Heather Walsh

Heather Walsh is currently the Executive Director, Head of New Business Opportunities of the Rx+ Business Accelerator at Astellas.  She leads the ideation and incubation activities, collaborating closely with colleagues across the company and with their VC partners and other external collaborators, as her team builds new businesses for Astellas.

Prior to this role, she was the Executive Director of the MedTech Accelerator program at mHUB where she was responsible for sourcing and evaluation, as well as program execution.

Heather joined Baxter in July 2017 where she led technical assessment teams for due diligence of new opportunities for mergers and acquisitions and venture investment. Heather was then appointed the Director of External Innovation where she led Baxter’s efforts to increase open innovation partnerships across universities, incubators/accelerators, medical centers, and other partners. She supported strategically aligned transformational innovation for all the global business units. She then served as a Director for Medical Operations responsible for the day-to-day operations of the medical affairs and clinical development function including grants programs, clinical contracting, and CRO management.

Prior to joining Baxter, Heather was the Assistant Director and Head of Business Development in the Technology Commercialization and Licensing group at the Polsky Center at the University of Chicago. She spent nine years developing, protecting, and licensing University-owned intellectual property

Heather completed a PhD in Neurobiology, Pharmacology & Cell Physiology from UChicago.