Stephen K. Klasko MD MBA

Dr. Klasko is an author, an entrepreneur and a believer in the creative and optimistic transformation of healthcare and higher education. He has been a CEO, a university president, and a dean of two medical colleges.

Currently, he is pursuing his passion to bridge academic health centers with the emerging world of digital medicine and innovation. His most recent book, Feelin’ Alright: How the Message in the Music Can Make Healthcare Healthier, uses music and creativity to tackle the biggest issues in healthcare and calls on leaders to find, as Sia wrote in her song, the “courage to change.” His fifth book (with Hemant Taneja of General Catalyst) in 2020, UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance, has become the manual for both founders and health system CEOs for merging the venture capital world with the traditional healthcare ecosystem.

Dr. Klasko serves as an Executive in Residence at General Catalyst, North American ambassador for Sheba Medical Center in Israel, and as CMO and Operating Partner of Abundant Partners. He serves as the lead independent director for Teleflex (TFX:NYSE). In 2022, President Biden appointed him to the National Board of Education Sciences.

Until 2021, he was President and CEO of Thomas Jefferson University & Jefferson Health in Philadelphia and architect of Jefferson Health’s record as the fastest-growing academic health system and the landmark merger of two universities bringing together design and academic health.

In 2018, he was tied for #2 among Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Influential Individuals,” was named Fast Company’s #21 “Most Creative People in Business,” and in multiple years has been named among Becker’s Hospital Review’s “100 Great Leaders in Healthcare.” As a Distinguished Fellow of the World Economic Forum, he has spoken of the crisis in health disparities and the need for ethical standards in the digital revolution and is currently a leader in the Forum’s global impact on aging.