Kevin A. Richardson, II
CEO
Kevin A. Richardson, II, joined SANUWAVE as chairman of the board of directors in August of 2005. The previous year, he founded Prides Capital LLC and Prides Capital Partners LLC, where he is the managing director.
From 1999 to 2003, Richardson was a partner at Blum Capital Partners, a $2.5 billion investment firm, where he was the lead public partner on 18 investments. Prior to Blum Capital, he worked with Tudor Investment Corporation and Fidelity Management and Research, where he managed funds in aerospace and defense and performed research in a variety of technical, financial, healthcare, and IT industries.
Richardson is also on the boards of publicly traded multichannel distributor As Seen On TV, Inc., and travel technology company Pegasus Solutions. Previously, he served on the boards of Healthtronics and QC Holdings. Richardson received an undergraduate degree from Babson College and an MBA from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina.
Pete Stegagno
Chief Operation Officer
Peter Stegagno joined SANUWAVE® as Vice President, Operations in March 2006. Stegagno has nearly 30 years of experience in the medical device market, encompassing manufacturing, design and development, quality assurance and international, and domestic regulatory affairs. He has been instrumental in the development and deployment of international operational processes for leading medical device companies.
Prior to joining SANUWAVE, Stegagno served as Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Affairs for Elekta and director level roles in medical device companies including Genzyme Biosurgery. Before focusing on the medical field, he enjoyed a successful career in production roles in the space industry, including avionics guidance systems for military applications and control computers for the space shuttle. Stegagno graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering.
Toni Rinow, Ph.D. MBA
Chief Financial Officer
Dr. Toni Rinow joined SANUWAVE® as Chief Financial Officer in August, 2022. Dr. Rinow is a transformational finance and business leader with over 20 years of experience and a proven track record in international corporate development. Prior to joining SANUWAVE Toni served in a NASDAQ traded wellness company raising over $130 million in capital expansion financing and executed acquisitions securing a Morgan Stanley capital-backed portfolio.
Toni led healthcare organizations as General Manager at global nuclear medicine leader Jubilant Draximage Inc and as Chief Operating Officer at Isologic Innovative Radiopharmaceuticals. Her professional career includes leadership roles in both public and private pharmaceutical and healthcare organizations, where she spearheaded acquisitions across Canada, Latin America, Europe, India, and USA and supported the transition of biotechnology companies to an initial public offering. Toni has successfully facilitated the negotiation of international corporate alliances valued at over $100M and overseen a life science investment portfolio with $400M under management.
Dr. Rinow holds an MBA and a Master’s in Accounting from McGill University, as well as a chemical engineer degree from ERASMUS European Higher Institute of Chemistry in Strasbourg, France, and a Ph.D. in Biophysics and Chemistry from the University of Montreal. She is trained in artificial intelligence at MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Rinow believes in giving back to the community and sat on the Board of Directors in several non-for-profit organizations.
Iulian Cioanta, Ph.D.
Chief Science and Technology Officer
Dr. Iulian Cioanta joined SANUWAVE® in June 2007 as director of research and development. In 2009, he was promoted to vice president of research and development and, in 2018, to chief science and technology officer.
Prior to joining SANUWAVE, Dr. Cioanta served as business unit manager with Cordis Endovascular, a Johnson & Johnson company; director of development engineering with Kensey Nash Corporation; research manager at ArgoMed Inc., and project manager and scientist with the Institute for the Design of Research Apparatuses. He has 20+ years of experience in the medical device industry.
Dr. Cioanta also worked in academia at Polytechnic University of Bucharest in Romania, Leicester University in the United Kingdom, and Duke University in the United States.
He received a B.S. degree in Engineering and Management of Technological Systems and Business Management and an M.S. degree in Engineering and Management of Technological Systems from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, and he earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University in the field of extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy.
Lisa Sundstrom
Chief Talent Officer
Lisa Sundstrom joined SANUWAVE® as controller in October 2006, and in August 2015, assumed the responsibilities of interim chief financial officer. She has extensive financial accounting experience with Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics. While at her previous position with ADP as accounting manager for the benefits services division, Sundstrom assisted with the documentation of internal controls for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
Sundstrom began her career with a small public accounting firm, Carnevale & Co., P.C. She was senior accountant at Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics, responsible for the close process for the division location and was involved in the documentation and testing of the SAP accounting system. She holds a B.S. degree in Accounting from the State University of New York at Geneseo.
Jack Schlechtweg
Chief Revenue Officer
An award-winning executive who has led sales and marketing teams in the biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device industries for over 15 years, Jack serves as SANUWAVE’s chief revenue officer and vice president of sales. In those roles, Jack not only leads a team of 130 employees and contractors, but also drives revenue growth on a national scale.
Jack has held senior roles at companies such as Celularity, Alliqua, Shire Regenerative Medicine, Accelecare, Organogenesis Inc., and Merck Schering-Plough. He achieved 235% of goal for a startup operation.
Throughout his career, Jack has established relationships with key opinion leaders and led national accounts; throughout, he served as a catalyst for positive change and transformation management. A hands-on executive, Jack recently spearheaded a $24 million asset acquisition.
Jack earned his MBA from Southern Connecticut State University as an honors graduate and holds a B.A. from Utica College of Syracuse University.