AKASA 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.
Ben Beadle-Ryby
SVP of Commercial, Co-founder, and Board Member
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, Co-founder, and Board Member
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.
Varun Ganapathi, Ph.D.
Co-founder and Advisor
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.
Carolyn Satenberg-Stewart
Chief People Officer
Carolyn Satenberg-Stewart
Satenberg-Stewart has more than a decade of strategic HR and legal experience in early-stage tech companies. Prior to AKASA, she served as chief people officer (CPO) at Digit where she helped lead the organization through 3x growth and a successful acquisition. Prior to Digit, Satenberg-Stewart's first stop in tech was helping build out the people organization at Mixpanel, a data analytics startup, followed by leading the people organization at Eventbrite where she helped coordinate a successful acquisition and IPO. She started her career as a family law attorney in New York City and is passionate about high-performing cultures, people, and pizza. Satenberg-Stewart holds a bachelor's degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University and a JD from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
Cory Costley
Chief Product Officer
Cory Costley
Costley has led multiple teams to build products and businesses in the healthcare space. He cofounded Avizia, an enterprise telemedicine company that was acquired by Amwell. At Amwell he became SVP of hospital products, overseeing a multi-million dollar product portfolio comprised of enterprise software, devices, and services to more than 70 of the largest health systems. Costley started his career as a software engineer and spent time developing business frameworks at McKinsey and driving product development for Cisco. He is also an advisor for several investment firms and companies in the healthcare technology and solutions space. Costley holds a bachelor’s degree in management information systems from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
Amy Raymond
SVP of Revenue Cycle Operations and Deployments
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.
Zach Barrett
SVP of Operations and Finance
Zach Barrett
Barrett has spent his career in various strategy, operations, and finance leadership roles at early-stage technology companies. Most recently, he worked as an "operator-in-residence" at Juxtapose, a NYC-based venture fund, supporting the launch of new consumer tech businesses. Prior to that, Barrett led the finance, operations, and analytics functions at SaaS companies Updater and Splash. He started his career at Deloitte Consulting, in the healthcare strategy practice and subsequently as a member of the CEO's strategy office. Barrett holds a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Sanjay Siddhanti
SVP of Engineering
Sanjay Siddhanti
Siddhanti was one of the first engineers at AKASA and currently serves as senior vice president of engineering. He has a passion for working on software to help people have a better experience with healthcare. Prior to AKASA, Siddhanti worked as a full-stack software engineer at life science companies, focusing on data engineering, backend web services, and building tools for scientists. He has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and master’s in biomedical informatics from Stanford University.
Yunus Saatci, Ph.D.
Head of Science
Yunus Saatci, Ph.D.
Saatci has a decade of experience bridging the gap between advanced research concepts in machine learning and net product impact, across diverse industries ranging from quantitative finance to self-driving cars. Prior to AKASA, he led the applied reinforcement learning team at Uber AI and, most recently, was the technical lead for generative AI at Robinhood, where he focused on finetuning large language models for consumer-facing conversational agents. Saatci has a PhD in machine learning from the University of Cambridge.
Meredith Shoenig
Head of Deployment Customer Engagement
Meredith Shoenig
Shoenig serves as the head of the various deployment teams responsible for the health and happiness of AKASA customers, including customer engagement, RCO subject-matter experts, and solution architects. Her professional experience includes SaaS pre-sales and professional services, as well as end-to-end revenue cycle consulting and technology implementations. Prior to AKASA, Shoenig worked at the Advisory Board Company, leading engagements focused on process redesign, patient financial experience, and technology optimization for large hospital systems, academic health centers, and physician practices. Shoenig received her bachelor's degree in political science from George Washington University.
Rick Tillar
Head of Commercial Growth
Rick Tillar
Tillar has an extensive healthcare background across clinical, operational, and technology domains and has held leadership roles at Intermountain's Empiric Health, Pfizer Inc., the Advisory Board, and Galen Healthcare Solutions. Prior to AKASA, he was the chief revenue officer at Empiric Health, an Intermountain Ventures AI-powered clinical analytics and services company. Tillar holds a biology degree from Hampden-Sydney College and a master’s in neuropharmacology and toxicology from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and has been published in peer-reviewed journals.
Julie Yoo
General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz and Board Member
Julie Yoo
Yoo leads investments in healthcare technology at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Prior to joining a16z, she was the co-founder, chief product officer, and board director at Kyruus, a healthcare technology company that serves one in five U.S. healthcare providers.
Noah Knauf
General Partner at Bond and Board Member
Noah Knauf
At Bond, Knauf focuses on investments in high-growth technology companies, with a particular emphasis on healthcare, fintech, gaming, and frontier technology.
Toby Cosgrove, M.D.
Executive Advisor at Cleveland Clinic and Advisor
Toby Cosgrove, M.D.
Dr. Cosgrove is the former president and CEO of Cleveland Clinic and is currently an executive advisor for the health system. He is also an executive advisor to Google’s Strategic Advisory Board and sits on the board of AmWell and Hims&Hers. Dr. Cosgrove was a cardiac surgeon for nearly 30 years, performing 22,000 operations.
John Fox
President and CEO and Advisor
John Fox
John Fox retired in February 2022 as president and CEO of Beaumont Health, Michigan’s largest healthcare system with $4.5 billion in revenue. Mr. Fox came to Beaumont in 2015 from Emory Healthcare, where he served for 16 years as president and CEO for that $3.2 billion system. Prior to joining Emory Healthcare, Mr. Fox was executive vice president of Clarian Health (now rebranded IU Health), a large health system/academic medical center in Indianapolis. While there, he was responsible for one of the country’s largest health system-based health plan operations, with 365,000 members. Before that, he was vice president and CFO at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Mr. Fox began his career as an MBA/CPA at Coopers and Lybrand.
Senator Bill Frist, M.D.
Special Partner at Cressey & Company and Advisor
Senator Bill Frist, M.D.
Senator Frist is a nationally-acclaimed heart and lung transplant surgeon, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, founding partner of Frist Cressey Ventures, and special partner at the health service investment firm Cressey & Company. Consistently recognized among the most influential leaders in American healthcare, he currently serves on the boards of Teladoc Health, Accolade, Select Medical, SmileDirect Club, GSAH-N (NYSE), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Nature Conservancy (global).
Rebecca Harrington
Co-Founder and CEO at the Leadership Institute and Advisor
Rebecca Harrington
Harrington was responsible for the original 1992 planning and launch of the Leadership Institute, an organization for CEOs and senior executive teams at the most preeminent health systems in the country. She oversees strategy, product development, growth, and executive management of all operations. Prior to launching the Institute, she was vice president of operations for Diabetes Treatment Centers of America, assistant director of operations at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and special assistant to the executive director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. As a health tech startup mentor, board advisor, and investor, Harrington is passionate about supporting and advising founders who are creating the future of health care. She is currently a member of the Business Leadership Council of Wellesley College and a board member of the United Irish Cultural Center of San Francisco.
Zico Kolter
Associate Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and Advisor
Zico Kolter
Kolter is an associate professor in the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon University, and also serves as chief scientist of AI research for the Bosch Center for Artificial Intelligence. His work spans the intersection of machine learning and optimization, with a large focus on developing more robust and rigorous methods in deep learning. In addition, he has worked in a number of application areas, highlighted by work on sustainability and smart energy systems. He is a recipient of the DARPA Young Faculty Award, a Sloan Fellowship, and best paper awards at NeurIPS, ICML (honorable mention), IJCAI, KDD, and PESGM.
Jim Momtazee
Managing Partner at Patient Square Capital and Advisor
Jim Momtazee
Momtazee has 26 years of investment and acquisition experience, the vast majority of which was focused on the healthcare sector. Prior to Patient Square, he spent more than twenty-one years at KKR. He currently serves on the boards of Alladapt Immunotherapeutics, Apollo Therapeutics, BridgeBio Pharma, Enavate Sciences, Kriya Therapeutics, the Medical Device Manufacturers Association, and Roivant Sciences.
Frank Williams
Co-Founder at Evolent Health and Advisor
Frank Williams
The former chairman and CEO at Evolent Health, Williams currently serves on the Board of Directors. Prior to Evolent, he was chairman and CEO of the Advisory Board Company, president of MedAmerica OnCall, president of Vivra Orthopedics, and a consultant for Bain & Co. He also serves on the boards of Syapse, Foodsmart, Nayya, Helix, Trusted Health, and Peer Health Exchange.
Our 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.