PatientsLikeMe ™

Ben Heywood and I had been friends for six years (business school buddies) back in late 2004 when he showed me the first concept presentation for PatientsLikeMe. After sharing my thoughts with him and Jamie for over 90 minutes, they went and built a beta product.  Fast forward 15 months to April 2006--right after the beta ALS community launched, Ben called me to take a look.  Instantly, I knew Ben, Jamie, and Jeff had built something special.  I joined PLM in May 2006 and founded the executive team.  We were off to build a successful business helping patients live better lives.  Since joining, I've helped form the product roadmap and revenue strategy for PatientsLikeMe while serving as the lead Business Development and Marketing executive. 

Prior to joining the company, I spent over four years with pharmaceutical leader Eli Lilly and Company with positions in Institutional Sales, Global Strategy and Pre-market Development focusing on the Psychiatry and Neurology therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Lilly, I served as Director of Online Community Development for Spotlight Health, a venture-backed omnimedia health awareness firm where I helped build the Morbid Obesity, Multiple Sclerosis, and Cardiovascular Disease communities each exceed six figures in registered users.  A few of my highlights were working with Montel Williams to establish his MS Foundation which has raised over $1 million per year since 2001 to find a cure, and interviewing Earl and Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open as part of a cardiovascular disease awareness campaign spearheaded by Larry King.  I also had the opportunity to go to Dallas Cowboys Training Camp and interview the legendary Calvin Hill. 
 
My initial training is in management consulting spending several years with Deloitte Consulting's health care practice focusing on Strategy, Mergers & Acquisitions.  I even spent seven months leading a team implementing a disease management solution for a major health plan.

Early in my career, my mother and I founded Revisions Grants Services, a consulting company focused on helping nonprofits raise funding for needed programs.  Revisions was featured in Black Enterprise magazine, recognized as one of the top nonprofit consulitng firms in the United States.

In my "free" time, I sit on two boards.  I serve on the Board of Directors of Windhawk Inc., a leading nutritional supplement company based in Mesa, AZ, and on the Board of Advisors for the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at UCLA.  Both of these activities further my personal mission to improve lives for others through personal health and economic innovation.  I also find a little time to craft my blog, The Third Power.

I have to thank my parents for driving me to value education.   I earned a B.S. in Economics with a concentration in Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania and hold an M.B.A. in Digital Strategy and a Certificate in Corporate Governance from the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management.

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On the right, this is me finishing the 2004 Crescent City Classic 10K run in New Orleans, LA where my father has lived for the past eight years.  I ran for my father because he couldn't.  He was taking chemotherapy and radiation for colon cancer.  I finished in the top 10% of all runners-I ran hard for him.  Today he is doing fine and looking forward to retiring next year.  What I didn't say about my mother is that she's a three-time cancer survivor who was able to retire five years early because of the work we did at Revisions.  I work hard for others because sometime's they can't work for themselves.

Working at PatientsLikeMe is like running hard for others everyday.  It's tough, but there's nothing I'd rather do.