Inspiration And Expert Advice: Expert Columns
About Kelly Close
Kelly L. Close is CEO of Close Concerns, Inc., a consulting firm devoted to diabetes and obesity research. Close Concerns provides advisory services to pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies on new product development. Kelly is Editor-in-Chief of diaTribe®, an electronic newsletter that helps people learn about new ways to manage diabetes better. diaTribe focuses on new drugs, devices and research. diaTribe is free and available online at www.diatribe.us. Kelly is also Editor in Chief of Diabetes Close Up, a newsletter focused on the business of diabetes. She and her team attend 30+ conferences and meetings focused on diabetes annually and actively review over 15 journals for breaking news in the field.
Kelly’s passion for diabetes comes from both her extensive professional work as well as her personal experience with type 1 diabetes, including over 20 years testing over 30 blood glucose monitors and seven insulin formulations, eight years wearing an insulin pump, and a dozen years taking 15,000 insulin shots and testing multiple insulin pens. She is a voracious reader of both academic and consumer diabetes publications. Stemming from ten years of work in the investment community prior to founding Close Concerns, Kelly is a recognized authority on the diabetes industry and speaks frequently on the topic of the business of diabetes at a range of conferences across the US.
Kelly has received first-class training, having graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA and from Amherst College, with a BA in Economics and English, magna cum laude. Directly following HBS, Kelly served as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co., where she focused on healthcare, contributing to many engagements, including efficiency studies in the pharmaceutical and healthcare services arenas. Following this, she was an equity research analyst for five years, covering medical technology at Merrill Lynch and Piper Jaffray. Kelly began her career at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where she was a financial analyst. She is on the board of the San Francisco JDRF as well as the Children with Diabetes Foundation and she lives in San Francisco with her husband, John, and daughters Coco and Lola.
Read Kelly's columns here.