Rick Pauls was appointed our President and Chief Executive Officer in 2009.  Mr. Pauls has served as a member of our board of directors since 2005 and as the Chairman of the Board from 2008 to 2014.

Before joining DiaMedica, Mr. Pauls was the Co-Founder and Managing Director of CentreStone Ventures, an early-stage life sciences venture capital fund, from 2002 until 2010. Mr. Pauls was an analyst for Centara Corporation, an early-stage venture capital fund, from 2000 until 2002.  From 1997 until 1999, Mr. Pauls worked for General Motors Acceptation Corporation specializing in asset-backed securitization and structured finance.  Additionally, Mr. Pauls has served on the board of directors of several public and private companies.  Mr. Pauls received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Manitoba and his M.B.A. in Finance from the University of North Dakota.

Dr. Krop was appointed our Chief Medical Officer effective as of August 2025.

Dr. Krop has more than 20 years of experience as a strategic physician executive with leadership experience spanning multiple therapeutic and orphan indications in both pre-commercial and commercial organizations. Before DiaMedica, Dr. Krop was CMO and Head of Development at PureTech Health, where she led multiple rare disease programs from preclinical development through Phase 2 trials. Prior to this, she served as CMO at Freeline Therapeutics, where she helped drive a successful IPO and oversaw three clinical stage gene therapy programs. Before that, Dr. Krop was CMO and Executive Vice President at AMAG Pharmaceuticals, where she was involved in the approval of three drugs and worked on the development of an orphan drug candidate for the treatment of severe preeclampsia. Previously, Dr. Krop has held senior development roles at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Stryker Regenerative Medicine, Peptimmune, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and Pfizer.

Dr. Krop received her MD from Brown University School of Medicine and completed her internal medicine residency at Georgetown University Hospital. She also completed fellowships in epidemiology, clinical trial design and endocrinology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Krop is board-certified in Endocrinology.

Scott Kellen joined us in January 2018 as our Vice President of Finance and was appointed our Chief Financial Officer and Secretary in April 2018. 

Before joining DiaMedica, Mr. Kellen served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Sun BioPharma, Inc., a publicly-traded clinical-stage drug development company, from 2015 until 2018.  From 2010 to 2015, Mr. Kellen served as Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of Kips Bay Medical, Inc., a publicly-traded medical device company.  He became Chief Operating Officer of Kips Bay in 2012.  From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Kellen served as Finance Director of Transoma Medical, Inc. From 2005 to 2007, Mr. Kellen served as a Corporate Controller of ev3 Inc.  From 2003 to 2005, Mr. Kellen served as Senior Manager, Audit and Advisory Services of Deloitte & Touche, L.L.P.  Altogether, Mr. Kellen has spent more than 25 years in the life sciences industry, focusing on publicly traded early stage and growth companies.  Mr. Kellen has a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota and is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive).

Dr. Shah was appointed our Chief Technology Officer effective as of September 2023.

Dr. Shah has over 25 years of experience in advancing biopharmaceuticals from early stage to commercialization. He was previously the Vice President and Head of Global Vaccines Development at CSL Seqirus where he was accountable for end-to-end chemistry, manufacturing and control (CMC) in the development of vaccines. Prior to that position, he was Executive Director, Head of Drug Product Development at Bristol-Myers Squib (formerly Celgene). His prior experience comprised increasingly impactful roles at AstraZeneca (formerly MedImmune), GlaxoSmithKline (formerly Human Genome Sciences) and Pfizer (formerly Wyeth).

Dr. Shah received his Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from Mumbai University, India and his Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA. He obtained his doctorate in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Mercer University, Atlanta, Georgia with a focus on Drug Delivery.

David Wambeke was appointed our Chief Business Officer April 2023.

Before joining DiaMedica, Mr. Wambeke served as Partner and Managing Director of Investment Banking at Craig-Hallum Capital Group, LLC, a growth-focused investment bank.  Mr. Wambeke joined Craig-Hallum in 2007 and was involved in more than one hundred financing and M&A transactions with a focus on the life sciences and biotech industries.  Prior to joining Craig-Hallum, Mr. Wambeke was enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as an artilleryman and military police officer.  During a deployment in Baghdad, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Mr. Wambeke was wounded in combat and awarded the Purple Heart.  Mr. Wambeke received a B.S. from the University of Minnesota.

Alex Aimetti was appointed our Chief Development Officer in March 2025.

Dr. Aimetti brings over 15 years of executive leadership experience spanning research, clinical development, and medical affairs across multiple therapeutic areas, including neurotrauma, neuropsychiatry, neurocritical care, and epilepsy.

Prior to joining DiaMedica, Dr. Aimetti served as Chief Scientific Officer at Marinus Pharmaceuticals, a Nasdaq-listed clinical and commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on rare seizure disorders. During his tenure, he played a key role in the successful development and U.S. launch of Ztalmy®, as well as the strategic sale of the company. Prior to that, Dr. Aimetti held positions of increasing responsibility at InVivo Therapeutics, ultimately serving as Vice President of Product Strategy & Medical Education.

Dr. Aimetti holds a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder and a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He completed his postdoctoral research fellowship in the Langer Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Dominic R. Cundari was appointed our Chief Commercial Officer effective as of February 2022.

Mr. Cundari has over 30 years of pharmaceutical experience in various commercial roles in high growth markets.  Prior to joining DiaMedica, Mr. Cundari served as an independent commercial strategy and development consultant for Genentech since 2009.  From 1988 to 2009, Mr. Cundari held a variety of sales and marketing management positions across multiple medical specialties at Genentech, a global biotechnology company.  As Senior Director for the Vascular Franchise, Mr. Cundari was responsible for shaping commercial strategies, leading product launches in cardiology, pulmonary and neurology specialties and establishing strategic partnerships with telemedicine companies.  Mr. Cundari holds both a Master of Science and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Villanova University.

Rebekah de Vitry Fries was appointed our Vice President of Clinical Operation in February 2024.

Ms. Fries brings over 15 years of clinical operations experience. Prior to joining DiaMedica, Ms. Fries was Head of Clinical Operations at Epygenix Therapeutics, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing treatments for rare and intractable genetic epilepsies. Ms. Fries served, in a consulting capacity, as Director, electronic Clinical Outcomes Assessment for Takeda Neuroscience and Ovid Pharmaceuticals in their collaboration on the development of a treatment for developmental and epileptic encephalopathies. Ms. Fries served as Director, Clinical Development Operations at Marinus Pharmaceuticals, and prior to this, held a series of research positions of increasing responsibility at a variety of companies including Invivo Therapeutics, DP Clinical, Premier Research, Human Genome Sciences and Genencor International. Ms. Fries received a Bachelor Science in Biotechnology from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Dr. Paolo Madeddu is an expert on the human protein KLK1 and the Kallikrein-Kinin-system, he has over 310 publications including over 55 related to KLK1, and internationally known for his research and publications.  Dr. Madeddu obtained his MD degree in 1976 at the University of Sassari (Italy) and in 1980 became Specialist of Cardiology from the University of Sassari.   He worked as a Senior Consultant for the Internal Medicine Department and  Chief of the Regenerative Medicine Center in Osilo and Porto Conte Ricerche until 2005.  He was then recruited by the University of Bristol, where he is currently a full professor in Cardiovascular Experimental Medicine.  He is Editor of Vascular Biology and Trends in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine, and associated editor of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (ATVB).  His research focuses  on new solutions to cardiovascular repair and rejuvenation, using gene therapy, protein therapy, and tissue engineering.  He has received funding to this research from the Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation, Heart Research UK, Diabetes UK, JDFR, and the European Community.