Roland Deangelis Jr. Email Address

Vice President, Commercial Operations Cell Therapies

Vericel Corp is engaged in the development of treatments for critical cardiovascular diseases.

With a degree in mechanical engineering, Roland spent the first 10 years of his professional career in the defense industry, working primarily on the operational evaluation and deployment of a new heavyweight torpedo for the US Navy. Roland then took his extensive project management experience to the orthopaedics industry joining Acufex Microsurgical as a senior project engineer. At Acufex Roland led teams to design, manufacture and commercialize instruments, implants and systems for the knee reconstruction market. During his tenure at Acufex, Roland made the transition to marketing eventually taking the position as group product manager for the knee reconstruction line. Subsequently acquired by Smith and Nephew, Roland departed in 1995 and joined Genzyme Tissue Repair (GTR). At the time of his arrival, GTR was in the process of launching Carticel (autologous cultured chondrocytes) one of the first cell therapy products to be successfully commercialized. Roland served in several capacities during his tenure at Genzyme. But most notable are his contributions and leadership of highly specialized teams which have navigated the complex commercial environment with premium priced, cell therapy product, while fostering a radical change in clinical approach to patient care. In 2011, Genzyme was acquired by Sanofi and in 2014, Sanofi divested their Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine business unit to a company called Aastrom Biosciences. After this transformative change, Aastrom changed its name to Vericel Corporation. Vericel manufactures and markets 3 autologous cell therapy products in burn and cartilage repair. Roland now now holds the title Vice President of Commercial Operations - Cell Therapy responsibilities primarily include strategic planning, sales, marketing and market access leadership.