Tamara Elias

Tamara graduated from Yale with a Bachelor of Arts degree with dual majors in biology and anthropology, with summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors. She obtained her MD degree, with AOA Honors, from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Tamara was a general surgery resident at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and was awarded one of four national grants in plastic and reconstructive surgery during a research fellowship at New York University in the lab of Dr. Joseph McCarthy. Tamara resides in the suburbs of NY with her husband Rick and two children, Isaac and Emily.

I have been avidly involved with healthcare for over 20 years across a wide spectrum of diverse experiences, beginning with medical school, extending into surgical residency, followed by healthcare strategic consulting, private equity investing, corporate strategy and business development, product innovation and P&L, inclusive of board member positions. At Merck, I am Head of Global Partnerships. At Aetna, I was VP, Clinical Product Development owning a $20M P&L, and focus on optimizing and rationalizing the existing clinical product portfolio for all lines of business as well as aligning future product and service design with the Aetna digital roadmap and customer needs within each business segment. At Becton Dickinson, I was VP, Corporate Strategy and Business Development for the $8B revenue Medical Segment. In this role, I engineered the creation of the Digital Health Business Unit - from designing the organization to securing funding to hiring the team and getting the approval of the first concept in digital diabetes (now launched). As a member of the Leadership Team I advanced the overall strategic direction and growth for the medical segment, including the $24B acquisition of Bard. As a Partner with Essex Woodlands, I co-led the healthcare services and healthcare IT Growth Equity practice and managed the medical device growth equity portfolio and practice. I served on the Boards of Millennium Pharmacy Systems (sold to Pharmerica), BreatheAmerica, and Influence Health (sold to Healthgrades). I also served on the board of ATS Medical, a leading developer and manufacturer of products and services focused on cardiac surgery, which sold to Medtronic. Prior to Essex Woodlands, I was a senior engagement manager at McKinsey, where I advised pharmaceutical, diagnostic and device companies in product commercialization and M&A.

Tamara is a member of Kauffman Fellows Class 13 and served her fellowship under mentor Immanuel Thangaraj at Essex Woodlands. For her fellowship research project, Tamara interviewed 25 LPs about the venture capital asset class and what that meant for the future of the industry. The work was published in several journals including "Venture Capital Journal" and "Venture Capital Review", and the ""