Rowan is a co-founder of Initiate. She also sits on the boards of Evidation Health and Natera (NTRA). Prior to Initiate, Rowan was Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, CA where she led the team responsible for investing in and partnering with the entrepreneurial ecosystem across the J&J Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Consumer sectors and the Lung Cancer and World Without Disease Initiatives.
Prior to J&J Rowan served as Head of Healthcare Investing at GE Ventures. There she led the team responsible for the investment portfolio with a particular focus on digital health, data analytics and precision medicine. During that time she led the creation of three healthcare “NewCos,” including Evidation Health and Vineti. Rowan also served as Head of Precision Diagnostics at GE Healthcare, where she was responsible for strategy development to integrate lab services, products, data, informatics, software, and content.
Before GE, Rowan spent 11 years as a partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, where she drove development of the life science investment strategy and practice area. Rowan invested and held board roles in a spectrum of companies, such as Adamas (IPO: ADMS), Balance Therapeutics, HealthTap, Pacific Biosciences (IPO: PACB), ParAllele (Aq: AFFX), Personalis (IPO: PSNL), Sequenta (Aq: ADPT) and Verinata (Aq: ILMN).
Rowan was an early employee at Rosetta Inpharmatics (IPO then Aq: MRK) and at Incyte Genomics (INCY). She holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Cambridge University, U.K. and was a postdoctoral fellow at UCSF. She has multiple publications and is a recipient of a variety of awards and fellowships.