Joan Koerber-Walker

Joan Koerber-Walker

Managing Member White Hat Health Ventures LLC

Trustee, AZAdvances

President & CEO, Arizona Bioindustry Association

Chairman, Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation

Together with the White Hat Health Ventures team, Joan Koerber-Walker works to ensure that the best opportunities to deliver life-saving and life-changing innovations get to market so that they benefit patients and also benefit the investors who support them along the path from discovery to development to delivery.

She also serves as a  founding Trustee for AZAdvances.  The mission of AZAdvances™ is to provide entrepreneurial education and support, including grants and mission related investments into Arizona life science companies, that help to advance life changing and life saving products and services along the path from discovery to development to delivery.

As President and CEO of AZBio, Joan Koerber-Walker works on behalf of the Arizona Bioscience and Medical Technology Industry to support the growth of the industry, its members and our community on the local and national level. Ms. Koerber-Walker is also a life science investor and has served on the boards of numerous for-profit and non-profit organizations.

Arizona Bioindustry Association (AZBio) supports life science innovation and life science innovators in Arizona. A key component in Arizona’s life science ecosystem, AZBio is the only statewide organization exclusively focused on Arizona’s bioscience industry. AZBio membership includes patient advocacy organizations, life science innovators, educators, healthcare partners and leading business organizations. AZBio is the statewide affiliate of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and works in partnership with AdvaMed, MDMA, and PhRMA to advance innovation and to ensure that the value delivered from life-changing and life-saving innovation benefits people in Arizona and around the world.

Active in the entrepreneurial and investment communities, she also serves as Chairman of the Board of the Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation which provides entrepreneurial education, mentoring and support to at-risk members of the community, on the Board of Advisors to CellTrust, Inc. which provides secure communication technology to the healthcare industry, and as Chairman of CorePurpose, Inc. which she founded in 2002.

Ms. Koerber-Walker has been recognized as a “Most Admired Leader” by the Phoenix Business Journal (2015),  in the pages of AZBusiness Leaders (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020), Most Influential Women in Arizona Business (2014) and is a 2 time National Finalist for the Stevie Award which recognizes the work of women in business.

Her past experience includes two years as the CEO of ASBA (the Arizona Small Business Association), service as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Small Business Association in Washington D.C., President of the National Speakers Association/Arizona, Chair of the Board of Advisors to Parenting Arizona, the state’s largest child abuse prevention organization, as a member of the Executive Committee of the Industry Advisory Board for the Thomas and Joan Read Center at Texas A&M University, on the Board of Directors of the Arizona Technology Council, as Treasurer and Board Member for Ribomed Biotechnologies, Inc. in San Diego, California and as an executive at Avnet, Inc, where, for over a 20 year, span she held a wide variety of roles in sales, marketing, technology, supply chain management, and global administration.

Past or Current Service in the Community:

  • Current
    • AZBio, Board of Directors| President & CEO
    • AZAdvances | Trustee
    • Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation (OTEF)| Chairman
    • State Medical Technology Alliance (SMTA)
    • Council of State Bioscience Associations (CSBA)
    • Coalition of State Bioscience Institutes (CSBI)
  • Past
    • State Medical Technology Alliance (SMTA) | Chair (2014-2015)
    • Arizona Technology Council |  Board of Directors
    • Parenting Arizona |  Advisory Board Chair
    • Dean’s Board of Excellence, Arizona State University | Vice Chair
    • ASU Women in Philanthropy | Charter Member
    • W.P. Carey Executive MBA Advisory Board
    • National Speakers Association – Arizona |  President
    • Thomas and Joan Read Center for Industrial Distribution (Texas A&M), Advisory Board | Executive Committee

Contact Joan