Steven Elek, III
Partner-in-Charge - Healthcare Transaction Services
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Steven Elek, Partner, leads the Healthcare Practice in the Transaction Services Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. He is responsible for delivering a wide range of merger, acquisition, divestiture and corporate finance related services. Steve has over twenty-five years experience in a wide range of healthcare industry sectors that gives him a broad understanding of the interrelationships amongst the sectors. His sector experience includes health insurance/managed care, general acute-care hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, integrated delivery systems, long-term care, rehabilitation centers, home care, clinical laboratories, medical device manufacturers, and pharmaceutical companies.

Steve is an attorney and a Certified Public Accountant. He is a past President of the Association for Corporate Growth's Philadelphia Chapter and a past Chairman of its Board of Directors. He is a member of the HealthCare Financial Management Association, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Philadelphia Bar Association. Steve has been a frequent speaker and author on various acquisition, divestiture and financing topics.

Richard Foster
Managing Partner
Foster Health Partners, LLC

Richard Foster is the Managing Partner of Foster Health Partners, LLC. Prior to forming Foster Health Partners, Mr. Foster was, for 22 years, a senior partner and director of McKinsey & Company, where his most recent position was as Managing Director of McKinsey’s Private Equity practice. Mr. Foster joined the Firm in 1973, was elected Partner in 1977, and Senior Partner in 1982. Mr. Foster retired from McKinsey in 2004. Mr. Foster co-founded the Firm’s high technology practice in the late ‘70s, the chemicals practice in the early ‘80s, the healthcare practice in the late ‘80s, and the private equity practice in the 1990s. He also led McKinsey’s worldwide knowledge development from 1995 to 1998. Mr. Foster served over fifty leading global companies primarily in healthcare, electronics and chemicals. He devoted most of his time to the top management of one of the world’s largest healthcare companies where he was a lead external advisor from 1980 – 2003.

Mr. Foster has written two best selling business books: “Innovation: The Attacker’s Advantage” (1986) and “Creative Destruction” (2001), that focus on the relationships between technological change, innovation and capital formation and destruction. 

Mr. Foster is a member of the board and the Executive and Nominating Committees of Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, where he is Chairman of the Operations and Policy Committee, and a member of Executive, Compensation Nominating and Science and Technology Committees of the board. He is a member of the board and the Executive Committee of the W. M. Keck Foundation, where he is Chairman of the Medical Research Committee and a member of the Executive Committee. He is a member of the CEO Council of the New York Academy of Science. Mr. Foster also serves on the Advisory Board of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Mr. Foster is a member of the board of the Trust Company of the West, the Oakmont Corporation, a family office, Athenahealth, a private healthcare information company and Hawaii Biotech, an infectious and inflammatory disease company.

Mr. Foster is a member of the board of the Council of Foreign Relations where he is a member of the Nominating and Membership Committees of the board, as well as a member of the board of the Health, Science and Technology Committee. In 1999 – 2000, Mr. Foster led the Study Group on National Innovation and Economic Power which led to the publication of, Technological Innovation and Economic Performance (Steil, Victor, and Nelson, editors, Princeton University Press, 2001). Mr. Foster has been a frequent participant in the Highlands Forum (Department of Defense) and the St. Michael’s Forum (US Intelligence Science Board).