Suzanne McLemore, managing partner and head of Echo Health Advisors at Echo Health Ventures, is one of our top 50 Emerging Leaders in corporate venturing for 2025.
Suzanne McLemore spent more than 10 years at IBM in the early part of her career, an experience that showed her how technology can help with efficiency, member communication and data.
She built on these tech themes during two years at healthcare company Cambia Health Solutions, where she was director of technology strategy and partnerships.
The transition to Echo Health Ventures in 2018 allowed McLemore to combine her experience from her partnership, strategy, healthcare and innovation roles. As managing partner and head of Echo Health Advisors at Echo Health Ventures, she focuses on strategic engagement and impact across the organisation’s stakeholders. “We bring people together to help understand where there is commonality and where there are differences that truly matter to innovation,” says McLemore.
“We bring people together to help understand where there is commonality and where there are differences that truly matter to innovation”
Her current investment focus areas include behavioural health and speciality care management, such as nephrology, oncology and gastroenterology. Echo is committed to helping patients remove barriers to care and navigate the system within health plans.
For McLemore, AI is pivotal, especially in how it can solve business problems and create efficiencies in data, infrastructure and workflow.
She emphasises that patience is necessary for those interested in breaking into the corporate VC world, especially in healthcare, which can often move slowly compared with the fast pace of venture.
You must have “empathy for how you can get innovation at a big company and be supportive, but also have the patience to listen and help make the right choices over time.”
The 24 team members at Echo Health Ventures focus on healthcare transformation that brings together both financial return and strategic impact – a dual mandate visible in its 32 portfolio companies. Most investments are series B or C, with cheque sizes between $5m and $15m.
See the full list of Emerging Leaders 2025 here.
