Millions of people suffer from sleep apnea every single night. We will not rest until they sleep peacefully.

Pete Schmidt, MD

VP Clinical Research

Pete is an experienced clinician-scientist who most recently oversaw the NDA-enabling trials for a novel drug-device combination at Zosano Pharma. Prior to this, he was the head of Clinical Affairs at Depomed, helping to relaunch a $1bn drug acquisition and conducting several innovative trials on marketed products. Pete also conceptualized and implemented the cancer pain program at Stanford Hospital, where he still sees patients. He is board certified in Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine and Addiction Medicine. Pete holds a B.S. in Psychology from Cornell, an M.S. in Epidemiology and Clinical Research from Stanford and an M.D. from the University of Colorado.

Rick O'Connor

Chief Executive Officer

Rick is a proven executive in the medical device industry, having successfully developed and commercialized innovative products at both industry-leading public corporations and privately funded start-up entities. Most recently as SVP, Technology and Development at Triple Ring Technologies, Rick led all business units and R&D and brought multiple incubated medical technologies to production. In the pain management field, Rick led the development and commercialization of the first wearable and implantable dorsal root ganglion neural stimulator (VP, Engineering and Operations at Spinal Modulation, acquired by St. Jude Medical). In the cardiac space, he developed and brought several generations of implantable cardiac defibrillators and surgical devices to market (Director of R&D at Ventritex MUSC, acquired by St. Jude Medical and Guidant Corp, acquired by Boston Scientific).

During his 25 years in medical devices, Rick has raised multiple rounds of capital at Lectus Medical, Spinal Modulation and Triple Ring Technologies. He has led organizations through multiple acquisitions and integrations (Hill-Rom, St. Jude Medical, Boston Scientific), while successfully leading R&D, operations, quality, marketing and sales teams. Rick began his career in the United States Air Force, where he served as Captain and led F-22 and A-10 developmental flight test engineering. He has over 30 issued patents, a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Clarkson University and an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco.

Walter Stevens, PhD

VP Engineering

Walter brings over 20 years of experience in medical device R&D and product development to Invicta. He has successfully developed products from early clinical use through commercialization, including electromechanical equipment, disposables and implants. Most recently, Walter headed R&D at Outset Medical, leading the development of a consumer-oriented, Wi-Fi-enabled dialysis machine designed for patient use in the home, taking the product from prototype through pilot then full-scale manufacturing. Prior to Outset, Walter held management positions at Covidien and VNUS Medical Technologies, leading the development of several energy-based products for treating chronic venous disease and deep vein thrombosis. Walter was also an early employee of Restore Medical, which developed the pillar implant to treat sleep apnea and snoring. Walter holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University.

Chris Mora

VP Corporate Development & Finance

Chris has a proven track record of building successful companies both domestically and abroad. As Co-Founder of Invicta, he manages the ongoing execution of strategic business goals, including financial planning and fundraising, legal negotiations, business development, talent recruitment and external communications. Previously, Chris built a retail business in China and managed two Grammy-nominated performing artists. Chris has a B.S. in Business Administration with a focus in Entrepreneurial Studies from the University of Southern California, where he was awarded the Mark Stevens Innovation Award.