About Us

Dr. Ahmed Zaafran, M.D

Co-Founder, Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Ahmed Zaafran, M.D, is the co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Lucid Lane, a Silicon Valley Based digital health company focused on solutions for chronic pain, medication taper management, and support for co-occurring mental health needs. He is a board certified anesthesiologist and still practices in the San Francisco Bay Area. He trained at The University of Texas McGovern School of Medicine in anesthesiology prior to joining as faculty at the Stanford University School of Medicine from 2012-2021. In 2013, he completed his Certification in Entrepreneurship and Global Innovation through the Graduate School of Business (GSB) Stanford Ignite Program, which led to his role as the Director of Development for Stanford Medicine X-Middle East Region and a team member of Stanford Healthcare Innovation.

Orlie Benjamin

Senior Director of Marketing

Orlie is an innovative marketing leader with 15+ years of experience in leadership roles. Her career has spanned a broad range of marketing experiences in a variety of industries, with expertise in digital marketing, experience strategy, brand marketing, partnerships, product marketing, analytics and pricing. As a leader in Fortune 500 companies such as Victoria’s Secret, NetJets, DSW, American Airlines and Scotts Miracle Gro, she has successfully led large scale solutions from strategy to implementation across many facets of marketing. Most recently, Orlie led growth initiatives at Scotts Miracle Gro with a focus on building new digital brands, providing leadership for venture capital investments and leading the corporate strategic partnerships and licensing initiatives. Orlie holds a JD MBA from The Ohio State University and a BA from the University of Michigan.

Mohammed Pedhiwala

VP. Engineering

Mohammed Pedhiwala is a seasoned engineering leader, with over 23 years of experience managing software engineering teams and stacks involving large scale SaaS and cloud platforms involving highly available systems, data pipelines as well as ML workflows. Prior to Lucid Lane, Mohammed served as the founding VP for Linqia Inc. and Influencer Marketing Platform. He was the Senior Director of Software Engineering and Architecture at Shutterfly where he led the development of the product architecture and infrastructure. Prior to Shutterfly, Mohammed was a Principal Member of Technical Staff at Oracle. Mohammed’s expertise includes high performance server architecture, scalable microservices and software infrastructure and services, ML and ML workflows as well as large scale data infrastructure and pipelines. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering from the University of Mumbai.

Jay Petrishin, RN, NEA-BC, CCM, FACHE

VP of Clinical Services

Jay Petrishin, RN is a board-certified Nurse Leader with a focus on community healthcare and at-need populations. Starting his career in the US Army Medical Corps in medical lab, Jay took junior roles in Ambulatory Management while studying at George Washington University. After graduate school, he completed a Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of Houston Health Science Center Cizik School of Nursing as a John Dunn Foundation Grantee. Shortly after, while Director of Outpatient Services at TIRR Memorial Hermann, Jay began to connect how the disciplines of healthcare administration, nursing, and case management could be aligned to improve the patient and caregiver value of integrated ambulatory care for those with chronic disabilities. With these insights, Jay went on to develop wrap-around primary care clinics in Medicaid communities with United HealthCare’s Community and State Care Transformation Team.

Dr. Barrett Larson, M.D.

SVP of Clinical, Product, and Innovation

Dr. Barrett Larson, MD is a board-certified anesthesiologist with a focus on medical technology. He has spent most of his medical career at Stanford University, first as a medical student, then as a resident, and now as a Clinical Assistant Professor. In parallel with his academic career, Barrett co-founded and served as CEO of Leaf Healthcare, which commercialized the first remote patient monitoring system for pressure injury prevention. The company was acquired by Smith and Nephew, a global medical technology company. Barrett has over 50 issued and pending patents and numerous peer-reviewed publications. At Lucid Lane, Barrett leads the company’s clinical, product, and innovation efforts. In this role, Barrett leverages his experience as both an anesthesiologist and technologist to develop innovative ways to prevent the development of opioid dependence after surgery. Barrett is also an avid runner, with several marathons under his belt.

Dr. Amer Raheemullah, M.D.

Senior Vice President of Addiction Medicine and Behavioral Sciences

Dr. Amer Raheemullah is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Addiction Medicine in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Department at Stanford University. He specializes in tapers and complicated withdrawal in patients with opioid dependence, chronic pain, and dual diagnoses through the outpatient, inpatient, and perioperative settings. He has published chapters and peer-reviewed articles in these areas and is Director of the Addiction Medicine Consult Service at Stanford Hospital. He is board-certified in Addiction Medicine and Internal Medicine, and completed his Addiction Medicine fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine and his Internal Medicine residency at the University of Illinois College of Medicine.

Ramin Naimi

Chief Technology Officer

Ramin Naimi is a technologist with over 25 years of industry experience building products and services in fast pace organizations ranging from startups to large technology organizations such as Intuit, Yahoo, AOL and 3Com. Ramin was the founding VP of Engineering at Mist Systems, an AI-focused wireless network platform backed by investors from Norwest Ventures, Lightspeed, Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins, which was acquired by Juniper Networks for $405M. Ramin was previously VP of Engineering at Shutterfly Inc. (NASDAQ: SFLY), where he was responsible for all eCommerce systems and consumer brands for the company.

Roger Hong

Chief Product Officer

Roger Hong is an entrepreneurial product leader with over 20 years of product management, general management, and technology experience. He most recently served as General Manager at Shutterfly and Lifetouch Integration, responsible for critical customer-facing integration efforts and designing personalized customer journeys between the Lifetouch and Shutterfly businesses. He also served as the GM of Tiny Prints and interim GM of Wedding Paper Divas, responsible for strategy, operations, and $100M+ P&L for these online cards and stationery brands. Roger holds a BS in Computer Science and a Master’s in Information Systems Management from Carnegie Mellon University.

David Etheridge

Chief Operations Officer

David Etheridge is an enterprise management executive with 25 years of experience defining and deploying operations management systems including at healthcare technology startups with valuations over $1B. After three years deploying telephony operations systems in the former Soviet Union David returned to Silicon Valley to join healthcare technology startup Align Technology (Invisalign) in 2000 (NASDAQ: ALGN). David was VP of Program Management at Shutterfly Inc. (NASDAQ:SFLY), Livongo Health Inc. (NASDAQ: LVGO), Realtor Inc. (NASDAQ:NWSA), and Unison.

Dr. Beau Norgeot, PHD.

Chief Data Officer

As Lucid Lane’s Chief Data Officer, Dr. Beau Norgeot incorporates AI and machine learning into Lucid Lane’s clinical platform to help optimize member treatments and improve their outcomes. Previously Beau served as the Staff Vice President of Clinical AI at Anthem, building enterprise-class software products that delivered digital precision medical solutions. Beau has also worked at the Computational Genomics Institute developing distributed solutions for genomics big data along with clinical predictive models and web applications. Beau completed his PhD at UCSF under the guidance of Atul Butte, the Chief Data Scientist for the University of California Health System, where he worked collaboratively with physicians to develop novel AI-driven research in rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and pregnancy. Beau is the author of numerous research publications, a creator of open-source software projects, a thought leader and speaker on AI in healthcare, has won multiple academic grants, is an Amazon Research Fellow and an ARCs Fellow, and has developed deep learning methods for precision medicine at Microsoft Research.

Jamie Lewis

Chief Commercial Officer

Jamie Lewis has been a healthcare leader for more than 18 years, with a depth of experience in the medical device industry, she is now charged with commercializing Lucid Lane’s solution at scale. Prior to joining Lucid Lane, Jamie served as SVP of Sales at Outset Medical where she conceived the strategy and commercial infrastructure that led to a successful IPO in 2020. In the 7 years that Jamie ran the commercial/sales efforts, she built a high performance team and drove sales from $0 to $100M. Jamie joined Outset Medical from Intuitive Surgical where she spent 9 years in various leadership roles driving sales and market development efforts during the high-growth phase and adoption of surgical robotics. During Jamie’s tenure the company grew from $227M to $2B. She began her career at Stryker. Jamie received her undergraduate degree at The Ohio State University where she was a starting point guard for the women’s basketball team for 4 years. Jamie was drafted in the WNBA by the Washington Mystics in 2001.

Adnan Asar

Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer

Adnan Asar has extensive experience and success in building fast-growing digital health, e-commerce, consumer and enterprise services at companies such as Yahoo!, Shutterfly / Tiny Prints, Livongo Health among others. Adnan has built $100mm+ companies in the consumer and digital health space that went I.P.O or were successfully acquired and that were backed by investors from Kleiner Perkins, TCV and General Catalyst. He was the founding Chief Technology Officer at Livongo Health (NASDAQ: LVGO) responsible for product and technology solutions for diabetes management. Adnan was previously Global Head of Technology at Shutterfly Inc. responsible for their products fetching $1 billion in revenues. He was head of technology at Tiny Prints, which was acquired by Shutterfly. He was also the first engineer hired at Keynote Systems (now Dynatrace), which went public in the late 1990s.

Adnan Asar

Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer

Adnan Asar has extensive experience and success in building fast-growing digital health, e-commerce, consumer and enterprise services at companies such as Yahoo!, Shutterfly / Tiny Prints, Livongo Health among others. Adnan has built $100mm+ companies in the consumer and digital health space that went I.P.O or were successfully acquired and that were backed by investors from Kleiner Perkins, TCV and General Catalyst. He was the founding Chief Technology Officer at Livongo Health (NASDAQ: LVGO) responsible for product and technology solutions for diabetes management. Adnan was previously Global Head of Technology at Shutterfly Inc. responsible for their products fetching $1 billion in revenues. He was head of technology at Tiny Prints, which was acquired by Shutterfly. He was also the first engineer hired at Keynote Systems (now Dynatrace), which went public in the late 1990s.

Evan G. Pivalizza

M.D.

Dr. Evan Pivalizza is a Distinguished Teaching Professor and Director, Liver Transplant Anesthesia in the Department of Anesthesiology at UTHealth Houston.. Pivalizza’s specific clinical interests are in solid organ liver and kidney transplant surgery, neuro and spine surgery, orthopedic surgery, bariatric surgery and of course, acutely injured trauma patients. He serves as an officer for the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists, a Texas delegate and member of committees for our national body (American Society of Anesthesiologists) as well as on committees in the Harris County Medical Society, the Texas Medical Association and the board of the Gulf Coast Blood Center.

Len Wright

Advisor

Len Wright is Executive Vice President of Hospital Relations for USAP. He has more than 25 years of healthcare experience, primarily focused on fundamental operations and strategic growth initiatives. Prior to joining USAP, Wright served as founder, President and CEO of Global Physics Solutions (GPS). Under his guidance, GPS grew from a start-up to the nation’s largest medical physics management company, eventually being acquired by Landauer Inc., a global leader in radiation science and services. Prior to building GPS, Wright served in various senior management roles including senior manager of oncology national accounts with Genentech, the world’s leading Biotech Research and Development Company. He is a graduate of Texas Tech University.

Ed Han

Advisor

Ed Han started his career in investment banking but has spent the last 22 years working on start-ups in the Bay Area, including Danger, Beaucoup and Tiny Prints. Most notably, Han was a co-founder and CEO of Tiny Prints that started in 2003 and grew to over 300 people and $100M in revenues. The company was bootstrapped for over five years and eventually took on growth equity investors, Summit Partners and TCV. In 2011, Tiny Prints was acquired by Shutterfly for $333M. Since Shutterfly, Han has started a real estate investment fund and a couple of other start-ups that were acquired and is currently working on a new venture in the mental health category. He earned a BA from the University of Chicago and an MBA from Stanford.

Ronnie Lott

Former NFL Player

Ronnie Lott is an American former professional football player who was in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons during the 1980s and 1990s.

Lott played college football for the University of Southern California (USC) and was honored as a consensus All-American. A first-round pick in the 1981 NFL Draft, he played for the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Raiders, New York Jets, and Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL. Lott was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000, and is widely considered to be one of the best of the best players in NFL history. He is a mental health advocate who worked with the Pro Football Hall of Fame to establish a behavioral health program for current and former players.

Sherif Zaafran

M.D.

Sherif Zaafran, M.D., of Houston, is the President of the Texas Medical Board. He chairs multiple national committees on pain management, including the subcommittee Taskforce on Pain Management Services for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as the Pain Clinical Pathways Committee, Memorial Hermann System, Houston. Additionally, he is chair of the Government Affairs Committee for the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists and is vice-chair for the Harris County Medical Society Delegation to TMA. Dr. Zaafran studied biochemistry at The University of Texas at Austin and received a Doctor of Medicine from The University of Texas McGovern Medical School in Houston.

Carin A. Hagberg

M.D. FASA

Carin Hagberg, M.D., FASA, is the Chief Academic Officer of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she also serves as the Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative Medicine, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine.

Vanila Singh

M.D. MACM

Dr. Vanila Singh is the immediate past Chief Medical Officer in the US Department of Health and Human Services and was Chairperson of the highly regarded HHS Inter-Agency Pain Management Task Force in conjunction with the DOD and the VA. She led this group to the comprehensive and approachable final report submitted to Congress. She is a clinical associate professor of Anesthesiology, Pain and Perioperative Medicine at Stanford and is a teaching mentor at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Stephen M. Merz

Fache

Stephen M. Merz, FACHE, is Principal of Merz Healthcare Consulting and focuses on behavioral healthcare. Stephen’s career spans nearly 30 years in healthcare administration and behavioral healthcare. Most recently, Stephen served as Interim President and CEO of Diamond Healthcare, a national behavioral healthcare management company. Previously, Stephen served as President & CEO of Maine Behavioral Healthcare, an integrated behavioral healthcare organization and as Vice President & Executive Director of Behavioral Health at Yale New Haven Hospital.

Stephen’s work focuses on integrating behavioral health care services into the overall healthcare system. Stephen has served on national and regional boards, including the National Association of Behavioral Healthcare, chair of the Behavioral Healthcare Councils of the Maine and Connecticut Hospital Associations, and as Regent for Connecticut for the American College of Healthcare Executives. He has a BA from Cornell University and MHSA from University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Our Mission

About the Company

Leadership

Adnan Asar

Dr. Ahmed Zaafran, M.D

Jamie Lewis

Dr. Beau Norgeot, PHD

David Etheridge

Roger Hong

Ramin Naimi

Dr. Amer Raheemullah, M.D.

Dr. Barrett Larson, M.D.

Jay Petrishin, RN, NEA-BC, CCM, FACHE

Mohammed Pedhiwala

Orlie Benjamin

Investors

Advisors

Dr. Ahmed Zaafran, M.D

Orlie Benjamin

Mohammed Pedhiwala

Jay Petrishin, RN, NEA-BC, CCM, FACHE

Dr. Barrett Larson, M.D.

Dr. Amer Raheemullah, M.D.

Ramin Naimi

Roger Hong

David Etheridge

Dr. Beau Norgeot, PHD.

Jamie Lewis

Adnan Asar

Adnan Asar

Evan G. Pivalizza

Len Wright

Ed Han

Ronnie Lott

Sherif Zaafran

Carin A. Hagberg

Vanila Singh

Stephen M. Merz