Board of Directors
Joe E. Kiani, Chairman
As Chairman of the Board of Masimo Foundation, Mr. Kiani brings vision, expertise, and proven management capabilities to the Foundation. His responsibilities include serving as the Foundation's Chief Executive Officer, leading and overseeing the Board of Directors in the fulfillment of its duties, providing policy leadership, and presiding at meetings of the Board. He receives no compensation from the Foundation.
Mr. Kiani is also Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Masimo Corporation, a global medical technology company that develops and manufactures innovative non-invasive patient monitoring technologies. Masimo is the primary contributor to the Foundation. Mr. Kiani founded Masimo in 1989 as a private company to improve the accuracy of noninvasive patient monitoring. Under his leadership, Masimo has grown from a “garage start up” into a successful publicly traded medical technology company employing over 2,000 people worldwide and increasing product revenue four-fold in the last five years. Since 1998, Mr. Kiani has also been the CEO and Chairman of Masimo Labs, a research and development company focused on non-invasive monitoring. Mr. Kiani has served on the board of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association since 2002, and is the past Chair of MDMA. Mr. Kiani has testified before the US Senate and FTC on issues related to Group Purchasing Organizations, and the patent system. Mr. Kiani is also on the Board of Trustees of Chapman University, and an Advisor to the College of Engineering of San Diego State University. Mr. Kiani holds a B.S.E.E. and an M.S.E.E. from San Diego State University and is an inventor on more than 50 patents.
Stephen C. Jensen is a partner at Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear LLP, one of the largest intellectual property law firms in the country. He has been practicing law for over 25 years, with most of that representing innovative medical technology companies. Mr. Jensen received his J.D., Order of the Coif, at the University of California - Los Angeles in 1990, and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering , magna cum laude, from Brigham Young University in 1987. Prior to becoming a lawyer, he worked for Hughes Aircraft where he was involved in development of airborne radar systems.
He served on the Board of Directors of Sedline, Inc, a company that developed non-invasive brain function monitoring products. He also served as the Senior Vice President of OEM Business and Business Development at Masimo Corporation, and currently serves on the board of directors of Cercacor Corporation, a company that is developing non-invasive monitoring technology. He brings true passion for patient safety, particularly through innovation. He believes that if we apply Voltaire’s principal of “no problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking,” and stop worrying about who gets credit, we can solve any patient safety problems presented.
Mr. Jensen, with his wife and five children have been serving the vision impaired community for over a decade, through their passion for raising seeing-eye dogs. These dogs are provided to the vision impaired at no charge. He also provided volunteer service overseas for about a year and a half before finishing his undergraduate degree.
Sarah Kiani, Director
Sarah has been a devoted mother, wife and philanthropist since the age of 21. She has served as a member of the Board of Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation, and Competition in Healthcare a year after its founding. The foundation has focused on improvement of patient care with many projects, including the founding of Patient Safety, Science and Technology Summit (patientsafetysummit.org). She and her husband, Joe Kiani, have also been involved in various international projects, including building schools in Uganda with their support of Clinton Global Initiatives.
In addition, Sarah has been involved in many local programs, including the Booster club at George White Elementary School, where she spearheaded various programs including raising money to buy all Apple computers for the computer lab. She and her husband have also helped the school by improving its image and communications with the entire school community. In addition, Sarah chaired the March of Dimes fundraising event in 2003, and together with her husband is leading this year’s MOD Walk, as they did for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in 2009 for their annual walk.
Sarah has also involved her daughters, Kayla and Nessa, in volunteerism as they tutored students at a title 1 elementary school in Santa Ana. Kayla and Nessa have made gift bags for kids at CHOC hospital during holidays and have taken care of families for the holidays sponsor meals.
Sarah has been a student of nutrition and its impact on children and has become an expert in proper diet and supplements to encourage a healthy mind and body.
Dr. harris serves as a Director of the Foundation. He is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at San Diego State University, where he holds the CUBIC Signal Processing Chair of the Communication Systems and Signal Processing Institute. Dr. harris has taught at SDSU since 1967 in the areas related to Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and Communication Systems. He has extensive practical experience applying his skills, is well published, and has contributed to a number of books on DSP. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and holds a B.S.E.E. from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, a master's degree in M.S.E.E. from San Diego State University, and a Ph.D. from Aalborg University. He receives no compensation from the Foundation.
