Bob Kocher

Bob Kocher is a Partner at Venrock, where he focuses on health technology and healthcare services investments aimed at improving affordability, quality, and access across the U.S. healthcare system. He currently serves on the boards of Devoted Health, Virta Health, Aledade, Lyra Health, Need, Sitka, Accompany Health, and Premera Blue Cross, and is a board observer at SmithRx, Stride, Suki, and The Public Health Company. His investment work centers on value-based care, primary care transformation, digital health, and employer- and payer-enabled innovation.

In addition to his investing role, Kocher is deeply engaged in healthcare policy and academic work. He is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow and Advisory Board Member at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM). Through these roles, he frequently writes and speaks on healthcare delivery reform, payment innovation, and the intersection of public policy and private-sector innovation.

Earlier in his career, Kocher served in the Obama Administration as Special Assistant to the President for Healthcare and Economic Policy on the National Economic Council, where he played a key role in shaping federal healthcare reform efforts and advising on health system modernization. He also previously worked as a Partner at McKinsey & Company, advising healthcare organizations, payers, and life sciences companies on strategy, operations, and transformation.

Kocher earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington and his medical degree from George Washington University. He completed a research fellowship with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institutes of Health, followed by internal medicine residency training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. His combined experience as a physician, policymaker, strategist, and investor informs his ongoing work to redesign healthcare around patient-centered, value-driven models.