Dr. Vanier’s career in healthcare and innovation has spanned over two decades and includes successful roles as an investor, CEO, entrepreneur and physician.
Vance is a Founder and Managing Partner of Chicago Pacific Founders and shares with his partners a passion for pushing the envelope of possibility in healthcare services in a number of investment areas. He especially takes joy in helping make physicians successful in realizing their dreams to build their groups to a national scale , and is a founding member of CPF’s Investment Committee.
Prior to CPF, he was the President of Verinata Health (acquired by Illumina), which revolutionized women’s health by developing a non-invasive blood test that significantly replaced the need for CVS and amniocentesis in pregnant women. His responsibilities included scaling global revenue, marketing, health plan contracting and clinical affairs. His team drove rapid revenue growth and one of the fastest health plan coverage adoptions in the history of molecular diagnostics.
“I believe that the combination of operating backgrounds and healthcare specialization makes us uniquely impactful investment partners to entrepreneurs and physicians.“
He was CEO of Navigenics (acquired by LifeTech), and also served as its first Chief Medical Officer. While there, he raised three rounds of venture capital financing and brought on numerous strategic investors and distribution partners, including Procter & Gamble and Highmark.
Vance began his work in healthcare as an emergency medicine physician, first in county and then in academic medical settings, which he continues to this day. He began investing in the life sciences practice of Mohr Davidow Ventures, a $2B venture fund in molecular diagnostics and online health businesses. He was the recipient of the San Francisco Business Times “Top 40 Under 40” and the Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News “Young Guns of Biopharma” in 2012.
Vance holds a B.A. and B.S. from Stanford University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He earned his M.D. at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and served his Emergency Medical Residency at UCSF Highland Hospital.