Jay W. Schmelter

Jay co-founded RiverVest in 2000. He currently leads the daily operations of the firm, as well as its strategic and fundraising initiatives. Jay’s investment focus is the medical device sector. Drawing on his combination of operating, investment banking and venture capital experience, Jay works closely with entrepreneurs as a sounding board and mentor.

Jay is a director of InterVene, Inc., Cardialen, Inc., and a board observer at Standard Bariatrics, Inc. He is a former director of Velocimed, LLC, which was acquired by St. Jude Medical, Inc., Lutonix, Inc., acquired by C.R. Bard, Inc., IDEV Technologies, Inc., acquired by Abbott Laboratories, Inc., and Accumetrics, Inc., acquired by Instrumentation Laboratory (a Werfen Company), and former chairman of Salient Surgical, Inc., which was acquired by Medtronic, Inc.

Previously, Jay was with Crescendo Ventures, where he led investments for the firm’s life science division. While at Crescendo, Jay founded Salient Surgical Technologies, Inc. Prior to his transition to venture capital, Jay worked as a medical device research analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co., where he focused on cardiovascular-related medical device stocks. He was also a marketing executive for Medtronic, Inc., where he was responsible for two successful product launches and the marketing activities of two of Medtronic’s U.S. cardiac surgery-related businesses.

Jay earned an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a B.A. in Accounting from Michigan State University.