Karl Hess | PR Professional | Senior Advisor at Outcome Capital

Karl Hess is currently serving as interim President and Chief Executive Officer of Texas Health Aetna (“TH|A”), a joint venture of Texas Health Resources and Aetna, combining Texas Health's high-quality, local providers, and delivery systems with Aetna's health plan and care management expertise, analytical insights, and health information technology. Texas Health Aetna combines the strengths of traditional health care plans and health systems to create a truly integrated solution that is simple to navigate and puts the member's experience first. The local health plan is committed to providing access to affordable, high-quality health care services and delivering customized member experiences throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

Karl also serves as Managing Director of OnDigitalHealth Consulting, LLC, a specialized strategy consulting firm which he founded to serve the burgeoning and rapidly diversifying digital health industry, serving clients across the healthcare and life sciences spectrum, and as Senior Advisor to Outcome Capital, a specialized life sciences and technology investment banking group, providing middle-market growth companies in the technology, life sciences and healthcare markets with a value-added, client-centric approach to mergers & acquisitions, corporate finance and advisory services. Having interacted extensively with hundreds of digital health companies over the years, as well as with dozens of their healthcare and life sciences investors, customers and partners, Karl has become known as a leading subject matter expert on the topics of successful digital health business models, commercialization, investment and technologies. From pharmaceuticals to medical devices and software (SaMD), digital health tools and therapeutics and health optimization and population health management platform technologies to entire care delivery ecosystems, Karl has helped design, develop and commercialize dozens of innovative products and services across the healthcare and life sciences industries, representing hundreds of millions of dollars in incremental revenues and more than $20B in value-unlocking transactions.

Karl was formerly CEO of Kalico Partners, LLC, a technology-enabled provider and population health management organization (PHMO), and Chief Digital Health Officer of Collain Healthcare, a former subsidiary of LG CNS. Prior to Collain, Karl held the role of Vice President, Corporate Development at Welltok, Inc., an award-winning consumer activation solutions company that improves people’s total wellbeing. In one of his earliest digital health endeavors, Karl was a key member of the commercial team at Welldoc, Inc., helping to bring Welldoc’s BlueStar platform to market, one of the world’s first, and most successful, digital therapeutics. Earlier in his career, Karl worked for several start-up and Fortune 500 molecular diagnostics, biopharmaceutical, medical technology companies and consulting firms including Genentech, Becton Dickinson and PRTM, principally across product development and management, and market, business and corporate development, licensing and M&A.

Over the years Karl has had the opportunity to participate in two successful exits as an entrepreneur and work on and lead projects for 9 of the Top 20 pharmaceutical companies, 11 of the Top 20 medical device firms and 4 of the Top 25 PE firms, and has had global management responsibilities of leading extended teams of up to 500 and greater than $300MM P&L.

Karl began his career as a life sciences researcher, conducting pre-clinical cancer and human genetics research at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and biotechnology R&D for what are now several subsidiaries of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.

Karl received a B.A. in Biology and an M.B.A. both from The University of Texas at Austin.