Jan Garfinkle

Jan founded Arboretum Ventures on the premise that innovation is key to delivering value in healthcare, a principle she developed working in the medical device industry for over two decades. Her investments focus on promising medical technologies that enable meaningful healthcare system savings while maintain great clinical outcomes. Jan has led and held board seats in more than a dozen investments across five funds including notable exits with HandyLab, Esperion (Nasdaq: ESPR), CardioMEMS, nVision, NxThera and NeuMoDx.

Prior to co-founding Arboretum, Jan spent 20 years in entrepreneurial healthcare companies. She was previously President & Founder of Strategic Marketing Consultants advising healthcare start-ups and major medical device companies. Jan also held key management roles in marketing, clinical research, and sales for two successful medical device start-ups, Advanced Cardiovascular Systems and Devices for Vascular Intervention. Each of these companies was acquired by Eli Lilly and became the foundation for Guidant Corporation. Earlier in her career, Jan was an engineer and product manager for Procter & Gamble.

Jan served on the National Venture Capital Association’s Board of Directors from 2015-2020 and in her last year, was the Board Chair. During her term as Chair, she prioritized VC industry diversity initiatives and was instrumental in driving small business access to CARES Act financial assistance programs early in the COVID pandemic. Jan was selected to the MichBusiness Women Leaders Hall of Fame (2020), as one of Crain’s Most Influential Women (2016), and as Crain’s Newsmaker of the Year (2015).

She earned a BS in Bioengineering from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.