Shlomo Ben-Haim
Quick Facts
Biography
Shlomo Ben-Haim is an Israeli-born Professor of medicine, a serial entrepreneur specializing in the fields of healthcare and biotech, and a philanthropist.He is the co-founder of Biosense Inc., Spectrum Dynamics LLC., Radiancy Inc., X-Technologies, Impulse Dynamics, InStent Inc., Disc-O-Tech Ltd. and EPD Solutions Ltd.He is the inventor of about 560 patents and patent applications.
Academic appointments
Ben-Haim has held faculty positions at both Harvard University and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology as a Professor of Medicine, Physiology and Biophysics.He has authored or co-authored about 450 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals. He held the role of Chief Scientist at Johnson & Johnson's Biosense-Webster.
Business ventures
Ben-Haim founded, co-founded and presided over a number of businesses, mainly in the healthcare and biotech fields.In 1993, he co-founded Biosense Inc. (which subsequently merged with Webster to form Biosense-Webster Inc. under Johnson & Johnson). In 1996, he co-founded Impulse Dynamics with American entrepreneur Lewis Pell.In 2000 Impulse Dynamics participated in a three-party transaction with Guidant and US-based healthcare company Johnson & Johnson and, in 2005, it was announced that Johnson & Johnson invested $80 million in Impulse Dynamics. Ben-Haim also co-founded Spectrum Dynamics LLC., a company specializing in cardiac molecular imaging. In 2013, the assets of Spectrum Dynamics were acquired by Biosensors International Group, with whom Spectrum Dynamics formed a joint-venture to develop non-cardiac products.
Other companies in the healthcare industry that Ben-Haim has co-founded to date include: InStent Inc. that was merged into Medtronic; Disc-O-Tech Ltd. that was merged into Kyphon which subsequently merged into Medtronic; Radiancy Inc. that was later merged into Photomedex; X-Technologies that was later merged into Guidant which subsequently merged into Boston Scientific; and EPD Solutions that was acquired by Philips. Ben-Haim also co-founded various other medical device and biomedical firms in the fields of cardiology, obesity, diabetes, esthetics and cosmetics, antiviral medications, deep vein thrombosis prevention, therapy for limb ischemia, and post-stroke and sports-injuries rehabilitation. Ben-Haim serves or served as executive chairman of Impulse Dynamics, Spectrum Dynamics LLC. and Motorika Limited.
Ben-Haim is the founder and Chairman of Goji Food Solutions, a company that is developing innovative energy delivery technology. In 2010, ITW invested $50 million into Goji Food Solutions (which was at the time was known as RF Dynamics.)
The companies Ben-Haim founded or co-founded which were subsequently sold or merged generated about USD 2 billion as detailed in the table below:
Company | Exit Value (US $ MM) | Acquired By |
---|---|---|
Biosense Inc. | 427 | Johnson & Johnson |
Disc-O-Tech Ltd. | 220 | Kyphon (subsequently Medtronic) |
Instent Inc. | 214 | Medtronic |
X-Technologies | 200 | Guidant (subsequently Boston Scientific) |
Impulse Dynamics* | 125 | Johnson & Johnson |
Spectrum Dynamics LLC. | 51 | Biosensors International Group Ltd. |
Radiancy Inc. | 252 | PhotoMedex, Inc. |
EPD Solutions Ltd. | 537 | Philips |
Total | 2,026 |
* the three-way deal between Guidant, Johnson & Johnson and Impulse Dynamics
Philanthropy
Ben-Haim co-founded Bridge to the Future, a charitable foundation dedicated to improving health and education in underserved communities in Israel.Ben-Haim is a partner in Atidim, a philanthropic organization aiming at lowering social and financial gaps in society in Israel.
In 2014, Ben-Haim gave a multi-million philanthropic gift for the establishment of a new Harvard Medical School (HMS) endowed professorship at HMS's teaching hospital (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) in honor of Mark Josephson, M.D., chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and director of the Harvard-Thorndike Arrhythmia Institute.
In 2018, Ben-Haim invested in social-impact fintech platform Kaleidofin based in India.
Awards
In 2012, Ben-Haim received an award for his work in Internal Medicine from the Medicine Alumni Society of Iowa. In 2014, he was recognized by the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center as “an internationally acclaimed cardiologist who developed new ways to correct life-threatening problems in the electrical system of the human heart.”