Pioneering Founders on Digital Health's Next Frontier

Dr. Ajayi, board certified in family medicine, is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cityblock Health, the first tech-driven provider for communities with complex health and social needs–bringing better care to neighborhoods where it’s needed most. Cityblock’s model of care meets individuals where they are, delivering highly personalized primary care, behavioral health care, and social services to its members, with a focus on those who access Medicaid, are dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare, and others living in lower-income neighborhoods. Prior to Cityblock, Dr. Ajayi served as Chief Medical Officer of Commonwealth Care Alliance, a nationally renowned integrated health plan and care delivery system for individuals eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. In this role, she led clinical operations, spearheaded care delivery innovations, and oversaw multi-disciplinary teams of clinicians, community health workers and administrators. Dr. Ajayi received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and her medical degree, with Distinction in Clinical Practice, from King’s College London School of Medicine. She completed her residency training at Boston Medical Center and continues to practice primary care focused on patients with chronic, complex and end-of-life needs.

Anne co-founded 23andMe in 2006, three years after the first human genome was sequenced. Her goal was audacious: to help people access, understand, and benefit from the human genome and fundamentally change healthcare in the process. Prior to founding 23andMe, Anne spent a decade on Wall Street investing in healthcare and felt frustrated by a system built around monetizing illness instead of incentivizing prevention. She wanted to flip that model on its head and build a business that helps people prevent illness rather than profit from it. Anne focused on empowering people with direct access to genetic information so that they could use their data to make decisions that could lower their risks for disease. Under her leadership, 23andMe now provides the only personal genetic test with FDA authorization to deliver health information directly to consumers.From the beginning, Anne's goal and 23andMe’s mission has not wavered. Along with empowering consumers with health information, Anne wanted 23andMe to transform how research discoveries are made and revolutionize the development of treatments for disease. By inviting people to participate in research, 23andMe is able to crowdsource billions of data points resulting in the world’s largest resource for genetic research. This novel, web-based approach has already resulted in thousands of new genetic insights and allows 23andMe to rapidly recruit participants to multiple studies at once, reducing the time and resources needed to make discoveries and is integral to 23andMe’s mission of understanding and benefiting from the human genome This new approach to research also powers 23andMe’s therapeutics group, which is helping to translate this knowledge into new treatments for serious unmet medical needs. In line with this, 23andMe is now also using its unique model to speed recruitment for clinical trials.Anne is a pioneer in the direct-to-consumer DNA testing space and her vision and persistence have allowed 23andMe to provide people with unprecedented access to genetic information. Through its research platform, 23andMe has brought personalized medicine directly to millions of consumers.Anne graduated from Yale University with a BS in Biology.

Deena Shakir is a Partner at Lux Capital, where she invests in transformative technologies improving lives and livelihoods. Her investments span stages and sectors, and include women's health (Maven Clinic, Alife, Gameto, Adyn), digital health infrastructure (SteadyMD, H1, AllStripes, Everly Health), health equity (Waymark, Galileo, Miga), foodtech (Shiru), and fintech (Mos, Ramp, Neo.tax). Above all, she seeks out extraordinary, mission-driven founders. Prior to Lux, Deena was a Partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures), led product partnerships at Google for health, search, and AI/ML, and directed social impact investments at Google.org. Deena also served as a Presidential Management Fellow at The U.S. Department of State under Secretary Clinton, where she helped launch President Obama’s first Global Entrepreneurship Summit.  Deena self-funded her undergraduate degree at Harvard (Social Studies and Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations) and MA at Georgetown through a variety of merit scholarships and side hustles, including co-founding her first company while in college. She is currently a Lecturer in Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a Board Director for the National Venture Capital Association, a member of Fortune's Most Powerful Women, Kauffman Fellows, Aspen Finance Fellows, The Council on Foreign Relations, and All Raise. Deena is a frequent speaker and commentator and has been featured in print and television on Bloomberg, CNBC and NBC, in print in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, Techcrunch, Marie Claire, STAT, and more, and has delivered keynote addresses at major industry conferences. She was named a "Top 30 Under 40 in Healthcare" by Business Insider, "Top Senior Women to Watch in Venture Capital" by the Wall Street Journal, and "Top 50 in Digital Health" by Rock Health. 

Kate Ryder is the founder and CEO of Maven, the largest virtual clinic for women's and family health. Maven's mission is to change the health of the world — one woman, one family at a time. Prior to founding Maven in 2014, Kate worked in venture capital and as a journalist, writing for the Economist from Southeast Asia, New York and London and for The New Yorker. In 2009, she worked with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, helping him write his memoirs about the financial crisis. Kate has been named to Fortune’s 40 under 40 and to Fast Company’s “Most Creative People” and has spoken on stage at industry events including the Forbes Healthcare Summit, Fortune Brainstorm Health, and the Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Summit. Kate received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her MSc from the London School of Economics. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and three children.