SpineWelding Team
Management Team
Konrad Tagwerker
CEO
Konrad joined the company on October 1st 2021 and has over 20 years of experience in the orthopedic industry.
Dr. Bernd Robioneck
Management Consultant
Bernd Robioneck is a seasoned executive and management consultant with 30+ years experience in Orthopedics (Stryker).
At Stryker Bernd has developed the SonicAnchor System – a resorbable polymeric suture anchor that is fused into the bone using ultrasonic energy. Like Elaris, the SonicAnchor is based on the patented BoneWelding Technology. Bernd is also CTO of WW Technologies (https://www.ww-technologies.com ).
Engineering Team
Matthias Stadler
Head of Product Development
Matthias studied Microengineering and has over 17 years of experience in the medical device industry.
Matthias joined the company in February 2022 and is responsible for the product and application development.
Dr. Jean-Claude Groebli
Senior Development Engineer
Jean-Claude studied Physics at the ETHZ and has over 20 years of experience in the development of medical devices.
Jean-Claude started at SpineWelding in November 2020 and is responsible for the development of the new generation ultrasonic device and for the production and manufacturing of our products.
Before he started working at SpineWelding, he was responsible for the development and industrialisation of a medical device with consumables for Dialysis (home-treatement) in a Startup Company. The product was submitted and sucessfully launched in Europe in 2019.
Dr. Barbara Froesch
Medical and Regulatory Affairs
Barbara holds a PhD and Master Degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the ETH Zurich.
Barbara joined the WoodWelding Group in 2007 as a scientific consultant for drug discovery and biotechnology and soon thereafter the Research & Development Team of SpineWelding AG where she is currently responsible for the biological, medical and regulatory aspects of product development.
Before SpineWelding AG, Barbara spent more than 10 years in preclinical cancer research and drug development in top cancer research laboratories in the US and Switzerland, including a leading position in an innovative Swiss biotechnology company.
Felix Kraeft
Advisor, Quality Management
Felix studied chemistry and has over 25 years of experience in the medical device industry.
Felix has extensive knowledge in the field of quality and risk management as well as international regulatory affairs. His track record included clinical and pre-clinical studies for international medical companies in the EU and the USA and he was in charge of development for medical products for the spinal surgery market. At SpineWelding, Felix focuses on the implementation of the ISO certification and regulatory topics around the SpineWelding products.
Clemens Schilling
Development Engineer
Clemens studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich, specialising in medical technology.
He joined SpineWelding AG in 2021 and is involved in product development as well as technical project support for SpineWelding’s medical products.
Andis Puspurs
Business Developer Manager
Andis own an MBA from the Riga International school of Economics and Business Administration
Andis has 18 years experience in Johnson&Johnson developing international Spine business, market development for new products & procedures, always focusing on professional education and customer satisfaction.
Board of Directors
Marcel Aeschlimann
President of the Board
Mr. Aeschlimann has been a leading figure at the Swiss Innovationshaus Creaholic SA since the early 1990s. He is the managing director and a board member at Creaholic,
where he is responsible for new businesses and innovation projects. He is also the President of several Creaholic spinoff companies, including the WoodWelding/SpineWelding group and Joulia SA. Mr. Aeschlimann is on the board of the Innovation Campus Biel/Bienne and dedicated as expert in several foundations. He holds degrees in micro-technology and business entrepreneurship as well as an unwavering curiosity for new ideas and business development. This has led to several major awards, including the Swiss Technology Award (2000), the Swiss Economic Award (2006), and the Watt d’Or (2013). He has developed more than 150 projects and co-invented more than 70 patent families. Under his leadership, Creaholic has developed its own philosophy of innovation and created an Innovation Toolbox to guide innovations for clients all over the world.
Martin Luley
Board Member
Martin Luley (born 1961) holds a degree in business informatics of the Technical University Darmstadt/Germany.
Martin Luley (born 1961) holds a degree in business informatics of the Technical University Darmstadt/Germany.
Martin is a managing director of a German single family office and in this function he takes responsibility of all investment activities including direct investments. Before assuming his role at the family office in 2011 he served as a managing director and Head of Equities at Metzler Investment in Frankfurt. Prior to that Martin worked in various management functions in the asset management business of Commerzbank and LGT Group, where he started his career in 1987.
Elmar Mock
Board Member
Mr. Mock is well-known as co-inventor of the original Swatch Watch and as a serial innovator, founder, and managing partner of the innovation factory Creaholic in Biel.
Turning a dream into an actual product is what gives Creaholic’s clients a timely business advantage–and therein lies Mr. Mock’s passion for innovation. Mr. Mock is a Foundation Partner and a Member of Advisory Boards of various successful startup companies in the field of Cleantech and Medtech. Furthermore, he is a widely recognized expert and a lecturer for innovation management. As a micro-engineer and plastics engineer, he combines an extraordinary inventive talent with strong entrepreneurial acumen.
Dr. Urs Isenegger
Board Member
Dr. Isenegger passed the bar exam in the Canton of Solothurn after his studies and doctorate in Basel in 1985.
He then served as senior legal partner at MME in Zurich, and worked at a major law firm in the United States. Currently based in Zurich, Switzerland, his preferred areas of practice are corporate and intellectual property law. He is a member of the board of directors of various medium- and large-sized, nationally and globally active companies in the technology, medical, retail, and services sectors.
Clinical Advisory Board
Dr. Stephen H. Hochschuler
Texas Back Institute (Dallas, TX, USA)
Dr. Hochschuler is a Co-Founder of the Texas Back Institute and also the founder of one of the first back schools in the United States.
He possesses over 30 years of experience and specializes in lumbar spinal problems. He earned his Medical Degree from Harvard Medical School, where he also completed his internship and General Surgery residency. After joining the United States Air Force, Dr. Hochschuler attended the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, TX for his residency in Orthopedic Surgery. Dr. Hochschuler holds many achievements in his medical career including President and founding member of the Spine Arthroplasty Society, founder of the Spine Division at the Veterans Administration, and is a decorated United States Air Force Major.
Dr. Frank M. Phillips
Rush University Medical Center (Chicago, IL, USA)
A visionary in the field of minimally invasive spine surgery, Dr. Phillips was one of the first in Chicago to begin using these procedures in the 1990s.
He specializes in minimally invasive cervical and lumbar reconstructive surgery. He also has expertise in motion preserving procedures and was a principle investigator in FDA trials on cervical disc replacement. Dr. Phillips is a leader in the field and is a founder, board member, and past president of the Society of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery. Dr. Phillips has participated in the development of and pioneered a number of minimally invasive spinal techniques that are now widely used. He regularly teaches and lectures to spine surgeons nationally and internationally on minimally invasive spinal surgery. Before coming to Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush in 2003, Dr. Phillips served as the director of the Spine Center at The University of Chicago. Dr. Phillips is currently a Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Director of the Division of Spine Surgery at Rush University Medical Center. He has published and lectured extensively, received numerous research awards and grants and frequently directs spinal educational courses for other spine surgeons. Dr. Phillips was recently named one of the top 28 spine surgeons in the country by Orthopedics This Week and is listed in Becker’s Orthopedic Spine and Pain Management as one of the nation’s Top 100 spine surgeons and specialists. A medical graduate from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, Dr. Phillips completed his orthopedic residency at The University of Chicago Medical Center. In addition, he served a spine fellowship at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He is board certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. Dr. Frank Phillips was voted among the top 10-15% of Top Doctors in America® by US News & World Report and Castle Connolly. The Top Doctors list is widely regarded as a high-quality reference guide to the medical profession.
Dr. Sheng-fu Larry Lo
Northwell Health Neurosurgery (NY, USA)
Dr. Lo is a complex spine specialist, with special emphasis on spine tumors, spinal deformity, craniocervical junction abnormalities and spinal vascular disorder.
Sheng-fu Larry Lo, MD, MHS, FAANS, is a renowned neurosurgeon who serves as the director of spine tumor surgery at Northwell Health Neurosurgery, NY, USA. He is also co-director of spinal deformity surgery at North Shore University Hospital and the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. Before joining Northwell Health, he served as the director of spinal oncology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Dr. Lo is a complex spine specialist, with special emphasis on spine tumors, spinal deformity, craniocervical junction abnormalities and spinal vascular disorder..
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Berlemann
Spine Medical Center Bern (Bern, Switzerland)
Dr. Berlemann has more than 25 years experience in spine surgery and research.
His previous engagements includes the founding and partnership at the Spine Center Thun in 2003 as well as previous positions in the department for Trauma Surgery at the Hannover Medical School and in the Department for Orthopaedic Surgery at the Inselspital, University of Bern. Dr. Berlemann earned his Medical Degree from RWTH Aachen in 1988 and acquired his habilitation and professorship at the Medical School Hannover in 2002 and 2017 respectively. He has published various articles and case reports in various spine journals.
Prof. Dr. Rudolf Bertagnoli
ProSpine (Bogen, Germany)
Prof. Dr. med. Rudolf Bertagnoli is the founder as well as senior surgeon of “ProSpine” (Bogen, Germany).
ProSpine was founded in 2005. Prof. Bertagnoli has more than 30 years of experience in spine surgery and masters all classic and advanced techniques of spine surgery including minimal invasive techniques up to anterior and posterior corrective procedures in deformity surgery. He was a founding member and president of the Spine Arthroplasty Society (SAS, today ISASS) and among others, he is member of NASS; AOSpine, Eurospine and DWG. He has developed numerous implants, instruments and surgical techniques, which make him one the pioneers of motion preserving spinal surgery. Function preserving spinal surgery also constitutes the focus of his team of specialists at ProSpine. Prof. Bertagnoli regularly trains colleagues from all over the world in these surgical techniques. So far, he trained worldwide around 3500 orthopaedic and neurosurgical specialists out of 55 different nations. Furthermore, he has significantly contributed to the development of many medical instruments as well as the improvement of implant techniques. Numerous scientific publications about his many years of experience make him a sought-after counsellor to colleagues around the world.
Dr. Randal R. Betz
Institute for Spine & Scoliosis (Princeton and New Brunswick, NJ, USA)
Randal R. Betz, MD is currently a pediatric spine surgeon at the Institute for Spine & Scoliosis in Princeton and New Brunswick, NJ.
He previously was on staff at Shriners Hospitals for Children (Philadelphia), as the Medical Director of the spinal cord injury program from 1983 to 2014 and served as the Chief of Staff from 2000 to 2012. He is board-certified in both, orthopaedic surgery and spinal cord injury medicine. Dr. Betz became member of the SRS in 1986, was Education committee chair and started IMAST in 1994. He proposed the initiation of the SRS traveling fellowship in 1990 and had the opportunity to be the senior mentor for the Scoliosis Research Society Traveling Fellows in 2013. In 2005 he served as president of the Scoliosis Research Society. Furthermore he received the A. Estin Comarr Memorial Award for Clinical Service from the American Paraplegia Society in 2003 and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Spinal Injury Association in 2009.
In 1995 he co founded the Harms study group and the Childrens Spine Study Group in 2004 .
Dr. Betz has co edited 15 textbooks in the area of pediatric spinal cord injury and pediatric spine deformity and has contributed to or edited chapters in 43 textbooks, has been senior author or coauthor on over 300 peer-reviewed journal articles, with coinvestigators has received over $16.5M in institutional grant monies, and is named on 12 patents from industry research spanning the past 12 years.
He is married to Betsey Betz, has 4 children Chris, Randal Jr, Aimee and Laurie and now has 13 grandchildren. He enjoys sharing time with the above family and feels blessed with many friends sharing fishing, golf, skiing and Life.
Dr. John Burleson
Hughston Clinic Orthopaedics (Nashville, TN, USA)
Dr. Burleson is a specialist in orthopaedic spinal surgery with an emphasis on minimally invasive techniques and interested in implant design, prototyping, and 3D printing.
John R. Burleson, MD graduated from Dallas Baptist University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and a Minor in Chemistry. He earned his medical degree from University of Texas Medical School in Houston, TX. After medical school, he went to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center where he completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery, and spent an additional year completing an extensive research curriculum in orthopedic spine surgery. Pursuing a specialty in spine surgery, Dr. Burleson was trained as a Spine Surgery Fellow at the Texas Back Institute.
Dr. Burleson is a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the American Medical Association, and the North American Spine Society. Furthermore, he holds membership in the Society for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery and the New England Spine Study Group.
He enjoys staying on the forefront of technology while also taking care to assure that all implants and techniques have been rigorously tested and validated.
Dr. Burleson has published in scientific journals and authored the first textbook chapter in the world on 3D printing in spine surgery.
Dr. Vikas Patel
UCHealth (Colorado, USA)
Dr. Patel is Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at UC Health.
Dr. PateI currently serves as the Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery.
As an academic spine surgeon, he is involved in the latest spine care research findings, techniques, and technologies. As a clinician, he uses the latest diagnostic and therapeutic technologies to treat his patients.
Dr. Patel earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and worked as an engineer before earning both a Master’s of Arts and a Doctor of Medicine degree at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Patel completed his orthopedic spine surgery residency at the University of California (San Francisco), and served a spine fellowship at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica., before joining Northwell.