Company Profile:
Next Safety, Inc. is a privately held medical technology company located in Jefferson, NC that was founded in 2002 by C. Eric Hunter, Michael A. Wiener and Dr. Jack Hebrank. The Company’s mission is to create new devices that improve global health.
Next Safety fulfills this mission through its pulmonary drug delivery devices and pulmonary respirators. The Company’s goal is to create powerful new ways of delivering medicines through the lungs and protect people from breathing airborne pathogens and contaminants, both of which have the potential to save countless lives.
Next Safety has in place a management team and set of advisors with proven expertise and success in the fields of technology, medicine, engineering, volume manufacturing, and finance. Included in its advisors and shareholders are: Dr. John Hebrank (Former Professor of Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina State University); Dr. Robert F. Davis (John & Claire Bertucci Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University); and Dr. Laurie E. McNeil (Chair of Physics and Astronomy Department and Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UNC Chapel Hill).
Board of Directors
Matthew Bars, MS, CTTS: Non Executive Chairman
Phillip Weaver: Director
Management
Phillip Weaver: Chief Executive Officer and President
Angela Weaver: Vice President
George Colvard: Chief Operating Officer
Anthony Pierce: Manager of Design for Production
Advisors & Partners:
Tom Stern, MD
Prof. Robert Davis, PhD
John “Jack” Hebrank, PhD
Brian Kelley, PhD
Prof. Laurie McNeil, PhD
Team Backgrounds:
Matthew P. Bars, MS, CTTS, Chairman of the Board, is a nicotine replacement therapy consultant for Next Safety. Mr. Bars earned his B.S. in psychology from Framingham State College in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1976. He graduated Magna Cum Laude. He received his M.S. in Clinical Psychology from Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois in 1978. Mr. Bars completed his internship at the New Jersey College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry in Newark, New Jersey in 1979 and is a member of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry. He has been engaged in the treatment, management, and administration of nicotine addiction services since 1980. In 1994, Mr. Bars was retained as an expert consultant to the federal class action Castano tobacco litigation. He has also been called to testify before the FDA and New Jersey State Assembly concerning current smoking topics. He is a former faculty member of the Addictions Certification Program of Bergen County College teaching Nicotine Dependence Theory and Clinical Practice. Mr. Bars is a consultant and key opinion leader to many pharmaceutical, healthcare and medical diagnostics companies, He is a contributing editor to the National Cancer Institute’s “Clearing The Air” stop smoking publication. Mr. Bars is also the expert consultant for smoking cessation for the New York City Fire Department and the co-developer of the “Tobacco Free with the New York FD” program. He has appeared on the NBC Today Show several times, as well as the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, ABC World News Tonight, CNBC and CNN. Mr. Bars is the former Director of the Pavonia Medical Associates IQuit Smoking Program. Pavonia Medical Associates was a 70-physician multi-specialty medical group located in Jersey City, North Bergen, and Secaucus, New Jersey. He is the current clinical director of the Palisades Medical Center’s IQuit Smoking Program (an affiliate of the Columbia University New York Presbyterian Healthcare System and a director of the IQuit Smoking Consultation Service (SCS). The SCS provides management, training, and support for stop smoking programs at numerous physician offices and medical facilities nationwide. The SCS is also engaged in pulmonary and smoking cessation medical research.
Phillip Weaver is President, CEO and a Director of Next Safety. Mr. Weaver earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech in 1992. He has worked in the electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and physics for device, product, and equipment development in industry as relates to pulmonary products, fiber optics, and general production automation.
George Colvard is Next Safety’s Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Colvard earned his Bachelor of Technology in Business from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina in 1991. He has managed purchasing and distribution at United Chemi-Con in Lansing, North Carolina. He served as Cost Accountant for Sprague Aluminum in Lansing, North Carolina
Angela Weaver is Next Safety’s Vice President. Mrs. Weaver graduated with honors from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC with a B.S. in Psychology. She completed her M.A. work in 1994 in Clinical Psychology and Agency Counseling also at Appalachian State University. Mrs. Weaver has twelve years of manufacturing and retail experience in the outdoor recreation industry including sales, advertising, marketing, design and production. She also served as a Director and as Head of School for Mountain Pathways School in Boone, NC
Anthony Pierce is the Manager of Design for Production for Next Safety. He also is an advisor for Wilkes Community College: Industrial & Engineering Technologies Advisory Committee. Mr. Pierce earned his B.S. in Industrial Technology from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina in 1993. His studies focused on manufacturing and management. He received Epsilon Pi Tau Honors Fraternity for Excellence in Industrial Technology. Formerly, Mr. Pierce worked as a Mold Production Manager and Senior Tool Designer for Leviton Manufacturing in Jefferson, North Carolina.
Advisors
Tom Stern, M.D. Dr. Stern received his undergraduate degree in computer science from The Catholic University of America and his medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He completed a combined residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, followed by a pulmonary and critical care fellowship at MetroHealth Medical Center. His final clinical training was a sleep medicine fellowship at MetroHealth Medical Center. During his fellowship, he completed a Masters of Science in Clinical Research at Case Western Reserve University. He is a clinical assistant professor of medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, where his primary responsibilities are the medical intensive care unit and the pulmonary teaching service. He has established an adult sleep medicine program and is the medical director of the pediatric sleep medicine program at Levine’s Children’s Hospital also in Charlotte, North Carolina. As a leader in pulmonary science, Dr. Stern is a driving force in the development of Next Safety’s drug delivery methods. He is the director of their sleep medicine fellowship program. As a leader in pulmonary science, Dr. Stern is a driving force in the development of Next Safety’s drug delivery methods.
Robert F. Davis, Ph.D. is a Technology Advisor to Next Safety. He is the John and Clare Bertucci Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society and a member of the Materials Research Society and TMS. He has won numerous awards including the ALCOA Distinguished Research Award, the ALCOA Award for Research Performance in a Given Year, the Alumni Research Award, the ORNL Excellence in Publications Award, the Richard M. Fulrath Memorial Award from the American Ceramic Society and the R.J.R. Reynolds Award as well as the Alexander Holladay Medal for Excellence in Teaching, Research and Outreach. He also received the National Collegiate Inventor of the Year award for 1999. He has been a guest lecturer of the Troisieme Cycle de la Physique en Suisse Romande. His research interests include (i) growth and characterization of SiC, ZnO, GaN, AlN and nitride alloy thin films, (ii) the development of lateral and pendeo-epitaxial overgrowth for III-Nitrides and other materials, and (iii) the deposition and characterization of metallic films on non-metallic substrates. He has edited or co-edited seven books, authored or co-authored more than 270 chapters in edited proceedings or in books, published more than 370 peer reviewed papers in archival Journals and given more than 160 invited presentations.
Jack Hebrank, Ph.D. serves as a Technology Advisor to the Next Safety. After being employed by the National Bureau of Standards (now called NIST) from 1976 to 1977, he was a faculty member in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at North Carolina State from 1978 to 1998. Since 1998, Dr. Hebrank has been Director, Technology Development at Embrex, Inc. (acquired by Pfizer in 2006). At North Carolina State, he taught and supervised research projects in the areas of automation, machine design, technology development, microprocessors and signal processing and was Director of the Center for Engineering Practice, part of an eight-university project to improve engineering education. Dr. Hebrank has consulted in the areas of biomechanics, machine design, computer-based sensors and control systems and patent protection. Dr. Hebrank received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1971, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 1975 from Duke University. Dr. Hebrank is one of the inventors of Next Safety’s proprietary technology.
Brian M. Kelley, Ph.D. serves on the Medical Advisory Board of Next Safety. He is also a tenured Associate faculty Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Psychology Department at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Virginia. Dr. Kelly is author of six books on psychology & research. He has authored 16 peer-reviewed articles and over 50 published abstracts. He has done over 50 invited presentations on a variety of subjects including the effects of Tobacco and Drugs of Abuse on Brain Function and Development and inhalant abuse. He served as a Subject Matter Expert, Independent Technical Reviewer and Course Development Consultant for NIIT. Dr. Kelly received a B.S. with Honors in Psychology & Pre-medical Biology in 1991 from Geneva College, a Ph.D. in Experimental Biological Psychology (Pharmacology/Neuroscience) in 1995 from Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia, and a Post-Doctoral Medical Research Fellowship in Psychiatry in 1995-1996 from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Center for Drug and Alcohol Programs (CDAP), Medical University of South Carolina.
Laurie McNeil, Ph.D. is a Technology Advisor to the Company. Dr. McNeil serves as the Chair of the Department of Physics and a Professor of Physics and of Applied and Materials Sciences at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (“UNC-CH”), where she has served since 1984. Dr. McNeil is an optical spectroscopist with an emphasis on optical properties of materials. Her research, which has resulted in over 55 publications in scientific journals, includes experimental and theoretical studies of chalcogenide glasses for optical information storage, wide-band gap semiconductors for blue laser applications, strained-layer semiconductor quantum well structures for optical communication, carbon nanotubes for energy storage and field emission devices, and luminescent oxides for flat-panel displays. Dr. McNeil’s most recent work, conducted in collaboration with scientists at DuPont, is concerned with light scattering and near-field optics in concentrated particulate dispersions. Other collaborators include scientists at Lucent Technologies, Argonne National Laboratory and numerous universities in the United States and abroad. In addition to her research activities, Dr. McNeil is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and serves as Assistant Chair for Advancement in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. She received an A.B. in Chemistry and Physics and an A.M. in Physics in 1977 from Harvard University and M.S. in 1979 and a Ph.D. in 1982 (both in Physics) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was a postdoctoral research associate at MIT from 1982 to 1984. Dr. McNeil is one of the inventors of Next Safety’s proprietary technology.