Who we are

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.

Amanda is MATTER’s technology product lead. In this role she works collaboratively across departments, developing new internal technology products to drive efficiency. She’s a self-proclaimed ops and data geek, with experience in fintech startups. Her last role was at AM Money, a Chicago-based startup building social impact financial products to make college more affordable and accessible to low-income students and their families. Amanda holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois in Mathematics, and teaches yoga after work.

Carrie joins MATTER as a highly motivated executive assistant with more than 15 years of experience working with diverse senior leadership. After working in the commercial real estate and legal industries, she brings her creativity and passion to support, contribute and support a team of executives who make a difference.   Carrie has a BFA in theatre design and technology from Wright State University. She worked as a stage manager and light designer across the Chicagoland area as well as serving as a master electrician at the Court Theatre.

As a partnerships manager, Casey supports our corporate partners as they expand innovation within their organizations. Prior to joining the partnerships team, Casey was the events manager at MATTER – in that role she led the production and execution of MATTER’s many events. Before joining the MATTER team, she worked in marketing and communications at the Dermatology Foundation for two years, furthering her affinity for the healthcare space. Casey graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor of arts in journalism and a certificate in gender and women’s studies. There she excelled in multiple internships with Madison area nonprofits, fostering her love for bettering the world and helping others.

Charlene is the VP of operations at MATTER. In this role, she champions MATTER’s company-wide strategic initiatives and finds ways for MATTER to continuously improve and evolve. She works to align the MATTER organization and promotes operational process effectiveness, enabling our teams to focus on delivering value to the MATTER community.

Coming from a management consulting background, Charlene brings experience managing cross-functional programs and leading teams from planning through to execution. Prior to joining MATTER, she spent four years guiding clients through performing due diligence and executing complex merger and acquisition deals. In this capacity, she has represented clients from both the buy side and sell side of transactions. Charlene also brings deep operations and supply chain expertise, and previously also spent four years advising on end-to-end operational excellence for both manufacturing and service companies. She is an APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional.

Chris is the director of venture acceleration at MATTER. As a leader on the team, Chris provides guidance and support to startups in bringing their solutions to market. In doing so, he aims to accelerate the advancement of breakthrough technologies and allow them to gain significant market traction where they can meaningfully affect patients’ lives.

Prior to joining MATTER, Chris served as a senior director at Sg2 where he provided guidance and led the development of digital health strategy for C-suite leaders in the health industry. He also interpreted the impact of emerging technologies on the healthcare landscape and advised U.S. and international organizations on how to best leverage these offerings within their broader enterprise strategy.

Chris was also a key member of Northwestern Medicine’s innovation team, leading the development and execution of pilots and projects focused on integrating technologies into clinical service lines in inpatient and outpatient settings. These far-reaching initiatives impacted important strategic areas, including patient experience, access to care, clinician experience, care coordination, and chronic and complex care management. Previously, he worked with the Cleveland Clinic/Notre Dame Alliance program to lead a team in developing the comprehensive business plan for a predictive analytics software tool. This solution will allow organizations to more accurately allocate resources to patient populations in need, as well as provide preventive care to patients at risk.

Chris received his MBA from the Mendoza College of Management at the University of Notre Dame and his BS from the University of Massachusetts.

Elle is the venture acceleration program associate at MATTER. She is responsible for helping our startup companies take advantage of our resources and network. Striving to drive our community of startups toward success, Elle will work closely with our startups to facilitate connections between our corporate partners, network of mentors, advisors and investors.

Prior to MATTER, Elle graduated from the University of Missouri - Columbia earning a degree in Health Science with an emphasis in Leadership & Policy. Her passion for healthcare and innovation brought her to MATTER as a summer 2019 intern. Since then Elle has worked with Chicago-based behavioral health startups.

When she is not working with our startups, Elle enjoys spending time with her dog, baking bread, and reading.

Emma is our associate content marketing manager at MATTER. She is responsible for our cross-channel content and distribution strategy, in addition to supporting our events, social media, website optimization and corporate innovation programs. Emma’s empathetic yet strategic mindset enables her to build engaging customer experiences by meeting the customer where they are with effective content. As part of the MATTER community, she’s excited to learn how startups bring new solutions to market and affect change and innovation in the complex healthcare ecosystem.

Previous to MATTER, Emma built out integrated demand generation campaigns for key accounts as a strategic engagement specialist at Alight Solutions. Her passion for healthcare initiated from Alight’s healthcare navigation solution that helps organization’s employees find high-quality, cost-effective care and navigate the complex healthcare system — something she believes every American should have access to.

Emma graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor’s of science in marketing and information systems and information technology.

Garrison is a marketer and communication professional focused on seeking out and meeting audiences where they are. As associate communications manager, Garrison is responsible for developing and delivering engaging content to the MATTER community.

Prior to joining MATTER, Garrison spent three years in the federal government. He held a variety of roles with the U.S. Small Business Administration and U.S. Census Bureau while completing the federal government’s flagship leadership development program, the Presidential Management Fellowship. During this time, he worked on a number of projects including email marketing for the 2020 Census and outreach driving small business participation in federal contracting.

Garrison graduated from Colorado State University with an M.A. in communication studies. He also holds a B.A. from Ripon College in communication studies.

While he is not working on content, Garrison enjoys numerous hobbies including brewing beer, half-marathon training, sports card collecting and cooking.

Jeana is a strategic marketer obsessed with audience engagement at the intersection of healthcare and technology. Previously, she ran her own marketing services company with clients throughout the tech and healthcare sectors. Jeana served as the operational lead at a San Francisco based agency working on programs for remote patient monitoring, telehealth products and robotic surgical systems. She also directed cross-functional teams at Meredith’s marketing division, MXM (formerly Big Communications), on more than 26 pharmaceutical and payer launches.

Jeana holds a bachelor of arts in sociology from the University of Maryland, College Park and is a member of the Healthcare Businesswoman’s Association.

Joe joins MATTER as VP of Strategic Partnerships- working to expand the MATTER community through engagement with established businesses and organizations. Prior to joining MATTER, Joe was SVP of Client Solutions at machine-learning pioneer Ditto Labs. There, he worked with MIT-trained engineers to integrate cutting edge computer visioning solutions with leading technology from partners such as Oracle, Teradata and IBM. Joe was the first industry expert hired by healthcare and direct marketing agency BIG Communications, now part of media giant Meredith Corporation, to run global sales efforts and expand BIG’s offerings. Joe has launched over 30 products and devices over his career, gaining valuable insights on the most effective ways to commercialize. Joe began his career at Pfizer, working in sales and marketing for some of the world’s most recognized brands, such as Lipitor and Viagra. An entrepreneur himself, Joe co-founded San Francisco-based BrandForce Health- a company that launched some of the first connected, wireless health products in conjunction with AT&T, CVS and NantHealth.

Kaitlyn is the venture acceleration program coordinator at MATTER. She is responsible for providing daily oversight of administrative and operational tasks of the venture acceleration team. Prior to joining the venture acceleration team, Kaitlyn was a spring 2022 intern at MATTER. In this role, she collaborated across all MATTER departments to complete a variety of tasks and projects to support the MATTER team and their goals.

Kaitlyn graduated from Loyola University Chicago with a Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Administration. In her free time, Kaitlyn likes to read, refurbish thrifted furniture and try new TikTok recipes.

As the partnerships manager at MATTER, Katie is responsible for building strategic relationships with partners that create reciprocal value. She works to help partners source new technologies, build innovation capacity and solve complex problems. Prior to MATTER, Katie worked in corporate partnership development at mHUB, an innovation center for manufacturing and hardtech. Prior to mHUB, Katie managed national sponsorships at Tribune Publishing and was part of the team at Jack Morton Worldwide where she coordinated experiential marketing campaigns for General Motors. Katie graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Marketing.

As the events associate, Kay supports the events manager in developing, coordinating and executing MATTER’s diverse events.

Prior to joining MATTER, Kay was a corporate events intern at MxD (formerly known as UI LABS) and assisted the events team with coordinating meetings, forums, seminars and workshops for members and third parties.

Kay has worked in the outdoor recreation industry for five years, starting as a group development and challenge course facilitator in college. In this role, Kay organized group development programs for over 1,600 students that challenged their perspectives and focused on group cohesion.

Kay graduated from Loyola University Chicago with a B.A. in advertising and public relations and a marketing minor.

When not working on events, Kay spends her free time outside in the sun. She loves to hike, bike, climb and travel.

Michael is our events and marketing coordinator at MATTER. He is responsible for arranging and supporting MATTER’s vast events for its members and partners.

Prior to joining MATTER, Michael was a marketing intern for 33 Realty, as well as a digital and video intern for the Milwaukee Bucks. Both of these roles consisted of the creation and management of social media content. In addition, he has event management experience through his university’s sporting events. Michael brings high attention to detail and a creative mindset to the MATTER team.

Michael graduated from Marquette University with a bachelor’s of arts in digital media and a minor in advertising.

Noelle is a Chicago native who graduated from Kalamazoo College in 2012 with a major in biology and a minor in art. During her junior year, she studied and lived abroad in Ecuador for 6 months. While in college she held a leadership role on the Student Activities Committee and was a senior resident assistant. After college, she learned HTML/CSS and UX Design at The Starter League, later becoming Start League’s office manager. Before joining The Starter League team, she worked at The University of Chicago Survey Lab administering surveys via phone in English and Spanish.

Olyvia joins MATTER as the Manager of Equity Initiatives, supporting MATTERS efforts to advance health equity within the startup and health innovation space.

Prior to joining MATTER, Olyvia was the Manager of Public Health Activities at the Illinois Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics (ICAAP), where she developed and implemented state-level and local initiatives to improve the health and lives of children and families in Illinois. In addition to a public health background, Olyvia also has extensive experience in the community/social justice field and was a past Albert Schweitzer Fellowship recipient.

She remains active in and outside of work, being heavily involved in community-centered programming to increase health equity and equality.

Olyvia graduated from DePaul University with a B.S. in Health Sciences and minors in Sociology and Communication Studies. Olyvia continued her education at Benedictine University graduating with a Master’s in Public Health and a Master’s in Business Administration (MPH/MBA).

When not working Olyvia loves traveling and exploring new places.

Pete is a product developer currently helping maintain and improve MATTER’s website and online offering. Prior to working with MATTER, Pete helped engineer & manage software products at Helpful Human, a Seattle based digital agency. Among a variety of retail and marketing sites, he helped build a platform designed to help Seattle area doctors and their patients find healthy resources in their communities. Pete loves building simple and intuitive software that solves meaningful problems. Pete previously studied music at the University of Southern California and product development at Chicago’s Starter League.

Sam is a senior partnerships manager at MATTER. She is responsible for bridging the gap between partners and entrepreneurs in the MATTER workspace. Working with the partnership team, she strives to help partners get the most out of their relationship with MATTER to help with new technology, facilitate different programs and build innovation within organizations.

Sam’s background in the healthcare field started with a health sciences degree from Ohio State. While in college, she worked at a physical therapy clinic as an office coordinator and exercise technician. She used this experience to transition to the health tech world and worked for four years on the training team for Allscripts’ Ambulatory Product TouchWorks. She also ran the GiveBack Program at Allscripts for their headquarters office, planning the philanthropic and fundraising events the company took part in each year.

As finance associate at MATTER, Shaquela manages and oversees all financial operations. In this role, she works closely with MATTER leadership to support business development and help create and implement long-term financial planning, reporting and strategy.

Shaquela brings more than 10 years of experience in accounting leadership roles and more than 20 years with small businesses including taxing districts, healthcare organizations, service organizations and non-profits. Shaquela received her MBA with a concentration in accounting from DeVry University and her bachelor’s in business management from Western Illinois University.

As the venture acceleration manager, Stanley recruits new healthcare entrepreneurs into the MATTER ecosystem. He is excited to help them utilize MATTER’s community, programs and resources to accelerate their innovative solutions to market.

Before joining MATTER, he served as a manager at Molex Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Molex. He supported innovation initiatives, including the investment of multiple startups, the corporate innovation challenge and internal incubation efforts. These innovation initiatives helped cement Molex as a global technology leader across various industries. Prior to joining the corporate venturing unit, Stanley held multiple roles at its parent company Molex. He spent time as part of the sales and marketing team helping with business development efforts in the Carolinas region.

Stanley graduated from Purdue University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. Boiler Up!

Sydney joins the team as a venture acceleration program associate at MATTER. Her role is mainly focused on recruiting new healthcare entrepreneurs for MATTER’s portfolio as well as welcoming them to the community and helping them engage with MATTER’s various capabilities to improve and grow their business and advance healthcare. She is very passionate about working with others to identify key challenges in healthcare and then innovating with the right people and resources to solve them.

Sydney graduated from Vanderbilt University in May 2022 with majors in neuroscience and medicine, health and society and a minor in business. She interned at MATTER in the summer of 2020 which sparked her interest in healthcare innovation. Since then, she also has experience working for other healthcare startups in life sciences consulting and neuroscience research. In her free time, Sydney enjoys skiing, hiking, watching or playing sports, reading or spending time with friends and family.

Andy Kidd is the CEO & president of Aptinyx Inc, a NASDAQ listed, neuroscience-focused biotech company in the Chicago area, with a propriety platform of NMDA receptor modulator drugs. Prior to taking over from the company’s founding CEO, he was the chief operating officer. He has been involved in leading strategy, operations, organizational development, IPO and follow-on financings to advance the pipeline from pre-IND to phase 2 clinical development.

As a leader Andy is focused on forging a clear strategy and delivering it with an inclusive and collaborative culture, combined with high operational and financial rigor. He is passionate about creating value at the intersection of what is scientifically possible, meets a vital healthcare need and is practical to use or adopt.

Before Aptinyx, Andy spent ten years at Baxter International mostly in positions of P&L management including general manager for Baxter Canada, global franchise head for surgical care and US general manager for anesthesia and critical care. His last role at Baxter was SVP, corporate development & strategy, reporting to CEO Joe Almeida and part of the company leadership team. During this time Andy also oversaw the Baxter Ventures fund and led the acquisition of Claris Pharmaceuticals.

Andy moved to Chicago from London twenty years ago while working for The Boston Consulting Group, where he spent the first several years of his career. He was raised in Scotland and received an undergraduate degree in neural and developmental biology from the University of Cambridge and a medical degree from the University of Oxford.

Andy lives and works in Evanston and enjoys traveling with his family, as well as skiing, golf, BBQ and running.

Jason Smith is a leading-edge technologist and executive with more than 20 years of industry experience. He has held positions in early-stage companies, large multinational corporations and venture capital incubators yielding a rich professional background. In his roles such as CEO, chief product officer, VP of corporate development, VP of product and chief architect, he has been responsible for the management of various functional areas including strategy, product development, technology and operations. Jason has successfully built and sold multiple early-stage companies and services firms to large global organizations.

Jason has successfully driven the licensing of technologies and intellectual property to companies ranging from medium-size enterprises to the Fortune 500. The licensing includes his own IP contributions, which have been granted multiple domestic and international patents in the fields of bioinformatics, high-speed computation, video, graphics architecture and security.

Jason brings extensive experience in building and growing startups, technology service firms, and product development organizations. He helps focus companies to understand who their customers are, what products should be built to meet their customers’ needs, and how to get the product into customers’ hands.

Jason is an angel investor and active startup mentor.

Pamela York is a serial entrepreneur, venture capital investor, and business executive, with extensive success from launch to exit in healthcare and technology companies. She is a co-founder and managing partner of Capita3, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on healthcare innovations.

Previously Pam was a co-founder of two VC-backed startups each with exits, and an inventor on a dozen patents commercialized in three technology platforms. Pam then shifted her focus from entrepreneur to investor and has helped build innovation pipelines and drive capital formation across the U.S. As part of this transition, she managed a large life science intellectual property portfolio and led or invested in 100 deals with 15 exits to date, including 4 IPOs. She’s also helped launch several venture funds and is a mentor for Revolution Ventures and an advisor to Medical Alley. Pam was named mentor of the year for UnitedHealthcare Techstars and serves on numerous boards.

Additionally, Pam has 20 years of experience in transformational leadership development and she’s featured on TED Talks and the Audible Motivated to Lead channel for her novel startup CEO accelerator work. She’s been adjunct faculty teaching the NSF I-CorpsTM lean startup programs to faculty and graduate students and taught lean startup principles to Saudi Arabian women leaders. She has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from University of Illinois and completed a private equity financing program at Wharton.

Dr. D. Martin Gershon is a leading healthcare and life sciences innovation strategist and advisor for Fortune 500 companies, venture capital investor, designated Standard & Poor’s healthcare industry leader, former Pictet Asset Management advisory board member, chairman of the Aspen Institute Business of Health Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Mayday Fellow, advisor to the Harvard Innovation Labs and has 20 years of experience as a neuroscientist, oncologist/immunologist, healthcare economist and FDA healthcare regulatory attorney.

Dr. Gershon is the chief innovation and investment officer and the director of entrepreneurship and commercialization at McGill University and has served as a senior advisor in strategic partnerships and commercialization to McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital, TPG, BlackRock, Tiger Global, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer and Novartis.

Dr. Gershon founded Endeavor Life Sciences, partnering with Capgemimi to provide innovation, technology and finance solutions to emerging healthcare and life sciences companies helping them grow, scale and partner. Endeavor also has a venture arm, Endeavor Funds, investing in groundbreaking companies like Moderna and 69 life sciences companies that are reshaping healthcare, possessing disruptive technologies with strong scalable commercial potential and social impact, driven by great entrepreneurs/founders with cutting-edge innovations that look for coaching and strategic partnerships to build their early stage companies into the next unicorns.

Debra Schotz served as chief operating officer of Musculo, an early stage digital health services company focused on augmenting care for people with inflammatory arthritis. She oversaw clinical operations, marketing and sales. As part of the founding management team (pre-revenue), Debra established the organizational structure and processes, recruited key talent, negotiated the first customer contracts and successfully created and launched the GTM strategy.

Prior to joining Musculo, Debra held positions of full P&L responsibility in medical device marketing and general management at Baxter International, Cardinal Health and Hillrom. At Hillrom, she was tasked with transforming a $1.5 billion business from a capital-focused bed company to a software and services digital health organization. Her initiatives involved new product development, recruiting specialized talent and orchestrating the acquisition and integration of several software and connected care tech companies.

Debra is a strategic thinker who consistently demonstrates success in product management, contract negotiations, commercialization and strategy to scale. She excels at creating a work environment driven by employee engagement. Debra’s career recognitions include several awards: Working Mother of the Year at Cardinal Health (2013) and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award from Hillrom (2020).

As a passionate advocate for supporting women in leadership and in life, she is a member of the Chief organization, a networking and mentorship group for women executive leaders, and is also the vice chair of the Board for Swedish Hospital, a non-profit community hospital.

Born and raised outside of Chicago, she received her BS in business from Indiana University and her MBA in operations management from DePaul University.

Debra resides in Wilmette, Illinois, and enjoys playing tennis and pickleball, hosting themed dinner parties, beating her husband in word games, practicing yoga and traveling to new places.

Dr. Patadia is a transformational physician executive with extensive clinical, strategic and administrative experience in all phases of the healthcare continuum. His strengths include creating value through results-oriented systems analysis, process re-engineering, technology adoption and operational optimization. He values building collaborative teams seeking innovative solutions.

He currently serves as a chief medical officer of a tertiary care, 300+ bed, level 1 trauma center, 15+ ambulatory sites with full P&L responsibilities and oversight of 600+ physicians and 20+ medical directors. He has been the architect for several specialty service lines (+$15 million in revenue growth), an operational readiness expert in digital health integration (virtual and cloud-based solutions), a performance improvement specialist (top decile in quality outcomes) and a leader in value-based care modeling (saving +$700,000 in cost avoidance).

As president of his emergency medicine physician group, he was responsible for strategic growth and operations (increased revenue by 20 percent), corporate governance, financial forecasting, revenue cycle integrity, contract management, physician incentivization and recruitment.

Dr. Patadia has a diverse educational background. He received his bachelor of science in finance from the University of Illinois, his medical doctorate from UIC College of Medicine, his board certification in emergency medicine at Christ Medical Center and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and he recently completed the GE Healthcare Physician Leadership Program.

In addition to valuing education, he has a passion for the advancement of others. He has been involved in several philanthropic, civic, non-profit organizations. He previously served on the national stage as the Illinois representative for the American Association of Emergency Medicine. In his own community, he was elected to the DuPage County Health Department’s board of directors, and he was also asked to be a member of the medical advisory board for Imerman Angles Cancer Foundation. This year, he raised over $50,000 for the American Heart Association as an executive sponsor for the Illinois Leaders of Impact campaign.

Over the course of Dr. Patadia’s career, he has accumulated a variety of accolades, including a full scholarship to the University of Illinois, Bronze Tablet Distinction (top 1%), the Gold Humanism in Medicine award and the Advocate MVP for leadership in Safety and Quality. Dr. Patadia is still a practicing physician, and he is grateful to be able to have an impact on the health and well-being of his patients and community.

Henry is a thinker—a thinker entrenched in the world of science, medicine and innovation. A leading voice in the convergence of technology and health, he helps define, dissect and deliberate global trends in digital health. His current focus is on the role that exponential technologies (such as infinite computing, artificial intelligence, extended reality and next generation cloud technology) will play in health care delivery in the near-future.

Most recently, Henry served as a Vice President on the Intelligence team at Sg2, a national analytics and consulting firm serving health systems across the country. He collaborated with the organization’s members, executives, and other key leaders to establish and execute on strategy, operations and innovation initiatives across the organization. Among his key accomplishments, he led Sg2’s Center for Clinical Technology where he provided members with a future-focused view of the benefits of the intelligent application of technology in clinical care.

Throughout his 40+ year career, he has brought a unique perspective to his leadership, operations, strategy, thought leadership and clinical performance work, having served in both industry and front-line clinical capacities. In addition to his work at Sg2, Henry spent twenty-four years at Philips Healthcare in a variety of roles including: product development, marketing, and consulting. On the clinical side, Henry focused on medical imaging at both the hospital and private radiology practice level in radiology operations, business development and marketing management.

Henry is actively redefining the role of social media and influence marketing in health care. He maintains a regular online presence on social media platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn and is considered a major authority in the health care digital space. He is a speaker and facilitator on the future of health care, enabling technologies, disruptive innovation and emerging business models both domestically and abroad. Henry currently serves as an advisor to the healthcare industry team at The Center for Innovation Commercialization, LLC. He also writes regularly on his Wordpress blog “Talking Healthcare Technology” where he focuses on disruptive technology and innovation in healthcare.

Lisa has spent more than 25 years leading global teams to create and commercialize new products and services in healthcare. She has spent the last decade in leadership roles creating new markets and capabilities such as President, Kidney and Home Care, a business start-up within CVS Healthcare, where she had P&L responsibility for a tech-enabled, value-based care services business focused on scaling home-based Kidney solutions within the US.

Earlier, Lisa was GM, Oncology & Life Sciences, IBM Watson Health, where she partnered with global stakeholders to scale a portfolio of SaaS and Service solutions aimed to dramatically improve oncology care and access to clinical trials. Other experiences include Baxter Healthcare where Lisa held multiple leadership roles such as Global Franchise Leader, Infusion Therapy and VP, Global Home Therapies. Also, she served as President, Global Client Solutions at Syneos Health.

Lisa started her professional career with GE Capital where she held increasing roles of responsibility in business turnaround, operations, growth, P&L management.

Lisa earned a MBA from the University of Notre Dame and a BS in Social Science/International Business from Michigan State University. Lisa and her family live in Wilmette, Il.

Mark’s career in healthcare has taken him from a combined MD-PhD concentrating on applied mathematical applications in cardiology, to private practice as a clinical cardiac electrophysiologist, elected medical staff leadership roles, the Chief of Quality of the Piedmont Heart Institute and most recently the Chief Medical Officer of Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, from which he recently retired.

His particular focus during his time as a medical administrator has been to understand the environment of healthcare delivery, whether in the office, the hospital or with the patient at home, and work to engineer that environment to better deliver the care that will result in higher value: improved outcomes, efficiency and satisfaction, with reduced errors and reduced cost.

Matt is the operating partner at Wave Strategy, a healthcare innovation consultancy, that provides strategic guidance to healthcare organizations and accelerates the commercial pathway for cutting-edge technologies through strategic enterprise partners, healthcare systems, industry influencers and entrepreneurs.

Prior to Wave Strategy, he began his career in healthcare innovation at Cleveland Clinic Innovations (CCI), where he spent seven years translating medical breakthroughs into patient-benefiting products that reached the commercial market. As the director of inventor services, Matt established and implemented a process that was used to evaluate early stage technologies and usher them toward a commercial outcome. At CCI, Matt also held the position of director of business development, where he aided startups with IP strategy formulation, product development guidance and value proposition refinement.

Matt also served as a naval officer at several commands throughout the world. As a naval officer, he served as executive officer of the Military Sealift Command in Diego Garcia, program manager for the V-22 Osprey in Philadelphia and contract administrator for Forward Operating Base, Camp Leatherneck, in Afghanistan.

Matt also plays a role at the following organizations: board of directors for Challenge America (president) and NE Ohio Naval Academy Association (trustee). Matt received a bachelor’s in political science with a focus in engineering, math and science from the United States Naval Academy and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University.

Michelle Hoffmann, PhD has been serving since August of 2021 as the executive director of the Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC), a consortium of biomedical researchers across Northwestern, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Chicago that is generously supported by the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust. The CBC’s mission is to stimulate collaboration among scientists to accelerate discovery that will transform biomedical research and improve the health of humankind. Prior to this role, from 2019-2021, Dr. Hoffmann was the senior vice president of deep tech at P33, a privately funded nonprofit charged with elevating Chicagoland’s innovation economy and driving inclusive economic growth.

Prior to P33, Dr. Hoffmann spent 15 years helping life sciences companies grow, most recently as a senior vice president at Boston-based Back Bay Life Science Advisors, an integrated strategy and investment firm to global life sciences companies and their investors. During her eight years at Back Bay, Dr. Hoffmann led projects for large, publicly traded companies, as well as small, private, venture-backed healthcare and life sciences companies. Dr. Hoffmann also worked closely with Back Bay’s investment team on two large transactions: an epigenetics platform that was sold to Gilead Pharmaceuticals for $65 million and an agent to combat acute kidney injury that was acquired by AbbVie for $110 million. Previously, she was senior manager, Center for Health Solutions and pharmaceutical market lead, at Deloitte Research.

Dr. Hoffmann also worked for Leerink Swan Strategic Advisors as a consultant/project manager, Capgemini/LECG as a consultant in their life sciences healthcare practice and at Fuld+Company as a senior analyst in Fuld’s healthcare practice.

Dr. Hoffmann earned a PhD in molecular and cellular biology from the University of California Berkeley with Professor Joshua Kaplan and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Brandeis University in the laboratory of Professor Gina Turrigiano.

Mike Abbadessa is an Executive of Medical Affairs, with experience in business and product development utilizing AI solutions for business challenges in the life science industry. His passion for using data to solve real problems coupled with Mike’s medical and scientific training, has enabled a career that spans, health care, pharma and tech.

The journey began in acute-care hospitals, as a pharmacist, director and chief operating officer. He transitioned to pharma as an MSL, Director of field teams, and then Sr. Director of Innovation/ Analytics for medical affairs at Takeda. After his career in pharma and before joining rMark Bio and Within3, Mike expanded his knowledge of field medical’s success factors as a consultant for Tardis (Amplity) and various pharma companies.

He has earned a reputation as a developer of ideas, people, and organizations. Mike’s value proposition is leading and developing teams and organizations to optimize performance to the highest level through quality improvement, continuous learning, and constant innovation.

Nilima Rajkumar is a healthcare executive with over two decades of experience, 15 years of which have been in the payer space with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield system. Most recently she was vice president of Market Analytics, Products and Solutions at Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), the nation’s largest customer-owned health insurer, which operates as Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas and serves over 17M members.

In this role she provided leadership for the full product portfolio for employers, fully-insured and self-funded, from concept to commercialization including products in the health management, behavioral health, digital health, member engagement and navigation and financial risk management areas. She was also responsible for product management, the development and execution of unique, client-specific requirements for large customers and customer and product reporting and analytics.

Prior to this, Nilima spent several years working in the product area at HCSC. She began her career with the Blue System at the Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) Association where she led strategic assessments for the BCBS Board and initiatives for the Blues. She also spent five years at ZS Associates, a professional services firm working on sales and marketing focused projects with large pharmaceutical companies.

Nilima has a M.S in Information Systems Management from Loyola University Chicago and a BA with Honors in Economics from Delhi University. She lives in Chicago with her husband and two daughters.

Dr. Mathews is an experienced physician health technology leader. He has developed new healthcare technologies and has advised healthcare startups, investors and industry partners. He continues to publish high-impact articles on health technology, gastroenterology and healthcare quality.

Dr. Mathews has served as chief medical officer for multiple digital health companies and is assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine. He has held a number of health system and hospital roles, including leading clinical innovation efforts at the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. He is a champion and thought leader for improving care delivery and value through technology.

He completed medical school, internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship at Johns Hopkins. Prior to his medical career, he worked briefly in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia where studied economics as a Jefferson Scholar.

Steve Hamman is a senior-level health care executive 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.

Steve most recently served as the President of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL), where he was responsible for the state’s largest health insurer with almost nine million members, $22B in revenue and over $40B 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 joined BCBSIL in 1991 and has served in a variety of management roles within the company during his tenure at BCBSIL and at Health Care Service Corporation —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 non-profits Special Olympics Illinois, Chicago Architecture Center, Eikon Group and New City Church while also actively participating on advisory councils for the Heritage Group and Madison Dearborn Partners.

Jeffrey S. Aronin is a bioscience entrepreneur known for innovating, developing and commercializing a record number of novel medicines that improve the lives of seriously ill patients who have few or no treatments options.      In 2017, Jeff founded Paragon Biosciences, where he is chairman and chief executive officer. Paragon Biosciences creates, builds and funds companies focused on cell and gene therapy, biology engineering and advanced biotechnology. Paragon is one of the biotech industry’s largest company creators, investing more than $1.4 billion into its highly innovative portfolio.

Its current portfolio of companies includes Harmony Biosciences (NASDAQ: HRMY), Castle Creek Biosciences, CiRC Biosciences, Emalex Biosciences, Evozyne, Qlarity Imaging and several early-stage businesses.   Jeff serves on corporate and civic boards including Discover Financial Services, The Aspen Institute and the International Board of the Weizmann Institute of Science and is a member of The Commercial Club of Chicago.

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 an experienced healthcare executive and MATTER Executive in Residence. As former president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL), he was responsible for the overall business and financial performance, long-term growth strategy and strategic planning of the state’s largest health insurance company, which serves almost nine million members with over $22B in revenue.

Steve joined BCBSIL in 1991 and has served in a variety of management roles within the company during his tenure at BCBSIL and at Health Care Service Corporation —which operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. He most recently 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 Innovista Health, Dearborn National and non-profits Special Olympics Illinois, Chicago Architecture Center, Eikon Group and New City Church while also actively participating on advisory councils for the Heritage Group and Madison Dearborn Partners.

Dr. Jeffrey D. Kent joined Horizon in May 2012. Before joining Horizon, Dr. Kent was executive director, medical affairs at Astellas Pharmaceuticals. Before Astellas, he spent over eight years as global project head for medical affairs in immunology within Abbott Global Pharmaceutical research and development. In this capacity, he had global medical affairs responsibility for HUMIRA across the rheumatology, dermatology and gastroenterology therapeutic areas. Dr. Kent also worked at Searle (now Pfizer) from 1999 to 2003 and served in various capacities in research and development including global director for valdecoxib (Bextra) development.

Dr. Kent is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia where he received his medical degree. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and a fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke’s Hospital in Chicago. He served as a full-time faculty member for several years in the Department of Internal Medicine and the Division of Digestive Diseases at Rush Medical College and Rush Presbyterian St. Luke’s Hospital. While at Rush, Dr. Kent was heavily involved with clinical practice, educating medical students, residents and fellows, and developed extensive experience with Phase 2-4 clinical trials. Following his experience at Rush, he served as Associate Medical Director for the Evanston Hospital Clinical Pharmacology Unit, a Phase 1 clinical trials facility and gained experience with first-in-man and ADME studies.

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.

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.