HealthQuest Capital Appoints Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, Health Policy Expert, and Jon Roberts, Former Chief Operating Officer of CVS Health, to Board of Advisors

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Jul 20, 2022, 11:00 ET

Experts bring a combined 70 years of experience in geriatric and pharmacy healthcare to the board

SILICON VALLEY, Calif., July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthQuest Capital, a growth capital firm focused on companies optimizing value in healthcare, today announced the appointments of Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey and Jon Roberts to its board of advisors to help identify and scale transformative healthcare companies improving patient outcomes and increasing efficiency.

"Together, Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey and Jon Roberts have more than 70 years of experience in healthcare. Their knowledge in specific areas of healthcare policy and operations, as well as insight into how the system and stakeholders work together is incredibly complementary to our team and existing platform," said Garheng Kong, MD, PhD, MBA, HealthQuest Capital's founder and Managing Partner. "We have recently closed our fourth fund and are looking forward to deploying it with the insight and expertise of our Board of Advisors, now with the added expertise from Risa and Jon."

Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey has more than 40 years of experience in government and health policy, having most recently served as the president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey also served in the United States Department of Health and Human Services as deputy administrator of the agency for healthcare research and quality, and held numerous leadership roles at the University of Pennsylvania including Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine and Health Care Systems and chief of geriatric medicine Listed as one of the most powerful women in the world by Forbes in 2016, Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey was a member of the White House Task Force on Health Care Reform and served as a consultant to the White House on issues of health policy. Dr Lavizzo-Mourey currently serves on the Boards of Directors at Better Therapeutics, GE, Intel and Merck.

"The most exciting aspect of healthcare innovation from the past couple of years is the ability to expand access to quality care, especially for more vulnerable populations " said Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, who is also a specialist in geriatric health. "I'm excited to work alongside HealthQuest to invest capital and expertise into companies that are focused on value optimization, and can lower costs for quality care."

Jon Roberts, who most recently served as chief operating officer of CVS Health, brings more than 30 years of pharmacy healthcare experience. At CVS, Roberts was responsible for overseeing operations for CVS Pharmacy, MinuteClinic and Omnicare, as well as information technology for the company. Prior to assuming the COO role for CVS Health in March 2017, Roberts served as president of CVS Caremark, the company's pharmacy benefit management business, and chief operating officer of the PBM business. Roberts formerly served on the Board of Directors for the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA), the National Association of Chain Drug stores (NACDS) and as Chairman of the Board at Red Oak Sourcing (a joint venture between CVS and Cardinal Health for securing generic drug portfolios).

"At CVS Health, we sat in the intersection of a number of exciting healthcare trends including the consumerization of healthcare and the evolution of primary care. I'm excited to join the team at HealthQuest Capital to accelerate transformative high-growth companies that continue to innovate and propel these trends, that ultimately make care so much more convenient for the customer.," said Jon Roberts. "I'm especially excited to work with healthcare care industry leaders on the board of advisors, many of whom have complementary experience to mine. Healthcare is such a complex industry, that in order to identify and develop innovation, you need to work across a multitude of stakeholder types, many of whom are represented on the HealthQuest Board."

Lavizzo-Mourey and Roberts join a board of advisors comprised of current or former CEOs of the most influential healthcare companies in the country, including Johnson & Johnson, Humana, Medtronic, OptumHealth, and a former U.S. Surgeon General. Together, the HealthQuest ecosystem provides portfolio companies multi-dimensional insights that span every sector of healthcare, access, and potential partnership opportunities.

This announcement follows HealthQuest's recent Fund IV close of $675 million. HealthQuest is planning to use the funds to invest in healthcare companies innovating on the clinical/technology side, such as AI-enabled diagnostics and precision oncology, as well as companies innovating on the care model side, including evolving primary care and mobile caregiver solutions. Since the firm's founding in 2013, HealthQuest manages more than $1.6 billion across four funds and has invested in various healthcare startups including Everly Health, Lunit, Thirty Madison and TigerConnect.

About HealthQuest Capital

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, HealthQuest Capital is a growth capital firm investing in commercial-stage companies that are optimizing value in healthcare by improving outcomes and reducing costs. With more than $1.6 billion in capital under management, the firm focuses on fostering innovation across the health care spectrum, including medical technologies, diagnostics, digital health and innovative services. The HealthQuest team combines decades of successful investing experience with deep domain expertise in all aspects of the healthcare industry. For more information, visit www.healthquestcapital.com.

SOURCE HealthQuest Capital