ISTO Technologies Appoints New President/CEO

ISTO Technologies Inc. has a new leader.

The privately-held orthobiological regenerative medicine company appointed George W. Dunbar Jr. as president/CEO, effective immediately. His predecessor, Mitchell Seyedin, Ph.D., will remain a board member and serve as executive chairman.

Dunbar has more than 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry. He joins ISTO Technologies from Arboretum Ventures, where he evaluated investment opportunities in diagnostics, life science tools, and medical devices as a venture partner. Before joining Arboretum, Dunbar was president, CEO and later chairman of Aastrom Biosciences. He previously served as chief executive officer of numerous public and venture-backed life science companies, leading several through a successful turn-around, initial public offering, and/or their acquisition; worked with several national venture capital investment firms; and held senior positions in licensing, business development and marketing with The Ares-Serono Group and Amersham International.

“George Dunbar’s leadership and experience, along with his recognized skill as a strategic change agent, will help build value for ISTO,” Seyedin said. “His entrepreneurial approach to building healthcare and bioscience companies, as well as his emphasis on individual and team accountability, makes him suited to this role. We are pleased to have him as a member of our senior management team.”

Concurrent with his role at Arboretum Ventures, Dunbar founded a management consulting practice, The Dunbar Group, to mentor and guide early stage healthcare management teams on capital efficiency, creating market value, and execution of timely liquidity events for investors.

From 2006 to 2010, Dunbar served as CEO and director, then board chairman of Aastrom Biosciences, a clinical development stage healthcare company. He helped develop three new cardiovascular programs and guide them through Phase II and III clinical trials before becoming executive chairman of Accuri Cytometers and joining Arboretum Ventures.

Dunbar held various operating and director roles at emerging healthcare and life science companies including DepoTech, Epic Therapeutics, LJL Biosystems, Metrika, Molecular Probes, StemCells, Inc. (STEM), Quantum Dot and Quidel. Earlier in his career, he held senior leadership positions at Amersham International (now GE Healthcare) and The Ares Serono Group (now Merck Serono).

Dunbar has an MBA and Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Auburn University in Alabama, and serves on its College of Business MBA Advisory Board. He is a director of Capricor Therapeutics (cardiac cell therapy/CAPR), Diagnovus (molecular diagnostic information services), and several of Arboretum Ventures’ portfolio companies, including CerviLenz, IntelliCyt and KFx Medical. He recently was appointed an advisor to Ryan Search Consulting, and to Vanderbilt University’s Entrepreneurship Advisory Council.

“I am delighted to join ISTO at such an important inflection point in its development,” said Dunbar. “Working together with Mitch Seyedin, we will continue to grow ISTO [Technologies].”

ISTO develops spinal therapeutic and sports medicine products. The St. Louis, Mo.-based company’s products are designed to repair and regenerate damaged or injured cartilage and bone. In addition to cell-based cartilage products in clinical development, ISTO manufactures and markets InQu, a bone graft extender and substitute for spinal fusion applications that has been used in more than 28,000 surgeries at U.S. hospitals to date.