Galway based MedTech company SymPhysis Medical has appointed Barry McBride as non-executive chair of its board, succeeding outgoing chairperson Suzanne Ryan.
He joins experienced healthcare leaders Gerard Ryan and David Uffer who were as appointed to the board as non-executive directors in 2024, alongside Philip Hendrick, who has served as a non-executive director since the company’s start. SymPhysis Medical, based at the ATU Innovation Hub in Galway, is developing the releaze Drainage System, a catheter-based technology designed to help manage malignant pleural effusion, a common complication of advanced cancers where fluid builds up in the chest, causing severe breathlessness and pain and often requiring repeated hospital visits.
Barry McBride brings more than three decades of international medical device experience to the role of chair. He joined Mölnlycke Health Care in 2014 as Executive Vice President for Research and Development, later adding responsibility for the Gloves and Antiseptics franchises and Global R and D. In 2020 he served as interim Chief Executive Officer until Zlatko Rihter was appointed CEO.
Gerard Ryan, from Limerick, joined the SymPhysis Medical board in August 2024 as the representative of investor Irrus Investments, one of the company’s earliest backers. A pharmacist by training, he is a serial entrepreneur who founded Firecrest Clinical, sold in 2011 to ICON plc for fifty million euro, and Longboat Clinical, sold to Advarra in 2020 in a multimillion euro deal that was described as one of the biggest M and A transactions in Ireland that year. Through Ryan Group Holdings he has been an active investor in early-stage healthcare and technology companies.
US based board member David Uffer joined as a non-executive director in November 2024. A seasoned MedTech executive with more than thirty years of experience, he is Managing Director, MedTech at Trinity Life Sciences, a twelve-hundred-person global management and strategy consulting firm. Before joining Trinity, he led MedTech company formation and venture investments at General Inception and previously headed business development and corporate development functions for global healthcare companies including Covidien/Medtronic, Hologic, Boston Scientific and Integra Lifesciences.
The SymPhysis Medical board also includes Philip Hendrick, who has served as a non-executive director since the company’s start. Tim Jones, co-founder and Chief Executive of SymPhysis Medical, said the new appointments bring deep international experience at a pivotal moment for the company. “Barry, Gerard and David each bring a different kind of expertise to SymPhysis, but all three understand what it takes to build and scale meaningful MedTech businesses,” he said.
“Barry has led global research and development and operations at one of the world’s best known wound care and surgical companies. Gerard has founded, grown and exited major Irish clinical technology businesses. David is one of the most connected people in MedTech, particularly when it comes to deals and business development in the US.
“For a Galway company that now has a pathway into the United States, it is invaluable to have that mix of Irish and international experience around the board table as we move releaze towards first regulatory clearance and commercialisation. We are also very grateful to Suzanne Ryan for her leadership as chair and for the support she has given SymPhysis.”
SymPhysis Medical has recently been awarded a 1.25 million dollar grant from the Rhode Island Life Science Hub to support US development of the releaze Drainage System, to establish a presence in Rhode Island and to build partnerships across New England’s life sciences sector.
