Dr. Asif Ilyas, MD, MBA, FACS
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Ilyas is a thought-leading Orthopeadic and Hand Surgeon, and is considered a world expert in wide awake hand surgery. Dr. Ilyas completed his surgical training as a Fellow at the Harvard Medical School at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He later secured an MBA from Brown University with dual matriculation at the IE University in Spain. Dr. Ilyas has been a leader in and outside the medical and surgical arena; including serving as a Medical Director, Fellowship Director, Professor, and most recently a medical school Associate Dean. He has performed over 5000 wide awake surgeries and has published many of the leading articles establishing the safety and efficacy of awake hand surgery. Dr. Ilyas is committed to advancing wide awake office based surgery to increase access for patients, increased reimbursement for physicians, and yield more savings for payers.
Dr. James Clarkson, MBBS, MSc, FRCS(Plast), FRCSC
Chief Medical Officer
He was trained as a Plastic and Hand Surgeon in the United Kingdom, followed by a Hand Fellowship at the Christine Kleinert Institute Louisville Kentucky. He is boarded through the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons or Canada, where he was born. He was faculty at the Department of Surgery at Michigan State University since 2010 until 2024 when, Inspired by the success that VR and office based surgery brought to his patients he left to create Walant Surgical Solutions with his co-founders. Clarkson has written a book chapter on how to deliver hand surgery in the office environment and looked at the mechanisms that VR appears to work through to reduce patient anxiety. He has also published his comparative infection rates in the main operating room and the office, where he found reduced infection rates when his patients surgical care transitioned to the office environment.
MATTHEW YESSIAN
Director of Business Development
Matt brings over 25 years of healthcare industry experience in sales, marketing, operations and business development. He has experience within startups to fortune 100 companies. He successfully negotiated and executed multiple national contracts, orchestrated the conversions of hundreds of healthcare institutions to new technologies and scaled sales divisions to achieve revenue targets. Matt holds an MBA in Marketing and Management from Wayne State University and a BS in Business Finance from Hillsdale College, with minors in Biology and Chemistry. He is committed to growing WSS by way of education, collaboration and first class service.
Joseph Gough
Board Member
Joseph Gough is a prominent healthcare strategist, innovator and entrepreneur based in Michigan. He has been widely recognized for pioneering digital solutions in value-based care and patient engagement. As of 2026, he continues to bridge the gap between clinical excellence and technological optimization through his leadership roles in Joyn Health and its Town Doc, Inc. parent company. The Joyn Health MSO also serves portfolio companies including innovative network solutions like WALANT Surgical Solutions (WSS). Gough was a co-founder of the WAVR patient engagement and pain management platform that WSS has acquired to produce multiple groundbreaking clinical trial results in reducing the unnecessary use of anesthesia and the anxiety that many patients experience in medical and dental procedures.
David Wheeler
Creative Director, Game Designer, Writer and Director of Video Games and Film/TV, David is an Honors Graduate of The London Film School in the UK with a multiple award-winning career including writing and directing credits in both video games and film/TV. Senior Creative Director at Electronic Arts (EA), Content Director for Vivendi/Universal. Games under David’s creative leadership have generated more than $2 Billion in revenue. Industry recognition for his creative work includes CLIO (Advertising), ANDY (Art Directors of New York), MI6 (Games), and a WRITER’S GUILD OF AMERICA nomination. Currently CEO and Chief creative officer at Digital Circus Media LLC.