Jessica Owens

Jessica received an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS from the Department of Cancer Biology at Stanford University, and a BA in Biology from Agnes Scott College where she was Phi Beta Kappa. She now serves as a Trustee to Agnes Scott.

Jessica Owens is a Founding General Partner at Initiate Studios & Ventures, where she builds and backs transformative companies in life sciences and healthcare. As a highly successful venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and scientist, Jessica has a proven track record of leading groundbreaking ventures.

Prior to Initiate, she co-founded GRAIL, steering its spin-out from Illumina, raising over $1 billion, and achieving an $8 billion acquisition by Illumina. She also founded Spark Diagnostics, which was acquired by Opya, Inc.

At Genomic Health, Jessica played a key role in an investment that led to the creation of Invitae (IPO: NVTA). As a partner at Kleiner Perkins, she was instrumental in forming Navigenics (Aq: TMO), Arresto BioSciences (acquired: GILD), and Veracyte (IPO: VCYT).

Jessica’s career began as a scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Special Pathogens Branch. She gained extensive experience in finance and capital markets through roles in investment banking at Robertson Stephens, equity research at Thomas Weisel Partners, and R&D finance at Genentech.

Jessica holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS in Cancer Biology from Stanford University, and a bachelor's degree from Agnes Scott College. Her unique blend of scientific knowledge, entrepreneurial success, and venture capital acumen drives innovation and advances in healthcare and technology. It also makes her the ideal partner for founders looking to turn concepts and discoveries into market-leading companies.

Jessica is a member of Kauffman Fellows Class 12. She served her fellowship at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers under mentor Risa Stack (Class 2).