Rock Health has named pharma veteran Bill Evans as managing director, according to a blog post on the company’s website. He will attempt to fill the vacancy left by the founder of the venture fund, Halle Tecco, who officially left the organization earlier this year, and Malay Gandhi, who led Rock Health as its CEO and managing director, in November 2015.
Evans brings with him a background in physician-facing technology at Genentech, where he worked for 11 years. Evans served as head of Genentech’s Health Lab before he moved over to Roche Diagnostics as senior director for product management for diagnostics information solutions, according to his LinkedIn page.
Rock Health produced five cohorts of health IT startups with seed funding and a network of mentors to advise the entrepreneurs, with most of the classes based in San Francisco. It eventually dropped the incubator and added a venture fund to make seed stage and early stage investments in startups. It also began producing market research reports and hosting events.
A managing director who has spent a significant amount of time working for pharma companies could offer some interesting clues as to the direction of Rock Health. At a time when some accelerators are moving away from traditional accelerator models to focus on partnerships with healthcare organizations, Rock Health’s hire could reflect a move in that direction.
