I co-create at the intersection of healthcare, technology, science, and human possibility.

My career has been defined by a performance mindset and a drive to build better systems. After earning a degree from the University of Pennsylvania—majoring in PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics), minoring in Spanish, and completing a marketing focus through The Wharton School—I began my career at PepsiCo’s The Gatorade Company in Chicago. There, working with a brand built around human performance, I developed an enduring belief that we are all athletes in our own right: competing with ourselves, recovering, and continually choosing where to grow.

I later joined American Express in New York City, working in digital fintech and next-generation payments during a defining period in consumer technology. That experience sharpened my ability to lead cross-functional teams, translate strategy into scalable systems, and drive innovation within industries amid reinventions.

Today, as Co-Founder and CEO of Kadara Medical and MediZap, I lead work across medical devices, customized compounded medications, advanced E-Beam | X-Ray terminal sterilization, pharmacy compounding, longevity medicine, AI-enabled operations, drug microbiology, analytical chemistry, peptides, and emerging therapies. My focus is building safer, smarter platforms that give providers better tools, patients better outcomes, and compounders technology engineered to scale with confidence.

I am energized by fields where science is advancing quickly, and established playbooks are ready to be reimagined. Across clinic, pharmacy, hospital, and veterinary ecosystems, I believe the next era of healthcare will be more personalized, inclusive, technically rigorous, and profoundly human.

I live in Santa Monica, California, with my Great Dane, Karamo. Outside of work, time near Venice Beach, hiking in Malibu, and travel to every continent except Antarctica keep me curious, globally minded, and open to ideas that cross traditional boundaries.

A deeply personal approach to business has shaped my career. I believe that behind every product is a person, behind every order is a practitioner, and behind every procedure is a patient hoping to improve their quality of life. That understanding guides how I lead, the decisions I make, and the standards I hold for the companies we are building.

As Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of kadara Medical and MediZap, I lead across operations, quality, product development, supply chain, customer experience, and strategic partnerships. My work spans medical device manufacturing, sterile procedure kits, advanced terminal sterilization by electron beam, pharmacy compounding, and emerging healthcare technologies.

While these industries require precision, technical rigor, and strong operational systems, I never want our work to feel transactional. We are not simply companies that manufacture products or provide services. We are creating tools that become part of someone’s healthcare journey, and we have a responsibility to approach that work with passion, honesty, kindness, and genuine care.

I do not look at a product leaving our facility as another unit shipped. I see a patient preparing for a procedure that may help them regain their energy, confidence, health, or sense of self. I see a practitioner trusting us to provide the tools they need to care for that person. Every kit represents a real individual who is taking a step toward living their best life, and that makes the work deeply personal to me.

At kadara Medical, I have helped guide the company through growth, product expansion, quality-system development, supplier partnerships, and the continued evolution of how we support practitioners and their patients. I am often the person connecting the details across teams, identifying what can be improved, and ensuring that our values remain present as an idea becomes a product and that product becomes part of someone’s care.

One of the greatest gifts of this journey is that these companies have been built alongside my family and people I deeply love and trust. Growing a business together requires sacrifice, resilience, honesty, and an extraordinary amount of faith in one another. It also brings laughter, shared memories, and a sense of purpose that extends far beyond the work itself. Building alongside the people closest to me is a daily reminder that success is not only measured by what we create, but by the relationships we strengthen along the way.

My leadership style is hands-on, relationship-driven, and grounded in accountability and empathy. I believe people want to be heard, understood, and treated with kindness, whether they are a customer, practitioner, supplier, employee, or patient. I value honest communication, meaningful relationships, and doing the right thing even when it is not the easiest path.

To me, the future of healthcare must be innovative, technically excellent, and profoundly human. Science and technology can help us accomplish extraordinary things, but compassion is what gives those advancements meaning. The companies that make the greatest difference will be the ones that never lose sight of the person whose life may be changed by what they create.

Outside of work, I live in the rolling foothills of Newcastle, California, on six acres shared with my dogs, cats, sheep, and chickens (For now…). Life there is a joyful mix of animals, gardens, home projects, and the beautiful unpredictability of farm life. It has reinforced the principles I bring to my work every day: care deeply, stay honest, work hard, be kind, and create things that make life better for others.

Jon Bergstrom has spent more than three decades seeing what others miss at the intersection of science, healthcare, technology, policy, and commerce. His career has crossed critical care, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, pharmacy compounding, and advanced sterilization - fields often treated as separate disciplines, but that Jon has learned to read as parts of one evolving system.

An innovator by instinct and a first-principles thinker by discipline, Jon begins with the underlying problem: What does the patient need? What does the clinician require? What does the science make possible? And what must the regulatory and commercial system enable? From there, he identifies white-space opportunities that sit between established categories - places where unmet clinical need, convergent technologies, regulatory change, and market readiness are beginning to align. His gift is not merely recognizing a trend, but understanding the system around it well enough to see what must happen next.

Working side by side with clinicians gave him a practical understanding of how products perform in the real world and how trust is earned in healthcare. Building and leading commercial organizations taught him how to translate scientific and technical value into adoption. Negotiating partnerships and structuring opportunities made him a deal maker - but one whose best deals begin with listening, shared purpose, and enduring relationships.

Jon also maintains a close pulse on the direction of the U.S. government and healthcare regulatory affairs, including priorities emerging across the Department of Health and Human Services and its agencies. He understands that policy and regulation are not separate from innovation; they shape the conditions under which innovation can reach patients. His ability to connect scientific evidence, regulatory expectations, operational realities, and commercial strategy makes him a trusted counselor when an opportunity crosses traditional boundaries or when the path forward is not yet obvious.

He is equally a people person and a teacher. Jon has a rare ability to make complex science and strategy understandable without diminishing either. Colleagues, clinicians, partners, and sales professionals value him not only for what he knows, but for how he helps others see the larger picture. He brings energy to a room, creates alignment among people with different expertise, and has a talent for turning an ambitious idea into a shared conviction.

At MediZap, the full arc of Jon’s career converges. Advanced E-Beam and X-Ray terminal sterilization for compounded pharmaceuticals sits precisely where his experience is deepest: at the intersection of patient safety, pharmaceutical science, medical technology, microbiology, regulation, and scalable commercialization. As Executive Vice President of Business Development, Jon helps identify the opportunities that can define the company’s next horizon, shape the partnerships that make them possible, and ensure the science is translated into meaningful value for compounders, clinicians, and patients.

This role is a capstone in the truest sense - not an endpoint, but the point at which decades of experience become an integrated body of judgment. Few careers span invention to commercialization, bedside need to boardroom strategy, product development to public policy, and human relationships to enterprise-building. At MediZap, he is applying that rare breadth to help build the next generation of safer, smarter, and more resilient compounding healthcare infrastructure.

Since joining the MediZap family in 2018, Kirsten Dunkel has continued to bring energy, organization, and creativity to the company’s portfolio management, customer engagement, and business development efforts. As Director of Product Management, Kirsten supports MediZap’s expanding Packaging Solutions product portfolio, including new secondary packaging solutions designed to help solve packaging challenges for human ophthalmic droppers, otic syringes, and drug formats used in veterinary compounding.

Kirsten thrives on building and maintaining strong connections with both current customers of 503A compounding pharmacies and 503B outsourcing facilities, and with new acquisitions of product portfolios, new sites, and expansions of USA-based licensed facilities. She is passionate about keeping clients engaged, informed, and excited about MediZap’s top-tier E-Beam terminal sterilization services and expanded 4 Pillar Service, bridging regulatory experience with the science that propels industry forward. With a penchant for the evolving healthcare landscape and the ever-evolving biotechnology innovations powered by AI that improve quality of life, Kirsten is especially energized by the continued advancement of GLP-1 therapies, peptides, hormones, and emerging compounded sterile pharmaceutical solutions focused on longevity and wellness.

She holds science and business management degrees from Johnson & Wales University. Since recently getting married to the cowboy of her dreams, outside of work Kirsten loves spending time with her new husband, their daughter, and their dog Sophie at the beach and attending community events throughout Northern Nevada, such as the Outhouse Races in Virginia City, the Annual Candy Dance in Genoa, and Hot August Nights in Reno. Kirsten and her family volunteer time cheering on Special Olympics contestants each year and supporting local non-profits by helping set up for various fundraisers. She also heads out on any possible weekend to see her new extended family in California’s Central Valley and join them in watching the Madera Speedway races.