Women in Biohealth Presents: Runway, Risk, & Resilience

Finance Choices That Shape Biotech

In today’s volatile biohealth landscape, financial decisions don’t just impact balance sheets—they shape teams, technologies, and long-term resilience.

Join us for an evening conversation that pulls back the curtain on how biotech and biohealth companies evaluate risk, secure investment, and make the difficult decisions required to sustain growth. This event brings together perspectives from both the investment side and the operator side of the industry, offering a rare, candid look at how funding and financial strategy influence every stage of a company’s lifecycle.

The evening will feature short, focused presentations followed by a moderated fireside chat and audience discussion.

What You’ll Learn

How venture capital firms evaluate biohealth companies and investment readiness
What investors look for in early-stage vs. scaling companies
How companies decide when to grow, pause, pivot, or right-size
Financial decision-making during periods of uncertainty, including layoffs or product exits
Leadership insights from the C-suite, including navigating these decisions as a woman leader in biohealth

Featured Speakers

Jenni Le
Venture Associate, Venture Investors
Jenni will share the investor perspective—how venture capital firms assess companies, manage risk, and decide where to deploy capital in the biohealth space, from startups through later-stage growth.
Bio- Jenni joined Venture Investors as an Associate in January 2022. Prior to joining Venture Investors, Jenni served as the Managing Director for gener8tor Madison, a nationally ranked startup accelerator. She was also the Director for gBETA Madison, a pre-seed accelerator that focused on growing startups with ties to Madison, Wisconsin. She is also a former fellow for Bascom Ventures. Before her pivot into venture capital, Jenni began as a policy and research analyst for the Illinois and Wisconsin state governments, where she did extensive research on policy issues and translated scientific research related for policy makers. She also worked as a science writer for a conservation non-profit dedicated to supporting voluntary conservation on private working land through ethics, science, and incentives.

Alison Hess
Vice President of Finance, NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes
Alison will provide an inside look at how companies make real-world financial decisions, including hiring and workforce changes, exiting product lines, and balancing financial discipline with long-term strategy—drawing from her experience as a senior finance leader in biohealth.
Bio- Alison Hess is the Vice President of Finance at NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, where she combines rigorous financial leadership with a commitment to advancing patient care. She oversees the company’s financial reporting, budgeting, capital allocation, investor relations, and risk management, ensuring NorthStar is positioned for long term, sustainable growth. Alison brings more than 20 years of broad cross functional experience from the automotive manufacturing and distribution sectors, where she held leadership roles spanning finance, product management, corporate tax, operations, IT, and capital management.

Event Format

5:30–6:00 p.m. | Networking & Arrival
6:00–6:30 p.m. | Speaker Presentations
- 15 minutes per speaker
6:30 p.m. | Fireside Chat & Audience Discussion

Who Should Attend

This event is ideal for:

Biohealth and biotech founders
Startup and growth-stage executives
Finance, operations, and strategy leaders
Investors and ecosystem partners
Anyone navigating funding, growth, or difficult financial decisions in biohealth