Our boards

Jeff Aronin is a bioscience entrepreneur who built and has sold several successful biotech companies. He has earned a record number of novel drug approvals that improve the lives of patients. Jeff is known for innovating, developing and commercializing scientific discoveries in areas of high need, such as neurology.

In 2017, Jeff founded Paragon Biosciences, where he is chairman and chief executive officer. Paragon is among the life sciences industry’s most successful company creators, investing billions with its partners to build companies that improve patient lives through advanced biotechnology. Through Paragon, Jeff launched multiple companies including Harmony Biosciences (NASDAQ: HRMY), Emalex Biosciences and CiRC Biosciences, with several others in development.

Throughout his career, Jeff identified scientific innovations with the highest potential to change lives, building a series of businesses that successfully developed laboratory discoveries into high-impact therapeutics and technologies. The research and development teams at Jeff’s companies are responsible for 50 novel drug approvals.

Jeff has received numerous honors for entrepreneurship and his contributions to life sciences, including the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award, induction into the Chicago Entrepreneur Hall of Fame and most recently, the TITAN Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Outside of his businesses, Jeff devotes time to civic and philanthropic endeavors. He is the founder and chairman of MATTER, a health technology incubator offering philanthropic support for life sciences entrepreneurs. Jeff currently serves on several corporate and civic boards including Discover Financial Services, The Aspen Institute and the Weizmann Institute of Science. He is a frequent lecturer at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business.

Laura Ferris Anderson has previously served as a senior banker in J.P. Morgan’s private banking business, managing relationships and banking needs for a wide variety of clients, including corporate executives and business owners. She also served as a director of payments strategy, eCommerce and of a major image enabled transformation of check processing. She also has experience in consulting and government affairs.

An active civic leader, Laura serves on the executive committees of the board of directors of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center and of the Wood Family Foundation. She serves on the board of directors of the Illinois Mentoring Partnership and the advisory board of Best Buddies Illinois as well as the Women’s boards of the Field Museum and the Joffrey Ballet.

She is a member of the Alumni Board of Governors of Georgetown University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Public Policy and a Master of Business Administration.

A native of Massachusetts, Laura lives in Chicago with her husband, Matt, and their daughter, Ellen.

Andrew is an experienced healthcare executive and serial entrepreneur with a successful track record of identifying, founding, and building healthcare businesses from concept to commercialization to acquisition by Fortune Global 1000 firms. These include founding two successful diagnostic imaging companies, and leading both through acquisitions by Siemens and Olympus. His leadership experience also includes acting as startup CEO of critical care company which was acquired by Medtronic. He has managed manufacturing and quality systems implementation, execution of multi-center clinical trials, and regulatory clearances for new technologies in Europe and the US. Mr. Cittadine received his BA, BS, and MS from Stanford and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Steven Collens is CEO of MATTER, the premier healthcare incubator and innovation hub. MATTER opened in February 2015 and nurtures entrepreneurs and innovators building next-generation health IT, medical device, diagnostic and biopharma technologies. MATTER has worked with more than 800 healthcare technology ventures and the company partners with dozens of industry-leading companies, health systems and universities.

Prior to assuming his current role, Steven was senior vice president at Pritzker Group, the investment firm led by Tony and J.B. Pritzker. In that capacity, he led the team that created 1871, Chicago’s center for digital startups, which became the top-ranked business incubator in the world in 2018. He previously worked at Abbott in a variety of domestic and international functions, including product management, policy and public affairs. In 2005, Steven helped found ConstantWellness.com to give patients control over their health data and allow healthcare providers to coordinate care of their patients. Prior to Abbott, Steven served as legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun.

Steven holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a BA from Washington University in St. Louis. He chairs the board of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and serves on the boards of 1871 and the Chicago High School for the Arts. He is a member of ChicagoNEXT, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s council on technology and innovation, a Leadership Greater Chicago fellow, and a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Joel Farran is an Executive and Organizational Advisor, Consultant, and Coach focused on helping individuals and organizations grow and renew in equitable and sustainable ways.

Currently serving as Associate Director of Graduate Business Degree Development at the University of Notre Dame’s College of Mendoza, Farran oversees career education and serves as career and leadership coach for Executive MBA working professionals. Farran is a conduit to key employers and alumni and works closely with program and academic directors to develop curriculum and programs.

In addition, Farran is part of Ad Lucem Group–helping organizations and individuals achieve peak performance—where he specializes in Strategy, Communications, and Community Investments/Partnerships.

Leveraging a 20-year career in health care, Farran previously served as Chief Brand Officer and Senior VP at Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC)—the largest not for profit health insurer in the country. His broad experience at HCSC included corporate and business unit strategy development, mergers & acquisition; large-scale initiative implementation; analytics governance; sales support/marketing; and overseeing corporate relations and community impact functions.

Farran is a board member at MATTER. He is also is a Board member of the Good Foot Catalyst and is Chair and Vice Chair Emeritus of the Arts and Business Council of Chicago. Farran was also among the business and community leaders on Community & Culture team of The Commercial Club of Chicago that helped shape the formation of P33 – focused on elevating Chicago to a tier one technology and innovation hub promoting inclusive economic growth.

Farran is passionate about inclusive growth, innovation, and accessibility across traditional health care organization, civic, and community spaces. He earned his M.S. in Health Systems Management from Rush University Medical Center College of Health Sciences and a B.S. in Psychology from University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. In his spare time he enjoys creative writing and serves as a Senior Instructor with Master S.H. Yu Martial Arts – achieving formal recognitions from the In Nae Ryu Martial Arts International Headquarters and Kukkiwon Tae Kwon Do World Headquarters.

For the past two years, Steven A. Gould led Chicago Innovation Mentors (CIM), which supports university-based and local new technology innovation ventures through the use of mentor teams. MATTER acquired CIM in January 2016. Steven has extensive and broad-based experience in both clinical and scientific research in an academic environment, and executive management throughout the entire life cycle of an entrepreneurial biotechnology company.

Steven is also the founder and principal of The Gould Consulting Group LLC, which provides advisory services to companies and universities seeking to develop and capitalize on biotechnology and life science innovations, and to venture investors evaluating promising and potentially transforming companies working in areas of disruptive science. Steven was previously a scientific founder, chairman and CEO of Northfield Laboratories Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company that was focused on developing a hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier as a blood substitute. Prior to Northfield he was chief of surgery at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center and professor of surgery at the University of Chicago and then the University of Illinois at Chicago.

He has dealt with the full spectrum of issues related to financing startup companies from the initial venture investment through multiple subsequent rounds, the initial public offering and follow-on offerings, and the wide range of challenges in the development of new and innovative therapies. Steven received his BA from Williams College and his MD from Boston University School of Medicine. He completed his residency training in surgery at Yale and the University of Vermont, and a research fellowship at Michael Reese and the University of Chicago.

Steve Hamman is a senior-level healthcare executive, advisor and investor with 30+ years proven experience in growing and leading a large health plan organization. He has extensive experience managing a multi-billion dollar P&L with consumer-focused service operations as well as advising private equity and venture capital companies focused on operational due diligence, market assessment, payer relations and value-based strategy.

Steve is the immediate past president of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, where he was responsible for the state’s largest health insurer with almost nine million members, $22 billion in revenue and over $40 billion in medical spend. His responsibilities included overall business and financial performance, long-term growth strategy, sales, care management, network/provider contracting, government relations and communications across all commercial lines of business, Medicare and Medicaid.

Steve served in a variety of management roles within Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) during his tenure with the company — which operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Prior to assuming the president role, he served as senior vice president, enterprise network and provider partnerships, where he was responsible for HCSC’s network and provider partnership strategy and investments, provider and network analytics, alternative payment model development, and affordability of care across HCSC’s five markets.

Steve holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics from Colorado College and a master’s in business administration in information systems from the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University in Chicago. He currently serves on the boards of Special Olympics Illinois, MATTER and New City Church while also actively participating on the healthcare advisory boards for Madison Dearborn Partners, Forge Health, Stellar Health, Carium Health, Rezilient Health, CertifyOS and as an executive in residence for MATTER.

Dr. Jeffrey Kent brings to Sling over two decades of life sciences experience in clinical development, medical affairs and medical/commercial strategy, including rare diseases, and expertise in multiple product launches including CELEBREX, HUMIRA, KRYSTEXXA, and TEPEZZA. Most recently he served as Executive Vice President, Medical Affairs and Outcomes Research at Horizon Therapeutics. Dr. Kent has had the opportunity to support multiple New Drug Applications, Biologics License Applications, U.S. Food & Drug Administration Advisory Committee Meetings, and product launches around the world.

Dr. Kent earned a BA in economics from Franklin and Marshall College and his Doctor of Medicine from Jefferson Medical College.

Stephen Keith, MD, MSPH has served as the medical director of Syneos Health, a global clinical research organization, since 2018. Syneos coordinates clinical trials for pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies, and also provides consulting and implementation services related to commercialization and business development. He also serves as the chief business development and medical officer for Evanston Technology Partners (ETP). As a minority business enterprise, ETP markets integrative technologies to strengthen cybersecurity, along with interface/integration, and cloud communication products and services developed by their partner companies to a range of for-profit businesses and other organizations.

From 2015 until 2018, Dr. Keith was the CEO of Vivacelle Bio, Inc., a private company that is developing a novel and proprietary intravenous fluid for correction of hypotension and hypovolemia due to fluid or blood loss. From 2012 until early 2015 Dr. Keith served as a site director for WellStreet Urgent Care in Atlanta, Georgia. Previously, he held the position of CEO of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology from 2009 to 2012. From 2006 until 2009, Dr. Keith served as president and chief operating officer of Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and from 2003 until 2006, Dr. Keith was a managing director of Glocap Advisors, an investment bank based in New York, and a senior consultant with the Biologics Consulting Group. During 2002-2003, Dr. Keith was a general partner with Emerging Technology Partners, an early-stage life sciences venture capital firm in Maryland. Just prior to joining Emerging Technology Partners, he held the position of president and chief operating officer, Antex Biologics Inc. From 1995 to 2000, Dr. Keith served as vice president of marketing and sales at North American Vaccine, Inc. From 1990 to 1995, Dr. Keith held various positions at Merck & Co., Inc., including senior director of healthcare delivery policy in corporate public affairs, senior customer manager in the U.S. human health division, and senior director of health strategies in the Merck-Medco managed care division.

Dr. Keith serves as a member of the Board of Directors of National Medical Fellowships and Community Health Charities.

Dr. Keith completed his undergraduate work at Amherst College in 1973 and received his M.D. from the University of Illinois in 1977. Dr. Keith completed a three-year residency in pediatrics at the University of California Los Angeles Center for the Health Sciences in 1980. From 1980 to 1982, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at UCLA, during which time he received a master’s in science in public health from UCLA. From 1982 to 1987, Dr. Keith served on the faculty of the Charles Drew Medical School and the UCLA School of Medicine in the department of pediatrics. From 1987 to 1990, Dr. Keith served as a health policy advisor to the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, under Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Dr. Keith is a fellow of the Academy of Pediatrics and a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatrics.

James L. Madara, MD, serves as the CEO and executive vice president of the American Medical Association (AMA), the nation’s largest physician organization. He holds the academic title of adjunct professor of pathology at Northwestern University.

Since taking the reins of the AMA in 2011, Dr. Madara has helped sculpt the organization’s visionary long-term strategic plan. As an extension of this vision, he now also serves as chairman of Health2047 Inc., an independent, design-driven innovation firm based in San Francisco whose mission is to help advance the AMA’s goal of improving the health of the nation.

Prior to arriving at the AMA, Dr. Madara spent the first 22 years of his career at Harvard Medical School, receiving both clinical and research training, serving as a tenured professor and as director of the NIH-sponsored Harvard Digestive Diseases Center. Following five years as chair of pathology at Emory, Dr. Madara served as dean of the medical school and CEO of the hospitals at the University of Chicago, bringing together the university’s biomedical research, teaching and clinical activities. While there, he oversaw the renewal of the institution’s biomedical campus and engineered significant new affiliations with community hospitals, teaching hospital systems, community clinics and national research organizations.

Dr. Madara also served as senior advisor with Leavitt Partners, an innovative healthcare consulting and private-equity firm founded by former Secretary of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt. Having published more than 200 original papers and chapters, Dr. Madara has received both national and international awards, and served as editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Pathology and as president of the American Board of Pathology.

In addition to Modern Healthcare consistently naming him as one of the nation’s 50 most influential physician executives, as well as one of the nation’s 100 most influential people in healthcare, he is a past recipient of a prestigious MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health. He received the 2011 Davenport Award for lifetime achievement in gastrointestinal disease from the American Physiological Society and the 2011 Mentoring Award for lifetime achievement from the American Gastroenterological Society. Dr. Madara is an elected member of both the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He also co-chairs the Value Incentives and Systems Innovation Collaborative of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), and is a member of NAM’s Leadership Consortium for Value & Science-Driven Healthcare.

Dr. Madara and his wife Vicki have 2 children, Max and Alexis.

Dr. David (Kangyi) Mao is Head of Corporate Strategy and Planning at HCSC, the largest private health insurance company in the US and the parent company for Blue Cross Blue Shield health plans in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma & Texas. In this capacity, David oversees corporate strategy, market and pharmacy strategy, annual strategic planning, corporate strategic projects, business transformation, and enterprise risk management. David is deeply connected in the healthcare ecosystem and currently represents HCSC on the board of the Blue Venture Fund, MeDecision, Blue Health Intelligence, and Alacura Medical Transportation Management. He is also a co-founder of VeganUs, a plant-based meat company in Orlando, FL. Prior to HCSC, David was Head of Enterprise Strategy at Change Healthcare, one of the largest healthcare tech & services companies in the US.

David started his career at the Boston Consulting Group, where he was elected a global healthcare network fellow and left as a principal in healthcare practice. David has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from MIT with a minor degree in finance and strategic management from MIT Sloan. He enjoys golf and photography, and lives with his wife, daughter, and dog in downtown Chicago.

Dr. Suzet McKinney, a nationally recognized public health expert, serves as principal and director of life sciences at Sterling Bay. In her role, Dr. McKinney leads the strategy to expand Sterling Bay’s footprint in life sciences nationwide, pursue grant programs for laboratory incubation and graduation space and advance the work of various Sterling Bay life sciences initiatives including Prysm Institute.

Prior to joining Sterling Bay, Dr. McKinney was CEO and executive director of the Illinois Medical District (IMD) where she managed medical research facilities, labs, a biotech business incubator, universities, four hospitals and more than 40 healthcare-related facilities. Before IMD, Dr. McKinney served as deputy commissioner for the Bureau of Public Health Preparedness and Emergency Response at Chicago Department of Health.

Dr. McKinney holds her doctorate degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. She earned her master’s degree from Benedictine University, and her bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University. She holds faculty appointments at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the UIC School of Public Health.

Pete McNerney has over 30 years of healthcare operating and venture capital experience. In addition to co-founding Thomas, McNerney & Partners, Pete co-founded Coral Ventures in 1992, where he was responsible for healthcare investing. Pete has served on the board of a number of the Coral Ventures’ and Thomas, McNerney and Partners’ portfolio companies. Prior to joining Coral in 1992, Pete was a co-founder and managing partner of The Kensington Group, a firm specializing in providing management services to early stage companies in the healthcare field. In 1986, he founded and served as CEO of Memtec North America, a company established to commercialize cross flow membrane microfiltration technology in North America. Previously, Pete spent 11 years with Baxter Healthcare Corporation, where he held various general management positions in the U.S., Europe, Middle East and Southeast Asia. He has served as president of the Minnesota Venture Capital Association and is on the board of trustees of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. A Certified Public Accountant, Pete received a B.A. from Yale and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. Pete was a 2014 fellow at Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative program.

David Ormesher provides leadership and direction for closerlook, inc., a digital marketing agency serving the pharmaceutical industry. As founder and former CEO, Ormesher has grown it into a recognized leader in creating innovative relationship marketing solutions that help pharmaceutical brands build and maintain meaningful relationships with their most valuable healthcare professionals.

Since founding the company in 1987, David has created a rich, cohesive culture at closerlook by maintaining a hands-on approach to building client success and sustaining lasting account relationships. He has guided the growth and evolution of the firm, attracting a world-class team of account, strategy, user experience, design, technology, data analytics and relationship-marketing services experts. David is a frequent speaker at marketing conferences and a recognized thought leader in the areas of interactive and relationship marketing for the pharmaceutical industry.

This past year, David was named to the board of the Lurie Children’s Hospital Foundation and to the Innovation Board of the XPRIZE Foundation. He serves on the boards of the Lyric Opera of Chicago; i.c.stars, an innovative business and leadership training program for inner city youth; and is a founder of Bigger Future, a social-enterprise building the capacity of high-potential entrepreneurs in Rwanda. He is also an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology Stuart School of Business where he teaches customer relationship management.

Ellen Rudnick currently serves as a senior advisor on entrepreneurship and adjunct professor at Chicago Booth. She previously served as executive director of the Polsky Center and Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship and, together with Steve Kaplan, was instrumental in the creation of the entrepreneurship programming at Chicago Booth. Prior to joining the Chicago Booth faculty, Ellen spent 25 years in business management and entrepreneurial activities, primarily in the healthcare and health information services industries. During this time, she was president and CEO of Healthcare Knowledge Resources, president of HCIA, chairman of Pacific Biometrics and corporate vice president of Baxter Healthcare Corporation.

She works with the many startups that emerge from Chicago Booth’s entrepreneurship programs. Both her governance activities and startup interests help her to bridge the gap in the classroom between the theoretical and the real world.

Ellen has been the recipient of a number of honors, including Today’s Chicago Woman 20th Anniversary Hall of Fame, the YWCA Leadership Award, the Illinois Venture Capital Richard J. Daley award and the 1871 Entrepreneurial Champion award. She serves or has served on numerous corporate boards including Liberty Mutual, First Midwest Bank, HMS Holdings, Patterson Companies, Oxford Health Plans, Northshore University Healthcare Research and Development, the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center,1871 and MATTER.

Ellen earned her bachelor’s degree from Vassar College and an MBA from Chicago Booth.

Edrice Simmons is the vice president, US oncology, solid tumors at Abbvie. She is a proven commercial leader and talent magnet, who brings her passion for building the long term commercial strategy for the first of its kind solid tumor business unit at AbbVie.

Previously, Edrice Simmons was the senior vice president, USbrands – Allergan Aesthetics. In this role, Edrice was responsible for overseeing the U.S. brand commercial strategy for facial aesthetics (BOTOX® cosmetic and Juvéderm® filler franchise), plastic surgery & regenerative medicine, body contouring and SkinMedica products with a focus on maximizing the value of the brands.

Prior to her senior level role at Allergan Aesthetics, Edrice was responsible for leading the immunology therapeutic pipeline and asset strategy at AbbVie, where she was responsible for building the immunology pipeline strategy. Additionally, Edrice oversaw the commercial development of immunology pipeline assets (Skyrizi and RinVoq) from discovery through phase III, leading the new product development immunology team to drive the early commercial strategy and oversaw business development opportunities closing a large deal within her first year.

Edrice joined AbbVie in 2014 as senior marketing director, gastroenterology and advanced to vice president, US gastroenterology where she was responsible for growing the blockbuster product, Humira from $1B in revenue to $6B in just 4 short years. Prior to joining Abbvie, Edrice worked at Eli Lilly & Company for 16 years. While there, she served in various roles in both sales and marketing spanning across US and global roles leading blockbuster brands across therapeutic areas (oncology, endocrinology, women’s/men’s health and neuroscience).

Edrice is passionate about her work with the Healthcare Business Women’s Association, the National MBA Association and other local community organizations. She has served on the board of directors of four non-profit organizations and is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

Edrice earned a bachelor’s degree in clinical/medical social work from Ball State University and an MBA in marketing from Indiana Wesleyan University.

Jim Sullivan, PhD is co-founder and CEO of Vanqua. In addition, he has been a Venture Partner with Orbimed since January 2019. Previously, he was the Vice President of Research at Abbvie where he was responsible for the company’s research efforts in a variety of therapeutic/disease areas including oncology, immunology, neurology, hepatitis C and cystic fibrosis. Jim has advanced more than 100 compounds into clinical development across a number of disease states and technology platforms.

These include products on the market for HCV (Mavyret and Viekira), the first-in-class Bcl2 selective inhibitor, Venclexta, for hematological cancers, a new oral agent for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, RINVOQ, and multiple compounds currently in Phase II or III clinical trials. He has authored/co-authored more than 130 scientific publications and is an inventor on 11 patents. Jim is an adjunct faculty member at Northwestern University and serves on the board of several companies and foundations including Regis Technologies, Genomics Medicine Ireland, Genuity Science, MATTER Healthcare Incubator, Chicago Biotechnology Accelerator and the Pistoia Alliance. He earned his bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. in biochemistry from Trinity College Dublin and conducted post-doctoral research in neurobiology at Northwestern University.

Nancy Sullivan built Illinois Ventures’ team of top-tier investment and operations professionals and leads them in managing fundraising, investment strategy and limited partner relationships. She has deep experience in commercialization and entrepreneurship, specifically in the biotech and therapeutics industries.

A key advisor to startups, Nancy assists companies in obtaining venture capital funding, recruiting management teams and advising on business development and commercialization matters. She serves on the board of Diagnostic Photonics.

Prior to taking the helm at Illinois Ventures, Nancy served as the director of the Office of Technology Management at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and as senior director of strategic planning and business development for a biotechnology startup.

A Chicago native, Nancy is an active member of the Illinois healthcare and tech communities. She serves on the boards of iBio, a life sciences industry association that represents the 85,000 life sciences employees at member companies, universities, service providers and venture firm; Cures Within Reach, a research nonprofit that brings stakeholders together to undertake repurposing research opportunities; and MATTER a Chicago-based health tech accelerator. Nancy is also a German Marshall Fellow and participated in Leadership Greater Chicago.

With expertise in strategy, growth, and turnaround work, Karen is a nationally recognized leader focused on ensuring corporate viability and development through driving operational excellence and transformation of care.

Karen is a board member of Advantia Health, serving as Chair, Compensation Committee and as a member of the Quality Committee. Advantia is a privately held, growth-oriented company committed to transforming women’s health services through technology and best practices. She serves on the Commercial and Operating Committee as a board member for Surgical Solutions, a portfolio company of Grupo Vitalmex, S.A., providing sterile processing solutions to enhance operating room efficiency, quality, and physician satisfaction.

Karen also is on the board of Ingenovis Health, a family of forward-thinking staffing healthcare companies. She served as Board member/Global Health Advisor for Blink Science, a biotechnology and digital startup providing instantaneous diagnosis of COVID-19.

As a Senior Advisor to investment banking firm Juniper Advisory, Karen provides counsel to firm clients contemplating nonprofit healthcare mergers or acquisitions. She also is a Senior Advisor to TVM Capital Healthcare Partners, an emerging markets-focused healthcare private equity investment firm focused in Southeast Asia and Middle East/North Africa. She joined Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) as a mentor. CDL delivers an objectives-based program for massively scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies. CDL mentors include accomplished entrepreneurs, operators, and investors.

As the immediate past President/Chief Executive Officer of Sinai Chicago, the city’s largest private safety net healthcare system with over $1 billion in revenues, Karen oversaw a successful turnaround of financial, philanthropic, and operational performance. Results to date show a year-over-year improvement profitability, taking the organization from a loss of $42 million to a profit of $32.6 million, improved EBIDA from a negative $14.8 million to a positive $55.6 million and increased philanthropy from $2.3 million annually to $13.5 million. Karen previously served as the Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer, overseeing the integration into the System of a private hospital. During her time at Sinai Chicago, she formed strategic relationships with non-healthcare partners, creating assets in underdeveloped urban areas.

An early career entrepreneur, after purchasing a rehabilitation services firm, Karen grew the company into the largest of its kind in Chicago before selling it to a publicly traded firm. Following the sale, Karen held increasingly responsible positions in nonprofit and public companies. Karen is an influential participant in state and national legislative policy-making agendas, working with legislators of both the Senate and Congress.

Karen serves on civic, state, and national boards. She was the 2021 Chair of the Illinois Health and Hospital Association Board, having served as Chair of the Finance Committee and a member of the Executive, Governance and Health Equity Committees. Karen also served as a board member of America’s Essential Hospitals, as a member of the Governance Committee. She is a Visiting Lecturer at Kenya Methodist University in Nairobi.

Awards include “One of 10 Business Leaders to Watch in 2020” by the Chicago Tribune, twice named to Crain’s Chicago Business “Notable Women in Chicago Healthcare” list, the Weizmann Institute “Women of Science” award, a recipient of the National Medical Fellowship “Leadership in Healthcare” award, and the 2021 awardee of “Community Leadership” for the Chicago Health Executives Forum. She is a member of the Chicago Network, Women Corporate Directors, the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Economic Club of Chicago, and Kellogg Executive Women’s Network.

Karen holds an MBA from Northwestern University, J.L. Kellogg School of Management. She is a frequently requested national speaker, world traveler, avid bicyclist, and cook. She resides in Chicago, Illinois.

Phil is the newly appointed (May 2022) senior vice president and head of the U.S. oncology business unit at Astellas Pharma, providing executive leadership to a team of over 250 field and marketing staff to deliver the growth strategies for the company’s $3 billion+ oncology franchise.

Prior to this, Phil served for two-and-a-half years as SVP and head of the strategic brand marketing function at Astellas, where he led the global marketing team in the launches of Xospata and Padcev, the expansion of the market for Xtandi and the commercial launch strategy for the investigational monoclonal antibody Zolbetuximab in gastric cancer.

Before joining Astellas, Phil’s 30-year career saw him work for several notable pharmaceutical companies in multiple geographies in sales and marketing roles of progressive responsibility: Merck, Sharp & Dohme in the UK; AstraZeneca in UK, Japan, Europe and Australia; and then Bristol-Myers Squibb in Australia and the U.S., where his last role was heading up the $2 billion dollar U.S. hematology marketing franchise.

Phil has relished the opportunity to have leadership impact in global, regional and country/P&L roles across several therapeutic areas, particularly through the recent revolution in oncology therapeutics, which has been his area of focus for the past 11 years.

Phil lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with his wife and has two boys enjoying their college experience in the U.S. He is a fitness enthusiast, enjoying road cycling, swimming and visits to the gym.

Glen Tullman is the chief executive officer of Transcarent, the first comprehensive, consumer-directed health and care platform for employees of self-insured employers and their families. Born in Silicon Valley, Transcarent’s platform empowers consumers with the kind of information, guidance and access that leads to better care, better outcomes and more cost-effective decisions for everyone.

Glen is the former executive chairman, chief executive officer and founder of Livongo Health, the first at-scale consumer digital health company to truly empower people with chronic conditions to live better and healthier lives using data science.

In his final year, he led Livongo through the largest consumer digital health Initial Public Offering in history, a secondary offering, a convertible debt offering that raised over $550 million, and the industry’s largest merger to date between Livongo and Teladoc Health, valuing Livongo at $18.5 billion and beginning a new era of consumer centric virtual care.

A visionary leader and entrepreneur, Glen previously ran two other public companies that changed the way health care is delivered. During his time as chief executive officer of Allscripts, the company was the leading provider of electronic prescribing, practice management, and electronic health records. Glen led Allscripts IPO and secondary offerings. Prior to Allscripts, he was ehief Executive officer of Enterprise Systems, the leading resource management systems for hospitals, which he also took public and then sold to McKesson/HBOC. Before entering healthcare, Glen served as president and COO of CCC Information Systems, a provider of computerized systems for the property and casualty insurance sector.

Glen is also one of two founding partners at 7wireVentures, one of the highest returning venture capital funds in Illinois. He is the author of On Our Terms: Empowering the New Health Consumer, in which he proposes new solutions to address the chronic-condition epidemic facing our country.

Glen is dedicated to finding a cure for diabetes and other chronic conditions—and to keeping people healthy until cures are found. A strong proponent of philanthropy, he was honored in 2019 with a Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award for his career focused on improving the safety, empathy and efficiency of our healthcare system. He also serves as a chancellor to the International Board of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and as a board member and the incoming chairperson of the American Diabetes Association. Glen has three amazing children that inspire him every day.

Dr. Eric E. Whitaker is physician-investor who is chairman of several companies including TWG Partners, LLC. He and his partner co-founded Symphonix Health Holdings, LLC and grew it to over 430,000 clients in 48 states over a three-year premium period. They sold Symphonix in January 2016 and investors made 15 times their money with an IRR of 280.

Until March 2012, Dr. Whitaker was the executive vice president, strategic affiliations and associate dean of community-based research at the University of Chicago Medical Center. He was also an operating advisor for Nautic Partners, a middle market private equity fund, and sat on the boards of two of its portfolio companies. He holds Series 7 and 63 licenses as well as being licensed for medicine in the State of Illinois.

Dr. Whitaker served as director of the Illinois Department of Public Health until October 2007. In this capacity, Dr. Whitaker oversaw an agency with a budget of $450 million with over 1,200 employees statewide, as well as three laboratories and seven regional offices.

In 1991, Dr. Whitaker represented the 30,000 members of the American Medical Student Association as its national president while testifying twice before the U.S. Congress regarding national health insurance and minority health issues. In November 2003, he was named as one of Crain’s Chicago Business’ Forty under Forty Chicago’s rising stars in business and government.

Dr. Whitaker received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Grinnell College in 1987. In 1993 he received his master’s degree in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health and a medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. He also has completed coursework at the Northwestern Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Dr. Whitaker serves on the boards of Grinnell College, the DuSable Museum of African American History and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He formerly served on the boards of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Public Media and the Economic Club of Chicago.

Holly Copeland currently serves as the associate director of public affairs and corporate social responsibility at Horizon Therapeutics, PLC, where she is in charge of driving Horizon’s corporate social responsibility efforts and plays a key role in the management of its public affairs. Additionally, Holly is also an advisory board member for the Illinois Institute of Technology IPRO program, where she has provided guidance, mentoring and advice.

Prior to joining Horizon Therapeutics, PLC, Holly was the deputy director of the Office of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology (EIT), housed within the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. The management of EIT involved the direct oversight of 20+ staff and a $144 million portfolio that provided technical assistance and financial support for Illinois’ small business and innovation ecosystem. While in that position, Holly also made strategic investments that targeted the inclusion of women, girls and communities of color in the innovation space.

Marco is heading acceleration, insights and open innovation at Roche Diabetes. He leads a team that is responsible for insights discovery and validation of customer opportunities across patients, healthcare professionals and payers. After establishing Roche’s customer opportunity portfolio, Marco has implemented a lean strategy process and led the development of several business unit strategies.

After establishing a lean strategy as a competency to inform investment decisions, Marco has led the design and implementation of an internal accelerator program to validate strategies by enabling corporate venture teams to incubate and accelerate business models.

In 2018, Marco led Roche’s ambition to establish open innovation with the goal to accelerate value creation for patients together with startups. Prior to his current role, Marco held various positions at Roche in the R&D organization in Switzerland and Germany developing and launching drug delivery devices. He spent six years in San Francisco, building up Roche’s corporate incubator team with the objective to identify new growth opportunities in Type 2 diabetes. Marco’s areas of expertise include insights discovery, customer opportunity development, lean strategy development, corporate venture design and acceleration, product development, organizational development, training, coaching and mentoring.

Tom Kawalec is a managing director in Accenture’s life sciences practice, bringing over 27 years of consulting experience including the management of Accenture’s global relationships with some of the world’s largest life sciences companies. Tom specializes in creating effective customer-centric operating models and digital capabilities for large-scale business-to-business companies within life sciences and healthcare, with prior experience in the travel, consumer goods and telecommunications industries.

As the Midwest life sciences practice lead, Tom has P&L responsibility for Accenture’s clients within this geography. In this role, Tom is also part of Accenture’s global life sciences leadership team, setting strategy and priorities and nurturing the 15,000+ global life science practitioners.

Tom holds a BS in aerospace and mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and an executive MBA program certificate from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Christopher (Chris) Leggett is the Lead for Global Commercial Innovation at Genmab. Genmab is a biotechnology company specializing in the creation and development of novel antibody therapies targeting cancer and other serious diseases. As the Lead for Global Commercial Innovation, Chris is responsible for identifying and implementing differentiated capabilities to enhance provider and patient experience. He is focused on leveraging digital health solutions to transform the customer journey from clinical development through commercialization.

Chris has extensive industry experience in marketing, public policy, market access, and healthcare innovation. Prior to joining Genmab, he led the Immunology Market Access Marketing team at Janssen and established the Commercial Innovation function at Novo Nordisk, Inc. Chris earned a BA in Political Science and MBA from Loyola University Maryland.

Nadine has more than three decades of experience in the pharmaceutical industry focused on business operations and commercialization of therapies. She has worked across multiple therapeutic areas, with a significant focus on neurological and psychiatric conditions.

Nadine currently serves as executive director, business operations at Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals. In this role, Nadine manages day-to-day operations for Lundbeck US as well as strategic projects focused on commercial capabilities development, business growth and change management.

Nadine joined Lundbeck in 2009 and has held various roles throughout the company focused on developing and improving business operations. Her initial role focused on integrating the U.S. business within its global parent following a pivotal acquisition. From there, Nadine was integral in establishing business operations and developing organizational capabilities for Lundbeck’s psychiatry franchise during a time of significant growth and portfolio expansion in the U.S. As the company grew, Nadine’s remit expanded to support the operational development of Lundbeck’s neurology franchise. Her current role and responsibility spans all business operations for Lundbeck US.

Prior to joining Lundbeck, Nadine served as director of marketing and director of medical affairs at Abbott. She began her career at Eli Lilly and Company where she held a variety of marketing and sales positions over 14 years. Nadine also spent 10 years in retail pharmacy working closely with patients.

Nadine holds a B.S. in pharmacy from Purdue University and a master’s in business administration from the University of Michigan.

Joe Maliekal has served as AbbVie’s commercial innovation lead in the U.S. since 2013. In this role, he has built out the organization’s innovation capacity and is responsible for leading innovation capability building and annual programming. He has trained more than 300 innovation champions and leaders and led more than 100 innovation projects over the years, from incremental to disruptive innovation.

Joe has also developed and scaled AbbVie’s Digital Lab with a focus on implementation, strategic roadmap development and innovation and agility training. In addition, Joe developed, launched and activated multiple diversity and inclusion programs with executive teams and frontline commercial leaders.

Prior to his time at AbbVie, Joe held sales, marketing and engineering roles at Abbott before becoming their commercial innovation director in 2007.

Joe has a bachelor’s in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois Chicago and an MBA in marketing from Loyola University Chicago. He is an avid Chicago sports fan and currently resides in Lake County.

Rob Samuel is the executive director of enterprise technology architecture and innovation at CVS Health. Rob leads strategic technology planning, research and development initiatives for enterprise adoption of key emerging technologies and technology-driven innovation for business and digital transformation.

He has more than 25 years of experience in healthcare, financial services, utilities, defense and government industries as a general manager, software engineering product manager, architect advisor, consultant and principal engineer. Prior employment includes Aetna (acquired by CVS Health), The Vanguard Group and Computer Science Corporation (CSC).

Rob holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s of engineering in electrical, computer and telecommunications from Widener University, a master’s of science in information science from Pennsylvania State University, and a doctorate of science in information systems and communications from Robert Morris University. He also holds a software architecture professional certificate from the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He holds professional memberships at IEEE, ACM, HIMSS and the International Association for Computer Information Systems. He is a patent-holding inventor for several systems and methods for information science inventions. Rob also serves as an adjunct associate professor for graduate studies at the School of Engineering at Pennsylvania State University.

Michael is a seasoned strategy professional with a passion for advancing healthcare. He has focused his career in life sciences spanning startups, management consulting, pharma, and currently is the head of the Astellas U.S. corporate strategy and innovation team. As part of his current role at Astellas, he is interested in leveraging technology and digital health to improve outcomes, lower costs and ultimately deliver more value in healthcare. Astellas’ Digital Health Incubator also resides within his team, which is designed to enable the adoption of technology across the business.

Jolynn Suko joined Parkview Health in 2015 as the senior vice president of Neurosciences. In that role, she worked to recruit and develop providers to northeast Indiana and grow key programs, including the stroke program, which obtained Comprehensive Stroke Certification from the DNV in 2018.

In January 2019, she was promoted to senior vice president and chief innovation officer, where she works to leverage Virtual Health, Informatics, Research and analytics to promote innovation across the health system and elevate Parkview’s role as an innovation leader in the region.

Prior to joining Parkview, Jolynn spent 13 years at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, where she held leadership roles in finance, quality, process improvement and operations. She has extensive experience in LEAN manufacturing, has served as an examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and served on the Neurology Endorsement Maintenance committee for the National Quality Forum.

She obtained her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan and her bachelor’s degree in biology from Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington.

Michael Tutty, PhD, MHA, FACMPE, is the group vice president leading the strategic focus area of professional satisfaction and practice sustainability at the American Medical Association (AMA). Michael manages AMA’s efforts to identify, support and grow the care delivery and payment models that promote long-term sustainability and satisfaction with medical practice. Before joining the AMA, Michael had several roles at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), most recently serving as the director of the office of health policy and technology. Previously, Michael worked at the Boston Consulting Group in their healthcare practice. Michael maintains an assistant professor faculty appointment in the department of family medicine and community health at UMMS. Michael is a board member of Emergence Healthcare Group and Northwest Community Healthcare. He is a fellow of the American College of Medical Practice Executives. Michael earned his bachelor’s in government from Western New England College, his master’s of health administration from Clark University and his doctorate in public policy from the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Nicole Walker is vice president of customer experience at Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC). In her role, she leads a talented, multi-disciplinary customer experience organization that collaborates with partners across the Enterprise to help inform, design and drive a focus on optimizing the stakeholder experience across all HCSC products.

In her former role as senior director, innovation incubator and design leader, she led teams that explore new ideas that re-imagine the health care experience for HCSC stakeholders through HCSC’s Health Innovation Platform (HIP) incubator and accelerator platforms.She also is responsible fora team of talented designers that help re-imagine the user experience for HCSC’s internal and external facing digital assets. Nicole has held successive leadership roles in the sales operations, marketing and strategy, bringing her keen business perspective, strategic thinking and focus on delivering value.

Nicole also is an Adjunct Faculty member of the Inter Professional Program at the Illinois Institute of Technology where she teaches practical applications of human-centered design to undergraduate students via a project-based learning course.

Nicole received her bachelor’s degree in industrial and operations engineering and master’s degree in health services administration from the University of Michigan.She lives in Chicago, with her husband and two children.

Jim is currently the health sciences and wellness market leader for the Americas Central Region of EY. In this role, he leads a team of professionals responsible for delivering exceptional client service in our healthcare and life sciences space. Client organizations include health plans, healthcare providers, medtech and biophrama companies and contract research organizations with headquarters or significant operations in the central and southeast U.S.

In addition, Jim serves on EY’s global health sciences and wellness executive committee as the EY Global Medtech Leader. He co-authors their Pulse of the Industry report and connects teams serving the medical technology industry globally. He is a frequent keynote speaker at industry events and is often quoted in industry publications.

Jim also serves as the global client service partner for a global Medtech company. In this capacity, he is responsible for all the services that EY provides to its business units, regions and functional areas globally. Delivered either in the Americas or coordinated with our global teams, these engagements include EY competencies from our advisory, tax, transactions and assurance practices.

In each of his roles, Jim works to stay aligned to his personal purpose of delivering insight and experiences that increase the accessibility, affordability and innovation of healthcare and educational outcomes.

James joined Evernorth (then Cigna) in 2013 as the organization’s first in-house user-centered designer. In this role, he leads a range of discovery programs specifically crafted to help the organization gain a deeper understanding of stakeholders and consumers in the complex ecosystem of healthcare. He facilitates the translation of knowledge into powerful insights that lead to new solutions and growth strategies by leveraging his strength and experience in user-centered design thinking.

Currently, James is on an international assignment to leverage his expertise in human-centered design and innovation to support the growth of the newly formed Belgian-based international innovation team. With a particular focus on developing a culture of innovation in the international markets business, he is building out emerging capabilities and better integrating innovation practices across the entire global enterprise. To that end, James is incorporating established human-centered design methods and tools, particularly around ideation, prototyping and early-stage concept development to spark front-end innovation. Extending design thinking and innovation training and development in collaboration with the U.S.based Innovation COE, he continues to build strategic connections throughout the organization as well as externally with startups, partners and vendors.

The intersection of technology and healthcare has been Craig’s focus across his career as the director of innovation of BayCare, co-founder of a virtual reality software company in the neuroscience and concussion sectors and during his time with Accenture.

As the director of innovation, Craig builds BayCare’s innovation practice and pursues opportunities to integrate unique, advanced technology-enabled solutions to better serve customers and physicians. Since joining BayCare, he has launched projects including artificial intelligence, an Uber partnership, voice-based technologies for patients, patient-generated health data analytics, clinical communications, wearables, the BayCare TechDeck, collaborations with Apple, Amazon and Fitbit, virtual reality technologies, robotic-enabled virtual experiences for kids and the design of technologies to serve the wellness center of the future.

Daniel Derman, MD has been a practicing internal medicine physician since 1988. He trained at the University of Michigan for his undergraduate studies and went to medical school at the University of Illinois, where he graduated in 1984. He trained in internal medicine from 1984 to 1987 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and was selected among 35 of his peers to be Chief Medical Resident.

In 1995, Dr. Derman sold his own practice to Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, where it has served as the foundation for Northwestern Medical Group (NMG) — a multispecialty medical group of more than 1,200 physicians. At NMG, he boldly initiated programs such as The Osher Center for Integrative Medicine (one of five selected nationally, and the recipient of a $5 million endowment), a corporate health and wellness program and a community care clinic that provides care to underserved communities — each distinctly unique within an academic medical group setting.

Dr. Derman was appointed as president of Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group and remained in this position throughout 2015. Since that time, he has served as a senior vice president and Chief Innovation Executive of Northwestern Medicine. In addition to his clinical responsibilities and innovation work, he leads the international division and executive health program. Dr. Derman also serves as an advisor for many medical companies and currently sits on the board of Sterilis Medical, a medical waste technology company.

Dr. Derman is a member of the Healthcare Executive Learning Network (a national healthcare think-tank), where he meets three times a year with 25 other top healthcare executives from the United States. He is also a member of AOA, the medical honors society. He has led a volunteer initiative promoting Northwestern employees providing a full day of community service across the Chicagoland area.

Charlotte Gabet is the director of Parkview Health’s Innovation Group and Advanced Simulation Lab. She leads an interdisciplinary team that trains medical professionals across the region and brings innovative healthcare solutions to the organization to improve patient outcomes. Prior to coming to Parkview she spent eight years developing teams which lead to the growth of six startup companies spanning the globe. She leverages this work experience and lessons from raising siz lovely children in an unflappable approach to high priority safety projects throughout the health system.

Jason Keeler is the executive vice president and Chief Operations Officer of the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC). As Chief Operations Officer, he has oversight of operations of the medical center, including inpatient and ambulatory care delivery environments, operational excellence, support services, supply chain and pharmacy services.

Jason joined UCMC in 2011 as vice president for clinical and procedural services where he was responsible for perioperative services, radiology, the emergency department, the EP Labs, cardiac diagnostic services, the GI Lab, the medical procedural areas and the transplant center.

Karl Kochendorfer, MD, FAAFP is the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs, Chief Health Information Officer and Associate Chief Medical Officer of the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System (UI Health). He is also an associate professor of clinical family medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is board certified in clinical informatics and family medicine and has a degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Kochendorfer is currently a practicing family physician who delivers babies and cares for hospitalized patients at UI Health. He has founded and led many enterprise initiatives, including meaningful use, electronic medical records, clinical documentation improvement, clinical guidelines and protocol oversight, clinical decision support, patient portal and data governance. He also holds several informatics related patents and founded a company and the Collaborative for Health Informatics.

With his background in both medicine and informatics, Dr. Kochendorfer manages the deployment and evaluation of leading-edge solutions to improve efficiency, quality and technology adoption.

Dr. Marcelo Malakooti, MD is medical director of the Lefkofsky Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, where he also serves as a director of innovation and strategy. He is also an assistant professor of pediatrics-critical care at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Dr. Malakooti founded IGNITE Innovation, a company that solves challenges using multi-disciplinary cross-pollination for novel interventions, including technology and operational streamlining ranging from improving healthcare quality and patient outcomes, to fostering dynamic strategies to minimize waste and optimize resources. He is also the director of NUvention Medical Innovation for Feinberg School of Medicine, an innovation and entrepreneurship curriculum for multi-disciplinary medical and graduate students, and recently developed the first widely available innovation and entrepreneurial night program for medical students in collaboration with MATTER and the American Medical Association.

Dr. Malakooti received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from George Washington University and his medical degree from Drexel University College of Medicine. He completed his residency at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine followed by a fellowship in pediatric critical care medicine. In November of 2015, Dr. Malakooti was named one of Crain’s 40 under 40 proven leaders in their field.

Kristen Murtos is the Chief Innovation & Transformation Officer for NorthShore – Edward-Elmhurst Health and is responsible for driving innovation and growth to enable peak organizational performance and sustainable differentiation through systematic business and care transformation.

Kristen leads teams and partners with leaders to develop forward thinking solutions for business challenges, inspiring ideas that drive progress, differentiation and future models of care. The innovation strategy combines technology, research, new venture strategies and operations to adapt to dynamic market forces and deliver community-connected care. She leads Innovation, Transformation and has oversight for Health Information Technology and the NorthShore Foundation. Murtos is steadfast in her commitment to bring new insights and capabilities to the front line and deepen consumer understanding to improve care and advance outcomes.

Kristen joined NorthShore in 1998 and most recently served as Chief Administrative and Strategy Officer overseeing Strategy, Business Development, Supply Chain, Revenue Cycle, Managed Care Contracting, Legal, Audit & Compliance, Marketing & Corporate Communications and the NorthShore Foundation.

Kristen previously served as President of NorthShore’s Skokie Hospital, and has extensive health care operations experience. Prior to NorthShore she worked at Deloitte Consulting where she advised clients in market strategy and operational improvement.

Kristen holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and masters’ degrees in business administration and public policy from the University of Chicago. She currently serves on the Ascension Ventures V Board, Vizient CSO Advisory Network, Northwestern Kellogg Advisory Council, Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Leader Alliance and the Advisory Board for the Kindness Connection.

Charles DeShazer, MD is director, clinical products at Google. Prior to this position he served as senior vice president and chief medical officer for Highmark Health Plan. 
Dr. DeShazer is a board-certified internal medicine physician executive with more than 20 years of management experience in medical informatics, quality improvement, medical management and care delivery redesign.


In his former role at Highmark, Inc., Dr. DeShazer was accountable for defining the Health Plan clinical strategy and representing the Health Plan to the business, medical and regulatory communities. He is responsible for overall medical leadership and direction in the development, organization, management and strategic direction of Highmark Health Plan’s processes related to health care quality, efficiency and cost improvement.

He previously worked for Kaiser Permanente, Humana Insurance and BayCare Health System. In prior roles, he was responsible for enterprise quality and analytics for a 12 hospital integrated delivery system, implementation of the patient-centered medical home model, oversight of utilization management, implementation of disease management programs, leveraging a system-wide EHR to achieve meaningful use objectives, supporting the development of an Accountable Care Organization (ACO), creating tools and infrastructure for quality and performance management and implementing patient-centered technologies such as personal health records (PHRs) and telehealth systems.

Dr. DeShazer is an Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) certified Improvement Advisor. He received his medical degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago.

Javier Evelyn, a patient entrepreneur who personally suffers from multiple food allergies, is the founder and CEO of Alerje, a medtech and digital health startup. He’s also a founding team member of MedTech Color, an organization aimed to advance the representation of persons of color in the medical device industry, and serves as a millennial advisory board member to First Independence Bank.

Javier recently made the 2019 Crain’s Detroit Business 40 Under 40 list. He served as the 2017 Google x CODE2040 Detroit Entrepreneur in Residence. Prior to this endeavor, Javier led in the development of mobile app projects for a multi-billion dollar health insurance company and pharmacy benefit manager. Before working in the tech industry, he was a founding team member of an independent insurance agency where he led in sales and management. Originally from Chicago, IL, Javier received his bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University.

Cristal Thomas Gary is a health policy expert and strategist who has dedicated her career to improving healthcare policy and transforming healthcare delivery systems to achieve better and more equitable health outcomes. She has an extensive record of leadership within public and private sector organizations and has served as a trusted advisor to governors, cabinet secretaries and health system leaders.

Cristal has more than 20 years of experience leading complex organizations and initiatives. She is the former deputy governor of the State of Illinois, where she led the state’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act. She has also served as the medicaid director for the state of Ohio and the regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She is currently Chief Advocacy Officer for AMITA Health, a health system with 19 hospitals and more than 200 care sites across the Chicagoland area. In this role, she is responsible for AMITA Health’s government affairs, public policy and health equity strategies.

Cristal holds a B.S. in molecular genetics from the Ohio State University and a MPP from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.

Dr. Derek J. Robinson is the vice president and chief medical officer for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL). Dr. Robinson is responsible for care management operations, clinical leadership and strategic oversight in providing high value health care to more than eight million members. He is also the founding chair of the health equity steering committee, which was established to develop health equity strategies across markets and lines of business.

For nearly two decades, Dr. Robinson has led community efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in undergraduate and post-graduate education at the local, state and national level. He is a member of the office of diversity and inclusion advisory committee at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Additionally, Dr. Robinson is vice-chairman of the board of trustees at Xavier University of Louisiana.

Prior to his current role, Dr. Robinson was vice president for enterprise quality and accreditation at Health Care Service Corporation where he was responsible for clinical quality performance, health plan accreditation and related operations across multiple states. He served as a physician executive at the Illinois Health and Hospital Association and is the former chief medical officer for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Chicago regional office.

Dr. Robinson is clinically active, board certified in emergency medicine and holds degrees from Xavier University of Louisiana, Howard University and the University of Chicago. He is an adjunct faculty member at Northwestern University.

Charles Smith is the founder and CEO of CS Insurance Strategies, an emerging minority-owned commercial insurance brokerage headquartered in downtown Chicago. He is also the founder of My Health Method, one of the few certified, minority-owned corporate wellness companies in Chicago.

Charles has more than 20 years of insurance as well as health care experience and has excelled in various roles for companies such as Dearborn National, MetLife and CNA Insurance.

Nicole joined Arboretum Ventures in 2021 as a managing partner. She emphasizes breakthrough innovations in medtech and tech-enabled care delivery companies improving access, cost and quality of care for unmet therapeutic needs. For more than 25 years, Nicole has successfully partnered with entrepreneurs to modernize and transform the healthcare industry. She strongly believes in the power of teams and in the importance of bringing diversity to leadership ranks when building effective organizations. Her notable investments and board roles prior to joining Arboretum include category-defining companies such as Elucent Medical, MI Biosciences (acquired), NeoChord, NeuMoDx Molecular (acquired), and Strata Oncology.

Nicole joins Arboretum Ventures from Baird Capital, where she was a managing director and partner, having co-led the team’s healthcare investments since 2013. Prior to Baird, Nicole was an investment director at Abbott Ventures and Abbott Biotech Ventures, helping to stand up the original investment organization for the corporation. Nicole began her career as a process engineer with Advanced Cardiovascular Systems/Guidant, where she spent ten years advancing through increasing roles of responsibility in product development, marketing and strategy.

Nicole is proud to serve as an advisor to Springboard Enterprises, an accelerator program dedicated to building high-growth, technology-oriented companies led by women, to the Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Board at MATTER, and to Women in Bio.  Additionally, she serves as a board director with the National Venture Capital Association, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Mid-America Healthcare Investor Network and Minnesota Medical Alley. Nicole has been recognized as one of the industry’s most active and engaged investors by “The Tech Crunch List 2020” and by Crain’s Chicago Business “Tech 50” for 2018 and 2016.

Nicole holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and completed dual degrees in management and operations from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.