Executive
Team
Dr. hc Anthony Viscogliosi
Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Anthony Viscogliosi has more than three decades of experience as an accomplished inventor, founder, entrepreneur, CEO, board member, leading Wall Street analyst, banker, global financier, author, visionary and lecturer. He is globally recognized as a spine non-fusion expert, with companies and entities such as MCRA, Small Bone Innovations, Aperion, Spine Solutions, Paradigm Spine and Centinel Spine.
After serving on the board since 2020, Anthony Viscogliosi was appointed CEO of Companion Spine in April 2025. With this new title, he now holds the combined role of Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Companion Spine.
Nazanine Cloix
Chief Technology Officer
Nazanine Cloix is the Chief Technology Officer of Companion Spine with over 20 years of successful experience in the spine industry. Prior to her role at Companion Spine, Ms. Cloix was the CEO of Backbone SAS, where she designed, patented, developed, manufactured, CE marked under MDR, and marketed the LISA device in Europe and Asia. She was the Founder and VP of Wallis Business Unit of Spine Next, acquired by Abbott Labs in 2004, where she built and led the Clinical Affairs, Product Management, medical education, and Sales of the company from creation to its sale to Abbott. Ms. Cloix started her career at Stryker, where she Founded Stryker Spine School and led the product team for all the Posterior Product portfolio of Stryker Spine, including XIA. She obtained her Bachelor degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a double major in Economics and International Relations.
Bill Pfost
Chief Sales Officer
Bill Pfost is a seasoned sales and marketing executive with more than 30 years experience in the spine space, having developed and distributed a portfolio of some of the most well-known products in the industry, including Coflex, Mobi-C, Prodisc and others. His career began at US Surgical Corporation, where he was instrumental in the adoption of the lap chole procedure. He has held various commercial leadership positions, such as President at Zimmer Spine distribution and President of American Medical Concepts. He brings a wealth of knowledge, relationships and innovative methods to Companion Spine.
Pierre Asseray
Chief Financial Officer
Pierre Asseray is a seasoned professional with expertise in financial leadership, audit, and strategic advisory roles. He has a proven track record of achieving significant cost reductions, implementing strategic initiatives, and enhancing operational efficiency across diverse industries. During his career, he has held the positions of Group CFO, Manager Audit at Mazars, and Senior Audit Employee conducting extensive audits for small and medium-sized businesses at Afigec.
Ratsamy Thevenin
Global Director Regulatory and Quality Affairs
Ratsamy Thevenin has a strong career background, spanning two decades in quality management and over a decade in regulatory affairs. She has consistently demonstrated astute leadership, analytical prowess, and an unwavering commitment to upholding regulatory compliance and enhancing quality standards across industries. Her expertise includes QMS management, ISO standards compliance, and navigating complex regulations like MDR 2017/745 and 21CFR820. At FX SOLUTIONS, CIRTIL, and RHODIA, she successfully led certification processes, managed CE marking, and directed international registrations.
Franck LaPorte
VP, Operations
Franck LaPorte is head of manufacturing and operations at Companion Spine, and brings more than two decades of experience to the table, which includes leadership roles at Zimmer Spine France, Spine Next, Exactech and Implanet. He has a strong track record of manufacturing management and operational leadership for medical devices in the United States and in Europe.
Thierry Marnay, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Thierry Marnay is a world-renowned spine surgeon with over 45 years of experience and more than 12,000 surgeries performed. He graduated from Paris and Montpellier Medical Schools and founded the Montpellier Spine Center. He pioneered the concept of Spinal Balance in 1983, now a cornerstone in spine pathology analysis. Dr. Marnay is the inventor of the Prodisc® total disc replacement line, the most widely used worldwide. He holds 43 patents and contributed significantly to spine instrumentation and minimally invasive techniques. He has authored 70 peer-reviewed publications and trained more than 1,000 spine specialists. Dr. Marnay co-founded ISASS, received the Frauenthal Prize, and has advised numerous major spine industry leaders.
Board of
Directors
Dr. hc Anthony Viscogliosi
Anthony Viscogliosi has more than three decades of experience as an accomplished inventor, founder, entrepreneur, CEO, board member, leading Wall Street analyst, banker, global financier, author, visionary and lecturer. He is globally recognized as a spine non-fusion expert, with companies and entities such as MCRA, Small Bone Innovations, Aperion, Spine Solutions, Paradigm Spine and Centinel Spine.
Marc Viscogliosi
Marc Viscogliosi was a founder of Paradigm Spine and its Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Managers until its sale in 2019. Prior to founding the company, Mr. Viscogliosi was a cofounder and Director of Spine Solutions, Inc. His clinical and regulatory expertise has been applied to many groundbreaking innovations in non-fusion spine technology.
John Viscogliosi
John Viscogliosi is the former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Centinel Spine. Mr. Viscogliosi has more than 25 years of operations and turn-around experience in the orthopedic industry, which included being on the board of Small Bone Innovations, Inc., and has applied his expertise across several innovative companies and entities, including MCRA, Woven Orthopedic, Knee Creations and Centinel Spine.
Thierry Marnay, MD
Dr. Thierry Marnay is a world-renowned spine surgeon with over 45 years of experience and more than 12,000 surgeries performed. He graduated from Paris and Montpellier Medical Schools and founded the Montpellier Spine Center. He pioneered the concept of Spinal Balance in 1983, now a cornerstone in spine pathology analysis. Dr. Marnay is the inventor of the Prodisc® total disc replacement line, the most widely used worldwide. He holds 43 patents and contributed significantly to spine instrumentation and minimally invasive techniques. He has authored 70 peer-reviewed publications and trained over 1,000 spine specialists. Dr. Marnay co-founded ISASS, received the Frauenthal Prize, and has advised numerous major spine industry leaders.
Kerem Mavituncalilar
Kerem Mavituncalilar is one of the co-founders of Watermark Investments and has over 20 years of global investment experience across public and private equity. He previously served as CEO of Astra Student Housing, Turkey’s largest private student housing operator, and as Managing Director at Milestone Capital Partners. At Milestone, he led the acquisition of a 50% stake in Astra and brought in strategic partners including the IFC. Earlier in his career, he was a senior trader at Citigroup in Dubai. Kerem Mavituncalilar holds a B.Sc. from Bentley University (USA) and an MBA from Warwick University (UK).
Jacqueline Hess
Ms. Jacqueline Hess is a non-executive director and business growth strategist with over 30 years of experience leading and advising heavily regulated businesses in the transatlantic business corridor. This includes over 25 years supporting U.S. biotech companies expanding their global footprint and using the transatlantic business corridor as an accelerator for global growth. In addition to her role as a board member of Companion Spine LLC, Jacqueline Hess is Non Executive Director at Immunophotonics, Vice Chair of the Board of Vontobel Swiss Financial Advisers, and Chair of the Boardroom in Switzerland. She holds an A.B. from the University of Chicago, J.D. from Cornell Law School, and LL.M. from KU Leuven, Belgium.