Cynthia Maier
Cynthia has over 30 years of experience in the medical device industry built on a passion for identifying and commercializing new technologies that answer important clinical needs. After beginning her career with a PhD in Medical Biophysics at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, she joined GE Healthcare’s MRI business as an applications scientist working to develop new MRI capabilities and ultimately, leading a team of PhD scientists at US academic centers including Mayo Clinic, Northwestern University and MD Anderson Cancer Center. In her role at GE as a scientific leader, Cynthia worked closely with academic clinicians and scientists to identify unmet needs in Radiology and deliver promising new technologies to market. She also served as GE MRI’s Business Development Leader, identifying inorganic growth opportunities at universities and in the startup world, creating strategic new technology development partnerships, and driving investments and acquisitions. While at GE, Cynthia led R&D and marketing efforts to extend MRI to breast cancer and musculoskeletal applications, and to commercialize “Silent MRI” applications aimed at reducing patient anxiety during scanning.
In 2014, Cynthia joined the entrepreneurial world as CEO for a medical image visualization startup based in Minneapolis, leading the company’s transition to a commercial vendor of medical device software applications. More recently, Cynthia has continued to work with entrepreneurs and startups to provide strategic and operational support as a consultant through her company, MarketLaunch Consulting. In her role as a consultant, she has had the good fortune to travel extensively in Northern Europe, Norway and the US, working on several groundbreaking technologies for Neonatology.
She has served previously as Entrepreneur in Residence and is a current Commercialization Partner for Tech Launch Arizona. She is also a current grant reviewer for the INOVAIT network in Canada, which aims to advance image-guided therapy and the integration of artificial intelligence into diagnosis and treatment.