Tripp Higgins is the CEO and co-founder of PaceMate®, selected as one of the Top 100 Healthcare Technology Companies in the United States by Healthcare Technology Report.

With a passion for entrepreneurs, Tripp serves as an investor and advisor to multiple startups in the healthcare and fintech spaces. After a career in surgical robotics and minimally invasive surgical procedures, he co-founded biocynetic™ in 2015, a software company aimed at eliminating the burden of gathering and analyzing disparate data sources to treat AFib, heart failure, and other types of chronic diseases.

An innovator in disruptive digital health technologies, Tripp used his expertise in the commercialization of medical devices to form the genesis of his vision for PaceMate and its industry-leading cardiac rhythm data and remote patient monitoring platform, PaceMateLIVE. Named as PaceMate’s CEO in 2019, Higgins has been instrumental in helping PaceMateLIVE to become one of the most widely adopted RPMs and the preferred choice of electrophysiologists, cardiac device clinics, and healthcare systems across the United States.

Tripp is a former NCAA Division 1 athlete and graduate of the University of Memphis.

As PaceMate’s President and Chief Financial Officer, Chandler Yoquelet is responsible for all of the company’s product, professional services, financial, risk, and technological aspects, including R&D, clinical operations, financial reporting, accounting, legal, and IT.

His expertise and passion lie in building a highly engaged cohesive team to support PaceMate’s growth.

Prior to PaceMate, Chandler served in various senior leadership roles within med tech and professional services industries, overseeing finance and operational functions with a focus on organizational transformation and scaling. He was also an audit manager with Grant Thornton, LLP, where he started his professional career.

Chandler received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of South Florida and is an active-license Florida CPA.

Cip Bordea is a mathematician with over 25 years of software development experience in telecommunications, government, health insurance, and medical device data automation.

Bordea has brought the precise knowledge and skill necessary to lead the full-time PaceMate® development team and manage the full lifecycle of all company projects. He has recruited a small team of experts in data science, artificial intelligence, security, and analytics, with over 100 years combined experience. Bordea and his team have designed, built, and tested PaceMate®LIVE 100% in-house, and he has overseen over fifty successful new software versions.

His credentials include work as a senior software engineer/architect, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science, and certification in Java Sun.

Brian Faulknier is an experienced medical sales leader in the field of cardiac rhythm device management who brings a breadth of corporate healthcare expertise to his position as chief operating officer at PaceMate®.

After early career experience in device sales and support for multiple health tech start-ups—including leadership and training positions with Andrx Pharmaceuticals, Bard Peripheral Vascular, and FoxHollow Technologies—Faulknier advanced to become a multi-state principal sales representative with Medtronic and, most recently, EP territory manager for Abbott/St. Jude. He has steadily developed his capabilities as a teambuilder and mentor, winning awards for sales performance and maintaining an eye for company strategy and growth in equipment sales and support within the cardiovascular space.

As a skilled professional in overseeing CRM sales and support, understanding clinic organization, managing recruitment and new-hire training, conducting performance reviews, and utilizing various workforce technologies, Faulknier is well suited to serve as a senior leader at PaceMate®. His strategic planning, development of new business initiatives, and implementation and deployment of value propositions ultimately support all of the PaceMate® officers in clinical and business management.

Faulknier cites his collegiate Division I basketball career at Marshall University as the building block he uses to create the culture of teamwork that is evident at PaceMate®. His fond memories from MU include meeting his wife, making lifelong friends, and graduating with honors from the Marshall University School of Biological Science.

Jason Hale’s deep cardiac rhythm management experience with companies like Medtronic and St. Jude Medical has enabled him to create PaceMate®, a transformative digital healthcare company, leading the way in cardiac remote monitoring.

Hale’s patient-focused approach, his keen awareness of political and industry changes in the digital health marketplace, and his forward-thinking ability as it relates specifically to cardiac remote monitoring have set the stage for PaceMate®’s success.

Hale is a graduate of the University of Evansville with a bachelor of business administration degree in business, management, marketing, and related support services. Hale is a certified cardiac device specialist (CCDS), licensed by the International Board of Heart Rhythm Examiners (IBHRE).

Recognized as one of the Top 25 Women Leaders in Medical Devices for 2021 and 2022, Noemi Ray leads PaceMate as Vice President of Product Operations.

Ray’s broad industry experience as a registered nurse, pharmacy manager, and cardiac device clinical specialist, as well as her hands-on sales and technical support for cardiovascular devices in the field, has prepared her to lead PaceMate with diligence and excellence.

While serving as a cardiovascular rhythm management representative with Medtronic and St. Jude Medical, Ray recognized a need for full-service remote monitoring. Combining her career expertise with her passion for making a difference, she and PaceMate co-founder Jason Hale hatched a plan that would become PaceMate.

Today, Ray serves as pioneering leadership for PaceMateLIVE, the customized cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) monitoring software+service solution produced by PaceMate. Her goal is to add a unique level of compassion to the brand, setting a standard of equality in the medical workspace and causing it to shine through in the company’s customer service, mission, and core values.

Ray is a graduate of Louisiana State University-Alexandria with a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Nursing and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern State University.

As PaceMate’s Vice President of People and Culture, McCullough “Cully” Buchanan is responsible for the planning, directing, and coordinating of PaceMate’s human resources. Her expertise and passion lie in assisting various healthcare environments—multi-site, remote, multi-state organizations, start-ups, and newly acquired facilities—with successful operational scaling.

Prior to joining PaceMate, Cully served in various senior leadership roles within healthcare and technology industries over the past twenty years. She is originally from Virginia, where she served as the Senior Director of Human Resources for Universal Health Services, supporting eleven locations throughout Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. Her prior roles also include work as the Vice President of Human Resources for a continuing care retirement community in Dunedin, FL; as Director of Human Resources for Medical Facilities of America; in HR Management with Rehab Management, Inc., where she supported fifty long-term care facilities in three states; as Director of Human Resources for a SaaS provider, Spirion, supporting employees in fifteen states and internationally; as Director of People and Culture for a remote organization, Skillable; and most recently as Vice President of People & Culture for HealthAxis Group LLC.

Cully has also actively participated in various roles within her community. She provides Meals on Wheels to seniors, and has served as an Executive Committee Member for The National Alliance on Mental Illness, as a committee member and judge for the Richmond Society for Human Resources Management “Employer All-Star Award” selection for employee engagement and retention, as an Executive Committee Member for The Virginia Society for Healthcare Human Resources Association, and as a Committee Member for Family Advocacy Creating Education and Services, where she testified before the General Assembly on behalf of Mental Health Courts.

With experience in multiple leadership positions within the medical device industry and healthcare settings, Haley Chute brings global strategic marketing expertise to her role as PaceMate’s Vice President of Marketing. Her experience spans a wide sphere of cardiac device, cardiac electrophysiology and novel ablation systems, digital healthcare wearables, and community-based healthcare in domestic and international markets.

Most recently, Haley served as the Head of Brand and Marketing at Sevita, leading the development and launch of a full-scale corporate rebrand for 40,000 employees in 600 care sites, spanning 40 states. Prior to her work at Sevita, she directed marketing for Global Kinetics’ digital wearable for motor movement disorders, led Cardiofocus’ international upstream and downstream marketing, provided electrophysiology education for PrepMD, and offered cardiac device and electrophysiology clinical sales support for St. Jude Medical (now Abbott) in Harvard-affiliated teaching institutions. There, her work with electrophysiology thought leaders and academic researchers, shaped her long-term passion for the cardiac space.

Haley holds a Biomedical Engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is a Certified Cardiac Device Specialist and Certified Cardiac Electrophysiology Specialist, and has completed multiple executive education programs. Haley lives in Boston with her three children and her husband, a cardiac survivor. Together, they enjoy skiing and volunteering in the greater Boston area.

Robin Leahy comes to PaceMate® with extensive experience in electrophysiology, remote device monitoring, and community health education. Most recently, she was Director of Electrophysiology Services at Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute—Atrium Health.

While at Sanger, Leahy served as the administrative service line leader for the electrophysiology labs, ambulatory EP programs, and CIED management clinics, spanning multiple geographies. Her responsibilities included oversight of operations, programmatic and strategic growth, clinical quality, and integration of new EP services, most notably remote monitoring. Key initiatives included early adoption and operationalization of remote monitoring, expansion of device clinic to ten locations, management of more than 11,000 adult and pediatric CIED patients, and multiple CIED-HIM collaborations. She has also led initiatives in the areas of EP education, women’s heart health, sudden cardiac arrest prevention, and community-based CPR and AED education.

Leahy is a registered nurse and holds a bachelor of science degree in nursing from Bloomfield College and a master of science degree in public health from Southern New Hampshire University. She is credentialed by the International Board of Heart Rhythm Examiners as a certified cardiac device specialist and is a fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society.

Leahy has shared her knowledge of and passion for electrophysiology through podium presentations and publications. As an active volunteer with the Heart Rhythm Society, she initially focused on the development and implementation of EP educational opportunities for allied health professionals and later served on the HRS Education Committee, Scientific Sessions Committee, and Board of Trustees.

Though a native of New York/New Jersey, Leahy has called the Charlotte Metro area home for the past thirty years. When not working, she is mom to her adult children and welcomed her first grandchild in early 2020. She visits the beach as often as possible and looks forward to resuming her passion for travel.

As Vice President of Commercialization, Darren Selsky is responsible for PaceMate’s strategic partnerships, product pipeline expansion, and market development initiatives.

Darren comes to PaceMate as a highly experienced medical device commercialization leader, with expertise in both cardiac rhythm management and various radiology modalities. Prior to joining PaceMate, Darren led U.S. marketing for the Digital Health & Diagnostics division at Biotronik. Darren’s passion for remote patient management began early in his career at St. Jude Medical where he was the Director of Marketing for Connectivity, leading the launch of the Merlin Patient Management System, Merlin@home, MerlinOnDemand and the Merlin PCS programmer. Additional leadership roles include Global Franchise Leader for Hologic’s Breast & Skeletal Health Connected Services division and Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Capsenta (now Data.World).

Though a native of the Philadelphia, PA, area, Darren has called Austin, Texas, home for over seventeen years. Darren has a passion for live music, is an aspiring oenophile, and now as an empty nester, is continuously working on projects around his home. Darren is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia with bachelor’s degrees in biomedical and electrical engineering, an MBA in health administration, and a master’s in finance.

Dr. Tina Baykaner is an Instructor in Stanford University’s Department of Internal Medicine within the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and Electrophysiology.

Following her internal medicine residency and her cardiovascular medicine and advanced heart failure fellowships at the University of California-San Diego and electrophysiology fellowship at Stanford, Dr. Baykaner joined the Stanford faculty in 2018. She has published over 200 papers, book chapters, and abstracts, including over fifty original peer-reviewed articles, and has delivered over twenty invited presentations in national and international meetings. She serves as section editor and editorial board member of four electrophysiology journals.

Dr. Baykaner’s current research interests include outcomes research, epidemiology, and mechanisms of rhythm disorders. She is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health to study patient-related outcomes regarding atrial fibrillation ablation. She received prior research funding from the American Heart Association and Heart Rhythm Society. Dr. Baykaner’s clinical practice focuses on ablation of atrial and ventricular arrhythmias, SVTs, inappropriate sinus tachycardia management, device implantation, and device extraction.

Dr. Baykaner is an active member of the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, Heart Rhythm Society, and European Society of Cardiology. She serves as an elected member of the Communications Committee for HRS and previously served as an elected member of the ACC Task Force ICD Research Committee. She also served on the Organizing Committee for the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute Annual Postdoctoral Research Meeting in 2017 and 2018 and for Early Career sessions for HRS Scientific Sessions in 2019 and 2020.

Dr. Thomas Deering serves as a cardiac electrophysiologist at the Piedmont Heart Institute in Atlanta where he is also Chief of the Arrhythmia Center, Chairman of the Clinical Centers for Excellence, and Chief Quality Officer.

In addition, Dr. Deering has served in a variety of volunteer roles for the Heart Rhythm Society, most recently as president from May 2018 to May 2019. His research and clinical interests are focused on defining and implementing quality initiatives in electrophysiology and cardiovascular medicine. He has served as a speaker and moderator at national and international electrophysiology and cardiology meetings; has authored and co-authored numerous publications addressing cardiac arrhythmia and cardiovascular quality issues; participates in a number of cardiac electrophysiology arrhythmia research projects; and serves as a reviewer for multiple cardiac electrophysiology and general cardiac journals.

Dr. Deering earned his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine. After completing his post-graduate training at the Yale New Haven Hospital, he performed his cardiac electrophysiology fellowship at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. He has previously been a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine. At present, Dr. Deering is a clinical associate professor of medicine at the Medical College of Georgia and has been appointed to Piedmont Heart Institute’s Mark E. Silverman Endowed Chair in Cardiology and Education.

Dr. James Freeman is a clinical cardiac electrophysiologist with a focus on the ablation of complex arrhythmias (supraventricular tachycardias, atrial fibrillation and flutter, and ventricular tachycardia), and left atrial appendage occlusion.

He presently serves as Director of the Cardiac Electrophysiology Laboratories for Yale New Haven Health and as the Director of the Yale Atrial Fibrillation Program. Dr. Freeman has additional interests in implantable cardiac devices for cardiac arrhythmias and heart failure, including pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), and cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) devices.

A graduate of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Dr. Freeman has also earned a master’s of public health with a concentration in biostatistics and epidemiology from Johns Hopkins and a master’s in health services research from Stanford. He has published extensively on topics of comparative effectiveness, cost effectiveness, and clinical outcomes with cardiac arrhythmias. With funding from the National Institutes of Health and the American College of Cardiology, Dr. Freeman is researching the safety and effectiveness of therapies for the prevention and treatment of atrial fibrillation, ventricular fibrillation/tachycardia, sudden cardiac death, stroke, and heart failure.

Dr. Freeman has participated in the Heart Rhythm Society New Leaders in Electrophysiology Leadership Program and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology.

Dr. Rakesh Gopinathannair is currently Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology Laboratories at the Kansas City Heart Rhythm Institute, Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.

Dr. Gopinathannair currently serves as Chairman for the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) Communications Committee and the American Heart Association (AHA) National Electrocardiography and Arrhythmias Committee. He is also a member of the AHA Clinical Cardiology Council leadership and American College of Cardiology’s National Electrophysiology Leadership Council.

Following graduation from University of Kerala, India, he completed a Master of Arts in Exercise Physiology from the University of Maryland, an Internal Medicine Residency from the Hahnemann University Hospital/Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, and Cardiology and Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowships from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He then served as Assistant Professor (2010-2015), Associate Professor (2015-2018), and Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology (2013-2018) at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Louisville, Kentucky.

Dr. Gopinathannair serves as associate editor for Heart Rhythm Case Reports and as section editor for Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology. He has served as a writing group member and peer-reviewer for AHA/ACC/HRS and AHRQ guidelines and as writing committee chair for AHA Scientific Statements. He peer-reviews for leading cardiovascular journals such as JACC, European Heart Journal, Heart Rhythm, JACC EP, Circulation Research, and JAHA and Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, among others.

Dr. Gopinathannair served as chair of the National Electrophysiology Clinical Standards Committee for Catholic Health Initiatives from 2013-2016, a large national healthcare organization with 97 hospitals across the country, and was instrumental in developing EP clinical standards and quality metrics across this large healthcare network. He has published 290 peer-reviewed articles and abstract presentations, along with several book chapters, and has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international meetings. His research interests mainly focus on arrhythmia-induced cardiomyopathies, COVID-19 and cardiac arrhythmias, and implantable device therapy and complex arrhythmias in patients with advanced heart failure and left ventricular assist devices (LVADs).

Dr. Andrea Russo is currently Professor of Medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. She also serves as Director of Electrophysiology and Arrhythmia Services and Director of the Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship Program at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, New Jersey.

Dr. Russo graduated from SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, New York, completing an internship and residency at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and fellowships in cardiology and electrophysiology at Cooper University Hospital.

In addition to her responsibilities as a professor, Dr. Russo is the immediate past president of the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) and is a current member of the HRS Board of Trustees. She has authored multiple manuscripts on a variety of arrhythmia and device topics and has served as co-chair or member of various writing groups, including the publication of guideline, consensus, and appropriate-use documents.

Areas of special interest for Dr. Russo include sex differences in arrhythmias, implantable cardioverter defibrillators, atrial fibrillation therapy, and the role of digital health on arrhythmia management.

Professor Prash Sanders is a clinical and academic electrophysiologist based at the University of Adelaide, the Royal Adelaide Hospital, and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI).

He was appointed to the Knapman-National Heart Foundation Chair of Cardiology Research at the University of Adelaide in 2005 and now leads the Centre for Heart Rhythm Disorders at the University of Adelaide and SAHMRI. In addition, Professor Sanders serves as the Clinical Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacing at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

SAHMRI is South Australia’s first dedicated electrophysiology laboratory and research group and is now internationally recognized and positioned at the forefront of strategies for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. Dr. Sanders helps to lead this organization in the development and use of ablation techniques.

He is a practitioner fellow of Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and has published over 300 peer-reviewed publications. He has received a variety of accolades, including being named the 2010 Australian Medical Researcher of the Year under the age of 40, an NHMRC Achievement Award for the highest ranked practitioner in 2013, and the RT Hall Prize from the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand in 2015.

Dr. Sanders graduated from the University of Adelaide with honors and was trained as a cardiologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital before sub-specializing in cardiac electrophysiology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. His doctoral studies at the University of Melbourne were under the mentorship of esteemed Professor Jonathan Kalman and his postdoctoral studies were completed with the team of cardiac electrophysiology pioneer Michel Haissaguerre at the Hôpital Cardiologique du Haut-Lévêque and at Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux II in France.

Dr. Niraj Varma is a professor of medicine and consultant electrophysiologist at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Varma specializes in the treatment of heart arrhythmias, with interests in ablation for atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia, defibrillator implantation, and biventricular pacing.

He has pioneered first clinical applications of remote monitoring of implantable devices, electrocardiographic imaging (ECGI), cardiac resynchronization algorithms, and ablation technologies.

Prior to his present position with Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Varma served in electrophysiology departments and/or as professor of medicine at Loyola University Medical Center, University Hospitals of Cleveland, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Boston University Medical Center, and Boston University.

A frequently invited lecturer at local, national, and international scientific symposia, Dr. Varma is also immediate past president to ISHNE and serves on the Scientific and Clinical Documents Committee of the Heart Rhythm Society. In the last thirty years, Dr. Varma has published hundreds of peer-reviewed journal articles on arrhythmias, pacing, and electrophysiology. He has also served as associate editor of the Journal of Cardiac Failure and as a reviewer for several leading medical journals.

Dr. Varma earned his doctorate in medicine from Oxford University and a bachelor of surgery from Edinburgh University in the UK. He also completed an internship at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, worked as registrar at Papworth and Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK, and completed a fellowship at Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston.