Former Covidien Manager Now Engineering Chief at Ra Medical Systems

Ra Medical Systems Inc., a medical device company focusing on commercializing excimer laser systems to treat vascular and dermatological diseases, has appointed Chris Folk, Ph.D., as vice president of Engineering. With more than 20 years of engineering experience primarily in medtech, Dr. Folk has led the design, development and engineering of medical devices with highly specific design requirements, leading to commercial success. In this newly created position, Dr. Folk will report to Andrew Jackson, Ra Medical Systems Interim CEO and chief financial officer.
 
“Chris is an experienced leader, engineer and inventor who brings to Ra Medical highly relevant expertise in engineering transformational products and bringing game-changing medical devices to market,” said Jackson. “He has managed teams responsible for more than 20 device development programs at firms ranging from startups to multinationals. Notably, Chris has significant experience with catheters from his years at Covidien Neurovascular/ev3, where he led the commercial launch of three 510(k) catheters. We view his appointment as a significant step in improving the design and manufacturing of the DABRA catheter to enhance its consistency and extend its shelf life.”
 
Dr. Folk served for the past four years at ViaCyte, a privately held regenerative medicine company, most recently as Engineering and Device Manufacturing director. He was responsible for product development including the redesign of its lead product candidate PEC-Direct, a novel biologic-device replacement therapy for type 1 diabetes. Prior to ViaCyte, Dr. Folk spent three years as Device Strategy principal engineer at Amgen, where he evaluated and determined unmet drug delivery needs across the company’s entire portfolio and led internal device R&D programs to enable new routes and methods of drug delivery. Before that, Dr. Folk served for three years as Research & Development manager for Covidien Neurovascular (formerly ev3) with responsibility for overseeing cross-functional teams that successfully launched three U.S. Food and Drug Administration 510(k)-cleared catheters to treat ischemic stroke and aneurysms. During his tenure, he managed the R&D team that created the first hypotube-based catheter for neurovascular access, allowing unprecedented torque and transmission of force.
 
Earlier in his career he was senior Design and Applications engineer-Medical Devices for Microfabrica Corporation, a designer and manufacturer of micromachine devices, where he was the technical manager for NIH-funded minimally invasive heart surgery research and co-invented the device published as the first all-micro electro-mechanical system (MEMS) medical devices surgical tool. He began his career in the Technical Leadership Program at General Electric, a world leader in the design and manufacture of commercial and military jet engines, leading a team developing the high-pressure engine core for an advanced military prototype.

“I have a particular passion for innovative medical devices, whether being developed from scratch or improving an existing design, and I see the clear advantages of photoablation over competing technologies for the treatment of peripheral artery disease,” said Dr. Folk. “This is an exciting opportunity for my colleagues and me to identify design and manufacturing solutions that enhance the existing products while concurrently developing new and next generation product offerings. I’m delighted to join the Ra Medical team at this critical juncture as we work toward a successful future with a differentiated product line.”
 
Dr. Folk holds 10 issued patents with more than a dozen pending. He has coauthored articles published in the peer-reviewed journals Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions, International Journal of Robotics Research, Rapid Prototyping Journal, and Journal of American College of Cardiology.
 
Dr. Folk earned a bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Notre Dame, a master of science degree in engineering mechanics from the University of Cincinnati, and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.