Our Team

Our Team

• Adam Elsesser

  Adam Elsesser

  President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

  Adam co-founded Penumbra and has served as Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors since our inception in 2004, as Chairman of our board of directors since January 2015. He resumed the role of President in May 2020, previously serving as President from January 2015 until August 2019. Prior to Penumbra, Adam led SMART Therapeutics, Inc., a medical device company focused on devices for neuro-intervention, as its Chief Executive Officer from 2000 to 2002 and, after its acquisition by Boston Scientific Corporation, President of SMART Therapeutics within Boston Scientific Corporation from 2002 to 2005. Before his work in the medical device industry, Adam was a partner in the law firm of Shartsis Friese LLP. He received a BA from Stanford University and a JD from Hastings College of the Law.
• Pankaj Tiwari

  Pankaj Tiwari

  Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer

  Pankaj Tiwari serves as executive vice president and chief information officer, and is responsible for leading the company’s information technology (IT) organization, including strategy, infrastructure and implementation of complex, integrated digital solutions. Pankaj joined Penumbra in 2016 as vice president of information technology and was instrumental in scaling the IT infrastructure and streamlining operational workflow globally during a time of significant growth for the company. Prior to joining Penumbra, Pankaj spent more than two decades in various IT leadership positions across multiple high-tech companies, including Marvell Semiconductors, where he was responsible for building and scaling the IT organization during a time of hyper-growth. Pankaj earned his Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi, India, and holds an MBA in Information Systems and Marketing from California State University, East Bay.
• Sandra Lesenfants

  Sandra Lesenfants

  President, Interventional

  Sandra joined Penumbra in 2022, serving as President, Interventional. Sandra has worked in the medical devices space for over 20 years. She most recently served as President of Hospital Patient Monitoring for Philips, and prior to that spent over 10 combined years at Medtronic (previously Covidien and ev3). Sandra started in marketing, then sales before moving to roles with a broader business focus and of successively greater responsibility. Her most recent role at Medtronic was Vice President and General Manager of its Structural Heart Business, a franchise with global revenue of over $1.5B. Sandra holds a Biomedical Computer Engineering Degree with First Class Honors from the University of Technology of Compiegne Engineering in France. Sandra currently serves on the board of Osprey Medical, Inc. (ASX: Osp).
• Ben Sorci

  Ben Sorci

  Executive Vice President of Operations

  Ben was an early member of the Penumbra team, starting as an Engineer in 2005. Ben served as Vice President of Manufacturing Engineering since 2013 until his promotion in 2021 to Executive Vice President of Operations. Prior to joining Penumbra, Ben held engineering roles at Boston Scientific in the neurovascular division and at SMART Therapeutics, a medical device company focused on devices for neuro-intervention. He received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
• Ben Tompkins

  Ben Tompkins

  Executive Vice President of Development

  Ben joined Penumbra as its third employee in 2004. Ben served as Director of Research & Development from 2010 to 2013 and as Vice President Research & Development from 2013 until his promotion to Executive Vice President of Development, in 2021. Ben received a BS in Mechanical Engineering and MS in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from the University of California, Davis.
• Gita Barry

  Gita Barry

  President, Immersive Healthcare

  Gita is President of Immersive Healthcare at Penumbra, Inc. With more than 25 years in the medical device industry, Gita leads a diverse team of developers and specialists to bring virtual reality-based immersive technology to a broad range of healthcare settings. Prior to joining Penumbra, Gita worked at Stryker Corporation in product management, strategy, business development and information technology. Prior to Stryker, Gita held various product development roles with other cardiovascular medical device companies, including WL Gore and Associates and Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson company, in the areas of coronary and peripheral vascular products. Gita received a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Miami (FL) and an Executive MBA from Santa Clara University.
• James F. Benenati, M.D., FSIR

  James F. Benenati, M.D., FSIR

  Chief Medical Officer

  James F. Benenati is a board-certified interventional radiologist. Prior to joining Penumbra, Jim practiced interventional radiology at the Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute at Baptist Hospital for 31 years, including serving as medical director of the noninvasive vascular laboratory and fellowship program director. Jim is a clinical professor of radiology at the Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and is also a Collaborative Professor of Radiology at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. Jim is past President of the Society of Interventional Radiology and has received the highest awards given by the SIR including the SIR Gold Medal and the Charles T. Dotter Award. Jim served as President of the Vascular Division for the Intersocietal Accreditation Committee (IAC). Jim has authored over 150 scientific publications and book chapters and has lectured globally. He went to the University of Notre Dame, attended medical school at the University of South Florida, residency at Indiana University and completed a fellowship at Johns Hopkins in cardiovascular and interventional radiology.
• Jason Mills

  Jason Mills

  Executive Vice President, Strategy

  Jason joined Penumbra in 2020, serving as Executive Vice President, Strategy. Prior to joining Penumbra, Jason was a dedicated med-tech investment analyst for more than two decades. Jason most recently held the role of Managing Director and head of the medical technology equity research practice at Canaccord Genuity for over 13 years. Jason has earned awards for his stock picking, including the #2 ranked Medical Devices analyst in The Wall Street Journal’s 2011 ‘Best on the Street’ Survey and #1 in the Medical Products segment of Forbes 2010 Best Brokerage Analysts. Jason holds a BA in Economics from Yale University.
• Johanna Roberts

  Johanna Roberts

  Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary

  Johanna joined the Penumbra legal team in 2014, serving as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel from July 2015 until her promotion to Executive Vice President and General Counsel in September 2018. Johanna joined Penumbra with more than fifteen years’ experience working for several law firms, including Morrison & Foerster LLP in San Francisco. Johanna received her law degree from Harvard Law School and her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College.
• Lambert Shiu

  Lambert Shiu

  Chief Accounting Officer

  Lambert joined Penumbra in 2015, serving as Director of Finance, then as Vice President, Finance and Accounting until his promotion to Chief Accounting Officer in 2019. Prior to joining Penumbra, he worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP (“PwC”), an accounting firm, for 13 years. He worked on a variety of teams during his tenure at PwC, each role increasing in levels of responsibility and management and spent two years in their National Office. Lambert is a Certified Public Accountant in California and received a BA from the University of California, Davis in 2001.
• Maggie Yuen

  Maggie Yuen

  Chief Financial Officer

  Maggie joined Penumbra in 2019, serving as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to Penumbra, Maggie spent more than 20 years of progressive leadership experience driving scalable finance organizations, processes and infrastructure in the manufacturing, medical devices, and life science industries. She most recently served as Vice President of Finance of the Genetic Science Division within Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., a business focused on instrument platforms, cloud-based software, content and services. In her role, she directed finance operations, strategic planning and business development activities, among a number of other executive functions. Prior to Thermo Fisher, Maggie held leadership positions with increasing responsibility at Mirion Technologies, and senior finance roles at Boston Scientific, Glu Mobile, and Johnson & Johnson. Maggie has also served on the Board of Directors of AtriCure, Inc. since June 2021. She received an MAcc and MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management and a BS from Case Western Reserve University.