Board of Directors

Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz

Co-Chair, Secretary of the Executive Office for Administration and Finance

Matthew Gorzkowicz is the Secretary of the Executive Office for Administration and Finance. He has more than 25 years’ experience in state finance and budgeting in the Commonwealth. He has served as the Associate Vice President for Administration and Finance at the University of Massachusetts President’s Office for more than a decade, where he has had a direct role in setting the University’s long-range administrative and financial goals and managed the development of an annual operating budget of $3.8 billion. Prior to UMass, Secretary Gorzkowicz worked in the Massachusetts Senate, the Department of Mental Health, the School Building Authority, and the Executive Office for Administration and Finance under Governor Deval Patrick, where he served as Assistant Secretary for Budget and then Undersecretary. He is a graduate of Northeastern University and lives in Winthrop, MA with his wife and two children.

Secretary Eric Paley

Co-Chair, Secretary of the Executive Office of Economic Development

Eric Paley is the Secretary of the Executive Office of Economic Development (EOED). He has worked to shape the innovation economy for more than 25 years as both a successful entrepreneur and a leading venture capitalist. As co-founder and Managing Partner of Founder Collective, Paley helped build one of the world’s highest-performing seed-stage venture capital funds, with an investment portfolio that included groundbreaking technology companies across diverse sectors such as transportation, media, healthcare, consumer, advanced manufacturing and enterprise software, including Uber, The Trade Desk, Omada Health, Cruise Automation, Whoop, Formlabs and Airtable. Before Founder Collective, Paley founded and led Brontes Technologies, a hard-tech startup that commercialized novel 3D imaging technology from MIT to enable advanced manufacturing in dentistry. Paley continued to lead the company after its acquisition by 3M in 2006. Paley holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and two children.

Christopher M. Coburn

Chief Innovation Officer, Mass General Brigham

Chris Coburn is Chief Innovation Officer, Mass General Brigham, an integrated health care system that includes Harvard University affiliates Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, and McLean Hospital. Mass General Brigham is the nation’s largest academic research enterprise with over $20 billion in annual revenue, 1.5 million patient visits and more than $2.9 billion in research expenditures. It also has a managed care organization, out-patient facilities and community hospitals. 7,000 of its faculty are appointed at Harvard Medical School.

A member of the senior leadership team, Coburn is responsible for the commercial application of the unique capabilities of MGB’s 82,000 employees. His 140 person business development group’s activities include strategic industry collaborations, company creation, investing, translational development, commercial strategy setting, licensing, and innovation management. His group also manages a nearly $500 million venture fund.

Prior to joining Mass General Brigham, Mr. Coburn was founding director of Cleveland Clinic Innovations. During his tenure, Cleveland Clinic spun off 57 companies that raised more than $700 million in equity financing. Previously he was Vice President at Battelle and served on the staff of Ohio Governor Richard Celeste.

Mr. Coburn serves on multiple boards. He and his wife Nancy have three grown children.

Valerie Fleishman

Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association

Valerie Fleishman is Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA), where she leads strategic initiatives, innovation advancement, and new business development, positioning the organization and its members at the forefront of healthcare transformation. In this role, she spearheads statewide programs to expand and support the healthcare workforce, and promote innovations in digital health, artificial intelligence, health equity, and new models of care.

Valerie is an accomplished healthcare executive with over two decades of leadership experience driving innovation, policy, and transformative change across the healthcare and life sciences ecosystem.

Prior to joining MHA, Valerie served as Executive Director of the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation (NEHI), a national nonprofit dedicated to advancing healthcare innovation and policy. She led the organization’s growth from a regional think tank into a trusted, national voice in health policy. Under her leadership, NEHI became a platform for cross-sector collaboration, convening coalitions of payers, providers, biopharma, medtech, patient groups, policymakers, and other leaders to tackle complex issues of patient safety, public health, healthcare spending, and health IT. Valerie oversaw the publication of more than 75 reports, issue briefs, and white papers, translating research into actionable policies that influenced legislation and industry practices.

Earlier in her career, Valerie held leadership roles in management and strategy consulting. At Scient Corporation, she was a director in the Health and Wellness Practice, driving digital health solutions. Previously, she worked at Arthur D. Little, where she developed business strategies for high-tech ventures and earned the firm’s Presidential Award. Valerie has also been honored with the Boston Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” award. She is deeply committed to community and civic service and serves on multiple boards.

Valerie holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Harvard University. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband and two children.

Thea James, MD, MPH, MBA

VP of Mission, Associate Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of the Health Equity Accelerator at Boston Medical Center Health System

Thea James, MD, MPH, MBA, is Vice President of Mission, Associate Chief Medical Officer, and Co-Founder of the Health Equity Accelerator at Boston Medical Center Health System. She is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and the Director of the Violence Intervention Advocacy Program at BMC Health System. Dr. James is a founding member of the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention (HAVI). In 2011, she was appointed to former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence.

As Vice President of Mission, Dr. James partners with caregivers throughout BMC Health System and coordinates the health system’s relationships and strategic alliances with a wide range of local, state, and national organizations and partners across sectors to meet the full spectrum of essentials that enable patients and communities to thrive. The intentionality is to foster a strategic ecosystem of innovation, transformation, community collaboration, and effective models of care rooted in equity, clinical excellence, and economic justice.

Dr. James served on the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine from 2009 to 2012, where she chaired the Licensing Committee. She is the 2008 awardee of the Boston Public Health Commission’s Mulligan Award for Public Service and a 2012 recipient of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Role Model Award. She received the Boston Business Journal Healthcare Hero Award in 2012 and 2015. She was the 2014 recipient of the Schwartz Center Compassionate Care Award. The Boston Chamber of Commerce awarded Dr. James the Pinnacle Award in 2015, which honors women in business and their professions. In 2020, Dr. James received the American College of Emergency Medicine Lifetime Achievement Award, and The History Project presented her with a History Maker Award. Dr. James also received the inaugural 2020 Thea James Social Emergency Medicine Award from the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Dr. James’s passion is in public health, both domestically and globally. She was a Supervising Medical Officer on the Boston Disaster Medical Assistance Team (MA-1 DMAT) under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She deployed to New York City after 9/11; to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005; to Bam, Iran, after the 2003 earthquake; and to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after the 2010 earthquake. Dr. James traveled to Haiti with MA-1 DMAT one day after the 2010 earthquake.

A graduate of Georgetown University School of Medicine, Dr. James trained in Emergency Medicine at Boston City Hospital, where she was chief resident.

Brian Johnson

President, Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC)

Brian Johnson was named president of the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC) in July 2018. An accomplished author, journalist, and media entrepreneur, Brian serves as the association’s second chief executive officer in its history, managing its day-to-day operations. Since its establishment in 1996, MassMEDIC has grown to more than 350 member companies – manufacturers and developers of medical products, suppliers, research institutions and academic health centers – representing nearly 40,000 employees across the Commonwealth. MassMEDIC has advanced public policy interests of the New England medical device sector on Capitol Hill, Beacon Hill, and before various federal agencies, ensuring that patients across the world have access to the most innovative healthcare technology. During his tenure at MassMEDIC, Brian has expanded membership, doubled the organizations budget and successfully worked with state officials to improve the Massachusetts life sciences ecosystem. In 2023, he was a key member of a small group, which won the headquarters of the newly formed federal healthcare agency ARPA-H.

In 2007, Brian conceived and later launched MassDevice.com, where he created and managed the strategic vision of the company, from inception through the summer of 2018, including leading the company through an acquisition in 2015 by WTWH Media.

As publisher, Brian brought MassDevice from 0 to 100,000+ readers each month and led the company to profitability in just 3 years. In 2011, Brian conceived and launched DeviceTalks, a live-interview series featuring leaders in medicine. The event, which is held three times annually in Boston, Minnesota and Orange County, California, has attracted thousands of medical device executives to date and featured leaders from some of the world’s largest medical technology companies. In 2015, Brian also founded and launched two additional magazines, Medical Design & Outsourcing and Drug Delivery Business News, bringing total readership under his supervision to over 1.5 million, before he left the company.

Under Brian’s direction, MassDevice and its associated properties were widely recognized for its commitment to quality journalism. The editorial boards of the New York Times, NPR, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post cited MassDevice’s coverage of issues pertaining to the medical device industry. In 2012, MassDevice won a prestigious Communicator award in 2012 for excellence with its live web video series “Disruptors.”

An experienced reporter and author, Brian has worked for The Associated Press, Boston Globe digital and The Eagle-Tribune newspaper, covering business and economics, local government and crime. In 2017, his critically acclaimed first novel “MWD: Hell is Coming Home” was released by Candlewick Press.

Brian resides in Brookline, Massachusetts with his wife and two children.

Marty Meehan

President, University of Massachusetts

Marty Meehan, the 27th president of the University of Massachusetts, is the first undergraduate alumnus to lead the system. He was named to the presidency after eight successful years as chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he propelled that institution forward by every important measure of higher education. During his tenure, UMass Lowell achieved record growth in enrollment, student retention and funding for research and scholarships. The campus underwent a stunning physical transformation with new academic buildings and residence halls, upgraded academic and research facilities, and enhanced student activity spaces.

While chancellor, he was honored by the Lura Smith Fund with the Living the Dream Award in 2015 for embracing the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through his faith and commitment to social justice. In 2014, he received the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) President of the Year Award at the organization’s 100th anniversary celebration and the Robert H. (Tex) McClain, Jr. Distinguished Public Administrator Award from the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Society of Public Administration. He received the Chief Executive Leadership Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) at the annual District I program in 2012.

A former congressman, President Meehan represented the 5th Congressional District of Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2007, where he served on the House Armed Services and Judiciary committees. Widely respected as a reformer, he established a national reputation for his legislative leadership in transforming campaign finance laws and protecting the public from the health risks of tobacco use. Previously, he served as Massachusetts’ deputy secretary of state for securities and corporations and he was the first assistant district attorney of Middlesex County.

President Meehan graduated cum laude from UMass Lowell in 1978 with a degree in education and political science. He earned a master’s degree in public administration from Suffolk University in 1981 and a Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School in 1986. He holds honorary degrees from Suffolk University, Green Mountain College in Vermont and Shenkar College of Engineering & Design in Israel.

Dana L. Mendenhall

Global Healthcare Strategist and Commercialization Leader Life Sciences Industry

Dana is a courageous, patient-centric, growth-obsessed executive with a distinguished track record of driving transformational impact across global pharmaceutical, biotech, and health-tech enterprises. A visionary strategist and operational architect, she has held high-impact leadership roles at Takeda, Baxter Healthcare, Becton Dickson, and Johnson & Johnson—consistently delivering double-digit revenue growth, executing global brand launches, and leading enterprise-wide transformations.

A proven turnaround leader, Dana excels at stabilizing businesses and revitalizing commercial models. Her diverse industry experience underscores her cross-functional fluidity, with increasing responsibility across marketing, sales, strategic planning, operations, manufacturing, and engineering. She is known for driving differentiated value, scalable growth, and market leadership through integrated strategic insight, technical expertise, and commercial execution. A visionary, servant-minded leader, she has built and scaled high-performance, diverse, and inclusive teams that deliver enterprise-wide impact.

Dana holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. A published author and keynote speaker, she inspires audiences to redefine “no” and turn challenges into opportunities. She serves on the boards of the Boston Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA) and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC), as well as the American Heart Association (AHA) Communications and Marketing Coordination Committee (CMCC) and proudly claims the title “world’s best auntie.”

Pam Randhawa

CEO and Founder, Empiriko

Pam Randhawa is Founder and CEO of Empiriko, an integrated precision medicine company focused on early disease detection, prognosis, prediction, and ongoing therapeutic monitoring.

Pam has 20 years of experience in the healthcare and life sciences industries with expertise ranging from policy, corporate strategy, product development, analytics and marketing for Fortune 500 companies, startups and government. Prior to founding Empiriko, Pam co-founded AgroGreen Biofuels, an alternative biofuels technology company from plant waste. The company’s patented synthetic liver technology (Biomimiks™) provides a platform for analyzing the liver’s metabolic reactions to drugs, food, and other chemical compounds – serving as a foundation for the company’s diagnostic device, Personalized Metabolic Fingerprint™ (PMF).

Previously, Pam served as VP of Strategic Development at Sermo, the largest Physician Online Community in the US, where she was responsible for identifying and developing new markets in the areas of clinical development, analytics and international expansion. Before joining Sermo, she served as VP of Global Marketing at Phase Forward (acquired by Oracle), a leader in Electronic Data Capture (EDC), management and drug safety for clinical trials, where she was responsible for the planning and execution of the company’s global marketing and product strategy. Previously, Pam was Director of Analytical Development at McKesson Corporation, where she effectively developed healthcare products that leveraged healthcare longitudinal data to assess the effectiveness of various therapies, disease severity, healthcare costs, and quality of care provided to healthcare plan members. She also served as an independent consultant to the State of Ohio, Department of Health, where she led a statewide task force focusing on the Health Status of Ohioans for the State Health Plan and developed a 5-point plan to improve public health in Ohio.

Ms. Randhawa holds a Bachelors Degree in economics from the University of Rajasthan, India, and received a Masters Degree from the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Julie Chen, PhD

Chancellor, UMass Lowell (Board designee for President Marty Meehan)

Dr. Julie Chen is the Chancellor for Research & Economic Development and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (www.uml.edu). As the Chief Research Officer, Dr. Chen also oversees industry partnerships, technology transfer, startups & innovation, core research facilities, centers & institutes, and economic development programs. She has fostered and supported many collaboration models including unique co-location partnerships with Raytheon and the Natick Soldier RDE Center (HEROES), and 3 NSF Industry-University centers in wind energy, biomanufacturing, and 3D Printing. With support from the Commonwealth (M2I2), UMass Lowell established the first center in the nation to integrate three Manufacturing USA institutes (AFFOA – smart textiles, NextFlex – flexible electronics, and ARM – robotics) under the Fabric Discovery Center (FDC) umbrella. The FDC, in cooperation with the University’s Medical Device incubator (M2D2) and Innovation Hub, will work with industry to create new technologies in areas such as wearable electronics, medical textiles, performance clothing, robotics & automation, physical therapy and rehabilitation.

Dr. Chen is also one of the co-PIs on a $3.5M NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant to help advance women faculty in STEM at UMass Lowell and was a leader of the University’s successful effort to be one of the first three institutions in the US to receive the AAAS SEA Change (STEM Equity Achievement) Award.
Dr. Chen served as the Program Director of the Materials Processing and Manufacturing and the Nanomanufacturing Programs in the Division of Design, Manufacture, and Industrial Innovation at the National Science Foundation from 2002-2004. Dr. Chen has also served as the 2010 Technical Program Chair for the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition and has served on editorial boards, advisory committees, and review panels for several journals and federal agencies, including NSF, NIH, the National Academies, DOE, ARL, and AFOSR.

Dr. Chen received her PhD, MS, and BS from MIT in Mechanical Engineering and recently was awarded an honorary degree from Queens University Belfast.

Bran Shim, MPA, CFA

Senior Advisor to the Massachusetts Secretary of Administration and Finance

Bran Shim serves as Senior Advisor to the Massachusetts Secretary of Administration and Finance (A&F). He assists the Secretary in driving strategic and sustainable investments in housing and economic development across the Commonwealth.

Bran brings over a decade of experience in public finance and budgeting. He currently sits on the boards of MassHousing, Massachusetts Housing Partnership, MassDevelopment, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, MassVentures, Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, and Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. He previously served as Assistant Secretary and Budget Director, working with the A&F team and over 150 state agencies to formulate and implement the Commonwealth’s $50+ billion operating budget through COVID-19 response and recovery.

Bran volunteers as a Human Services Commissioner and participatory budgeting delegate for the City of Cambridge, where he resides. He is a research affiliate of the Greater Boston Applied Field Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has also been elected by his peers to serve as Eastern Regional Director for the National Association of State Budget Officers, sharing best practices across the states and territories.

Bran has received the Governor Paul Cellucci Award for Leadership & Mentoring in State Government, the Governor Robert F. Bradford Fellowship for Excellence in Public Administration, and the John F. Kennedy Fellowship for exceptional academic ability and professional distinction.

Bran is a CFA® charterholder and holds an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School, an A.B. in statistics from Harvard College, and a diploma from the Juilliard School Pre-College Division, where he studied double bass performance.