Board of Directors

Thomas Ruggia joined Samsara Vision as the Chief Executive Officer in July 2020. With nearly 20 years of ophthalmology business experience, he has a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the health care environment in the United States and abroad, as well as significant experience in the development and commercialization of vision products with differing regulatory and pricing structures.

Before joining Samsara Vision, Mr. Ruggia spent five years at Johnson & Johnson, working at Johnson & Johnson Vision and The Janssen Pharma Co, respectively. Most recently at Johnson & Johnson Vision, he was the Vice President WW Customer Experience and Ocular Surface Disease, responsible for two global commercial teams working in customer strategy, customer service, and field technical service. At Janssen, he was the commercial strategy leader in ophthalmology assigned to an asset in development for AMD. Previously, Mr. Ruggia spent fourteen years at Alcon, a division of Novartis, working in a variety of ophthalmology sales and marketing roles with escalating responsibility. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science from The College of New Jersey in 1998.

Mr. Clidiere has served as a member of our board of directors since 2016. Mr. Clidiere brings more than forty years of executive experience in marketing, sales and acquisition management within the pharmaceutical and medical device industry. Launching his career at Pfizer, Inc., Mr. Clidiere held various roles in the areas of sales, marketing, operations and business development in several of their international offices. In 1983, he joined Alcon Laboratories, where he spent the next 28 years in executive management positions including General Manager & President of Alcon Spain, President of Alcon France , Area President of Alcon Latin America, Area President of Alcon Europe, Middle East & Africa and, until 2011, Vice President Strategic and Commercial Integration Alcon/Novartis. Mr. Clidiere is a member of the board of ORA Clinicals, and HKI International.

Jonathan H. Talamo, M.D. is internationally known as an experienced surgeon and thought leader in the ophthalmology field, particularly in the areas of corneal disease, cataract and refractive surgery. Also an experienced health care executive, Dr. Talamo was until January 2020 as the Chief Medical Officer/Worldwide VP of Clinical and Medical Affairs, Johnson and Johnson Vision and prior to that as the Chief Medical Officer at Ocular Therapeutix, Inc. With more than 25 years of clinical practice experience in Boston, MA, he served on the Harvard Medical School faculty as well as a founder, board member and medical director of a large Ophthalmic ASC (Surgisite Boston) and The Laser Eye Center of Boston, LLC. Dr. Talamo is a past recipient of Honor and Senior Achievement awards from the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Since 2019, Tracy M. Valorie is the owner and president of TMV Associates LLC, a strategic consulting firm to pharmaceutical and medical devices companies with a focus on early stage and start-up activations. With more than 25 years’ experience in general management, commercial development, strategic planning, and brand and customer marketing, Ms. Valorie found success at Bausch + Lomb, were she was most recently the Sr. Vice President, General Manager Bausch + Lomb, a Valeant Company US Pharmaceuticals and Surgical Business, and Sr. Vice President, General Manager Women’s Health. She also spent 21 years supporting the ophthalmologic and other business lines at Pfizer.

David Schiff is the co-founder and CEO of Innovatus Capital Partners, a boutique specialty finance asset management firm focused on private credit and asset-based investments and serves on the investment committee of all Innovatus investment vehicles. He participates on the boards of several portfolio companies across healthcare, consumer and equipment businesses and has managed capital for limited partners across institutions, pension funds and endowments over the last twenty-five years. Prior to founding Innovatus, Mr. Schiff was a Partner at Perella Weinberg Partners and the Portfolio Manager of the Asset Based Value Funds from 2008 to 2016 that had over $2 billion of equity under management.

Rosemary Avery’s most recent work focuses on the regulation of pharmaceutical advertising and the impact of commercial messages and public service messages on the health-related behavior of individuals. She has been the co-recipient of four federal grants to support her research in this area.

Professor Avery has been the recipient of several awards for both her teaching and scholarship. She was awarded the prestigious Carpenter Award for and has received a Merrill Presidential Teacher Recognition Award fifteen times. 

Professor Avery served on the Cornell University Board of Trustees 2008-2012 as a Faculty Trustee.

Professor Avery received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, her Honors in Science degree from the University of Pretoria in South Africa, and her Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Family Resource Management from The Ohio State University.

Mr. Anderson began his career as an investment banker on Wall Street focusing the majority of his time in the media and communications field. He has a deep knowledge of advertising supported mediums, their drivers, and valuations.  As a banker, Mr. Anderson undertook and was responsible for numerous merger and acquisition related transactions.  He also has extensive experience in the public and private capital markets. His experience in the capital markets range from initiating and executing private bank financings to initial public offerings. Mr. Anderson started his career in 1983 at Kidder Peabody & Co. Having served there until 1992 he moved to Smith Barney where he was a Managing Director of the firm and co-head of the Media and Telecommunications Group at the time of Smith Barney’s merger with Salomon Brothers.  After a two-year posting at Merrill Lynch, Mr. Anderson finished his full-time Wall Street career as a Senior Managing Director at Bear Stearns where he was responsible for the Broadcasting and Cable franchises. Mr. Anderson was also a Senior Advisor to Waller Capital, a privately held investment bank specializing in media, telecom, and technology.

 Since leaving Wall Street at the beginning of 2006, Mr. Anderson has been a consultant, private business investor, and operator.  He has made an investments in China Automotive, a firm specializing in the Chinese automotive aftermarket, George Industries, firm that manufactures highly engineered components for the aerospace and transportation industries, Game IQ, a start-up technology company that is gamifying the retail experience for consumers and iPORT Media, a company in the digital signage industry focusing on the health care industry.  Currently he also sits on the board of Samsara Vision, a health care company focused on offsetting the effects of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).