Bob Crutchfield is the managing director of the BrightEdge Venture Fund. BrightEdge is the American Cancer Society’s strategic venture philanthropy platform, targeting investments in advanced therapies to treat, detect, and prevent all types of cancer. Prior to the BrightEdge Fund, Bob was a Sr. Partner at Harbert Growth Partners where he led the healthcare practice. While there, he served as a board member or board observer on Shipt – acquired by Target in 2017, Wellcentive – acquired by Royal Philips in 2016, nContact – acquired by Atricure in 2014 and Novamin – acquired by GSK in 2009.
BrightEdge has made four investments to date. Great Point Ventures – an institutional venture capital fund, Castle Biosciences – a provider of a diagnostic test for uveal and cutaneous melanoma that also identifies patients with the highest risk for metastasis, Freenome – a blood-based, multi-analyte screening test for colorectal cancer, Navigating Cancer – a healthcare IT company focused on helping cancer patients remain compliant and adherent to their oncology treatment programs and Tmunity – a CART-T immuno-oncology company. He served as a board observer to Castle Biosciences prior to their NASDAQ listing in July, and currently services as a board observer for Freenome, Navigating Cancer and Tmunity.
He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Georgia Research Alliance, the boards of South East Life Sciences, the Southern Capital Forum, the Atlanta Global Center for Medical Innovation and HealthSouth Connect.
Most recently, he was the executive director of Innovate Birmingham, an 18-month initiative in which he led a team to assess, evaluate and recommend to Birmingham’s economic development organizations strategies for accelerating the growth of that market’s technology-based economy. During this time, he also served as an operating advisor to Harbert Growth Partners, after stepping down as the senior partner and healthcare practice leader in 2017. Prior to Harbert he was vice president/general manager of the Pharmacy Services Division at US Oncology, a privately held, vertically integrated cancer care provider network, that sold to McKesson in 2010. Prior to US Oncology, he was a senior executive at Cardinal Health where he served as vice president/general manager of New Ventures. Prior to Cardinal he was the founder and CEO of Surgical Innovations & Services, Inc. (SIS).
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Bob is a graduate of the University of Georgia and holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Political Science and Chemistry.