About Jefferson Innovation

Rakesh Suri, PhD, MD, is a globally recognized heart surgeon and highly regarded as a thought leader on novel models of healthcare delivery, operational excellence, enterprise growth and organizational transformation in pursuit of value. He led Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi as President and Chief Executive Officer from 2017-2021 overseeing the hospital’s opening, growth and stabilization as the first-ever U.S. multispecialty hospital to be replicated outside of North America with more than 6,000 caregivers from 85+ countries. His leadership helped it rank as the leading hospital in the United Arab Emirates and amongst the top 150 hospitals globally. He was the first President of International Operations at the Cleveland Clinic leading the overall international strategy and global business development efforts positioning the organization as one Cleveland Clinic in the United States and abroad. He began his career at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota as Professor of Surgery, Chair of the Enterprise Robotics Committee and Chair of Innovation for Departments of Surgery and Cardiovascular Disease.

Dr. Suri is clinically active at Jefferson. He has completed more than 7,000 cardiovascular procedures in his career and has special expertise in mitral valve repair, robotics and transcatheter interventions. He is Past President of the Heart Valve Society, an inventor with more than 15 device patents, a global speaker and has contributed to more than 340 peer-reviewed publications and several FDA multi-center trials. He completed his medical degree at the University of Toronto, Executive Education at Harvard Business School and a doctorate in immunology at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

Alexey is a Director of Licensing at the Office of Innovation, and is responsible for commercializing biopharmaceutical, medical device and telemedicine technologies via licensing to existing companies and startup formation, and helping Jefferson faculty & clinicians establish collaborations with industry.

Alexey brings a lot of tech commercialization experience from Drexel University and, previously, the University of Pennsylvania, where he started as a postdoc studying ion channels. Alexey’s industry experience comes from investment banking at Janney Montgomery Scott, where he concentrated on fundraising and M&A in the healthcare sector, and business development consulting for early stage biotech companies and investment funds. Alexey holds a PhD in biophysics from the Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology (Kiev, Ukraine), and MS and BS in applied physics and mathematics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Moscow, Russia).

As a Senior Contract Specialist, Robin is responsible for managing and reviewing a variety of agreements, including Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs). Her role is key in investigating third party material use situations and ownership related issues, as well as providing strategy to resolve complex intellectual property matters. 

Robin has over 20 years of contract and intellectual property experience in both profit and nonprofit institutions and has come to Thomas Jefferson University most recently from the Center of Technology Transfer at Cornell University. In addition to her extensive legal work in patents and trademarks, Robin is an inventor of multiple US patents and is an ABA certified paralegal. The Arts are a passion for Robin, who has worked professionally as an actor and writer. Robin attended the University of California, Los Angeles, Sonoma State University, and the MFA program at the New York Academy of Art with undergraduate degrees in psychology, fine art, and biology.