- Inspiration & Vision
- Leadership
- Authors & Editors
- Advisory Board
- Work With Us
- Partners
- Buzz
Leadership
Ben Williams
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Ben has led both for- and non-profit startups and is currently CEO and Co-Founder of Gunner Training (GT) -- a next-generation education platform that leverages adaptive learning technology to optimize learning, retention, and application of knowledge. GT is currently serving medical students and plans to expand both within and outside of healthcare.
Before GT, Ben was founder and CEO of Firefly Health, one of the first social networking websites dedicated to people living with chronic diseases. Under his leadership, Firefly became one of the largest online communities of patients and caregivers living with rare diseases. Firefly is now owned and operated as Careplace.com by Firefly co-founder Eduardo Saverin (also a Facebook co-founder). Ben was previously Executive Director of the Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children (a philanthropic organization serving thousands of patients in nine countries) and an Administrative Resident & Six Sigma Greenbelt at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He has also worked for Merck & Co., Children’s Hospital Boston, and Massachusetts Health Quality Partners.
While studying biology and health policy at Harvard College, Ben was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Health Policy Review, President of the Harvard Health Policy Society, and Teaching Assistant for The Quality of Health Care in America -- a course taught by Professors Donald Berwick, Warner Slack, and Howard Hiatt. Ben has spoken at national events including the NASDQ HealthCare Industry Forum, the Disease Management Colloquium, and the Summit on Behavioral Telehealth. Before College, Ben took a year off to play professional soccer in Taiwan. He now lives with his fiancée and their exceptionally cute and cuddly runt Scottish Terrier and spends most of his free time either playing soccer or trying desperately to get his blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Connect with Ben on Twitter or LinkedIn.
Frank Lau, MD
Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer
Frank is a resident in the Harvard Combined Plastic Surgery Residency Program and a clinical research fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In the lab, he’s directing the differentiation of hepatocytes from induced pluripotent stem cells and embryonic stem cells. He’s also investigating the physiology of adipogenesis. One of his greatest passions is teaching, which is a pursuit that’s engaged him since high school. He taught the MCAT during his undergraduate years at Yale, where he graduated in 3 years with a B.S. in Molecular Biochemistry & Biophysics. He also taught undergraduate-level genetics during medical school at the University of Michigan, from which he graduated with research honors. His passion for teaching drives many of the technological innovations at Gunner Training.
Nicholas Mertaugh, MD
Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Nicholas is a recent graduate of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine interested in (read “fanatical about”) health IT, medical software, and revamping medical education. He entered medical school with an MS in biophysics and a mission of pursuing surgery as a career, and is leaving medical school with an MS in computer science and a mission of performing surgery on our broken medical and medical education systems. Nicholas was also a Kaplan MCAT instructor for several years and uses his experience with teaching pre-meds how to bulldoze the exam to connect with our family of users at Gunner Training. When he’s not writing code and wearing twenty Gunner hats, Nicholas is fueled by fine woodworking, collecting Russian opera, and playing bluegrass guitar.
Dan Von Kohorn
Chief Architect
Dan is a serial entrepreneur, programmer, and finance geek. He is a portfolio manager and software engineer for VKRA (investment company), co-founder of Beacon Angels (Boston-based angel investment group), outside director at Mediatech Capital (M&A), and serves as a director/advisor for several early stage software companies. Dan’s first start-up was ThoughtStore, a web-based market for intellectual property licensing. Previously, he was an analyst in the Fixed Income Applied Research Group at JP Morgan Investments and Director of Research at Winged Keel Asset Management. Dan graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Economics and a Certificate in Applied and Computational Mathematics.
Cheryl McCarthy
Chief Financial Officer
Cheryl has worked over 25 years with increasing levels of responsibilities in the areas of Finance, Accounting, and Administration for startup to midsized companies in various industries. She has extensive experience with early stage, high growth companies and has played a key role in several successful exits, both in the public and private markets. She is a graduate of Bentley College with a B.S. in Accounting. When not working she enjoys traveling and gardening.
Michael D. Bain
General Counsel
Mick Bain is a partner in the WilmerHale Venture Group and the Corporate Practice Group; co-chair of the WilmerHale Venture Capital Group; and co-chair of WilmerHale Emerging Energy Technology Group. Mick specializes in counseling entrepreneurs and companies. He advises companies on formation and governance issues, equity and compensation matters, initial- through late-stage venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, technology licensing and securities laws. Taking a practical business approach, Mick has helped his clients raise hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital and has advised his clients through dozens of public offerings and acquisitions.
Named one of the Best Lawyers in America in the area of venture capital law (2009 and 2010) and corporate law (2010) and a “New England Super Lawyer” (formerly “Massachusetts Super Lawyer”) in 2009, Mick is also a frequent guest lecturer on entrepreneurship and corporate finance at MIT, Harvard Business School, Boston University and Babson College.
ShareThis