Our Team

Jim Ham, President and Chief Executive Officer

Paul Kammann, Chief Financial Officer

Joe Collins, Vice President, Manufacturing, Co-Founder

Dave Fancher, Vice President

Kevin Pratt, Vice President of Sales

Vishal Mehta, Vice President, MIS & Logistics

James K. Kirchner, O.D., Senior VP, Clinical and Professional Services

Jim Ham,
President and Chief Executive Officer

With over 25 years of management experience with global healthcare companies, Jim is ideally suited to lead SynergEyes®, Inc.'s world-wide product launch activities. Most recently he was CEO and President of Kinetikos Medical, Inc. (KMI), which was acquired by Integra Life Sciences (IART). Jim led Kinetikos Medical from start up to a successful liquidity event: the company had 12 products in the market and more in the product development pipeline at the time of the sale.

Prior to Kinetikos Medical, Jim spent nine years at Allergan (AGN) in various senior management roles within the sales and marketing departments. His experience working with new technologies in emerging markets will be an integral part of SynergEyes'® international growth in coming years.

Paul Kammann,
Chief Financial Officer

Paul brings to SynergEyes more than 25 years of financial and management experience with medical and high-technology companies. Most recently, he was the CFO of Airgain, Inc., an early stage company developing smart antenna technology and products for the wireless and home entertainment industries. Previously he was CFO and COO of Kinetikos Medical, Inc. (KMI), which was acquired by Integra Life Sciences (IART). Kammann was with KMI for five years and managed its successful liquidity event valued at over $40 million.

Paul started his career with Deloitte & Touche (formerly Touche Ross) where he became a CPA, then worked in a number of high-technology companies in various financial and management positions and has now brought his experience to SynergEyes to help us meet the market demand for hybrid technology.

Joe Collins
Vice President, Manufacturing, Co-Founder

Joe brings 26 years of contact lens manufacturing experience to the SynergEyes® team, including roles as the first Process Engineer for the premium CSI contact lens brand, project leader on successful manufacturing automation systems at WJ, and engineering management at Syntex Ophthalmics, Sola and Pilkington Barnes Hind and Wesley Jessen.

As a respected industry veteran Joe has provided consulting for Allergan Inc, and Addition Technology, Inc. Joe's experience in process engineering, advanced automation systems, lens design and manufacturing equip him with the skills necessary to manage the complex operations for the production of the premium SynergEyes® products.

Dave Fancher
Vice President

Dave brings to SynergEyes more than 14 years of global and national sales and marketing leadership experience with CooperVision. From 2005 until his retirement from the company in 2006, he was the President of CooperVision Surgical, Inc., a start-up in corneal and refractive surgery.

Prior to that he was the Senior Vice President of Sales for CooperVision, Inc., during which time the company grew from a small specialty operation, to the 3rd largest contact lens company, both domestically and globally.

He has now joined the SynergEyes management team to help lead the sales of this innovative product both nationally and globally in 2009 and beyond.

Kevin M. Pratt
Vice President of Sales

Kevin joined SynergEyes as Vice President of Sales in October of 2012. He has over 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the ophthalmic industry. His eye care experience spans the practice management, laser vision correction, cataract and contact lens care markets.

Prior to joining SynergEyes Kevin held a variety of sales leadership positions. His most recent experience was as Vice President of Partner Relations for LCA Vision. From 2007 to 2011 he was Vice President of Sales for the Corneal business at Abbott Medical Optics. Fourteen years of his eye care experience were spent in various sales and marketing roles with increasing responsibility at Allergan, Inc.

Starting his career as a sales representative and working through all levels of sales, marketing and sales management positions has given Kevin the perspective it takes to build high performing sales teams that are focused on the customer.

Vishal Mehta
Vice President, MIS & Logistics

Vishal brings to SynergEyes® 13 years of experience in the Automation, Manufacturing and IT industries. He previously has held positions in project engineering, project management, logistics and IT management for Honeywell, Johnson controls, Polaris Software and most recently Trend Technologies.

Vishal's vast exposure to various business processes in the manufacturing industry, coupled with an in-depth understanding of IT, enables him to provide leadership and direction to the SynergEyes® Operations and IT Groups.

James K. Kirchner, O.D.
Senior Vice President, Clinical and Professional Services

Dr. Kirchner joined SynergEyes as Senior Vice President, Clinical and Professional Services in 2012. He brings the company more than 35 years of experience in the optometric community both in private practice and in other optometric business ventures. Most notably, he was the founder of EyeCare Specialties, a multi-doctor, multi-office optometric practice in Lincoln, Nebraska where he was the senior partner and Chief Strategic Officer before he sold his interest in 2010. His practice was focused on Primary Care Optometry, with an emphasis in contact lenses and the treatment of eye diseases.

Prior to joining SynergEyes, Dr. Kirchner was Chief Professional Officer for Eyefinity/OfficeMate, a VSP Global company. He has also been President and CEO of over a dozen startup companies, many of them outside the ophthalmic industry.

Dr. Kirchner has taken an active role in state, regional and national optometric association volunteerism throughout his career. He is a Past-President of the Nebraska Optometric Association and the North Central States Optometric Council; a ten state regional Optometric Association. Dr. Kirchner served as Chair of the American Optometric Association’s Communications Group Executive Committee for four years. He had previously Chaired the AOA’s Vision USA committee as well as chairing numerous AOA committee’s and task forces. Currently, Dr. Kirchner serves as Chairman of the Nebraska Board of Optometry, the licensing and regulatory agency of the Nebraska Department of Health.

He was named "Optometrist of the Year" in 1996 by the Nebraska Optometric Association. Most recently in 2008, Dr. Kirchner was honored by receiving the Nebraska Optometric Association’s “Distinguished Service Award”, for lifetime work and achievement on behalf of the profession.