Executive Management

Richard Allen
CEO, Xhale Innovations
Mr. Allen has 30 years of experience in business and finance, including 16 years in executive leadership positions with medical technology businesses. In 1998 Mr. Allen co-founded Regeneration Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:RTIX), a medical device company with proprietary technology in orthopedics and tissue regeneration. In co-founding the company, Mr. Allen negotiated the spin-off of the company’s underlying technology from the University of Florida, developed the company's strategic plans, raised the initial venture capital and, two years later in August 2000, led its initial public offering with a $400 million market cap.

After the success of RTIX, Mr. Allen founded Synogen, a private venture fund investing in early-stage biomedical and medical device companies with a number of successful portfolio companies, and co-founded Emergent Growth Fund, an angel investment fund serving North Florida. He serves on the Board of several medical technology companies.

With a background in technology, business, finance, licensing and M&A, Mr. Allen has negotiated several major acquisitions as well as venture capital funding for successful technology start-ups. He is a licensed CPA in the state of Florida and has co-authored a business book published by Dow Jones-Irwin. He has also co-founded Sustainable Cambodia, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization working to create a sustainable quality of life in Cambodian villages.

Kim Barkman, BSN, MSIT, MBA
Executive Vice President, Xhale Innovations
Ms. Barkman has extensive Healthcare industry experience with a focus on the blending of Healthcare and Technology. Her background as a registered nurse in Critical Care environments lead to an interest in Clinical Information Systems.  Various Healthcare Informatics roles at Orlando Health have included Management Engineering using Six Sigma methodology, IT Project Management with certification and IT consulting.  Responsibilities included identifying ways that IT can improve workflow with a concentration on benefits realization as well as an emphasis on understanding core business processes in preparing for the implementation of technological solutions.  She worked for a number of years in the Australian Healthcare system before returning to the US to serve as the Director of Clinical Informatics/Development at the Aetna Specialty Pharmacy and then as Director of Business Intelligence/Data Warehousing with Adventist Healthcare system.  She received her BSN degree from the University of Florida, MSIT from Barry University and her MBA with focus in Marketing from Webster University.  She has been awarded National Board Certification as an Informatics Nurse. 

Brent Johnson
Vice President of Sales, Xhale Innovations
Mr. Johnson has over 25 years in the medical device industry leading worldwide sales and marketing teams through direct and distribution sales channels. Most recently he spent 11 years as Worldwide VP of Sales and Marketing at Invivo Corp where he was responsible for the commercialization of Invivo's products which included patient monitoring products for both MRI and anesthesia areas along with MRI RF coils and MRI CAD systems. During his tenure at Invivo, he was responsible for numerous global product launches of new technology that helped grow the organization from a small nitch market company to a global leader in patient monitoring and MRI products. He was also actively involved with Invivo's acquisition strategy and led many of the integration projects which ultimately culminated in Philips acquisition of Invivo in 2007. Previous to his experience at Invivo he spent 11 years with Datascope Corp in a variety of sales and sales management roles. Mr. Johnson graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in Business Administration / Finance.

Jennifer Hamilton, MS
Program Director
Ms. Hamilton has 21 years of technology and process experience with a primary industry background in Healthcare. While at Orlando Health, she co-developed the process methodology framework and analytical tools in preparation for the replacement of a Clinical Information System (CIS). She also developed work flow analysis for implementation planning, process improvement and new technology strategic planning (utilizing DMAIC and SDLC concepts). While at Adventist Health System, she served as a Project Director in support of a 28 hospital CIS implementation with oversight responsibility for Clinical, Radiology, Lab, Pharmacy, ER, Surgical, EMPI (Enterprise Management of Person Information), Scheduling and Registration applications. As the Director of Strategic Integration for the successful build of the Aetna Specialty Pharmacy she led the facility construction, CRM installation, pharmacy fulfillment system install, clinical training, and pharmaceutical contract acquisition and management. She possesses a Master’s of Science in Business Management Systems from Florida Tech and is a Green Belt in Six Sigma. She is an active member of PMI, HIMSS, IIBA, and ACHE organizations.

Richard J. Melker, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Melker, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer with Xhale, received his Ph.D. (Neurobiology) and M.D. degrees from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After a residency in Pediatrics, and fellowships in Pediatric Cardiology and Critical Care Medicine, he served as Director of Emergency Services at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida College of Medicine, as well as Medical Liaison for the NASA space shuttle program. He holds the position of Professor of Anesthesiology, Pediatrics and Biomedical Engineering at U.F. and since 1993 has been Director of the Florida Anesthesiology Computer and Engineering Team (FACET) which develops and licenses medical devices and technologies. Dr. Melker holds over 35 issued U.S. patents including several for emergency medical devices in use throughout the world, and by the U.S. Special Forces.

Donn Dennis, M.D., F.A.H.A., CSO
Chief Science Officer
Dr. Dennis, co-founder of Xhale with Mr. Allen and Dr. Melker, serves as the company's Chief Science Officer. He is a board certified anesthesiologist, and previously served as Vice President of Pharmacology at ARYx Therapeutics in Fremont, CA.. In addition to his work with Xhale, Dr. Dennis is a professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology, Psychiatry and Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics in the College of Medicine at the University of Florida (U.F.), where he also holds the Joachim S. Gravenstein M.D. Endowed Chair in Anesthesiology. He is also the Director of Nanomedicine at the University of Florida.

Dr. Dennis' research interests focus on translating fundamental science findings in the areas of cardiovascular biology and nanotechnology into medically useful, commercially viable products (e.g., new chemical entities, nano-based drug delivery systems and sensors). He has a long track record of R&D experience, including co-developing drugs and consulting with several small, medium and large pharmaceutical companies and large biotech and health care venture capital funds. Dr. Dennis has been the recipient or co-recipient of several federal grants in the areas of bionanotechnology and cardiovascular pharmacology, and is a co-inventor on several drug- and bio-nano patent applications. Dr. Dennis has published over 150 full length manuscripts and abstracts in peer reviewed journals and has edited two textbooks. He is also a regular member of NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) site visit teams. Dr. Dennis was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Anesthesia Education & Research FAER). He received his medical degree during 1986 from the University of Michigan.

Hank Wohltjen, Ph.D.
Vice President of Engineering - Xhale, Inc.
Dr. Wohltjen focuses on applying the latest advances in microsensor technologies to the analysis of exhaled breath as a diagnostic matrix. Trained as both an electrical engineer and a chemist, Dr. Wohltjen has been actively engaged in the development and commercialization of novel chemical sensing devices and systems since 1976. In the 1980’s he formed the Chemical Microsensor research group at the US Naval Research Lab that pioneered a number of important advances in chemical sensor technology. Later he founded Microsensor Systems, Inc. (MSI) and led the commercial development of Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) microsensors for detecting chemical warfare threats. Over the years Dr. Wohltjen has been the principal investigator on more than $10M of federally funded sensor R&D programs. In 1995 his previous company, MSI, was recognized with the Tibbetts Award from the US Small Business Administration for its successful participation in numerous SBIR programs. Presently Dr. Wohltjen also serves as a director on several boards of academic institutions and small technology-focused companies.

Stephanie Warrington
Vice President of Corporate Affairs & Development - Xhale, Inc.
Ms. Warrington, a member of Xhale's co-founding team, has extensive health care industry and medical technology start-up experience both in the United States and the United Kingdom. Ms. Warrington obtained her MBA/MHA degrees from the University of Florida Warrington College of Business in 1994 and her health industry background includes strategic analysis and project management as an analyst for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida and London consulting firm, Newchurch & Company. Ms. Warrington's medical technology commercialization experience encompasses university-based bioengineering research management, work within the University of Florida technology transfer office, technology evaluation, market research, business strategy and plan development, and all aspects of starting and running a technology based business. Through her role as President of Synogen, she has participated as a key founding management team or support team member in the launch and growth of several viable high tech start-up companies in the med tech space. Ms. Warrington currently serves on the Board of BioFlorida. Ms. Warrington provides corporate development, investor relations, employee relations, contract management and other managerial support for the company.

Elena Casson
Director of Marketing, Xhale Innovations
Elena Casson has more than 20 years of experience in the marketing and design.  At Xhale, Ms. Casson is the Director of Marketing for HyGreen and manages Business Development and Marketing for the Xhale’s pharmaceutical division.  She was with the University of Florida for over 17 years in the College of Public Health and Health Professions and was the project manager for the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center.   Her last four years were as director of the International Conference on Aging and Disability, bringing researchers, academicians and policy leaders from all over the world to discuss the issues of aging and disability. Over the years, Ms. Casson has edited 29 publications, co-authored five manuscripts, and written 17 successful grant applications.  She has also volunteered marketing and PR services to several charities including Sustainable Cambodia, the NACD and Rotary.