Co-founder, General Counsel and Head of People, Waymark, Inc
Throughout her career, Afia Asamoah has worked at the intersection of technology and health. She joined Google as its’ first healthcare lawyer to advise teams developing medical software and AI technologies and has been at the forefront of firsts — including negotiating Google’s first patent licensing deal with Novartis (NYSE:NVS), forming the first Alphabet company, Verily Life Sciences, and participating in $800 million and $1B financing rounds for Verily.
After nearly 8 years in senior health roles at Google, most recently as Head of Legal for the Google Health business unit, Afia co-founded Waymark, a health technology start-up that uses proprietary technology and community based teams to improve care delivery to people with Medicaid benefits. In founding Waymark in 2021 and scaling that business, Afia combines her interests in using technology innovation to improve healthcare to underserved populations.
Afia is recognized as a leader and digital health innovator. Prior to joining Google, from 2009-2011, Afia served as Special Assistant in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner’s Office, where she created a new FDA center for regulating tobacco products and led initiatives to increase technology innovation by biotech and medical devices companies. For her efforts, she received the FDA’s highest award, the FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation “for strong leadership and innovative management of the FDA Transparency Initiative and Task Force.” In 2020, Afia was named “one of the 10 most influential minority healthcare executives” by FierceHealthcare. In 2024, as part of the inaugural class of catalysts recognized by f7 Ventures, Afia was named one of 10 “exceptional leaders and operators at high-growth companies that are driving real change in their communities.”
Outside of work, she serves as board director for Lucille Packard Stanford Children’s Hospital, chairing the audit committee, as board director and vice chair of the Public Health Institute, and is on the governing board of the Carol Emmott Foundation. Afia received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, her Masters of Public Policy from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and her BA from Harvard University.
