The idea for Iron Medical was
born out of the passion for service.
Founded by a former Special Agent with the United States Secret Service/EMT...turned nursing student, and an Army combat Veteran of the Iraq war; they had a vision to continue their service to a nation. Deeply patriotic and recognizing an industry could benefit from proven leaders, we seek to build a community of hardened professionals with a caring hand.
Utilizing our network of medical, law enforcement, EMS, and national security experts we believe we can build a team that is the best of the best and sought the world over.
Our Team
Chris Gerda
CEO - CO-FOUNDER • U.S. ARMY
Chris Gerda is a US Army Combat Veteran who deployed to Iraq and Kosovo. After his military time, Chris earned a degree in Criminal Justice and Master of Science in Fraud and Financial Forensics while serving as a Federal Police Officer. He shifted focus to investigating complex financial crime schemes and international money laundering with BNY Mellon and deepened his experience and managed the global Bank Secrecy Act reporting program for Pershing, the world’s largest securities clearing firm where he met John Burke. Chris moved to Fintech and created Business Identity Verification technology as the head of Risk and Fraud Prevention for Bottomline Technologies Paymode-X B2B payment network. His strategy combatted the world’s largest contributor to fraud losses, Business Email Account Compromise Fraud (BEC Fraud) and was instrumental in helping grow the network from $265 billion to $600 billion in annual payments and expanded the network from 250,000 to over 600,000 businesses validated, all while never having a successful fraudulent payment. His expertise helped deepen and establish new partnerships with seven of the nation's largest financial institutions to protect their corporate customers' payments. Chris has shifted gears again to improve the quality of the healthcare system in the US through Iron Medical and its exceptional talent and positive presence of its team members. He lives on the seacoast of New Hampshire, enjoys coaching and going to his son’s soccer games, is an outdoorsman, and aspires one day write his first fiction novel.
Michael Burke
Business Development Director • BROKER
Michael has earned a reputation for his ability to find new ways to develop new customers. Through his strong interpersonal skills, he easily builds rapport with past, current, and future clients, allowing organizations to generate revenue and exceed all goals. He has personally been in the top 1% of sales of the mortgage broker industry for the last 11 years and lead a team that has exceeded 275% of its target on a consistent basis since 2010. Furthermore, Michael has spearheaded a region that sold and closed $413,000,000 in mortgages in 2020.
Dr. MaryCathrin Crowley, DNP
MEDICAL DIRECTOR • NURSE PRACTITIONER
MaryCathrin Crowley, DNP, APN-C is a board-certified adult nurse practitioner. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Caldwell College with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Psychology receiving the highest honors in the department of Sociology. She received her diploma in nursing from Elizabeth General School of Nursing, her Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Medicine and Dentistry and her Doctorate in Nursing from Maryville University where she was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society for Nursing. Dr. Crowley holds certifications in Occupational Health and Case Management working in occupational health for the past 35 years. She has been honored as the Occupational Health Nurse of the Year, the Tribute to Women in Industry Award as well as Citizen of the Year for the city of Linden for life saving actions. Dr. Crowley is on the faculty of Trinitas School of Nursing where she teaches Psychiatric Nursing on the in-patient clinical setting. Prior experience includes working for many years in an urban emergency room being one of the first nurses to achieve the certification in Emergency Nursing.
John Burke
PRESIDENT - CO-FOUNDER • U.S. SECRET SERVICE • EMT
John began his career as a Special Agent with the United States Secret Service and has protected presidents, vice presidents, and foreign dignitaries from around the globe and has almost 20 years of investigative experience in both the public and private sector. He has conducted numerous investigations and executed a multitude of arrests relating to bank fraud, credit card fraud, counterfeiting, money laundering, and terrorist financing. Following his career in the USSS, he served as Vice President of Anti-Money Laundering and Head of Investigations/Surveillance for a major Wall Street financial institution. As such, he was responsible for the implementation of the USA PATRIOT Act and protecting over $1 trillion in assets. Furthermore, he served in a corporate security capacity whereas he investigated counterfeit pharmaceuticals in Mexico. Most recently, and seeking a return to service, John serves as an EMT and is pursuing a career in nursing. It is through this passion that Iron Medical was born.
Colonel (Ret) Pat Connors
DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY/TRAINING • U.S. ARMY
Pat Connors joined Quality Project Control in 2023 as the Vice President of Healthcare Simulation & Training Consulting where he offers a full spectrum of consulting services to help healthcare clients meet their simulation and training goals. From 2014 to 2023, Pat worked at AdventHealth as the Executive Director of Learning Technologies, Simulation &; Training. He was responsible for building world class simulation and training programs for the 16-campus AdventHealth system in Central Florida. Scope included all clinical and non-clinical simulation and training at 11 simulation centers and labs across the health system. Prior to joining AdventHealth, Pat served as a Colonel in the US Army, where he spent 26 years acquiring subject matter expertise in operations, training, simulation, and program management. Colonel (Retired) Pat Connors enlisted in the Army in 1984 at the age of 17 and served in the U.S. Army Reserve for 2.5 years attaining the rank of Specialist (E-4). After graduating from college on an ROTC scholarship, he received his regular Army commission in 1989. Throughout his career, COL Connors has served as a Field Artillery Officer, a Military Intelligence Officer, and a Training Simulations Officer in a wide variety of command and staff positions from the platoon through echelons above corps level, including a Pentagon tour as the Chief of Operations for the Warrior Transition Command managing all the Army’s Wounded Warriors around the world. He has served in numerous locations in the U.S. and overseas including Panama, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait. Operational Deployments: Assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division as an Infantry Company Fire Support Officer during OPERATION JUST CAUSE, Panama, Dec 89-Jan 90 and OPERATION DESERT SHIELD/STORM, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Aug 90-Apr 91; Assigned to the Office of Military Cooperation, U.S. Embassy, Kuwait, as the J3 (Operations) Advisor to the Kuwait Armed Forces during OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM, Jun 04-Jun 05. COL(R) Connors’ civilian education includes a BS in Business Administration from John Carroll University, Cleveland, OH, 1989; a MS in Simulations and Training Systems from the University of Central Florida, 1999; and a MS in Engineering Management from the University of Central Florida, 2002. His military education includes the Field Artillery Officer’s Basic Course, Military Intelligence Officer’s Advanced Course, Combined Arms Service Staff School, Simulation Operations Qualification Course, Command and General Staff College, and was selected to attend the Senior Service College. Pat is active in the Central Florida community in a variety of volunteer and professional organizations. He has served on the Camaraderie Foundation Board of Directors since 2013 and was the foundation’s 2013-2014 Program Committee Chair; the Florida Citrus Sports Board of Directors since 2015; the founder of the Florida Citrus Sports Military Affairs Committee in 2006; honored as the 2008-2009 Florida Citrus Sports Volunteer of the Year; a member of the Mayor of Orlando’s Veteran’s Advisory Council; and was honored as a 2015 Veteran of Influence by the Orlando Business Journal. Pat also holds active memberships in the Central Florida chapters of the Association of the US Army (AUSA) and National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). Pat is married and has two adult stepdaughters and three beautiful grandchildren. His wife, Karen Connors, is the president of a local defense consulting firm.
Rebecca Leonard, Esq
CHIEF COUNSEL
Rebecca is a Member of a regional law firm in Philadelphia, PA and practices primarily in the area of complex civil litigation. She concentrates her practice on products liability defense and premises liability litigation. She has extensive experience defending Fortune 500 companies and small businesses in challenging disputes that are filed on the basis of product defect, negligence and breach of contract. She has experience drafting agreements to effectuate settlements for her clients. In her role, she is also a trusted advisor on whom her clients can rely to provide advice in formulating litigation, trial and settlement strategy. She provides ex ante guidance to clients on risk management and enforceability of agreements. Rebecca has participated in the Temple University School of Law Masters in Trial Advocacy Program and has presented on product liability law and case handling at CLE programs and for industry standards groups. Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pittsburgh and a J.D. from the Syracuse University College of Law. Rebecca lives in West Chester, PA, with her husband and their four children.
Guy Patterson
DIRECTOR OF SECURITY • POLICE
Guy Patterson has served as a member of the Cranford Police Department for 25 years. He is currently a Captain assigned as the Operations Commander overseeing the Patrol and Investigative Divisions. He has extensive leadership experience in patrol operations, investigations, emergency management, special events security planning, physical security, and crisis intervention. As a law enforcement executive his focus has been to provide officers with the training and resources necessary to successfully serve their communities in an ever-changing environment. He has partnered with corporate entities such as FirstNet by AT&T as well as law enforcement partners including the NJ State Attorney General’s Office and Union County Prosecutor’s Office to pilot studies of new technologies and law enforcement initiatives. He obtained his Bachelor’s Degree from St. Joseph’s University and his Master’s in Public Administration from Kean University. He is a graduate of the NJSACOP West Point Command and Leadership Program. He serves as the Vice Chairperson on the Executive Board of Bridgeway Behavioral Health Services.
Dr. Dan Wilkin, DO
MEDICAL DIRECTOR • DOCTOR
Dr. Wilkin received his Bachelors Degree from Muhlenberg College in 1998 and graduated from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2002. He completed a dual DO/MD accredited 3 year residency in Family Medicine in 2005, then moved into private practice in Bergen County NJ in the summer of 2005. He ran his own practice for several years, later bought and sold an additional nursing home practice, and has been the Medical Director of 2 hospices and 3 different nursing homes over the course of his 18 years in private practice. Dr. Wilkin has been Board Certified in Family Medicine since 2005 and Board Certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine since 2012. He joined the Englewood Health Physician Network in December 2019, sees general family medicine patients in his Oradell office and participates in on-call rounding duties for the Palliative Medicine/Pain Management Department of Englewood Hospital. He has been the Hospice Medical Director for the Visiting Nurse Association of Englewood since 2018. When not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife and sons, going out to dinner, playing sports/going to the movies with his boys and taking in the occasional Yankee game.
