OUR PEOPLE
Individuals with complementary skills have been recruited to form a solid, dynamic investment team.
Matt Hermann
Senior Managing Director
Ryan Schuler
Managing Director
Tara Butler, M.D.
Managing Director
Victor Kats
Managing Director
Jamie Wehrung
Senior Director,
Finance & Administration
John Kuelper
Managing Director
Brian Belsky
Investment Principal
Christopher Haynes
Investment Associate
Sean Murphy
Investment Associate
Dana Watt, PhD
Investment Associate
Matt Hermann
Senior Managing Director
Matt Hermann actively leads Ascension Venture's overall investing efforts. Matt has held board member or observer roles at several AV portfolio companies. Before joining AV in 2001, he served as vice president with Atlantic Medical, a New York-based venture capital management company focused on early- to mid-stage healthcare services and information technology investments. Prior to that, Matt served in financial management roles at two publicly traded healthcare companies, Nutrition 21, Inc. and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and worked at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York City. He holds a BS in Engineering from Tufts University, and an MBA in Finance from New York University, Leonard N. Stern Graduate School of Business. In his free time, Matt enjoys participating in sports like basketball and tennis, spending time with his family, and eating at restaurants with amazing food at reasonable prices.
Ryan Schuler
Managing Director
Ryan Schuler joined Ascension Ventures in 2002 and leads investments in the healthcare services sector. He has been a board member or observer for several Ascension Ventures portfolio companies, including Aethon, Bind, Comprehensive Pharmacy Services, Haven Behavioral, Impulse Monitoring, NaviHealth, SeQual Technologies, Solstas Lab Partners, SterilMed and The Ob Hospitalist Group. Previously, Ryan worked at A.G. Edwards in the mergers and acquisitions investment banking group and PricewaterhouseCoopers in the transaction support and audit practices. Ryan earned his MBA from Washington University and his BS from Christian Brothers University. Ryan enjoys spending time with his family and aims to find the wind that will one day carry his sails to tropical ports.
Tara Butler, M.D.
Managing Director
Tara Butler joined Ascension Ventures in 2002 She primarily focuses on investments in the medical device and diagnostics sector. Tara has been a board member or observer at several Ascension Ventures portfolio companies, including Apama Medical, Augmenix, Cardionomics, CHF Solutions, Confluent Surgical, CSA Medical, EBR Systems, HemoSphere, Imperative Care, Instylla, Interventional Spine, ISTO Technologies, Ivantis, MindFrame, Neurolutions, Novasys, Ocular Therapeutix (NASDQ:OCUL), OptiScan Biomedical, PathoGenetix, Renovia, Stereotaxis (NASD:STXS) and TomoTherapy (NASD:TOMO). Before joining AV she completed a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Washington University School of Medicine. Prior to that, Tara held positions in business development at Medtronic, in finance at Honeywell, as a laboratory research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She holds a BS in Economics and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
John Kuelper
Managing Director
John Kuelper joined Ascension Ventures in 2014 as a Kauffman Fellow. John is Founder and President of Qualia Holdings LLC, a platform for systems biology and therapeutic ventures. He has advised or worked for several investment firms (Adams Street Partners, Sterling Partners, Abundant Venture Partners), medical technology companies (Stereotaxis, Orpheden Therapeutics), and non-profits (The Kresge Foundation, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association). John began his career as a medical researcher studying computational neuroscience and medical robotics and has over fifteen years of experience as a commercial software developer. John earned JD and MBA degrees from the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and Kellogg School of Management where he graduated with honors and was elected Beta Gamma Sigma (top 10% of class). He earned a BA in cognitive neuroscience from Washington University in St. Louis, graduating magna cum laude. In 2014 he was elected to the Kauffman Fellows Society. In his spare time, John enjoys hiking and camping with his two dogs and listening to live music.
Victor Kats
Managing Director
Victor Kats joined Ascension Ventures in 2009 from Allscripts-Misys, a $3 billion healthcare information technology company, where he led corporate development, strategy and integration activities. Victor leads Ascension Ventures' investments in the healthcare information technology sector and brings an operating perspective across the acute care, ambulatory and post acute continuum. He is a Director of Cedar Gate Technologies, Quantros, VisitPay, and a Board Observer at Ingenious Med. He is past Director of Phreesia (IPO July 2019), Voalte (acquired by Hill-Rom), Vivify Health (acquired), GetWellNetwork (acquired by Pamplona Capital), and MedVentive (acquired by McKesson). Prior to his healthcare technology work at Allscripts and Misys, Victor served as Vice President at Lehman Brothers where he focused on mergers and acquisitions in the technology and telecom sectors. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is married with four children and enjoys playing golf, tennis and watching North Carolina basketball.
Jamie Wehrung
Senior Director, Finance & Administration
Jamie Wehrung joined Ascension Ventures in 2001 and brings several years of accounting and finance experience to her position at Ascension Ventures, including more than 20 years with Catholic healthcare systems. She joined Ascension Ventures after three years as a Senior Analyst in the financial planning group at Ascension Health. Prior to that, Jamie spent seven years in finance posts with Caritas Christi Healthcare System in Boston, including Director of Finance for the system and several subsidiaries. She began her career in the audit division of Deloitte & Touche LLP in Boston. A certified public accountant, she earned her BS in Accounting from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Jamie enjoys all things culinary, gardening and yoga.
Brian Belsky
Investment Principal
Brian Belsky joined Ascension Ventures in 2017 and primarily focuses on investments in the healthcare services sector. He has been a board member or observer at several Ascension Ventures portfolio companies, including Strive Health and Bind. Previously, Brian served as a strategic healthcare investor at NewYork-Presbyterian where he co-founded NYP Ventures and as an investment professional with Health Enterprise Partners, a New York-based growth equity firm focused on healthcare services and information technology. Brian began his career in investment banking, covering healthcare services and providers at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Moelis & Co. He holds a BA from Yale University, and an MBA from The Wharton School, where he received the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Merit Award.
Christopher Haynes
Investment Associate
Christopher Haynes joined Ascension Ventures in 2018 from New Holland Capital, a provider of hedge fund-of-funds investment management services to institutional pension clients. Prior to New Holland Capital, Chris was an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, focusing on investment banking and advisory services to financial sponsor clients. Chris earned his Master of Finance from Washington University in St. Louis and Bachelors of Arts in Economics from the University of Florida (UF). In his free time, Chris enjoys distance running and writing short stories.
Sean Murphy
Investment Associate
Sean joined Ascension Ventures in 2018 from Canaccord Genuity, a middle market investment bank where he worked within the Healthcare IT and Services group. Sean began his career as an investment analyst at Strategic Investment Group, an institutional asset management firm where he focused on hedge fund investments and macroeconomic research. Sean graduated from Vanderbilt University receiving a BS with a double major in Economics and Human and Organizational Development.
Dana Watt, PhD
Investment Associate
Dana Watt joined Ascension Ventures in 2018 from the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis. There, she assisted faculty members commercializing University-developed technologies, specializing in SBIR/STTR applications. She previously co-founded and served as CSO of Pro-Arc Diagnostics, a personalized medicine company operating in St. Louis. She received her PhD in Neurosciences from Washington University in St. Louis and her B.A. in Neurosciences and Biology from Carthage College.