AKASA's leadership
Our executives, board members, and advisors are industry experts in Silicon Valley engineering, healthcare, and beyond.
Malinka Walaliyadde
CEO, Co-founder, and Board Member
Malinka Walaliyadde
Prior to AKASA, Walaliyadde was a partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a $16.5B venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. While there, he helped start and build their healthcare investment team, which focused on investments at the intersection of software and healthcare. He worked on almost 20 investments totaling over $250M in deal value. Walaliyadde previously worked at Corning Life Sciences, Counsyl, and on the healthcare team at Deloitte. He has previously been named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list and holds a bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering, graduating cum laude with honors from Cornell University.
Varun Ganapathi, Ph.D.
Chief Technology Officer, Co-founder, and Board Member
Varun Ganapathi, Ph.D.
Ganapathi has a bachelor’s in physics and an M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University. During his time at Stanford, he focused on machine learning and computer vision. His doctoral thesis was the basis of his first company, Numovis, which was acquired by Google. After his time at Google as a research scientist, Ganapathi went on to create Terminal.com, which was acquired by Udacity.
Ben Beadle-Ryby
SVP, Commercial, and Co-founder
Ben Beadle-Ryby
Beadle-Ryby has nearly 15 years of experience as a healthcare economist, specializing in technology and consulting solutions to address financial challenges for hospitals and health systems. Prior to AKASA, Beadle-Ryby was a partner at the Advisory Board Company and at Optum, leading revenue cycle consulting growth and delivery. During his career, he has worked with more than 200 provider organizations across the country, delivering long-term operational improvements. Beadle-Ryby has a degree in mathematical economics from Colorado College.
Andy Atwal
VP of Engineering and Co-founder
Andy Atwal
Prior to AKASA, Atwal served in senior product management and operations roles and was the founding software engineer at Counsyl, a health technology company that offers DNA screening for diseases that can impact women, men, and their children. He has a degree in computer science from UC Berkeley.
Ryan Roland
Chief Financial Officer
Ryan Roland
Roland has more than 20 years of experience in financial operations and management of high-tech companies. Prior to AKASA, he served as CFO at Honor Technology where he helped guide the company through $210M in equity financing, $300 million in debt financing, and four acquisitions, including Home Instead, creating a combined organization representing over $2 billion in home care services revenue. Prior to Honor, Roland was CEO of Teespring, a commerce platform for building brands, which sold more than $800M of products during his tenure there. He also held senior finance roles at Jive Software and SuccessFactors.
Phil Walsh
Chief Marketing Officer
Phil Walsh
Walsh has more than two decades of healthcare sales and marketing experience. Most recently, he worked at Cognizant, a Fortune 200 technology and services company, as the global head of field marketing, overseeing a team of 200+ marketers and reporting directly to Cognizant’s CMO. At Cognizant, Walsh led marketing efforts across multiple industries, with a primary focus on healthcare technology offerings, including directly overseeing all marketing efforts at TriZetto, a Cognizant company. Prior to Cognizant, he worked in medical device, pharmaceutical, and healthcare software in a variety of sales and marketing leadership roles. Walsh has a bachelor's degree from Clemson University and an MBA from Wingate University.
Amy Raymond
VP of Revenue Cycle Operations
Amy Raymond
Raymond maintains operational responsibility for the production and performance of the firm’s AI-driven automation platform. Across her 25-year career in revenue cycle, she has held several leadership, consulting, and implementation roles. Her industry experience includes tenures at national and regional health systems, as well as numerous care settings and specialties. Most recently, Raymond served as a senior leader in the revenue cycle technology vertical at Advisory Board. Her extensive professional expertise includes: end-to-end revenue cycle operations, process redesign/optimization, patient financial experience improvement, technology deployment/adoption, change management, and employee engagement. As a military spouse, Raymond is a passionate advocate for mil-spouse hiring and community support.
Catherine Afarian
VP of Corporate Communications
Catherine Afarian
Afarian has more than 20 years of experience in corporate communications and media relations, working for disruptive and innovative consumer internet companies, including Netflix, eBay, and 23andMe. She fell in love with healthcare when she joined 23andMe as their first PR person and has continued to work in the industry since most recently serving as head of global communications for Watson Health at IBM prior to joining AKASA. Her experience in media relations spans corporate, financial, consumer, technology, and health. Afarian also has deep expertise in helping organizations build executive communications and thought leadership programs, crisis communications, reputation management, as well as providing consumer and B2B sales support through media, including social media integration. She holds a journalism degree from California State University, Chico, and has previously been named to Business Insiders’ list of the 50 Best Public Relations People in Tech.
Our people have outstanding experience
Our investors
Andreessen Horowitz is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm with over $10B in assets under management.
BOND is a global technology investment firm that supports visionary founders throughout their entire life cycle of innovation and growth.
Costanoa Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm which invests in enterprise-focused seed and Series A technology companies.