Richard Stack, MD ’76, is a professor emeritus of Medicine in Cardiology at Duke University, a world recognized authority on cardiovascular disease and a managing partner of Synecor, a new technology incubator.

Dr. Stack completed an Internal Medicine residency at Wayne State University and a fellowship in cardiovascular disease at Duke University Hospital. He spent his entire academic medical career at Duke, where he was founder and director of Duke Interventional Cardiology. He retired as professor emeritus in 2000.

Dr. Stack’s work at Duke led to his co-founding and investing in several major medical device companies, including Synecor, a business generator and financial incubator for new medical device companies. He chairs the scientific advisory board, leads the pre-clinical testing services provided and is the interim president of each Synecor spinout company. He also served as president of the defunct Atlanta Cardiovascular Research Institute, and co-founded Synergy Life Science Partners.

He holds more than 100 patents, issued or pending, on a variety of vascular therapeutic devices, including a stent drug-delivery device. He has written more than 350 articles and book chapters, been a principal or co-principal investigator for three National Institutes of Health grants and received many research awards.

Dr. Stack received the WSU School of Medicine Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001.