About Us

Clerio Vision’s scientific roots date back to the 1980s. It was then that a team of scientists from the University of Rochester made groundbreaking discoveries for creating ultrashort yet high-energy laser pulses, which later garnered the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 2003, Bausch + Lomb engaged Dr. Wayne Knox of the University of Rochester to investigate ways in which these advancements in laser technology could further the field of contact lenses. This collaboration soon expanded beyond only contact lenses. And after 10 years of further breakthroughs, a new vision company was ready to be born.

Leadership Team

Mike Totterman

Chairman

Alex Zapesochny

CEO

Anna Schreyer

EVP of Development Operations

Alissa Seidman

Vice President of Finance Operations

TECHNICAL Leadership

Len Zheleznyak, PhD

EVP of Vision Science

Filipp Ignatovich, PhD

VP of Advanced Ophthalmic Technologies

Lisen Xu, PhD

VP of Applied Research

Wayne Knox, PhD

Chief Science Officer

Michele Lagana, OD

Principal Investigator

Ian Cox, OD, PhD

Principal Investigator

Meet Mikael

Mike is a co-founder of Clerio Vision as well as serving as the company’s Chief Innovation Officer. He also chairs the company’s board of directors and manages relationships with investors and partners.

Earlier, Mike co-founded iCardiac Technologies. In 2014, iCardiac was acquired in a control transaction by Norwest Venture Partners and was subsequently sold to ERT in 2017 for $230 million delivering a 20x to early investors.

Before iCardiac, Mike was a founding executive of VirtualScopics. VirtualScopics became a public traded company in 2005 with a peak market cap of $200 million on NASDAQ and was later sold to BioTelemetry (BEAT) which was then acquired by Philips Healthcare.

Earlier in his career, Mike was a principal at 3Com Ventures, a $250 million venture capital fund based in Santa Clara, CA. Over 70% of his investments resulted in exits. Mike also spent several years in the consulting industry at both The Boston Consulting Group in Boston, MA as well as Gemini Consulting in San Francisco, CA.

Mike received his Engineering Degree from Stanford University and his MBA from the Business School at Dartmouth. Additionally, he serves on the Board of Directors for Qmetrics Technologies, Inc., a provider of imaging software and clinical trial solutions.

In his free time Mike enjoys mountain biking, downhill skiing, and hiking with his family.

Meet Alex

Alex is an experienced technology executive and attorney who previously served as Executive Vice President of Cardiac Safety at ERT.

A co-founder of iCardiac Technologies, Alex served as its President and CEO until ERT acquired the company in late 2017. He founded iCardiac with Mike Totterman and Sasha Latypova.

Prior to joining iCardiac, Alex was General Counsel and Director of Business Development for Lenel Systems International, a developer and global supplier of high-end software, products and services for the security industry.

Alex was part of a small executive management team that guided the company to extraordinary growth. The company expanded to serving over 10,000 organizations throughout 75 countries, including security-conscious entities such as Microsoft, Cisco, all three New York City-area airports, the Department of Homeland Security and over 60 percent of all Fortune 100 companies. The company’s financial growth earned it 39th place on Inc. magazine’s ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing privately-held companies, and Lenel was acquired for $440 million by United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX) in March 2005.Alex remained with UTC after the acquisition and continued in his legal and business development roles within the Lenel Systems subsidiary.

Alex, who is known for interest in entrepreneurial activity, provides legal and business counsel to early-stage companies. He has been a trial attorney during his tenure as a New York City prosecutor, a policy division staff member in the Washington headquarters of a presidential campaign, and Co-Founder and Executive Director of an award-winning non-profit that expands the national registry of potential bone marrow and blood stem cell donors.

Alex received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and graduate degrees from American University, University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.

Meet Anna

Anna has nearly 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, both within preclinical as well as clinical development phases. She has experience with many aspects of business operations within these industries, in clinical trials planning, conduct, and project management, with quality system planning, deployment and compliance, with data, operations, and program management, as well as business development functions.

The first part of her career had a particular focus around successful implementation of innovative technologies and methods within early-stage startups, for example with integrating new 3D image analysis methods and workflows, and operationalizing novel methods of assessing cardiac safety for new drugs and medical devices in development. She was part of the core start-up teams at VirtualScopics, iCardiac Technologies, and Qmetrics Technologies.

She has been with Clerio Vision since its inception, and during this time has been involved with overseeing and directing the day-to-day activities and resourcing for many of the technology development efforts. She is part of the Clerio Vision executive management team.
Anna received her undergraduate degree from Boston University.
Anna enjoys local and foreign travel, as well as wildlife photography.

Meet Alissa

Prior to her role at Clerio Vision, Alissa Seidman gained valuable financial and operational experiences as a VP for VarData, a New York-based telecommunications company. Today, Alissa leverages those experiences and adds a healthy dose of proven methodology, innovative thinking, and common sense to her day-to-day routine. For Alissa, streamlined workflow, waste elimination, and cost-efficiency aren’t just buzzwords—they are guiding principles that invariably lead to win-wins for her company and her clients.

Outside of work, Alissa loves to spend time with family and rooting on the Buffalo Bills. Go Bills!

Meet Len

Len was the first employee of Clerio Vision and has been an integral part of the company’s growth and success. Len oversees the Myopia Control program, which involves researching the fundamental mechanisms leading to myopia progression, and developing therapeutic contact lenses for slowing the rate of childhood eye growth.

As a vision scientist, Len has focused on a wide array of topics, such as myopia control, presbyopia correction, wavefront science, femtosecond lasers, contact and intraocular lens design, as well as corneal refractive surgery. in vision and LIRIC and femtosecond lasers allows him to apply His innovative work has led to numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, patents and conference presentations related to vision and optical sciences.

Prior to joining Clerio Vision, Len was a co-founder of Ovitz corporation, focused on providing customized optical solutions to keratoconic patients for whom conventional corrections are insufficient. Len also worked at Ometric Corporation, a Sequoia-backed spectroscopy start-up which was later acquired by Haliburton Energy Services.

Len has a PhD, MS, and BS in Optics from The Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester. Len serves the optics community as an executive committee member of the Optics Vision Science Technical Group, a reviewer for peer-review journals, and as a guest-lecturer at the University of Rochester.

Meet Filipp

Filipp oversees the development of the re-writeable intraocular lens and the associated surgical system to improve the outcomes of cataract surgery and to ensure spectacle-free quality of life for cataract patients.

Filipp has over 15 years of technical leadership experience in photonics industry, in both industrial and medical applications. He has up-through-the-ranks experience from bench-level to senior leadership and full-charge responsibility for product innovation, product line extension, market competitiveness and client service. An entrepreneurial innovator with a unique combination of industry-transferrable leadership skills around tangible and intangible technical products and solutions coupled with the business acumen, tactical agility and customer focus essential to driving revenue in highly competitive global markets.

For many years he served as the Chief Technology Officer at Lumetrics Inc, where he scaled the initial start-up level development efforts into an advanced R&D entity, with funding provided by multiple governmental agencies, and directed multiple projects aimed at developing and commercializing advanced medical and industrial instruments.

Filipp has a MS in Physics from Moscow State University and a PhD in Optics from the University of Rochester. In the past he taught a Technical Management course at the University of Rochester as part of the Technical Entrepreneurship and Management program for engineering and business students.

Meet Lisen

Lisen has led multiple programs at Clerio, ranging from the intraocular lens program in
feasibility phase to establish the near infrared LIRIC laser platform and application to IOL materials, then research and development of the next generation corneal refractive surgery platform, and now primarily focuses on the silicone hydrogel contact lens program to develop diffractive multifocal contact lenses for presbyopia correction.

Before Clerio Vision, Lisen worked at Optikos Corporation, an optical engineering
consulting firm in Massachusetts. At Optikos, he worked on optical metrology products,and later focused on engineering consulting projects in a wide application space.

Lisen was in the role of both lead engineer and project manager for his projects, and worked closely with the manufacturing team, as well as customers and suppliers.
Lisen had a physics degree from Beijing Normal University and earned both MS and
PhD degrees in Optics from University of Rochester, as one of the early researchers
working on the core technology behind Clerio – Laser Induced Refractive Index Change (LIRIC).

At UR, he worked on both hydrogels (for which he wrote the very first cylinder correction, 2011) and corneas (for which he built the platform to start treating cornea in the blue, 2010). His doctoral work was essential in the subsequent stages of the research program at UR.

In his spare time, Lisen enjoys volunteering and networking with the local community,
such as Optica (previously OSA) Rochester Section, Toastmaster club, and STEM
events at libraries and schools. He likes playing tennis, piano, skiing, gardening, as well as spending time with his family.

Meet Wayne

Wayne is the Chief Science Officer and scientific co-founder of Clerio Vision. He has a BS ’79 and PhD ’84 in Optics from The Institute of Optics, where he worked with Nobel Prize winner Gerard Mourou at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. He has published over 200 papers and holds more than 60 US patents and more than 150 international patents in the field of optics and photonics.

He spent 17 years at Bell Laboratories, where he achieved many breakthroughs in ultrafast laser technology, science and applications. He created the world’s shortest light pulse (8 fs) at the time, invented new kinds of semiconductor laser modelocking devices, and developed novel ultrahigh channel count wavelength division multiplexing telecommunications systems. He rose from a post-doctoral researcher to a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff and eventually Department Head of Advanced Photonics Research.

He returned to Rochester in 2001 as Director of The Institute of Optics and Professor of Optics. He started the research project that led to the founding of Clerio Vision in 2003 as a small collaboration with Bausch and Lomb, with one PhD student.

He served as Director of The Institute of Optics from 2001-2011 and then Associate Dean of Education and New Initiatives in the Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences from 2011-2013. He took a one-year academic leave in 2013-2014 to work on Clerio Vision. He wanted to name the company Caeruleus Vision (“Blue” Vision in Latin) which was simplified to Clerio Vision.

He is also Professor of Physics, Materials Science, Vision Science, and Distinguished Scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. He is Fellow of Optica, APS/DLS and the NAI (National Academy of Inventors).

Meet Michele

Michele Lagana is a consultant senior clinical research optometrist who is the Principal Investigator and Clinical Lead for Clerio Vision’s contact lens studies, including the LIRIC multifocal soft lens project.

Michele has over 30 years of experience in the field of eye care. She has worked with various medical device companies in developing and testing innovative products for contact lenses, intraocular lenses, and LASIK surgery. She has also provided primary and secondary eye care services to patients in different settings, including the Veteran’s Administration, optometric and ophthalmological clinics, and laser centers. She is skilled in conducting clinical studies, managing ocular diseases, providing post-surgical care, and fitting contact lenses. Michele is based in Rochester, NY, and holds a Doctor of Optometry degree.

Earlier in her career, she served as the Technical Training Manager (Contact Lenses) and then as Consultant Research Optometrist at Bausch + Lomb from 1992 to 2020. She functioned as the primary investigator conducting Phase 1 to Phase 5 clinical studies, including study design, protocol writing, SOP development, statistical and data analysis for contact lenses, intraocular lenses as well as diagnostic equipment. She was involved in several groundbreaking projects and contributed to advancing eye care technologies. In addition, Michele has written a book chapter and was awarded a patent involving correction of wavefront aberrations with contact lenses leading to an R&D Chairman’s Award at Bausch +Lomb and has also exhibited numerous posters at scientific conferences.

As an advocate for Optometric advancement, Michele has supported her profession byserving in various local, regional, and state professional association positions, culminating her tenure as the NYSOA President from 2015 to 2016. Currently, Michele is a member of the State Board of Optometry and the College Council for the SUNY College of Optometry.

Meet Ian

With 35 years of overall industry experience, Ian Cox has led and managed various projects from feasibility to post-launch, covering all phases of clinical studies. He has a strong background in bridging the gap between clinicians and engineers, translating clinical needs into design specifications and outcomes. He has also overseen the growth and development of a large technical team, providing strategic direction and technical guidance. Additionally, he has collaborated with academic partners on research projects funded by corporate and government grants.Ian has over 25 years of experience in product and optic design at Bausch + Lomb.

After completing his Ph.D., he started as a Senior Research Optometrist in 1986 and ultimately became a Research Fellow in 1998. He then led the Clinical and Scientific Affairs department as the Director from 2003 to 2006. He was promoted to Distinguished Research Fellow in 2006 and Director of Lens Design, Optics, and Advanced Tooling in 2010. In 2013, he reached the Senior Executive level as a Bausch + Lomb Research Fellow. His main focus was on developing new product designs for contact lenses, refractive surgery, and intraocular lenses. He is passionate about advancing the field of ophthalmology and delivering innovative solutions to improve patients' vision and quality of life.

Meet Edie

As EVP of People and Administration, Edie handles talent acquisition, professional development and performance optimization. She cultivates a culture of trust and mutual respect that allows employees to focus on business imperatives. In her investor relations role, Edie provides an efficient communications conduit between Clerio and its investor group.

Previously, Edie was Vice President at Silicon Valley Bank where she supported the international expansion of technology companies and provided banking services to venture-backed tech and life science companies.

In her spare time, Edie enjoys discovering plant-based cuisine and being present with family and friends.