Dennis MCWILLIAMS United StatesPartnerSanté Ventures and Managing Director, SparkMed Advisors LLC

Dennis McWilliams is an experience innovator in life science, having launched multiple companies across biotechnology, medical device, and health tech. He is a Partner at Santé, a U.S. based venture-capital firm that invests in early stage life science companies. Prior to Santé, he founded Apollo Endosurgery and served as CEO for almost a decade. Apollo Endosurgery, Inc. is a medical device company which is the world leader in minimally invasive surgical and endoscopic devices for the treatment of obesity, gastrointestinal cancers, and other GI disorders. Mr. McWilliams received a Bachelor of Science with honors from the University of Texas in Aerospace Engineering and a Master of Science in Engineering Management from Stanford University. In 2007 he was given the Outstanding Young Texas Ex Award by the University of Texas, in 2016 was named a Distinguished Engineering Graduate from the University, and in 2019 was named to the Academy of Distinguished Alumni for the Aerospace Engineering school. Mr. McWilliams is a frequent speaker and lecturer on entrepreneurship and innovation in medicine, and serves as faculty for the B.E.S.T. Innovations Courses taught at the prestigious IHU Institut de Chirurgie Guidée Par L’Image in Strasbourg France, Taiwan, and Brazil.