Megan Shaw

Managing Director, Life Sciences

Megan serves as Managing Director, Life Sciences at Innovation Works (IW) and AlphaLab Health. In this role, she works to build the life sciences ecosystem in Southwestern Pennsylvania, identify promising startups, and mentor entrepreneurs.

Megan is an entrepreneurial leader in the life science space with almost 20 years of experience in business strategy, M&A,  fundraising and product development. Most recently, she led projects for the NIH’s RADx program to accelerate COVID-19 diagnostic testing. In this role she evaluated potential technologies and supported companies in rapidly de-risking their technology, scaling their manufacturing, and developing optimal commercial and regulatory plans.

Megan has worked with several early-stage companies where she held a variety of roles in a leadership capacity. She was VP of Marketing and Business Development at HemoSonics, a point of care diagnostics company, where she led the Commercial Leadership team that took HemoSonics from a university spin-out through product development, fundraising, and commercialization, resulting in a successful acquisition by Diagnostica Stago. Her background in management consulting at Monitor Group and prior experience in private equity gives her a deep foundation in strategy development, growth initiatives, and investment diligence.

She holds a BA with honors from Amherst College, where she majored in Economics. She is an active community member, currently serving as a mentor at Hello Neighbor and participating in Women in Bio.