Management Team

Burke T. Barrett was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Pulse Biosciences in May 2024. Mr. Barrett brings over 35 years of hands-on leadership experience in the medical device industry, with a focus on developing and launching novel technologies. Prior to joining Pulse Biosciences, he served as CEO and President of CardioFocus, Inc. after almost two decades of positions of increasing responsibility, where he played a pivotal role in the FDA PMA approval and global commercial launch of a pioneering electrophysiology laser-balloon ablation device for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. Mr. Barrett has an extensive background in regulatory affairs, clinical studies, and commercialization of complex medical devices. His career began in regulatory affairs at Bausch & Lomb, followed by roles at Dornier Medical Systems and Biofield Corporation. At Cyberonics, Inc., he served as Vice President of Business and Technology Development, overseeing IDE trials and new applications for the company's technology. Mr. Barrett was also Vice President of Clinical Operations at Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc., where he led clinical activities for the development of brain-computer interfaces. As industry representative, Burke was an active member of the FDA’s Circulatory System Medical Devices Advisory Panel for four years. Mr. Barrett holds Bachelor’s degrees in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from Syracuse University and an MBA from Kennesaw State University.

Kevin Danahy was appointed Chief Commercial Officer in May 2024, having previously served as the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer since September 2022. Mr. Danahy has more than 20 years of senior leadership experience building and leading strategic commercial organizations for medical technology companies. Prior to joining Pulse Biosciences, Mr. Danahy served as President of Solmetex, driving revenue growth for the company through the implementation of innovative and scalable solutions, while overseeing strategy, sales, marketing, operations, engineering, and service efforts. Previously, at Zimmer Biomet, Mr. Danahy held roles of increasing responsibility, most recently as Vice President of Global Emerging Technologies and Specialty Sales. Before his time at Zimmer, Mr. Danahy served as Senior Director at Intuitive Surgical, where he successfully transformed the sales leadership training program. Early in his career, he served in commercial leadership roles at both Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson. Mr. Danahy holds a Master’s of Science from Tufts University.

Darrin R. Uecker was appointed Pulse Biosciences Chief Technology Officer in September 2022, having previously served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer & President since September 2015. Mr. Uecker has over 30 years of experience in the medical device field and is a named inventor on over 70 patents. Prior to Pulse Biosciences Mr. Uecker was the President and Chief Operating Officer of Progyny, Inc., Menlo Park, California, a company that developed Eeva™, the world’s first automated time-lapse system for embryo selection during in-vitro fertilization. Prior to that Mr. Uecker was the Chief Executive Officer and President and a Director of Gynesonics, Inc., Redwood City, California, a company that developed a novel medical device for the treatment of symptomatic uterine fibroids using ultrasound guided radiofrequency ablation. Mr. Uecker has served in a variety of executive level roles at CyberHeart, Inc., Conceptus, Inc., RITA Medical Systems, Inc., and Computer Motion, Inc. Mr. Uecker attended the University of California at Santa Barbara where he received a B.S. and M.S. in electrical and computer engineering.

Mitchell E. Levinson joined as Chief Strategy Officer of Pulse Biosciences in August 2021 and continues in his role on our Board of Directors. Mr. Levinson served on the board from January 2015 to November 2017 and then returned March 2019 to May 2023. Mr. Levinson has over 30 years of experience developing and launching novel medical device technologies across multiple medical disciplines, including dermatology, wound care, surgery, diagnostics, otolaryngology, microbiology, neurology, OB/GYN, patient monitoring and digital health. Most recently, he co-founded and served as startup CEO for Cerebrotech Medical Systems where he led the development of a novel brain monitor. Mr. Levinson was the first employee and startup CEO for Zeltiq Aesthetics, the CoolSculpting company, acquired by Allergan in 2017. Prior to Zeltiq, he held executive R&D positions at Thermage and BioSurgical Corporation. Mr. Levinson currently sits on the boards of directors for several medical technology startup companies. He is an inventor on over 50 issued and numerous pending U.S. patents. Mr. Levinson earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of California at San Diego and holds an M.S. in Computer Systems from the University of Phoenix.

Richard Nuccitelli, Ph.D. has been our Chief Science Officer since November, 2014. He was a Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at UC Davis for 23 years. He left UC Davis in 2001 to form BioElectroMed and was half-time Professor at Old Dominion University from 2004-2007 where he worked with Karl Schoenbach and Stephen Beebe on the use of nanosecond pulsed electric fields. He was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1995 and Fellow in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2015. He has 134 publications and 7 patents. Dr. Nuccitelli has both an M.S. degree in Physics and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Purdue University.

David Danitz joined Pulse Biosciences in November 2015 as VP of Engineering. Mr. Danitz has over 20 years of medical device development experience and is the named inventor on over 50 US patents. Prior to Pulse Biosciences he held the position of Vice President, R&D - Custom Products at Earlens, where he led the development of a light-driven transducer that directly engaged the ear drum to generate sound. Before that, Mr. Danitz held the position of Vice President R&D for Gynesonics, where he led the development of the world’s first intrauterine ultrasound system with integrated RF ablation for an incisionless treatment of uterine fibroids. Mr. Danitz also served at Novare Surgical as Vice President of R&D where for 10 years his team brought medical devices to the market in the areas of cardiac, vascular, general, urologic and gynecologic surgery. Mr. Danitz has received several Medical Design Excellence Award’s. Mr. Danitz earned a BSME degree with high honors from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and a SMME degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

William Knape joined Pulse Biosciences in May 2018 as Vice President, Regulatory, Clinical, and Quality Affairs. Mr. Knape is an expert in regulatory affairs, clinical and quality assurance specializing in FDA and CE submissions with over 25 years working directly with the FDA in the life sciences industry, for both Rx and OTC products. His experience includes multiple regulatory submissions of 510(k)s, PMAs, IDEs, Pre-IDEs and Q-Sub meetings and international registration filings for a wide variety of innovative and novel medical device and IVD companies. Mr. Knape has managed numerous worldwide multicenter, clinical studies from first-in-man to Phase IV clinical programs. Prior to joining Pulse, Mr. Knape served in senior roles as Senior Director and Vice-President, where he helped develop key financial opportunities with strategic partners in multiple therapeutic areas including dermatology, oncology, aesthetics, diabetes, regenerative medicine, neurology, cardiology, and gastroenterology. Mr. Knape earned his B.Sc. in Psychology and B.Sc. in Medical Technology with an emphasis in bioengineering from the University of Wyoming and serves on the College of Health Sciences Advisory Board.

Edison Manuel joined Pulse Biosciences in April 2017 as VP of Operations. Mr. Manuel has over 30 years of experience and held several senior level positions with the last 22 years focused on medical devices ranging from robotics, RF ablation systems, motion hand-held laparoscopic instruments and time-lapse imaging system. Mr. Manuel brings extensive experience in operations from start-up manufacturing into full commercial release, program management, factory integration and consolidation, strategic outsourcing and supply chain management. Prior to joining Pulse, he held similar positions at Progyny, Stellartech Research Corp and Novare Surgical Systems. Mr. Manuel also held senior level positions RITA Medical Systems and Computer Motion, Inc. Mr. Manuel earned a B.S. degree in Management and Industrial Engineering at Mapua Institute of Technology, Manila, Philippines.

Patty Perla joined Pulse Biosciences in March 2020 as Vice President of Human Resources.  Ms. Perla brings over 15 years of experience in human resources building diverse, high performing organizations in the life science industry.  Her expertise extends across the spectrum of human resources, including talent development, culture initiatives and innovative total rewards strategies.  Prior to joining Pulse, Ms. Perla has held various leadership roles with small and mid-size companies including Ceterix Orthopaedics (acquired by Smith and Nephew), Revance Therapeutics, Ventus Medical and FoxHollow Technologies (acquired by EV3).  Ms. Perla earned a B.S. degree in Management from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

Ken Stratton, J.D., joined Pulse Biosciences in May 2021 as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Mr. Stratton brings more than 25 years of wide-ranging legal experience, including having led legal affairs at multiple publicly-traded life science companies. Prior to joining Pulse Biosciences, Mr. Stratton was General Counsel of StemCells, Inc., Deputy General Counsel of Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Senior Legal Counsel at Medtronic’s Vascular Business Unit. As the senior most legal counsel, he has handled all aspects of life science law including compliance, IP licensing and commercial partnering. Prior to working in-house, Mr. Stratton was a corporate transactional attorney at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, a leading global law firm, and an employment litigator at Littler Mendelson, the largest labor and employment law firm. Most recently, he was a Partner at Rogoway Law Group, a specialty life science firm. Mr. Stratton earned his undergraduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, his M.B.A. in Finance from the Stern School of Business at N.Y.U., and his J.D. from the New York University School of Law.