Gary K. Ko Email & Phone Number

If I had to use one adjective to describe myself, it would be inquisitive. I was fascinated with research – coming up with a hypothesis, doing the work to support the idea, and executing on my thesis. From 2000 – 2019, I worked as an Equity Research Analyst at Franklin Templeton. My role was to make equity recommendations for our mutual funds. I was entrusted with managing positions valued in the billions, and generated great returns for our funds over the years. I spent the last 11 years covering US healthcare, where I had developed a deep understanding of the system. US healthcare is dysfunctional and I think the public deserves better. However, I find that the profit maximizing motives from stakeholders are usually not aligned with public interest. Deep down I feel that I can make a difference in actively affecting change in healthcare, perhaps with health policy research or with my own company. When I left Franklin in early 2019, I thought this was an ideal time to step away from the private for-profit sector (at least temporarily), to explore my passion in affecting positive change through academia and non-profit. With this in mind, I joined the UCSF / UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy as a Research Fellow. In this role I would seek to promote improvement in price transparency within US healthcare through legislative and regulatory means. Furthermore, I launched a non-profit called California Medical Billing Advocates that seek to intervene on unjust medical bills before they became crippling debt. Finally, I would be teaching classes at UCSF / UC Hastings to pay it forward to the next generation of doctors and lawyers. I am still very interested in maintaining ties with the private sector to keep on top of current topics in the for-profit world. Let’s keep the conversation going. I will buy you a cup of coffee in you are in San Francisco Bay Area and want to catch up.