Ross Mason

Ross Mason created HINRI (the Healthcare Institute for Neuro-Recovery and Innovation) Ventures, HINRI Labs, and the HINRI Foundation in August 2007, after a bicycle accident left him paralyzed from the collarbones down. He is the Vice-Chairman of the Georgia Department of Community Health Board ($13 billion annual budget), and Chairman of the Georgia Free Clinic Network, which provided free medical care to 150,000 homeless, indigent, and uninsured Georgians in 2008, and saved the state almost $500 million.

Ross is a healthcare entrepreneur, investor, and former strategic advisor to Volkswagen’s Healthcare Venture Accelerator Fund, which invested 280 million Euros in 90 companies, including 30 early stage healthcare companies. He was a former Associate in Private Banking at Morgan Stanley (New York, London, Zurich, Moscow and Atlanta) and created a real estate investment/development company in Moscow, Russia that he owned and operated for 12 years. He first became interested in healthcare after working in an AIDS hospital in Zambia. Ross graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in Industrial Engineering and the Wharton School, with an MBA in Finance.

Prior to his accident, Ross was actively involved in triathlons, wreck/cave/ice diving, surfing, rock/ice climbing and was a NASCAR certified driver. Today, Ross uses that same energy and enthusiasm to explore new therapies, treatments, and scientific/medical breakthroughs to improve the quality of life for those suffering from spinal cord injury, brain trauma and other neurological diseases/disorders.

HINRI Ventures, LLC (“The Fund“) invests in early stage companies that are focused on addressing central nervous system injuries, diseases, and disorders. The three areas of investment focus are - regenerative medicine, healthcare information technology (including assistive technologies for the disabled), and health transformation. The Fund works with US Military leaders (Department of Defense, Armed Forces Services Organization, and the Veterans Administration) and HINRI Labs to conduct clinical trials with portfolio companies in Atlanta, Boston, and Palo Alto.

HINRI Labs is a non-profit partnership between the Center for Health Transformation, the US Military, Emory, Georgia Tech, the Shepherd Center, Stanford University, and the Palo Alto Veterans Administration. The objective of HINRI Labs is to build a nationally recognized nexus for academia, science, medicine, business, philanthropy, and public policy to advance patient-centered research, rehabilitation, restoration, and recovery from neurological impairments due to injury, disease, or congenital causes.

HINRI Foundation funds organizations and projects that make living with paralysis, brain injury and other neurological diseases more productive, creative, independent, and fun. The Foundation advocates for, and proposes legislation important to, the disabled community and sponsors athletic events to educate, inform, and promote health. There is a strong focus on military outreach to assist all active and retired military personnel with mobility impairment from a spinal cord injury or a traumatic brain injury.