Professional Position: Founder
Company: Zipprich Ventures LLC
Location: New York, NY

Bernie Zipprich brings 15 years of experience in healthcare innovation, strategy, and operations to the Board of Trustees. Over the past decade, he has played key roles in helping to create, launch or scale over half a dozen digital health startups spanning diverse areas of specialty care including Alzheimer’s (Together Senior Health), Endocrinology (Calibrate), Audiology (Jabber), Gerontology (DUOS, Peppermint), and Migraine (Vega), plus Big Data/AI (Welltok). Across these companies, Bernie served as a founder, advisor, and senior operator in functional areas including corporate development, strategic finance, product management, product marketing, business development, strategic planning, and more. His contributions helped these companies collectively raise over $300M in venture capital and helped two (so far) exit. Prior to his entrepreneurial pursuits, Bernie was an associate in the Health and Life Sciences practice of Oliver Wyman where he focused on industry transformation and value-based care. 

In addition to his executive experience, Bernie is also a thought leader on topics of healthcare innovation and healthy community development. From 2019-2022 he regularly lectured on new venture creation and mentored students in the MBA healthcare entrepreneurship class at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His writing has been published in multiple publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Daily News and STAT News. 

Beyond his professional background, Bernie also brings experience as an ALS patient to the Board of Trustees. In 2020, at the age of 32, Bernie was diagnosed with a slow progressing, sporadic case. As an ALS advocate, Bernie is particularly passionate about increasing research into the heterogeneous nature of ALS to accelerate drug development and improving the quality of care that patients receive. His other advocacy work includes serving as a NEALS research ambassador and an advisor to Synapticure, a startup bringing virtual care to ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases. 

Bernie received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, where he graduated with a cum lade distinction in economics, and he holds an MBA in healthcare management from Wharton, where he was a Kaiser Scholar.  He lives in New York, NY with his wife and young son.