Eric B. Woldenberg, Esq. is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation. A Partner at Pryor Cashman since 1988, he specializes in taxation and estate planning and serves as Chairman of the firm's Tax Group.

Colette Y. Gardner is Head of Human Resources for Eagle Shipping. She joined the Board of CRF in 2008. A business executive with 25 years of experience in international professional and financial service companies, Ms. Gardner is IPEC certified and a member of the International Coaching Federation. She has extensive expertise in strategic planning, mergers/integration, education and training, change management, executive coaching and organization design. Previously, Ms. Gardner held senior leadership positions in a number of global firms including Bankers Trust, Deutsche Bank, ABN AMRO, Misys and Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.

Juan F. Granada, MD, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF). A renowned leader in cardiology, he joined CRF in 2007 and served as Executive Director and Chief Innovation Officer at the CRF Skirball Center for Innovation, the preclinical division of CRF. He is also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Dr. Granada is one of the world’s foremost investigators in the translational validation of novel cardiovascular therapies and has helped develop and successfully validate several endovascular imaging and device technologies. He received his medical degree from the Institute of Health Sciences in Medellin, Colombia and finished his cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology fellowships at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.  

William A. Himmelsbach, MPH, FACHE, is a retired health care executive and former President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation. Prior to joining CRF, he was Senior Vice President of VHA and Executive Officer of its New York-based VHA Empire - Metro. Bill also serves as a Director for Beaufort (SC) Memorial Hospital, the Zucker Institute of Applied Neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), and the Foundation for Research Development, which manages and markets intellectual property for MUSC.

Karen G. Krasney, JD, is Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Capricor Therapeutics, Inc. Her career spans over 35 years, serving as General Counsel for numerous public and private companies engaged in a wide variety of industries. Her extensive background and experience has focused on domestic and international corporate and business law, as well as litigation. She has been involved in medical technology for over 20 years, representing several medical technology companies involved in the development of products for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.

Martin B. Leon, MD, is the Mallah Family Professor of Cardiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Chief Innovation Officer for the Division of Cardiology. He is also Director of the Cardiovascular Data Science Center. He previously served as Director of Columbia Interventional Cardiovascular Care and Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Leon serves on the Executive Board of the Columbia Heart & Valve Center and is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF).

A distinguished pioneer in interventional cardiovascular medicine, Dr. Leon has been the national principal investigator for over 50 clinical trials that have helped shape the field including STRESS, STARS, Gamma-one, SIRIUS, ENDEAVOR, and most recently, the PARTNER trial, studying the value of transcatheter valve therapy for patients with aortic stenosis. He has co-authored almost 2,000 peer reviewed scientific publications and abstracts, which have appeared in the most prestigious medical journals. As a practicing interventional cardiologist, Dr. Leon has performed over 10,000 procedures during his career.

He is the Founder and Director of Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT), the world's premier scientific symposium dedicated to interventional cardiovascular medicine. He has also been the Director or Co-Director of more than 100 international educational programs in the field. Dr. Leon has received 20 international career achievement awards and was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Athens.

Dr. Leon was previously the Director of Cardiovascular Research and Education at the Lenox Hill Heart and Vascular Institute in New York as well as Director of Clinical Research at the Washington Cardiology Center at the Washington Hospital Center and Clinical Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC. He also served as a Clinical Associate, Senior Investigator, and Director of the Catheterization Laboratories in the Cardiology Branch of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He was a founder of the Washington Cardiology Center and the Cardiology Research Foundation in Washington, DC.

Dr. Leon received his medical degree from the Yale School of Medicine and completed his internal medicine internship and residency as well as a cardiology fellowship at the Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Teresa Leste is a Principal in the Strategy practice at Monitor Deloitte and is the U.S. leader for Deloitte’s Life Sciences Mid-cap Clients. Teresa has more than 19 years of experience in the Life Sciences Industry both in strategic advisory consulting and at a top three medical device multinational. She is focused on healthcare convergence and implications on competitiveness, growth, and profitability.

Frank Litvack, MD, is Director of Strategy and Alternative Investments at Pura Vida Investments and serves as Executive Chairman of Capricor, Inc. An entrepreneur and accomplished veteran of the healthcare industry, Dr. Litvack has over 25 years of academic and industry experience and also serves on the Health Care Advisory Board of RAND Corporation. Dr. Litvack is an Attending Cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Professor at David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. His seminal work with AIS in developing the first FDA-approved excimer laser angioplasty system earned him special recognition from NASA and induction into the Space Technology Hall of Fame.

Jeffrey W. Moses, MD, is Director, Interventional Cardiovascular Therapeutics at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and Director of Advanced Cardiac Interventions at St. Francis Hospital and Heart Center in Roslyn, NY. He is also a Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed his internship, residency, and fellowship in cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.

Eric A. Rose, MD, is Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors for SIGA Technologies, Inc. and Professor of Population Health Science & Policy at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Marvin L. Woodall was President of Johnson & Johnson Interventional Systems Company (JJIS) from 1988 until 1996, a critical era for the interventional cardiology field. He was instrumental in pioneering the development of two stents: the Palmaz-Schatz coronary stent, which was the world’s first major balloon-expandable stent, and the Cypher drug-eluting stent. Mr. Woodall became an active member of CRF’s Board in 2000.