During his nearly 30 years as a lecturer at Wharton, Stephen Sammut has created eight courses — including Private Equity in Emerging Markets — that he has taught to over 11,000 students. Steve’s primary areas of research coincide with his venture activity: health care and biotech capacity building in the emerging markets; private equity and venture capital approaches to economic development; and the role of the private sector in addressing needs in global health. Outside of Wharton, Steve is visiting faculty in the Indian School of Business and Strathmore University Business School in Nairobi, Kenya; at both institutions he designed and launched the health care management MBA programs. He chairs the Industry Advisory Board of Alta Semper Capital, a private equity impact fund focused on health care investing in Africa. Steve also had experience as a venture partner at Burrill — Company, a merchant bank and venture capital fund focused on the life sciences and health care. His role there was general management of overseas venture capital funds, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. Steve has also consulted with the IFC and World Bank on private equity, technology transfer, and venture capital program assessment. Earlier in his career, he oversaw the private equity and venture capital activity of Teleflex Incorporated and was VP at SR One, Ltd., the venture capital arm of SmithKline Beckman. He holds graduate and undergraduate degrees from Villanova University in biological sciences and philosophy, an MBA from the Wharton School in finance and health care, and a Doctor of Business Administration in organizational behavior related to technology management from Temple University’s Fox School. He holds certificates in fintech from Oxford’s Saïd School, precision medicine from Harvard, and global health innovation from IESE.
Lawton R. Burns, Stephen Sammut, David Lawrence, “Healthcare Innovation across Sectors: Convergences and Divergences”. In The Business of Healthcare Innovation – 2nd Edition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, edited by Lawton R. Burns, (:, 2012)
Abstract: To request a copy of this article, contact Professor Burns at burnsl@wharton.upenn.edu.
Lawton R. Burns and Stephen Sammut (2011), Doing More with Less: Lessons From a Doctor, Insight, 9 (2).
Lawton R. Burns and Stephen Sammut (2011), Meeting the Challenges of Healthcare Needs in India: Paths to Innovation, Insight, 9 (2).
This course focuses on leadership and management issues in health care organizations while providing students with a practice setting to examine and develop their own management skills. Each team acts as a consultant to a healthcare organization which has submitted a project proposal to the course. The teams define the issue and negotiate a contract with the client organization. By the end of the semester, teams present assessments and recommendations for action to their clients and share their experience and key lessons learned in a final presentation to their classmates.
The course focuses on the creation, funding, and management of digital health, biotech, medtech, and other health services enterprises. The course is designed to supplement other offerings in the Health Care Systems and Management Departments for those students with entrepreneurial interest in such ventures, and will focus on special issues surrounding the conceptualization, planning, diligence, and capitalization of these ventures and also includes management and compensation practices. In addition, course offers methods for self-assessment & development of business models and plans, techniques for technology assessment and strategy, develops foundation for capitalization and partnering strategies, and creates a basis for best practices in company launch and plan execution. Students must apply to take this course. Please see the Health Care Management Department for the application.
Issues surrounding global health have captivated the attention of the public sector and foundations for many decades. Many of their initiatives are realizing progress on the health-related Millennium Development Goals. The private sector has been less engaged in global health, but has a significant role to play in providing resources and in building infrastructure, human resource capacity and sustainability. This course explores entrepreneurial and other private sector solutions for health services and access to medicines and technologies in the developing world and other underserved areas. The course also encompasses study of creative programs to engage the private sector in development of vaccines and medicines for tropical and neglected diseases. Furthermore, the course addresses novel care systems and therapeutic strategies for the rapidly growing burden of chronic, non-communicable diseases in the developing world. In short, the course builds on the content of conventional global health courses from a managerial and entrepreneurial perspective. Learning is driven through readings, class discussion and a series of guest speakers representing a wide range of global health issues. Evaluation is largely based on a student group project.
HCMG 8900-001: This course examines issues related to the Services Sector of the health care industry. For those interested in management, investing, or banking in the health care industry, the services sector will likely be the largest and most dynamic sector within all of health care. We will study key management issues related to a number of different health care services businesses with a focus on common challenges related to reimbursement, regulatory, margin, growth, and competitive issues. We will look at a number of different businesses and subsectors that may have been unfamiliar to students prior to taking the course. We will make extensive use of outside speakers, many of whom are true industry leaders within different sectors of the health care services industry. Speakers will address the current management issues they face in running their businesses as well as discuss the career decisions and leadership styles that enables them to reach the top of their profession. Students will be asked to develop a plan to both buy out and manage a specific health care services business of their choosing and will present their final plans to a panel of leading Health Care Private Equity investors who will evaluate their analysis. Prerequisites: HCMG 8410. Health Care Management MBA majors only
Global Modular Course (GMC) - see description in section details
Arranged with members of the Faculty of the Health Care Systems Department. For further information contact the Department office, Room 204, Colonial Penn Center, 3641 Locust Walk, 898-6861.
This course focuses on venture capital management issues in the context of a high-growth potential start-up company. The course is motivated by rapid increases in both the supply of and demand for private equity over the past two decades. The topic is addressed from two distinct perspectives: issues that relate to the demand for private equity and venture capital (the entrepreneur's perspective) on the one hand, and issues that relate to the supply of capital (the investor's perspective) on the other. As well, we will address management issues that relate to how the VC and the entrepreneur work together once an investment has been made, compensation issues, and governance issues in the privately held venture capital backed company. Format: Case/discussion format, supplemented by lectures and guest speakers.
This elective half-semester course focuses on venture capital management issues in the context of the typical high-growth potential early stage start-up company. The course is fundamentally pragmatic in its outlook. It will cover seven principal areas relevant to the privately held high-growth start-up which include: commentary on the venture capital industry generally, as well as a discussion of the typical venture fund structure and related venture capital objectives and investment strategies; common organizational issues encountered in the formation of a venture backed start-up, including issues relating to initial capitalization, intellectual property and early stage equity arrangements; valuation methodologies that form the basis of the negotiation between the entrepreneur and the venture capitalist in anticipation of a venture investment; the challenges of fundraising, financing strategies and the importance of the business plan and the typical dynamics that play out between VC and entrepreneur. It is recommended students take MGMT 801 before enrolling in this course. typical investment terms found in the term sheet and the dynamics of negotiation between the entrepreneur and the venture capitalist; compensation practices in a venture capital backed company; and corporate governance in the context of a privately-held, venture capital-backed start-up company and the typical dynamics that play out between VC and entrepreneur in an insider-led, "down round" financing.
This course investigates the private equity industry in emerging markets. The goal of the course is to give students a realistic understanding of the roles, responsibilities and analytical skills required of market practitioners, as well as the tensions that arise between various stakeholders, including government officials, investors, entrepreneurs and the press. The underlying premise is that the basic rules for private equity in those countries are similar to the rules in more industrialized countries, but market participants face a broader range of issues in areas such as valuations, governance, legal structures, contract enforcement and regulatory transparency. To provide students with a practical grasp of the issues, classes will be a mix of lectures, expert guest speakers and business cases. Cases will highlight the challenges and tasks at each stage of the investment cycle, such as structuring and launching a new fund, originating new deals, conducting due diligence, creating value, monitoring the performance of portfolio companies and exiting. Each class will focus on a specific topic, ranging from the basics of how and why private equity funds operate to complex issues such as fund governance and adding value to family firms.
Global Modular Course (GMC) - MBA
A recent decision by Morgan Stanley Capital International not to upgrade Argentina’s economy to “emerging” status dealt a blow to the nation’s pride. But there are plenty of reasons for optimism about the future, experts say.…Read More
Knowledge at Wharton - 10/30/2017