HealthCare StartUp Panel

Tom Denison

Co-founder and President

SmartHealth Activator

Tom’s passion is mentoring, advising, and funding tech and biotech startups. Tom has engaged with 200+ startups, at all stages, from concept to exit.



Tom is the Co-Founder and President of SmartHealth Activator. SmartHealth builds biotech startups around extraordinary biotechnology being developed at Midwest Universities. SmartHealth is located at the epicenter of the largest biotech cluster in the Midwest and at the doorstep of biotech and healthcare giants, including Abbott, AbbVie, Astellas, Baxter, Hollister, Horizon, Hospira/Pfizer, Lundbeck, Medline, and Walgreens. SmartHealth builds biotech startups comprised of elite bioentrepreneurs, biotech execs, and biotech operators, each with 30+ years of industry experience with commercialization expertise across drug, diagnostic and med device.

Patrick Flavin

Associate

Illinois Ventures

Pat Flavin is an Associate at llinoisVENTURES, having joined in August 2016 as a Fellow and full-time in October 2017. Prior to IllinoisVENTURES, Pat worked in the Financial Risk, Transactions & Restructuring group at Deloitte & Touche as well as with the Technology Commercialization and Licensing Office at the University of Chicago's Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, assisting University faculty in the Ben May Department for Cancer Research and The Microbiome Center in commercializing translational research related to oncology and the microbiome. Pat has worked with Courtside Ventures, a New York-based Seed and Early Stage venture capital firm focusing on digital media and technology investments at the intersection of sports, as well as with Shamrock Structures, a drug discovery services company.

Pat graduated with Honors and Distinction from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a degree in Political Science, where he played offensive line on the varsity football team. He earned his MBA from the University of Illinois Gies College of Business with concentrations in Finance and Entrepreneurship.

Ryan McCostlin

Head of Finance & Strategic Partnerships

Bernard Health

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanmccostlin/

Ryan McCostlin leads finance and people operations at Bernard Health, a 70 employee healthcare technology firm headquartered in Nashville. At Bernard, McCostlin also helped build a nationwide chain of healthcare retail stores where individuals and families sought unbiased health insurance advice from non-commissioned advisors. More recently, he's lead the development of strategic partnerships with financial advisors and hospitals to provide healthcare financial planning services to clients and patients. He has taught as an adjunct instructor of organizational development at Vanderbilt University, and he has served on the health insurance advisory council for Get Covered Tennessee and as a faculty member for the Tennessee Bar Association. As a result of this work, McCostlin is a regular contributor to Financial Advisor Magazine, ThinkAdvisor, Managed Healthcare Executive, and Becker's Hospital Review. Prior to Bernard, he worked at the Advisory Board Company and Huron Consulting in Washington, DC, where he helped hospitals improve revenue cycle operations. McCostlin lives in Nashville, TN with his wife and three children. He has a BS from Vanderbilt and an MBA from Yale.

Eric Benson

CEO

American BioOptics

Eric Benson is a C-level professional with over 20 years’ experience in product planning and financial analysis, corporate licensing and M&A, and private fundraising in both the emerging and middle-market segments of the Medical Product industry. In emerging markets, Eric leads medical device, diagnostic and drug companies to determine and manage their financial and capital needs; assess development strategies to enhance market entry and commercial success; and, originate and administer strategic and financial partnerships.

Currently, Eric is CEO of American BioOptics, an emerging optical cancer screening company, improving the cancer screening process with the introduction of the InPoint™ System, the first personalized cancer risk assessment that provides immediate and accurate results to identify high-risk patients that need further evaluation; Director of Finance at Third Coast Therapeutics, an emerging oncology pharmaceutical company developing drug candidates that prevent the motility of cancer cells; and lastly, Founder and CEO of Affinity Medical Ventures, an operating and venture company overseeing the development of cardiovascular and orthopedic devices for pre-market approval.

Prior, Eric conducted new product forecasting and strategy for at Astellas Pharma where he directed commercial analysis on both pipeline and in-line opportunities for BD&L and R&D teams. Earlier he directed corporate development and finance at Ohmx Diagnostics and Marathon Pharma, HC M&A investment banking at Dresner Partners, and R&D at Intergrated Genomics and Aastrom Biosciences.

Eric’s acumen provides proficiency in financial forecasting, pipeline development and business strategy across multiple therapeutic areas and commercial channels. In addition to his experience, he holds an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University and an MBA in Finance, Accounting and Entrepreneurship from The University of Chicago. Eric also teaches medical product commercialization classes at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and Kellogg School of Management, is a mentor and subject matter expert at MATTER and Chicago Innovation Mentors group, and a member of SmartHealth Activator’s “Ops Team”.