Bio

Ivo Nelson is an Executive Partner at HGP. He currently serves as Chairman and CEO of Next Wave Health, an investment firm that works with start-ups and early stage companies that need more than money. These companies need access to experience that only comes from people who have done it before. Next Wave has the people who have the experience, tools, IP and relationships that allow its portfolio companies to quickly move through the early business steps that cause most companies to fail. After a decade in the social services and construction industries, Ivo Nelson began his career in healthcare at Perot Systems and was an early proponent of clinical transformation. The idea that healthcare systems could use technology to improve patient care and outcomes led to the formation of Healthlink Corporation in 1992. Healthlink grew to be the largest privately held, provider-focused, healthcare technology consulting firm in the world when IBM acquired it in 2005. In 2009, Ivo co-founded Encore Health Resources to assist healthcare organizations in mining the business intelligence accrued after decades of process and technology improvements. Since it’s founding, Encore was one of the fastest-growing health IT services companies in the industry, and it has been named one of Modern Healthcare’s “Best Places to Work in Healthcare” five years in a row. Encore was acquired by Quintiles in 2014. Ivo now has three companies in his portfolio, Next Wave Connect, a virtual ecosystem of communities focused on current topics and challenges specific to the healthcare industry, enables meaningful collaboration among executives, care providers, associations, and solution companies to drive industry change and transformation. Global Healthcare Alliance, a value based reimbursement software and services company and Next Wave Advisors, a high-end boutique advisory firm. In the last two years, Ivo worked with MedSynergies, HealthPost, Encore, and Health Care Dataworks, all of whom had successful exits. Ivo was named to the HIMSS “50 in 50” list, recognizing the top 50 contributors to the healthcare IT industry in the past 50 years. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from CHIME, the HIMSS Leadership Award, and the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. Ivo was named the first recipient of the John P. Glaser Health Informatics Innovator Award in January of 2016. While not dreaming up new solutions for the healthcare industry, Ivo lives in Huntsville, Texas on a small lake in the Sam Houston National Forest surrounded by family – his wife, Sally, his Dad, two sisters and three grown children. He and Sally, are empty-nesters with two dogs, D.J. and Buckley, and one cat, Opie.