Arash Sabet received his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering, his master’s degree in mechanical engineering, and is continuing his education at Washington University in St. Louis graduating in May 2009 with an MBA in strategy and finance.
Sabet was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute research fellow and summer scholar, a finalist in the Stanford Biodesign Fellowship, and a Kauffman Young Entrepreneur. In addition, he was awarded $20,000 as the Olin Cup Winner for his biomedical venture business plan and earned the Shepley Award, Washington University’s top honor, for his excellence in leadership and academics.
He has extensive work experience as a researcher, design engineer, and inventor. As a researcher at Washington University, Sabet used MRI technology to evaluate brain damage during rotational accelerations such as automobile accidents. In his role as a design engineer at Cortech Holdings in St. Louis, Mo., he coordinated academia and industry in the development of a technology to evaluate and mitigate traumatic brain injury. Most recently, Sabet developed a business strategy, secured funding, and established a medical prototyping and testing facility—Medexceed Medical Corporation. As the chief executive officer, he worked on an interdisciplinary team to develop a technology to rehabilitate individuals suffering from mandibular hypomobility.
Through his strong biomedical engineering foundation, Sabet has patents pending or secured for numerous medical devices, including Walrus, a surgical device for the installation of auditory prostheses, and Cochlear Scribe, a marking device to facilitate cochlear prosthetic implantation. Other entrepreneurial initiatives include successfully initiating licensing talks with an international leader in cochlear implants and establishing licensing opportunities with Stryker Medical, a leading manufacturer in medical technology, for a bone removal technology. His work has been published in the Journal of Biomedical Engineering and the Journal of Mechanics and Physics of Solids.
Sabet’s university and community involvement is traced through a variety of initiatives he has founded. The initiatives include Skandalaris Student Venture Fund, a student venture capital fund at the university; Cross-Campus Entrepreneurial Senate to intersect entrepreneurial student organizations from business, law, engineering, biomedicine, and medicine; and WUBOTS, a grant established to fund an after-school robotics program at a local high school.
Sabet’s first program—Feed St. Louis —is his most prized accomplishment. Founded in 2003, Sabet saw an opportunity to take the university’s surplus food and deliver it to area homeless shelters. Sabet’s program now delivers 10,000 pounds of food each year to the hungry in St. Louis.
vSabet was born in Iran, but grew up in St. Louis, Mo., where his family currently resides. In his free time, Sabet enjoys ballroom dancing and teaching others as a certified instructor, and competing in Ironman Triathlons. The greatest advice he has received is to “follow your bliss.” A man of many languages, Sabet is fluent in English, Spanish, Farsi, and Turkish.
