When I was chosen as one of the top five Global Corporate Venturing’s Rising Stars in 2016, it marked a notable career milestone. Ultimately this recognition provided me with more investment opportunities because my personal visibility and internal/external network expanded as did my geographic investment perspective.
Shortly after the award, I received a promotion to vice-president of Merck’s Global Health Innovation Group and general manager of the Private Equity Fund. Then I had a successful exit of Atlanta-based Liaison Technologies which was acquired by Canadian-based OpenText Corporation. Other significant acquisitions where I was deeply involved were Optum’s purchase of Humedica and WebMD’s purchase of Aptus.
Today, I am privileged to serve on the Board of Directors of five “rising star” companies in the healthcare world: ClearData, ExoStar, Preventice, Prognos and TriNetX. I believe the decades of experience analysing markets, completing mergers and transactions, advising more than 60 transactions in growth stage venture capital, follow-on and growth equity provides the solid investment foundation portfolio companies are seeking from corporate investors.
Moving forward, I am excited about the new opportunities as a leader of the global investment strategy for Merck’s real world evidence, IT and supply chain areas. I know these areas will provide us the significant investment success that we have seen in other markets.
The Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars award provides instrumental and powerful acknowledgement of the global corporate venture industry.
The Rising Star award is an excellent way to recognise high performers and allow them to network and learn from each other. This added visibility not only benefits award winners, but also helps aspiring, strategic and financial investors to better collaborate and identify the best partners.
In aggregate, the award helps enhance the prospects of the overall corporate venture industry to be financially successful and continue to grow. The more we collaborate, the better we all do.