OUR PEOPLE
Individuals with complementary skills have been recruited to form a solid, dynamic investment team.
Ryan Schuler
Senior Managing Director
Tara Butler, M.D.
Senior Managing Director
Jamie Wehrung
Chief Administrative Officer
John Kuelper
Senior Managing Director
Brian Belsky
Investment Director
Guneesh Batra
Senior Investment Associate
Ryan Schuler
Senior 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.
Senior 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
Senior 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.
Jamie Wehrung
Chief Administrative Officer
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 Director
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.
Guneesh Batra
Senior Investment Associate
Guneesh Batra joined Ascension Ventures in 2020 from Brown Gibbons Lang & Company, where he provided M&A advisory services to companies in the medical device & diagnostics and healthcare services sectors. Before that, he worked as an independent consultant on behalf of companies making strategic acquisitions in the medical device sector and provided financial advisory services to healthcare companies in the medical device, healthcare IT, and healthcare services sectors as an Investment Banking Associate at JMP Securities and Synergy Advisors. He earned his Master of Science in Finance from Washington University in St. Louis and a Bachelor of Arts in Quantitative Economics from the University of California, Irvine.