Hank Plain Joins Morgenthaler Ventures ...( To Maintain Roles as Vice Chairman o...)

To Maintain Roles as Vice Chairman of The Foundry and Advisor to ForSight

Labs

MENLO PARK, Calif., Sept. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Morgenthaler Ventures (http://www.morgenthaler.com/ventures), a leading venture capital firm focused on life science and information technology investments, today announced the addition of Hank Plain as partner in its Menlo Park office. Plain brings significant entrepreneurial experience and deep knowledge of the medical- device industry, having co-founded eight startup medical device companies and directed the exits of four companies with a combined value well in excess of $1 billion.

Plain was the president and CEO at Perclose, Inc. from 1993 to 2000, during which he led the company to $100 million in sales and managed the company's successful IPO and acquisition in 1999 by Abbott Laboratories for $650 million. He was chairman of Embolic Protection, where he helped negotiate the acquisition of the company in 2001 by Boston Scientific for $200 million. He also served as a director at TransVascular until Medtronic acquired the company in 2003 for an undisclosed amount. Plain serves as chairman of Xtent, Inc., which completed a successful IPO in February of this year. Previously, Plain worked at Eli Lilly for 12 years in various management positions.

"We have worked with Hank since 1994, beginning with our investment in Perclose, and have maintained a close working relationship since then through our investments in The Foundry, ForSight Labs and ten of the Foundry/ForSight- incubated companies," said Robin Bellas, partner at Morgenthaler. "I know few executives with Hank's track record, industry expertise and management talent. He is the quintessential serial entrepreneur and will make a great impact on our firm and our portfolio companies."

In addition to serving as an advisor and board member to current Morgenthale
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