France Helfer

Ms. France Helfer has more than 30 years in the Medical Device and Healthcare Industry, over 25 as a senior executive, and since 2005, as a Chief Executive Officer. Helfer brings Serial Entrepreneurship & leadership, Business & Corporate Development, Operations, R&D, and International Sales and Marketing expertise for Fortune 500, start-up and emerging growth companies. She’s raised over $70MM in seed, corporate and venture funding, and has led companies through growth and exit. As a senior business advisor, she's worked with over 20 company C-level executives to develop business strategy, fund raising, strategic alliances and joint ventures. She was a senior executive at Medtronic (acquired Xenotech-cofounder), Sorin Biomedica (led 8 strategic alliances), Pegasus Biologics (Founder & CEO, acquired by Baxter), MDDataDirect (cofounder & COO), Eclipse Surgical (launched the company in Europe and guided a successful IPO), Alure Medical (CEO, brought in by lead VC investors. In 1 year lead development and 3 cohorts of clinical trials, got FDA 510k, California manufacturing license, raised $4M), Halo Healthcare (CEO). She’s recently assisted UCI and CSUF start-up companies through her alliances at both universities. She recently lead TinyKicks, a University of California Irvine healthcare technology, and SimRated, a UCIMC anesthesiology spin out. She’s also assisted several CSUF startup companies through development and launch. Helfer’s strength is productization in the healthcare industry from inception, IP protection, and clinical trials through global market launches and growth, with a focus on recruiting and developing a team towards a robust product pipeline, revenue and reimbursement. She’s a contributing author in The Medical Device R&D Handbook 2nd Edition, 2013, CRC Press, and Creating New Ventures, CSUF Entrepreneurship, 2018. Ms. Helfer serves on several advisory boards including the CSU Fullerton Mihaylo School of Entrepreneurship, the Chapman University Crean College Advisory Board, a member of UCI’s Executives in Residence (EIR), and was a TIEcon Southern California Mentor. Helfer was the Spring 2016 Commencement Speaker for Chapman University’s Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences. Helfer has been an invited speaker, panelist and judge for business plan competitions, medical meetings, investment conferences, and university alumni meetings. As a strategic business advisor to start-up medical companies,she's mentored entrepreneurs to win business plan competitions, and has participated on several for profit Boards.