Panel 1– What are Investors Watching? Health Policy and the Markets

Vicky B. Gregg serves as the Co-Founder and Partner of Guidon Partners, an investor and consultant for an array of privately held healthcare companies. From 2003 through 2012, Vicky was the CEO of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. She’d previously been President of BCBST as well as COO and CEO of Volunteer State Health Plan, the company’s Medicaid MCO. Vicky has served on several national boards including a term as the Chairman of America’s Health Insurance Plans. Before joining BCBS of Tennessee, she oversaw operations, strategic development and acquisitions at Humana. More recently, Vicky was Non-Executive Chair at TriZetto Corporation until its sale in 2014 to Cognizant. Vicky’s experience in health care—ranging from direct patient care to her long tenure as a chief executive—spans hospital administration, long-term care and health care benefits and financing.

Prior to joining Vistria, Elizabeth spent nearly two decades in the White House and Congress, specializing in health care policy and strategy. Most recently, Elizabeth served in the White House as a Special Assistant to the President in the Office of Legislative Affairs where she worked with her colleagues to successfully promote and pass The American Rescue Plan (ARP), The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), and The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Prior to the White House, she served as Chief Health Advisor to Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and the Senate Finance Committee where she oversaw the development and execution of key health care priorities within the Committee’s extensive health care jurisdiction of Medicare, Medicaid, and key components of the Affordable Care Act. In this role, Elizabeth was instrumental in developing the arguments and strategy used to successfully prevent repeal of the Affordable Care Act and spearheaded negotiations with the Committee Republicans on prescription drug pricing reform that later became the basis for policies passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. During her tenure on Capitol Hill, she also negotiated several other major health care bills including the repeal of the Sustainable Growth Rate, the longest CHIP extension since the program’s enactment, and chronic care reform, among others. Elizabeth is also a Senior Policy Fellow at Yale University’s Tobin Center for Economic Policy. Elizabeth received her B.A. from the University of Maryland and her M.A. in Government from Johns Hopkins University.

Colin is the head of bio and health policy at a16z. He liaises with government agencies and policymakers and helps portfolio companies navigate the regulatory landscape. Prior to joining Andreessen Horowitz, Colin was the Managing Director of Science and Innovation Policy at Mayo Clinic, leading federal engagement strategy for policies focused on artificial intelligence, emerging biotechnology, and next generation care delivery. Before Mayo, Colin spent two years as a policy advisor in the Commissioner’s Office at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, first as a policy advisor leading several agency-wide initiatives, and subsequently as the Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, while serving as a liaison between the FDA and White House Coronavirus Task Force and was a member of Operation Warp Speed. He also spent time as a policy and political advisor to the Director of Health Programs at the White House Office of Management and Budget and several years as a health policy advisor in the United States Senate, working for Senator Richard Burr (N.C.) and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.