Jeanne Cunicelli, president, UPMC Enterprises, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2025 Powerlist.
Jeanne Cunicelli has been president of UPMC Enterprises, the corporate venture capital and venture building arm of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre (UPMC), a US non-profit health enterprise, since 2021.
UPMC Enterprises invests in healthcare startups, in particular, those which improve the quality of provision and patient experience. It is intended to draw on the resources and institutional knowledge of UPMC and the university’s research, as well as finding external startups to be invested in and partnered with the non-profit.
Before joining UPMC she was a partner and managing director at a life sciences investment firm for 14 years.
Cunicelli joined the company in 2017 to lead its translational sciences area. Translational sciences aims to turn scientific discoveries into finished products, such as medical devices and medicines, through startup venture building. It takes research from the University of Pittsburgh and applies it to the clinical side of UPMC.
As president, Cunicelli also oversees other aspects of UPMC Enterprises’ activities, including the digital solutions area, which builds companies working in digital transformation for healthcare by working with investors and founders. Companies it has worked with include Abridge, which makes AI technology used to summarise medical conversations and produce clinical documentation from them, and Infectious Disease Connect, a telemedicine service provider for infectious disease treatment.
Cunicelli’s experience in healthcare venturing goes back further than her current role. Before joining UPMC, she was a partner and managing director at Bay City Capital, a life sciences investment firm, for 14 years.
As a CVC unit, UPMC Enterprises mainly invests in pharmaceuticals, healthcare IT and medical device startups. In March, it took part in the $150m series B round for Latigo Biotherapeutics, a US pharmaceutical startup making a non-opioid pain treatment. It also backed Percipio Health, a US startup that makes a population health-monitoring platform for asynchronous care, in a $20m series A round in January.
Beyond UPMC, Cunicelli is also a member of the board of trustees at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
The Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist represents the 100 individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.
These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.
