PatientsLikeMe for Partners Blog

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David S. Williams III

Chief Marketing Officer, Head of Business Development

David S. Williams III is chief marketing officer and head of business development at PatientsLikeMe, having been involved with the company since its inception. Williams is responsible for developing the corporate brand, patient acquisition, business strategy and client services. Williams’ groundbreaking position statement, PatientsLikeMe’s Openness Philosophy, has been recognized for its progressive approach to health information by leading media including The New York Times, Newsweek, Businessweek, Wired, Fast Company, and numerous academic journals.

In his role, Williams has developed products and services that amplify the patient voice and experience with chronic disease for industry partners. Williams also launched the PatientsLikeMe Clinical Trial Awareness service, which has accelerated clinical trial recruiting for numerous trials helping pharmaceutical company partners bring breakthrough treatments to market faster. As a result of this successful alignment of patient and industry goals, Williams is a recognized thought leader in pharma interaction with social media who has been quoted in Marketwatch, Bio-IT World, and numerous trade publications. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and a published author in Nature Biotechnology and the Journal of Communication in Healthcare.

Prior to joining PatientsLikeMe, Williams held institutional sales and global strategy positions at pharmaceutical leader Eli Lilly and Company with a focus on the psychiatry and neurology therapeutic areas. As Director of Community Development at venture-backed health media firm Spotlight Health, he built online health communities numbering in the hundreds of thousands while working with celebrities including Larry King, Carnie Wilson, Montel Williams and Rodney Dangerfield. Earlier in his career, Williams was a management consultant with Deloitte’s health care practice, focusing on hospital strategy, mergers and acquisitions and health plan evidence-based utilization management.  Williams began his career at Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) performing market consulting and analysis on consumer packaged goods categories including salty snacks, sugar substitutes, hot sauces, and cookies and crackers.

A successful entrepreneur, Williams founded two successful companies before age 30.  At 24, he founded Revisions Grants Services with his mother Karen, a multiple cancer survivor, after she experienced a health episode that left her in major financial hardship.  Revisions ran for five years, paid off all bills and provided over 30 years of retirement income to his mother.  His second company, RHR Ventures, was started out of his business school apartment as a virtual consulting firm for Los Angeles area entrepreneurs.  RHR consultants authored business plans that led to more than $25 million in venture funding.

Williams guest lectures at several major business schools and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at UCLA. He earned his B.S. in Economics with a concentration in Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania and holds an MBA in Digital Strategy and a certificate in Corporate Governance from the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management.

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