Michael Walsh

Michael Walsh spent his corporate career at the intersection of finance and medical science, helping fund early-stage biotechnology firms and investing on behalf of institutional and private investors in the biomedical technology sector. He is now focused on using his skills and energy to help build nonprofit organizations that can have a major impact on people’s lives worldwide.

In 1994, Michael founded Kilkenny Capital Management (KCM) with Bessemer Venture Partners. Over the next twenty years, KCM raised nearly $500 million to invest in publicly traded medical technology companies using an innovative probability-based investment strategy. Before becoming an investment manager, he was a Senior Biotechnology Research Analyst with Robertson, Stephens & Company, where he was instrumental in raising capital for emerging biotechnology companies. Before that, he worked as a Financial Analyst in the Corporate Finance Department of Drexel Burnham Lambert. Other professional roles in his career have included Angel Investing in the Chicago start-up community through HBS Angels and helping found a specialized medical marijuana dispensary.

Michael has also been actively involved in many non-profit organizations during his career, focusing on the intersection of the education and public health fields. He is currently the Board Treasurer of both ParenTeach Institute, which develops integrated parenting education curricula, and Fortify Foods, which advocates for alleviating iron deficiency anemia in Africa through nutrition supplementation strategies. Previously, he served as President of the Harvard Business School Club of Chicago, Board Treasurer of the Chicago Center for Music Education, member of the Health Policy and Management Executive Council at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Chairman of the Grants Committee for Friends of Prentice Hospital.

Michael received his bachelor’s degree cum laude in Biochemistry from Harvard College and his MBA, with distinction, from Harvard Business School. He lives in Chicago with his wife, Elizabeth, where they raised their two wonderful twenty-something-aged children.