Antoine Agassi

ANTOINE AGASSI, who moved from CIO to President of Cogent Healthcare during the past three years, has exited to pursue other interests. He told VNC that, having navigating transactions at Envoy, WebMD, Emdeon, Spheris and Cogent, he'll take a brief break before getting back on the track. Agassi was also chairman of then-Gov. Phil Bredesen's eHealth Council.

Kemp Dolliver

► Avondale Partners' former top health-services analyst, Kemp Dolliver, is now Head of Healthcare Research-Asia at Religare Capital Markets (Singapore), where he covers Asian healthcare stocks, he confirmed for VNC. Dolliver was with Avondale more than two years and previously was with Cowen & Co. more than 11 years. No word from Avondale regarding a successor for Dolliver.

► Pathfinder Therapeutics, the imaged-guided surgery technology startup spawned by current and former faculty and researchers associated with Vanderbilt University and its School of Engineering, is "likely be the first company to correct for soft-tissue deformation" during image-guided surgery to remove tumors, according to Jim Stefansic, Ph.D., MBA, who is Pathfinder's chief operating officer and a former VU research assistant professor. Stefansic responded to a query from VNC following Vanderbilt's recent announcement of a $3.1MM National Cancer Institute grant to co-PI's Michael Miga, William Jarnagan and Stefansic, for related research. In an earlier related story, Stefansic recounted the degree of community support around Pathfinder.

► Council Capital (formerly known as Council Ventures) announced it led a $13 Million round for NuScriptRX, including a $5MM debt facility from Square 1 Bank, and a $10MM C round that also brought in Council operating partner Chip Lacy Jr., Envest (Virginia Bea.) and a total four TNInvestco funds, including Council & Enhanced, NEST-TN, Tennessee Angel Fund and Innova. The firm's release is here.

► Mike Comegna, Byron Smith, et al, filed with the SEC for a $943K+ raise for Swingpal, their entry in the improve your golf game arena.

► Checkd.In, the social marketing and analytics startup based in Nashville, filed Sept. 7 a report of a $1 million filing. Solidus TNInvestco had previously reported investing at least $375K in Checkd.In.

► Visit the Aug. 29th NewsBits and Regional Roundup.

Matt Hall to MS

► Matthew Jett Hall is now a Nashville-based strategist with the Microsoft Enterprise Strategy Program team. He was previously Vanderbilt University's associate vice chancellor for information technology services and associate chief information architect. VNC previously reported on Hall's duties, related to CERN's large hadron collider.

► Universal Music Group (MCA in Nashville) appointed Simon Watt head of technology, global group. Watt's the linchpin in UMG's dealings with such as Apple, Google, YouTube, Spotify and Microsoft, it said in a release.

► SESAC promoted J.D. Connell to VP and Counsel, New Media Licensing. He was previously director of new-media.

► Healthways management are listed among investors associated with a $5MM raise reported to the SEC Sept. 13. Separately: Healthways announced a technology (mobile, plus) with Roundarch (Boston).

► Frontstream Payments, the Brentwood-domeciled company that's managed from offices in Reston, Virginia, filed for a $7.8 million capital raise. It's controlled by Arsenal Capital.

► Vanderbilt University's Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization, CTTC as it is now known, has a slick new skin on its website, which has a new address. Alan Bentley, formerly with an affiliate of the Cleveland Clinic, has led the group since June. Bentley is currently surveying CTTC stakeholders for their views on the Center and its services.

► Veran Medical, Vanderbilt and Nashville born and St. Louis bred, announced it's gotten closer to investor GE Capital, in what could prove a pre-acquisition bearhug. VNC's earlier report on Veran leaving Nashville.

Atkinson

Raven Internet Marketing Tools (Raven) has named Brannan Atkinson its chief marketing officer. Brannan was previously president of Atkinson PR, which was founded 25 years ago by Chairman Sue G. Atkinson.

Foundations Recovery Network, a 14-year-old Brentwood firm, filed for a $7MM debt raise, convertible to B-round shares.

Chase Perry

Vanderbilt Business magazine traces the influence that the faculty and grads of Owen Graduate School of Management have established within Nashville Capital Network, Nashville Entrepreneur Center and other organizations in the region's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Article here. Named: Germain Böer, Jim Bradford, Sid Chambless, Chase Perry, Christopher Rand, Michael Burcham, Rick Neitz, Harry Jacobson, Brian Laden, Mark Harris (NextGxDx), Henry Oemig, VenX, Pathfinder Therapeutics, Mountain Group Capital, TriStar Technology Ventures, Tennessee Angel fund. The VB article is here.

► Dynetics has been identified as the best offeror for the Tennessee state government RFP for an information security assessment, potentially worth nearly $400K to the contractor. The contract remains in negotiation, an OIR source said. Dynetics is based in Huntsville.

► Dataium is an aggregator of online consumer behavior data, and Dataium has a very large footpint in the automotive sector. Kate O'Neill of Metamarketer also comments on rising interest in analytics in this NBJ article.

► DiaTech Oncology believes its MiCK assay that measures the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs in causing cancer cells to die (apoptosis) is likely to be commercialized in 2012. Nash. Med. News. The company has apparently surmounted past legal disputes.

► Brentwood-based Health Info Technics announced it plans to become part of a newly formed company, iVantage Health Analytics. Eventual partner companies will include Healthcare Management Council, Performance Managing Institute and The Ratings Guy, they said in a release. A MassHighTech story.

► Nashville-based Asurion announced it has partnered with PlumChoice and NEW for consumer support for their electronic tools. Release.

► Entrepreneurs Organization Nashville says its members responded to a survey by saying they think things are getting better and they like being entrepreneurs, according to the NBJ. EO points us to two members (Michael Burcham, Jackson Miller) recently featured in Entrepreneur. Burcham was also profiled online by Brentwood (Tenn.) Life. Other Burcham sightings.

Premo Applications announced it is bundling applications for Android. App-packs here.

Nashville Ledger contributor Tim Ghianni reports on Nashville artists adopting Lowenstein's StageIt onlive-performance platform.

Worthy Publishing announced it bought Freeman-Smith publishers. Release here.

► HealthSpring and HealthStream CEO's Fritch and Frist, plus their early investors, Fred Goad and Dave Swenson, all celebrated their previous relationships during a Health Care Council forum. Nashville Medical News has it here. VNC