters,” said Centella. “We are pleased to have Daron join in a full-time operational role and are committed to growing our water filter business and to commercializing our hemodiafiltration business.”

“Nephros has a unique opportunity to impact patients’ lives on two fronts. Our partnership with leaders in the hospital water treatment market will put our point-of-delivery ultrapure water filters on the front line of infection control,” Evans said in prepared remarks. “Separately, our hemodiafiltration technology and our ultrapure dialysis filters have the potential to improve the standard of care in certain patients with end stage kidney disease. I am excited to join the management team at Nephros to capitalize on our opportunity to both help patients and reward shareholders for their commitment.”

Evans has served on Nephros’ board of directors since 2013. He is a life-sciences executive with more than 20 years of financial leadership and operational experience. Evans recently was managing director of PoC Capital LLC, and is a member of the board of Zumbro Discovery Inc., an early stage company developing a therapy for resistant hypertension. From 2007 to 2013, Evans was chief financial officer of Nile Therapeutics Inc., a development-stage cardiovascular company that merged with Capricor Therapeutics Inc. in 2013. From 2004 to 2007, he held various project management and performance improvement roles at Vistakon Inc. and Scios Inc., both divisions of Johnson & Johnson Corp. Evans was a co-founder of Applied Neuronal Network Dynamics Inc. and served as its president from 2002 to 2004. From 1995 to 2002, he served in various roles at consulting firms Arthur D. Little and Booz Allen & Hamilton. Evans received his bachelor of science in chemical engineering from Rice University in Houston, Texas, his master of science in biomedical engineering from a joint program at the University of Texas at Arlington and Southwestern Medical School and his MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

Centella has served as a director of Nephros since January 2001. Centella was president of Renal Patient Services LLC, a company that owned and operated dialysis centers, and headed the company from June 1998 to 2014. From 1997 to 1998, Centella served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Gambro Healthcare Inc., an integrated dialysis company that manufactured dialysis equipment, supplied dialysis equipment and operated dialysis clinics. From 1993 to 1997, Centella was president and CEO of Gambro Healthcare Patient Services Inc. (formerly REN Corporation). Prior to that, he served as president of COBE Renal Care Inc., Gambro Hospal Inc., LADA International Inc. and Gambro Inc. Centella also is the founder of LADA International Inc. He received his bachelor of science degree from DePaul University in Chicago, Ill.

Nephros makes high-performance liquid purification ultrafilters and an online mid-dilution hemodiafiltration system for use with a hemodialysis machine for the treatment of chronic renal failure patients.