Leana Wen & Sameer Badlani Board Members, Optomed

Company

Optomed is an international medical technology company that specializes in retinal imaging devices and solutions. Founded in 2004 in Finland, Optomed was started with a mission to make eye disease screening available for everyone, wherever needed. Optomed have successfully developed and manufactured modern, mobile and easy-to-use retinal imaging devices with software and artificial intelligence (AI) to transform the screening of various eye diseases such as, diabetic retinopathy, Glaucoma and AMD. Optomed’s fundus cameras fulfil international standard requirements and are being used by private clinics, public hospitals, NGOs and charities, and within the B2B segment through various OEM customers and screening operators around the world.

Search Background

With one of the previous Board Members stepping down, Optomed required a new appointment to the Board to continue its expansion into the US market and to ideally serve on either the Remuneration or Audit committees.

Requirements

The key requirement for the role was to identify individuals with experience of working on the Board of US based healthcare companies, with extensive experience of helping launch go-to-market strategies and building commercial relationships. The candidate would also need to have spent time working as a medical practitioner, therefore bringing a strong technical understanding of the target customer and ideally a pre-existing network within the US primary healthcare system.

Result

After a successful search, Optomed appointed both Leana Wen and Sameer Badlani at the beginning of May 2025, expanding the Board from six to seven members.

Leana is a highly accomplished physician-executive with over 18 years of experience in public health leadership. Born in China and educated in the US, she holds an MD from Washington University and studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Her extensive career includes serving as Baltimore’s Health Commissioner and as President/CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Currently, she serves as an independent board member for Glaukos Corporation and UroGen Pharma, where she sits on audit committees and chairs the nominating and corporate governance committee for UroGen.. Leana maintains an active clinical practice while also serving as a Washington Post columnist and CNN medical analyst. She has been recognized as one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People and brings a unique combination of clinical expertise, public health leadership, and business acumen to her roles.

Sameer is a highly experienced healthcare executive and physician with over 25 years of medical experience in India and the US. Currently serving as EVP, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Digital Officer at Fairview Health Services, he has previously held senior roles at Sutter Health and Intermountain Healthcare. His expertise spans both medical practice and healthcare technology, with a strong focus on digital transformation, AI integration, and strategic growth. As an Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and former faculty at the University of Chicago, he maintains strong academic ties while serving on multiple boards including Q-rounds, Minnesota Technology Association, and NODE.Health.