Meet The Team
Loïc Van Horne
Co-Founder & CEO
Loïc has been passionate about cardiovascular medical devices since childhood due to these devices saving the life of a family member. Therefore, he has dedicated his entire education and career to the development of cardiovascular devices. Loïc earned is Master of Engineering from Duke University with an emphasis on cardiovascular biomedical engineering, was the first employee at a UNC spinoff startup which has since been acquired, and has launched several specialty interventional cardiovascular devices. He then founded Narwhal Medical in 2022 with the mission to make the world’s smallest blood pump and provide life saving therapies to people of all sizes.
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Outside of work, Loïc likes to experience the joys of life with his wife and two young kids, ensuring there is never a dull moment in life.
Peter Jacobs
Co-Founder & COO
With a mother who was a registered nurse and a father who ran a machine shop, Peter learned medical and mechanical concepts at a nearly age. Since then, he has enjoyed 20+ years in the medical device industry, combining the principles of his parents, to lead the development of new technologies and bring them to market. It has been his great privilege to perform in roles that include R&D, process development, and manufacturing engineering, quality system management, regulatory affairs support, building and leading teams. Peter has had the honor of working with some amazing people and high functioning teams at startups and large companies which has fostered his ability to execute projects in ways that are most efficient for the operating environment. Throughout his career he has had several opportunities to work on both sides of corporate acquisitions (due diligence and integration), including successful exits to BSC and Covidien.
A perpetual busy body, Peter is active through a number of sports, DIY house projects, music, and chasing his dog around.
Pete Keith
Board Member, Advisor
Pete Keith has over 35 years of experience in med tech covering a wide range spanning from head to foot. His career started as a design engineer at SciMed/Boston Scientific and he has consulted with many startups. He co-founded Entellus Medical (now part of Stryker ENT) with Tom Ressemann, pioneering office based treatments for chronic sinusitis. Currently, he consults with various startups and serves as a technical expert in patent litigation. He has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, and is an inventor on over 150 US patents.
Tom Resseman
Advisor
Tom Ressemann is a seasoned healthcare executive, investor, and board director with over 36 years of experience leading and scaling MedTech and digital health companies. He has served as CEO of EarliTec Diagnostics and Amphora Medical, as well as Founder and CEO of Entellus Medical.
Tom now focuses on advising and investing in emerging healthcare ventures across digital health, AI, medical devices, and biotech, bringing deep operating experience, strategic insight, and a proven record of driving growth and value creation.
Dr. Kevin Croce
Advisor
Dr. Kevin Croce a key opinion leader in interventional cardiology and has been the Principal Investigator for two separate pVAD clinical trials. Kevin is an interventional cardiologist and the director of the CTO Complex PCI program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. His clinical interests include advanced treatments for obstructive coronary artery disease, and optimization of antithrombotic and antiplatelet pharmacotherapy.​