Leadership Team

An experienced team in the field of medical devices, business and regulatory affairs, specifically in cardiology and cardiac support.

Louis de Lillers,
CEO

Louis brings extensive experience in finance and developing or commercializing new technologies. Since taking on the role of CEO in 2015, he has transformed CorWave from a small R&D startup into a full fledge medical device scaleup. Being a self-trained computer programmer, Louis founded several ventures in the early 2000s and consequently joined Ernst&Young, where he embarked on missions with SMEs and high-growth companies. He subsequently became analyst at Clipperton Finance, a corporate finance boutique, focusing on mergers & acquisitions and venture capital transactions. He was then part of the information technology investment team at Sofinnova Partners. Prior to joining CorWave, he was co-founder and CEO of PlugMed, a medtech company developing innovative devices for LVADs and hemodialysis. Louis graduated from EDHEC Business School with a Master in Management and holds a university degree in artificial heart and circulatory support from Pitié-Salpêtrière. Louis is a board member of France Biotech, an association representing the healthcare innovation sector in France, and Start Industrie, an organization dedicated to supporting French industrial startups and scaleups.

Carl Botterbusch,
CTO

Carl brings 25 years of experience in the field of medical devices and expertise in mechanical circulatory support. He has served as Vice President of Global R&D for Teleflex Medical, a $1.5Bn healthcare firm, leading all R&D activities at 6 locations worldwide. He has also served as Vice President, R&D and General Manager, Cardiac Assist Division for Arrow International, a $500M medical device firm. His areas of expertise include mechanical cardiac support, cardiac catheters and access devices, critical care and anesthesia catheters and antimicrobial coatings. He is a degreed Mechanical Engineer and holds a Master of Business Administration. Carl provides overall technical and strategic direction to the project. He brings many years of direct experience in this field, having previously led the development of two left ventricular assist devices (LVAD), including the LionHeart, the only totally implantable LVAD to receive regulatory approval (CE Mark) to date.

 

Dawn Sadlowski-Buisserez,
Vice President, Operations

Dawn brings to CorWave  30 years of industrial experience, including 15 years focused on the manufacturing of active implantable medical devices — a key asset to support CorWave’s industrial growth and clinical transition. Before joining CorWave, Dawn led the LivaNova/MicroPort CRM manufacturing site in Clamart France, one of Europe’s largest clean rooms for active implantable medical devices, producing tens of thousands of life-saving devices annually.  A graduate of Rutgers University’s College of engineering with an MBA from Sciences Po, Dawn began her career at Alcatel (today Nokia) in the U.S. before managing optical fiber production and expansion activities in France.  She later joined Lear Corporation, a global leader in automotive interiors, where she served as a Six-Sigma continuous improvement champion across manufacturing facilities throughout western Europe. In 2009, she transitioned to Sorin CRM (later LivaNova and MicroPort) where she oversaw industrial quality for pacemakers and defibrillators manufacturing before advancing to Director of Operations of the Clamart site.  She later drove strategic initiatives, including portfolio expansion in China and MDR compliance, following the company’s acquisition by MicroPort.

Anne Chevalier,
Vice President, Human Resources

Anne brings over 20 years of Human Resources experience, gained in diverse environments ranging from fast-growing SMEs to major pharmaceuticals companies. Before joining CorWave, Anne served as the Human Resources Director at IPSEN, a leading French biopharmaceutical company, where she was responsible for two R&D French sites with more than 450 employees. Her scope included managing highly skilled international teams. From 2016 to 2021, Anne was Senior HR Business Partner at Pfizer, supporting local teams for the transformation projects and organizational changes (medical, sales, regulatory affairs, market access) for the internal medicine, Inflammation and Immunology and rare diseases that she also supported globally. She led organizational development and transformation initiatives during a period of significant change. Earlier in her career, Anne spent eight years at Cunningham Lindsey France (formerly Gab Robins), an insurance loss-adjusting firm, where she progressed from HR Manager to Deputy HR Director. In this role, she played a key role in supporting the company’s rapid growth from 250 employees to 1,000 employees over the period. She began her career as a recruitment consultant at Manpower, gaining valuable experience in talent acquisition and management. Anne holds a degree in Social Law from the University of Nottingham (UK) and a Master’s in Human Resources from ESSEC, a leading French business school.

 

Gabriella Giaquinta,
Director of Clinical Affairs

Gabriella brings multifaceted clinical expertise spanning hospital, CRO, and industry settings. She has served notably as an instructing nurse in cardiac surgery at the Hirslanden Clinic Zurich, and has led clinical trials across multiple startups and high-growth companies, including Thoratec, Edwards, TransMedics, and JenaValve. During her four-year tenure at Thoratec/Abbott, Gabriella played a key role in the HeartMate 3 CE Mark study conducted at ten leading cardiac surgery hospitals, helping demonstrate the innovative capabilities of the device, now the most widely implanted LVAD in the world. She also served as Project Leader for the HeartMate 3 ELEVATE Post-Market Registry, conducted across 28 top-tier hospitals internationally. Before joining CorWave, Gabriella was the European Director of Clinical Operations at BioVentrix.