Management Team

Ernest Spitzer, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Ernest Spitzer is a cardiologist trained in Zaragoza, Spain, with focus on cardiovascular research. Before joining Cardialysis in 2014, he completed advanced training in cardiovascular imaging in Vienna, Austria, and a research fellowship in interventional cardiology in Bern, Switzerland. Dr. Spitzer is Board Member and the Chief Medical Officer at Cardialysis, ensuring medical and clinical trial expertise in processes such as endpoint adjudication, data and safety monitoring boards, medical monitoring, safety reporting, trial design, and core lab processes, in close collaboration with operational and scientific experts.

Dr. Spitzer graduated summa cum laude in 2015 from the Catholic University of Saint Mary, Arequipa, Peru, and served two years at the Peruvian Armed Forces. He completed his cardiology training at the University Hospital Miguel Servet, Zaragoza, Spain. He was awarded a research fellowship from the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions of the European Society of Cardiology and a research fellowship from the Spanish Society of Cardiology. In 2014, he completed a 4-year master program in statistics and research methodology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He has contributed with 80+ articles in peer-reviewed journals and is a PhD student at the Erasmus University. 

Dr. Spitzer is Board Member of the Academic Research Consortium since March 2019 and Board Member and Managing Director of the European Cardiovascular Research Institute (ECRI) since September 2020. 

Frits Kesselring

Chief Executive Officer

During his almost 30 years tenure at Cardialysis, Mr. Frits Kesselring has taken many responsibilities that enabled the transformation from a locally oriented Core Lab spun off from the Erasmus Medical Center into the professional and global company it is today. Perhaps most impactful was his key role in setting up the current corporate Group structure, including ECRI, and roll-out of the first major ECRI project, GLOBAL LEADERS. At some point, when the facilities needed fundamental restructuring in order to enhance visibility and connect all co-workers thus far spread over two floors, Frits took project leadership turning a large empty concrete 2600-sqm 6^th floor at the Westblaak  Rotterdam into a state-of-the-art facility integrating fit-for-purpose the intimacy of personal spaces with interactive open offices with maximum daylight.

Born in Rotterdam, his no-nonsense, loyal and dedicated attitude just makes things happen. As an explicit supporter of ‘his’ soccer team Sparta, Mr. Kesselring is collaborative and goal-oriented and over the years, he moved from the precise junior accountant of middle-sized companies like Cardialysis, when he just joined from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, into a more visionary financial leader and is the Chief Executive Officer at Cardialysis. He is critical, analytic, yet still helpful  and no-nonsense; trusted and reliable when it comes to achieving a fair deal in his current position.

Goran Rudez, PhD

Director of Innovation and Quality

Dr. Goran Rudez is working for Cardialysis since 2010 and has been active within the company in various roles, ranging from business development towards operational excellence. His current position as the Director of Innovation and Quality focusses on the Cardialysis’ processes and computerized systems seeking a best-fit for the current market while remaining efficient and compliant.

Prior to joining Cardialysis, Dr. Rudez has worked over 10 years as a biomedical scientist mainly within the cardiovascular research area. During this period he has obtained his PhD at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 2009 with the thesis “Role of P2RY12 Gene Variants and Biological Variation in Arterial Thrombosis”.