Karen Zaderej, new CEO at AxoGen

ALACHUA, FL – AxoGen Inc., a company developing new and more effective products to treat peripheral nerve damage has promoted Karen Zaderej to CEO.

Zaderej was formerly the Chief Operating Officer. Former AxoGen CEO, Jamie Grooms has retained the role of chairman of the Board for AxoGen.

We reported that the company, previously one of TechJournal Souths 50 Companies to watch, raised $3.6 milllion of a financing round targeted at $4.7 million in January. The company previously raised about $20 million from Accuitive Medical Ventures, Cardinal Partners, DeNovo Ventures and Springboard Capital II, SynoGen and the Emergent Growth Fund and with debt financing from Oxford Fiance Corp.

The company says Zaderej has been instrumental in the successful development and launch of the AxoGen portfolio of nerve products for bridging, connecting and protecting peripheral nerves.

Zaderej has more than 20 years of experience in the medical device and tissue markets. At Ethicon, a Johnson & Johnson company, she held senior positions in Marketing, Business Development, and R&D as well as ran a manufacturing business. After leaving J&J, she started Zaderej Medical Consulting to assist medical device companies build and execute winning commercialization plans.

With licensed technologies from the University of Florida, the University of Texas, and Emory University, researchers at AxoGen have developed an innovative technology platform making it possible to process allograft nerves while preserving the relevant characteristics of the three dimensional scaffold of the nerve tissue.

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Tags: AxoGen, Biotech, Flordia, Karen Zaderej, nerve damage, People