Cleveland The company is attracting a strong team of advisors and directors, including former Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove and several world-renowned doctors
CLEVELAND, March 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Nirvana Healthcare Ventures (NHCV) kicked off 2023 with the announcement of its newest advisor, Toby Cosgrove, MD. The former Cleveland Clinic CEO now joins an impressive team dedicated to funding transformative healthcare innovations across the Midwest.
Dr. Toby Cosgrove
Widely known for his nearly five-decade association with the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Cosgrove is recognized worldwide as a true innovator in the healthcare field. He served as President and CEO of the Clinic from 2004 to 2017 and remains an executive advisor to the institution. During his leadership, the clinic ranked among the top three hospitals in the country, increasing revenue by 3.7 billion dollars to 8.5 billion dollars while simultaneously launching several new efforts to improve patient outcomes and expand services.
Before becoming an executive, Dr. Cosgrove built a successful career as a renowned cardiac surgeon at the Clinic, operating on tens of thousands of patients while filing dozens of patents for new surgical products to aid his work.
“Not only is Toby one of the most successful and renowned healthcare executives in the world, he is also a proven healthcare innovator with front-line experience helping patients,” he said. Mark Burns, Chairman of the NHCV Board of Directors and former Chairman and CEO of Oswald Companies. “His invaluable insights and decades of experience will help build a strong team of talented physicians, innovators, investors and business leaders.”
This team includes a trio of world-renowned Midwest physicians who are also biomedical engineers, inventors and investors. All serve as consulting managing partners of the firm and worked with Cosgrove during his time at the Cleveland Clinic. They are:
- Frank A. PapayMD, DSc(HON)FACS, FAAP: renowned head, neck and craniofacial plastic and reconstructive surgeon and lead surgeon of America's first full face transplant. Dr. Papay is also an inventor, CMO or CSO of several startups and co-founder of BrainX.ai. He holds dozens of US patents and has received more than 50 industry honors — including the Cleveland Clinic Sones Centennial Innovation Award and the WebMD Health Hero Award in Science.
- Marc S. PennMD, PhD, FACC: a renowned cardiologist who helped pioneer and commercialize several major innovations in his field while developing two parallel careers as an inventor and investor in the healthcare sector. Dr. Penn is a former Cleveland Clinic Innovator of the Year recipient and has served as a founder and executive for several successful healthcare startups, including Cleveland HeartLab, which was acquired in 2017 by Quest Diagnostics.
- Raymond R. RackleyMD: a renowned pelvic reconstructive surgeon, biomedical engineer and life sciences industry consultant. For over 32 years, Dr. Rackley also has a significant track record as an investor, developing strong partnerships and co-investing relationships with some of the region's most active funders, including First Analysis, Mutual Capital Partners, BlueTree Capital, JumpStart, BioEnterprise, North Coast Ventures and MI-12 partner managers while holds board and committee roles in various early and late stage start-up, medical device and pharmaceutical companies.
“Our work as physicians has sparked a pursuit of innovation to improve patient outcomes,” said the team's Cosgrove. “At the same time, our experiences as executives, investors and inventors have solidified a desire to leverage this innovation to build better healthcare companies. I believe this team has the ability to do both.”
Dr. Cosgrove will serve on the NHCV advisory board along with Byrnes, as well Stephen McHale (Founder & CEO of UnifyWork and former CEO and President of Explorys); William Seelbach (Senior Consultant at The Riverside Company), and Ira Kaplan (Executive Chairman, Member of the Executive Committee and former CEO at Benesch Law Firm).
Dr. Papay, Dr. Penn and Dr. Rackley join an equally strong leadership team led by CEO, J. Burner Crew. Crew brings more than three decades of capital markets experience to NHCV, having held leadership roles at EF Hutton, McDonald and Company and KeyBank before later founding Nirvana Analytics, a full-service fund management and advisory firm.
This leadership team also includes Managing Partners, Rem Harris and Aaron Kelley. Harris brings more than two decades of investor and senior executive experience, including a 13-year stint at JumpStart Inc., where he managed the organization's Seed and Series A Venture funds and led investments in more than 100 companies. Kelley brings an additional 15 years of experience in investment advisory, private banking and institutional asset management, during which he has amassed more than $3.5 billion in assets from institutional investors around the world.
“Our team is our biggest asset,” Crew said. “Our combined knowledge, experience and networks separate Nirvana from the pack when it comes to sourcing, funding and powering innovative healthcare startups in the Midwest.”
About Nirvana Healthcare Ventures
Nirvana Healthcare Ventures is a Cleveland-Midwest-based venture capital firm focused on financing high-growth, early-stage healthcare companies. Leveraging strong relationships with regional healthcare systems, research institutions, startup support organizations and co-investors, the firm seeks to source, invest and scale the most innovative companies in the region, while achieving higher returns on ventures for partners and co-investors. For more information, visit: www.nirvanahcventures.com.
SOURCE Nirvana Healthcare Ventures
