McKesson Ventures Principal Carrie Hurwitz Williams has been honored as one of 10 Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars.
Williams joined McKesson Ventures in 2017, bringing with her more than 15 years of experience in health care from several vantage points within the industry. She was attracted to corporate venture capital because she has a strategy and operating background, and the structure of McKesson Ventures’ team gave her the tools to join her desire to build and collaborate with her interest in helping companies grow from an investment perspective.
“Having the grounding of McKesson to inform major industry challenges helps when working through the ambiguity of the landscape and what future winning models will look like. But the key is having enough latitude to look well outside of and beyond the core operation in order to help identify and then back the likely future leaders in the space,” Williams said. “I am fortunate to have joined a team where there is a remarkable balance between the two.”
One area that has particularly drawn Williams’ interest is what the McKesson Ventures team calls “digital supply chain”—both enhancing the existing supply chain for medical supplies and drugs through new business models that rely on data and building the supply chain for digital software or software-enabled products.
“One investment I have made in this area was in Propeller Health, focused on pairing sensors with inhalers for asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). The sensors then sync with a patient-facing app to deliver information about potential disease exacerbations and how to mitigate them, as well as for patient adherence,” Williams said. “The company has been successful in building commercial relationships with pharma and was acquired [in 2019] by ResMed.”
Before she joined the McKesson Ventures team, Williams served as vice president of strategy and business development for behavioral medicine developer Omada Health. She has also held roles at McKesson Ventures’ parent company, McKesson, on its strategy and business development team. She began her career in drug development, where she managed oncology clinical trials in both large pharmaceutical and biotech settings.
Read more about Carrie Hurwitz Williams here.