StartUp Health has hired a COO from the military to help manage its network of healthcare startups, investors and partner companies and organizations, which spans 20 countries, as well as its future plans to expand into new markets.
Eric Waldo has served in the Air Force as a Chief Wing Executive Officer and a nuclear command and control center manager in the US Air Force. Most recently, he worked on special programs for PlanetRisk, a company contracted through the Pentagon.
In an interviewwith StartUp Health Media Director Logan Plaster, Waldo described his former role working for the Pentagon for the office of the Secretary of Defense for force readiness.
I was leading a team to analyze the military readiness for our country. By this I mean, how prepared we are to go to war and fight our adversaries. Are our troops prepared? Are they trained? Do we have the correct equipment in place?
The military commanders would input operational data into [a large database] every month and we would analyze that data for over a million people in the military. We would produce a report for congress every quarter, about 300 pages, assessing our military readiness.
Eric Waldo, StartUp Health COO
StartUp Health cofounder Steve Krein said the group sought operational expertise and experience putting in place systems and processes to grow and scale, according to a company news release.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“Eric is the perfect fit for our organization as we continue to expand globally,” Krein said.
There has been plenty of convergence between the C-Suite and the military in the past. Alex Gorsky had served as a captain for 6 years before he joined Johnson. General Electric and Verizon have also been led by ex-servicemen.
Earlier this year StartUp Health received investment from the investment arm of Chinese insurance business Ping An and previously added German software giant SAP as a collaboration partner. There is also a StartUp program based in Finland.
Photo: cnythzl, Getty Images
