HOWARD J. LEONHARDT

Howard Leonhardt is an inventor and serial entrepreneur.  He has 21 U.S. patents for products for treating cardiovascular disease.  His TALENT stent graft developed in the early 1990′s holds a leading world market share for repairing aortic aneurysms without surgery.  His inventions have treated over 200,000 patients in 60 countries.  In early 1999 Leonhardt founded Bioheart  a leader in applying adult muscle stem cells to treat heart failure. Leonhardt holds a Diploma in International Trade from Anoka Technical College.  He attended the University of Minnesota and Anoka Ramsey College.  He holds an honorary Doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Northern California and is an honorary alumnus of the University of Florida and Florida International University.  He is co-leader of Startup California and Founder and Chairman of The California Stock Xchange (Cal-X)  designed to be the first conscious capitalism stock listing service – www.calstockexchange.com – working through multiple partnerships.  Cal-X units include Cal-X Crowdfund Connect www.calxcrowdfund.com, The Cal-X Funders Syndicate and the Cal-Xelerator and Cal-Stars Business Accelerators www.calxstars.com.   Cal-X Stars is a venture creation lab focused on cardiovascular and social good impact innovations.  The lab has brought forward breakthrough innovations in electrical stimulation technologies for directing stem cell therapies, implantable stem cell and circulatory assist pumps and heart valve decalcification catheters.  His Leonhardt Ventures angels network has raised and put to work over $145 million in 28 companies to date, most of them founded by Leonhardt.  Leonhardt serves as state spokesperson in California for the JOBS ACT and Crowdfunding for Startup California and has given over 60 speeches on the subject.  He has signed a contract to co-host the upcoming CNBC TV Series CrowdFund.   He is testing the waters to run in 2018 as a candidate for Lt. Governor of California.

Howard Leonhardt is an inventor and serial entrepreneur.  He has 20 U.S. patents for products for treating cardiovascular and heart disease.  These include;  cardiovascular balloon catheters, stent grafts for aneurysm repair, percutaneous heart valves, heart pacemakers with stem cell recruiting capabilities, electrical stimulation devices for promoting blood flow, electrical stimulation device for converting stem cells to heart muscle, stem cell compositions for heart repair, stem cell delivery systems, biological pacemakers and artificial lung catheter.  His TALENT stent graft developed in the early 1990′s holds a leading world market share for repairing aortic aneurysms without surgery.  His inventions have treated over 140,000 patients in 60 countries. In early 1999 Leonhardt founded Bioheart, Inc. www.bioheartinc.com a leader in applying adult muscle stem cells to treat heart failure.  Bioheart has raised over $105 million in paid in capital and additionally $40 million in loans and grants.  Bioheart MyoCell is in Phase II/III clinical trials at 33 leading centers in the USA (The MARVEL Study).  MARVEL Phase II/IIIa part I results were published in the American Heart Journal October of 2011 and demonstrated Bioheart MyoCell patients improved 95.7 meters in exercise capacity over placebo patients receiving optimal CHF drugs, whom declined minus 4 meters.  Leonhardt holds a Diploma in International Trade from Anoka Technical College.  He attended the University of Minnesota and Anoka Ramsey Community College.  He holds an honorary Doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Northern California and is an honorary alumnus of the University of Florida and Florida International University where he has served on various boards.  He was South Florida Entrepreneur of the Year 2003 and State of Florida Entrepreneur of the Year 2004.  Leonhardt has founded 20 companies to date, most them majority funded by his venture firm Leonhardt Ventures and their associated angel networks www.lventuresnestg.wpenginepowered.com.  These include;  The California Stock Xchange www.calstockexchange.com, Kindheart Lionheart Adventures www.lionheartadventures.com, MyoStim Pacers www.myostimpacers.com, Leonhardt Vineyards www.leonhardtvineyards.com, Leonhardt’s Launchpads www.leonhardtslaunchpads.com, Kindheart Lionheart Media Co. www.kindheartlionheart.com, Stem Cell Bra www.stemcellbra.comand Wine Country Baseball www.winecountrybaseball.com.  Leonhardt helps lead Startup California www.startupcalifornia.org a region of the Startup America Partnership as a spokesperson on the JOBS ACT and Crowdfunding.   He founded the public policy institute The Entrepreneurship Party www.entrepreneurshipparty.com in 2006 and is an independent candidate for the Governorship of California 2014 http://howardleonhardt.nationbuilder.com/ and www.howardleonhardt.org
Expanded Bio….

Howard Leonhardt is an inventor and serial entrepreneur.  He has 21 patents for products for treating cardiovascular and heart disease.  These include;  cardiovascular balloon catheters, stent grafts for aneurysm repair, percutaneous heart valves, heart pacemakers with stem cell recruiting capabilities, electrical stimulation devices for promoting blood flow, electrical stimulation device for converting stem cells to heart muscle, stem cell compositions for heart repair, stem cell delivery systems, biological pacemakers and artificial lung catheter.  His TALENT stent graft developed in the early 1990’s holds a leading world market share for repairing aortic aneurysms without surgery.  In early 1999 Leonhardt founded Bioheart, Inc. www.bioheartinc.com a leader in applying adult muscle stem cells to treat heart failure.  Bioheart has raised over $105 million in paid in capital and additionally $40 million in loans and grants. Bioheart MyoCell is in Phase II/III clinical trials at 33 leading centers in the USA (The MARVEL Study).  MARVEL Part I results were published in the American Heart Journal October of 2011 and demonstrated Bioheart MyoCell patients improved 95.7 meters in exercise capacity over placebo patients receiving optimal CHF drugs, whom declined minus 4 meters.

Leonhardt has founded 21 companies to date, most them them majority funded by his venture firm Leonhardt Ventures www.lventuresnestg.wpenginepowered.com,  and their affiliated angel investor network – see web site for full portfolio.  He holds a diploma in International Trade from Anoka Technical College in Minneapolis, Minnesota and attended Anoka-Ramsey College and the University of Minnesota.  He has received an honorary Doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Northern California and is an honorary alumnus of the University of Florida and Florida International University, where he has served both as a consulting professor teaching entrepreneurship.  He continues to serve on various boards of all three universities.  He has lectured on entrepreneurship at Princeton University, UCLA, the University of Minnesota and at numerous other campuses.

In 1983 he was a founding member of American General Medical Corporation and helped build and equip numerous cardiac cath labs around the globe as Export Sales Manager.  In late 1984 he became Vice President of IMA Medical Group in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  In 1986 he founded World Medical Corp. a firm that assisted cardiovascular device makers to reach export markets.  World Medical Medical Mfg. Corp. founded 1988 developed over 20 products for cardiovascular disease and grew from a few employees to over 500 before merging with Arterial Vascular Engineering of Santa Rosa, California in April 1998 and subsequently selling to Medtronic Vascular in November 1998.  Leonhardt was voted South Florida Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003 and State of Florida Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004.  Spin outs from Bioheart, Inc. he has founded include MyoStim Pacers www.myostimpacers.com in San Diego, a firm based on his patents for enabling a heart to become self regenerating by recruiting stem cells.  Biopace is a biological pacemaker company in development stage in California.  AortaCell utilizes a cell composition to repair aortic aneurysms.  MyoValve utilizes cells for heart valve repair.  EndoCell uses cells to repair damaged arteries.  Peri-Cell utilizes cells to treat limb ischemia in combination with the electronic MyoStim Limb Blood Flow Stimulator. Leonhardt serves on the advisory board of the Cell Therapy Foundation and Adult Stem Cell Research Network.

Leonhardt’s restaurant Lucille’s Cafe in Weston, Florida www.lucillescafe.com (50% stake with Paul Nunez) has been profitable for nearly a dozen years and is not expanding to food trucks nationwide.

Leonhardt Vineyards acquired land in Sonoma County in 2000 and produces Gold Medal winning wines with sales of over 6,000 cases a year to outlets such as Trader Joes in California www.leonhardtvineyards.com. Howard’s son Ryan Leonhardt is now running their wine business.  In 2006 Leonhardt formed The Entrepreneurship Party www.entrepreneurshipparty.com a public policy institute for entrepreneurs and is the author of many related articles.  This organization helped lobby for years for the Crowdfunding and Small Company Capital Formation Acts recently passed by the House of Representatives 407 to 17 and 521-1 with the purpose reducing the costs and complexity for small firms raising capital.

He founded in 2008 The California Stock Exchange www.calstockexchange.com, a firm for assisting small firms to raise capital, which is coupled with Leonhardt’s Launchpads www.leonhardtslaunchpads.com his startup business incubator booster program.  Leonhardt owns 12 collegiate summer league baseball teams and the Wine Country Old Fashioned Baseball League www.winecountrybaseball.com which is modeled after the Cape Cod League for college players seeking to get signed into a major league contract.  He previously owned two indoor arena football league teams, the Miami Morays and the Florida Frenzy.

In 2011 he started two online radio stations RadioVeronicaUSA www.radioveronicausa.com and RadioSantaMonicaUSA.   His firm Kindheart Lionheart Media Company www.kindheartlionheart.com publishes and retails inspirational books, movies and music.  This includes his own book Dolphin Smiles:  The Legend of Kindheart Lionheart an inspiring fictional tale about a Dolphin that remembers his previous life as a human.  Leonhardt produces regular podcasts of his radio show The Kindheart Lionheart Radio Program which highlights inspiring works and advocates causes for social good entrepreneurs.  Kindheart Lionheart Adventures www.lionheartadventures.com helps organize people to do charity work for others on their vacations, and has adventure packages for auctions to help charitable foundations raise funds.