John R. Runningen
Partner, Focus, LLC

John Runningen, a FOCUS Partner, has twenty-five years of entrepreneurial and investment banking experience. Mr. Runningen has conducted 80 separate investment banking and M&A transactions for 44 companies with an aggregate value of $18.6 billion. He has served clients in the IT, Healthcare, Telecommunications and Manufacturing industries.

Prior to joining FOCUS, Mr. Runningen had been the Managing Director of Runningen Associates, LLC, an M&A firm that handled corporate advisory, strategic planning, and capital raising for start-ups, and early stage growth companies nationwide. There he raised $6 million in venture equity for Alliance Surgery, a surgery center management company and conducted the $38 million sale of SURGICOE to United Surgical Partners International.

Mr. Runningen served as a Senior Vice President, Investor Relations at WebMD (NASDAQ: HLTH) where he managed the company's Wall Street research and investment banking relationships. He served as the primary contact for all investors, including buy and sell-side analysts, portfolio managers, as well as employee and individual shareholders.

Previously, as a General Partner at Cordova Ventures, a $250 million venture fund, he raised the largest single investment in the history of the firm, constituting 20% of Cordova's Technology Fund. He created strategic alliances with other venture firms, such as Advent International and Live Oak Equity Partners, to co-invest in Cordova's health care investments.

Earlier, Mr. Runningen served as Senior Healthcare Analyst with The Robinson-Humphrey Company (a division of Smith Barney). He held a similar position with Morgan Keegan & Co. in Memphis. Mr. Runningen was a founder, CFO and a Director of QualiCorp, Inc., an owner and operator of medical office buildings (MOB) and nursing homes. To fund its MOB projects in the early 1980s, Mr. Runningen originated some of the first physician partnerships in America. In 1997, QualiCorp's property portfolio was sold to Omega REIT for $62.5 million.

Mr. Runningen received his BA degree, magna cum laude, from Luther College. He earned his MBA degree in Finance and Marketing, magna cum laude, from the Freeman School of Business at Tulane University.

Return to Bios Page