About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is the largest voluntary health organization fighting heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases in communities across America. These diseases devastate millions of Americans of all ages and cause nearly 950,000 deaths each year. To prevent, treat and defeat these diseases, the association educates the public and health professionals, advocates for healthier communities and funded $191 million in research last fiscal year.

The mission of the American Heart Association is to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. That single purpose drives all we do. The need for our work is beyond question.

By 2020, to improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20 percent while reducing deaths from cardiovascular disease and stroke by 20 percent.

About Research Roundtable

In 1994 a small group of volunteers lead by Marne Michaels and John Zink set out to establish a fundraising luncheon for the AHA. Marne reached out into the life science community and recruited Mark Wan who was then starting his career in Venture Capital. She then asked Casey McGlynn from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati who was instrumental in forming the first event. The committee then grew to include Tracy Lefteroff, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and Don Cvietusa from Silicon Valley Bank. That first year Dr. Thomas Fogarty and Dr. Bill New were the guest speakers. Approximately 130 people gathered at Sharon Heights Country Club helping to raise $47,000. In subsequent years the event and the planning committee would grow to include many prominent Bay Area Venture Capitalists, Attorneys and Investment bankers. As the Life Science industry has grown in the Bay Area, the Research Roundtable Luncheon has as well. Over the years we have built a groundswell of support for the AHA and its work in the area of cardiovascular research. Each year guest researchers are invited to attend the luncheon in an effort to connect the basic scientific research that the AHA funds with local industry.

Since its inception, the Research Roundtable Event has become a "must attend" event for the Bay Area Life Science community. Last year the event raised just over $600,000 and this year we hope to far exceed that number as we work to close the $192M national, critical research gap of highly meritorious projects that were left unfunded. Our topics and speakers have ranged from Stroke and Congestive Heart Failure to Life Science investments, and trends in the Medical Device Market. Regardless of the speaker or topic, the networking is always one of the highlights of the event.

Contact Us

Corina K. Weston
Business Development Coordinator

American Heart Association
1 Almaden Blvd. #500, San Jose, CA 95113
Office: (408) 606-5961 | Fax: (408) 977-4959
corina.weston@heart.org | www.heart.org/siliconvalley