Don Holzworth: Impacting Global Health Through Entrepreneurship and Investment

Don Holzworth has a long and distinguished career in the healthcare industry, which has led him to become an important figure in the entrepreneurial community. Don was an entrepreneur from a young age, getting his start mowing lawns and tending to gardens. With his experience as a consultant and a mentor, he has played an active role in the Carolina Angel Network , investing in startups and helping them succeed.

While Don is not a 美国北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校 alumnus, he has become ingrained in the university culture over the years. After building a successful consulting business in the global health arena, he got to know faculty and administrators at the school of medicine and public health. He sold his business and was asked by the dean of UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health to come in as an entrepreneur resident, which he has been for 15 years. During that time, he mentored other individuals and was involved in search committees for deans and chancellors. He also invested in the PEG space and did two turnarounds, one of which is a spinout from UNC. His goal was to bring in VC money and spend it on health ventures locally.

Don’s passion for healthcare was sparked by his family background. His father was a physician, and his older brother was an ENT surgeon. Medical discussions around the dinner table were common, and he learned a lot from being around those conversations. While he never trained in the health field, he went to school for computer science and environmental science. He worked in consulting and collaborated with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) , where he worked with health agencies, government, and biopharma. He realized that the analytical skills he learned with computer science was crucial in medicine and that computer technology was rapidly developing, creating opportunities to drive decision making.

Despite his professional accomplishments, Don is not all work and no play. He plans on going into space in the near future with Virgin Galactic .

Don has been with CAN since the early days. Don has invested in eight or nine companies and was part of the screening committee for a short period. He likes to focus his investments and efforts in the health space but makes a few exceptions. If he knows and trusts someone, and they are excited about a venture, he will make an investment.

Don’s favorite thing about CAN is getting to know the people. He has become very good friends with Randy Myer and Jan Davis . He also enjoys the opportunity to look at some really interesting ideas and startups that he wouldn’t typically have access to.