Executive Management

Dr. Phillip Chan is the Chief Executive Officer of CytoSorbents Corporation (NASDAQ: CTSO). Over the past 16 years, Dr. Chan has led the company through the EU approval and commercialization of its flagship product, CytoSorb, as a novel blood purification therapy to treat cytokine storm and control potentially deadly inflammation seen in life-threatening illnesses in the intensive care unit and cardiac surgery.

Prior to joining CytoSorbents, Dr. Chan led healthcare and life science investments as Partner for the $80M NJTC Venture Fund, one of the largest seed and Series A early-stage venture investors in the greater New York region, and a top 1% performing fund for its vintage.

Dr. Chan is also a co-founder and Vice Chairman of Medality Medical, formerly known as Andrew Technologies, a privately-held medical device company pursuing a surgical cure of Type 2 diabetes through removal of deep mesenteric metabolic fat with its FDA-approved lipoplasty system HydraSolve™.

Dr. Chan received board certification in internal medicine, having completed his residency at Harvard Medical School at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He received his MD/PhD from Yale University School of Medicine and his BSc in cell and molecular biology from Cornell University.

Dr. Deliargyris is triple board-certified in internal medicine, cardiology, and interventional cardiology with vast clinical experience in treating patients with acute cardiovascular disease having performed thousands of interventional procedures. Prior to joining CytoSorbents in 2020, Dr. Deliargyris was CMO for PLX Pharma (NASDAQ: PLXP) and led the FDA approval of Vazalore, a novel aspirin formulation designed to limit gastrointestinal toxicity.

Before that Dr. Deliargyris was Vice President and Global Medical Lead at The Medicines Company (NASDAQ: MDCO) where he led the FDA and EMA approval of Cangrelor, an injectable potent antiplatelet agent. Before joining industry, Dr. Deliargyris served as Director of Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology at Athens Medical Center and as Assistant Professor of Cardiology and Director of the Intravascular Ultrasound Laboratory at Wake Forest University Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Dr. Deliargyris’ original research on inflammation and cardiovascular disease and in the optimization of antithrombotic therapies has resulted in over 120 publications in top peer review journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Circulation, European Heart Journal and numerous awards, including the prestigious Society of Cardiac Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) Fellowship Award for best research in interventional cardiology in the United States.

He received his Medical Degree from the Kapodistrian University School of Medicine in Athens and completed his residency in internal medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston where he served as Chief Resident and his fellowship in cardiology and interventional cardiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he also served as Chief Fellow. Dr. Deliargyris is an elected Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC), European Society of Cardiology (FESC) and Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions (FSCAI).

Mr. Mariani brings over 25 years of experience as a valued partner and strategic financial leader across several high growth medical technology companies. Prior to joining CytoSorbents, Mr. Mariani served as Executive Vice President and CFO of Axogen, Inc., a medical technology company focused on peripheral nerve repair and regeneration, from March 2021 to December 2023, and as its CFO from March 2016 the March 2021.

At Axogen, Mr. Mariani was responsible for all finance and accounting functions, investor relations, information technology and security, and Global Quality. During his tenure, Axogen grew annual revenue from $27 million to nearly $160 million, expanded from one to four nerve repair clinical applications, raised approximately $250 million of capital, executed a comprehensive clinical evidence development and publication strategy, and completed a long-term facility build-out. Prior to Axogen, Mr. Mariani was the Chief Financial Officer of Lensar, Inc., which at the time was privately held and a global leader in next generation femtosecond laser technology for refractive cataract surgery.

Prior to Lensar, he served as Chief Financial Officer at Hansen Medical, Inc., a publicly traded company that designed and manufactured medical robotics for positioning and control of catheter-based technologies. Mr. Mariani’s career also includes 12 years with Guidant Corporation, a global leader in the development and sale of medical devices for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. During his tenure at Guidant, he held senior financial positions of increasing importance, including Vice President of Finance and Administration, Guidant Japan, and Corporate Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer. He started his career at Ernst and Young, LLP, where he served a diverse client base as a Certified Public Accountant. Mr. Mariani earned a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Indiana University.

Mr. Capponi has more than 20 years of management experience in medical devices, pharmaceuticals and imaging equipment at companies including Upjohn, Sims Deltec and Sabratek. Mr. Capponi joined CytoSorbents Inc. as VP of Operations in 2002, was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in 2005, and then to President in 2020.

Prior to joining CytoSorbents, he held several senior management positions at Sabratek and its diagnostics division GDS. Mr. Capponi was interim president of GDS diagnostics in 2001, and from 2000 to 2001 he was responsible for the integration of the Baxter-Sabratek acquisition. From 1998 to 2000 Mr. Capponi was Senior VP and COO for Sabratek and VP Operations from 1996 to 1998.

Mr. Capponi has extensive experience in process scale-up and high-volume medical disposables production. He received his MSc in Chemistry and his BSc in Chemistry and Microbiology from Bowling Green State University.

Dr. Steiner is a native German and English-speaking sales executive who manages all direct sales and marketing efforts of CytoSorb^® in Germany and distributor relationships outside the European Union. Dr. Steiner joined CytoSorbents in 2012 from Critical Care Competence, a critical-care focused outsourced sales and marketing company in Germany, where he was Managing Director.

He previously served as the Director of Corporate Marketing for Pulsion Medical Systems AG, a publicly-traded German medical device company focused on non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring, where he was responsible for launching new products such as PiCCO^®, establishing physician relationships, building market awareness, initiating clinical studies, and helping to grow sales to approximately €30 million.

Prior to that, as Director of Global Marketing at Teraklin AG, he led the clinical introduction of MARS™, which at that time was a completely new blood purification technology for liver disease being spun out of University of Rostock, Germany, that was eventually purchased by Gambro AB.

Mr. Cramer joined CytoSorbents in 2013 and currently leads business development at CytoSorbents with more than 15 years of business-development and commercial experience in the medical device field. Prior to CytoSorbents, he was Senior Director of New Venture Development at Johnson & Johnson (J&J). He helped to create and manage J&J’s portfolio of early-stage ventures from inception to product launch, establishing new revenue streams for Johnson & Johnson. He was personally responsible for initiating and driving significant partnership deal flows, and has substantial experience in negotiating and establishing business development relationships across many commercial, non-profit, and government organizations.

These deals encompassed a wide variety of structures, including distribution, promotion, co-development, licensing, merger and acquisitions, and equity investments. Prior to that, he was the Worldwide Strategic Marketing leader responsible for developing and executing branding and business development strategies for J&J’s minimally invasive weight-loss surgery division. Prior to joining J&J, he held multiple leadership positions at PwC Consulting and Parametric Technology Corporation. Chris earned his BSc degree from Miami University, and his MBA and MSc degrees from Carnegie Mellon University.