Jack Miner leads Cleveland Clinic Ventures (CCV), a team of venture experts charged with funding the full lifecycle – from product-development company to exit – at the US-based healthcare services provider.
The unit works closely with Cleveland Clinic Innovations, the clinic’s innovation arm which has been crafting companies and products from innovative medical solutions and intellectual property (IP), while the former focuses on spinoffs and fundraising to advance IP commercialisation.
CCV has access to Cleveland Clinic’s resources and full-time directors, executives-in-residence, operations and associate CCV team members. Cleveland Clinic has spun off more than 80 startups since 2000, including heart test provider Cleveland HeartLab which was acquired by medical testing laboratory Quest Diagnostics in October 2017 for an undisclosed amount.
As managing director, Miner reports to the chief investment officer. He said for his Rising Stars award this year: “Not only do we have access to the world’s thought leaders in healthcare through our own health system, but we also gain insights from our world-class portfolio of venture and private equity fund managers.
“The team was conceptualised in 2016 by our chief investment officer and launched in 2018 when hiring the team of venture partners was completed. We have a multifaceted approach to corporate venture capital, investing in each of three sectors – medical devices, therapeutics and diagnostics, and health information technology. Along with the three sectors, we also invest along the full continuum of growth stage, from product development to company sale.”
Miner brings plenty of experience to the role, having been part of seven venture-funded software companies. Since joining Cleveland Clinic, he said the biggest success had been recruiting such a talented and experienced team of healthcare investors, cumulatively representing more than 35 years of investment and M&A success.
“The biggest challenge remains defining how a healthcare system can invest in not only their own technology but also other companies that are strategic to the health system. The numerous competing interests require creating processes that provide transparency and predictability.”
Miner told Modern Healthcare in April last year that some of his portfolio companies were incorporated into the healthcare system, such as a device which helps improve stroke victims’ motor control. He said: “The return does not trump certain aspects of what we do, that we really have to get those technologies from bench to bedside.”
CCV’s portfolio companies include orthopaedic surgeries’ medical devices developer Custom Orthopaedic Solutions, acquired by Arthrex last year; imaging contract research organisation ImageIQ, acquired by clinical data and therapeutic technology provider ERT in 2017; and neuromodulation device developer Cardionomic.
Before joining CCV in September 2016, Miner oversaw the ventures team at his alma mater University of Michigan’s Office of Technology Transfer. University of Michigan hired him in 2011 where he helped establish more than 50 startups and ran a portfolio of 300 companies.
There, Miner also managed the Venture Accelerator – a lab and office space located near the university’s research discoveries commercialisation unit Tech Transfer – and mentors-in-residence program, as well as the business formation team.
Miner holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from University of Michigan and a master’s in management from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
