Heather Walsh

Heather Walsh is the Head of New Business Opportunities of the Rx+ Business Accelerator at Astellas. She leads ideation and incubation activities, collaborating closely with colleagues across the company and with their VC partners to build 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 ultimately led Baxter’s efforts to increase open innovation partnerships across universities, incubators/accelerators, medical centers, and other partners as the Director of External Innovation. 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.