CAIRDAC Appoints Raymond W. Cohen as Chairman of the Board
CAIRDAC, a France-based pre-revenue stage medtech company developing a leadless, self-powered cardiac pacemaker (Autonomous Leadless Pacing System, ALPS™), has announced the appointment of Raymond W. Cohen as Chairman of its Board of Directors. Cohen brings more than four decades of medtech industry experience and has held leadership roles at companies that achieved significant scale and successful exits.
Cohen co-founded and served as CEO of Axonics, a global leader in implantable neuromodulation devices that completed its initial public offering in 2018. Under Cohen’s leadership, Axonics was recognized as the fastest-growing technology company in North America, generating over $1.2 billion in revenue in the four years from commercial launch, and was acquired by Boston Scientific in late 2024 for $3.7 billion. In 2025, Cohen served as Chairman of SoniVie, an Israeli clinical-stage company, and led its $600 million sale, followed later that year by the sale of Nalu Medical for $533 million. Cohen currently serves on the boards of several public and private innovative healthcare companies, including Kestra Medical Technologies. Cohen also serves as an operating partner at the venture fund Star51 as well as a venture partner with Andera Partners and Sherpa Capital Partners.
Edouard Fonck, Chief Executive Officer of CAIRDAC, stated that the company is thrilled to welcome Cohen to the board and that Cohen’s track record in leading, scaling, and exiting medical technology companies will be invaluable as CAIRDAC advances its leadless pacing project.
Cohen said he sees tremendous commercial potential for a leadless pacemaker powered by the movement of the human heart. Cohen noted that the company’s Autonomous Leadless Pacing System uses a frequency-tuned piezoelectric harvester to convert the mechanical energy of each heartbeat into electricity and store it in an onboard rechargeable battery. Cohen added that by reducing battery-driven constraints, this architecture is designed to support advanced capabilities such as multi-chamber pacing, continuous remote monitoring, diagnostic features, and inter-device communication, and that the technology has the potential to become a new standard of care for patients requiring a cardiac pacemaker.
