While pursuing her PhD in Immunology at the University of Chicago, Risa traded derivatives on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. After reading The Billion Dollar Molecule, she decided she wanted to build companies. She began investing in life sciences businesses and technology as a Kauffman Fellow, at JP Morgan Partners. Risa longed to get closer to the cutting edge science, so she joined Kleiner Perkins. At Kleiner Perkins, she realized her passion for building life sciences companies and has since created multiple incubation platforms. She built New Business Creation at GE Ventures, where she created standalone businesses from GE technology and started companies to address problems of GE customers.

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Risa has co-founded multiple companies, including global diagnostics pioneer Veracyte and electronic switchmaker Menlo Micro (where she remains an adviser). She’s served on boards of more than 10 early-stage businesses. When she’s not meeting with scientists or entrepreneurs, she loves attending workout “boot camps” in San Francisco and enjoys learning about military and European history through world travel.