University Hospitals names Melissa Cohen, MBA, Vice President of Venture Development and Investment

CLEVELAND -- University Hospitals has named Melissa Cohen, MBA, Vice President of Venture Development and Investment at UH Ventures, the health system’s innovation and commercialization arm. 

In the newly created leadership role, Cohen will oversee the design, operation and deployment of UH Ventures’ investment vehicles. Her responsibilities will include fund strategy and governance, investment and portfolio management, new venture formation, capital development and strategic partnerships with investors, health systems and other members of the innovation ecosystem. 

Cohen will also help manage UH Ventures’ relationships across the venture ecosystem, including venture capital firms, strategic investors, family offices, and co-investing health systems. She will work across the organization’s “inside-out” commercialization activities and “outside-in” startup partnerships, helping align investment strategy with intellectual property, co-development opportunities, and the system’s broader growth priorities. She will also work in close partnership with the University Hospitals finance leadership team, serving as a bridge between UH Ventures and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer to ensure investment activities, venture creation efforts, and portfolio strategy are aligned with the system’s long-term financial and strategic goals.

Cohen joins UH Ventures with experience spanning health-system venture capital, enterprise transformation, startup formation and early-stage investing. She most recently served as Chief Innovation and Transformation Officer at Centralus Health System (formerly Cayuga Health), where she led enterprise-wide clinical and administrative transformation, established a systemwide Transformation Management Office, helped develop the organization’s digital and AI strategy, and created new lines of business through internal ventures and external partnerships. Prior to that, she built and led Endeavor Health’s (formerly NorthShore–Edward-Elmhurst Health) venture fund, originating and closing investments across digital health, software, medical devices, and healthcare services, while structuring strategic partnerships, joint ventures, and co-development agreements.

“Health systems have an exceptional vantage point from which to identify important problems, validate meaningful solutions and build companies with the potential to improve care at scale,” Cohen said. “I’m excited to bring my perspective as an investor, operator and entrepreneur to UH Ventures, and to help translate the insight and capabilities inside University Hospitals into durable ventures, partnerships and investment returns.” 

Cohen’s appointment comes as UH Ventures continues to develop new approaches for investing in external companies, commercializing innovations created within the health system, and forming businesses around institutional capabilities and unmet clinical and operational needs. The organization develops new business models, products, solutions and companies intended to benefit patients and consumers while creating diversified revenue for the health system.

“Melissa understands venture development from both sides of the table,” said Kipum Lee, PhD, President of UH Ventures. “She has deployed capital, built a health-system venture portfolio, started a company, and led transformation inside a care delivery organization. That combination gives her the practical judgment to connect investment discipline with the real needs of clinicians, operators, entrepreneurs, and strategic partners.” 

In addition to her investing and operating background, Cohen is a visiting lecturer at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. Her academic work includes venture investing, entrepreneurship, and the commercialization of companies in areas such as life sciences, medical technology, diagnostics, hardware, and other “tough-tech” sectors whose business models extend beyond traditional software. She has also served as an instructor and mentor in Cornell entrepreneurship programs. 

“Melissa brings the rare combination of investment expertise, operating experience, and enterprise perspective that this role requires,” said David Sylvan, MBA, Chief Strategy, Innovation & Marketing Officer at University Hospitals. “Her leadership will strengthen our ability to form and finance new ventures, build high-value external partnerships, and turn innovation into sustainable strategic and financial value for University Hospitals and the communities we serve.”

Cohen holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in finance and healthcare management and a bachelor’s degree in psychology, with a focus on neuroscience and molecular genetics, from Loyola University Chicago.