Alyssa Rapp

Alyssa Rapp

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship, Chicago Booth

As of February 2021, Alyssa Rapp joined the ranks of one of the few women to launch a special-purpose acquisition corporation (“SPAC”), by filing an S-1 with the SEC for Healthwell Acquisition Corporation I.

Previously, Rapp served as the CEO of Surgical Solutions, hired first by Chicago-based private equity firm Sterling Partners in January 2018. Within six months, she was named one of Crain’s Chicago’s “Notable Women in Health Care”, and made the list for a second year in a row in 2019. She was also named one of the Top 100 Healthcare Leaders by the International Forum on Advancements in Healthcare in 2019.  In February 2020, Rapp shepherded a transaction of Surgical Solutions to a private equity-backed, global strategic player in the healthcare services space, Grupo Vitalmex, and remained CEO of the company’s U.S. subsidiary post-transaction.

Starting in 2014, Rapp joined the ranks as a lecturer-in-management at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. She was also named an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago’s Booth Business School, commencing April 2020, to create and teach a course on Women as CEOs, investors, directors, and executives.

From 2005-2015, Rapp served as the founder & CEO of Bottlenotes, Inc., the leading interactive media company in the U.S. wine, craft beer, and artisanal spirit industries.  During the Bottlenotes years, Rapp was named one of Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30” coolest entrepreneurs in America (September 2008) and routinely one of the wine industry’s top 25 of 100 most influential people by Intowine.com (2012 onward). Bottlenotes also received the “Best Advertising and Marketing Company” and the “People’s Choice Award” at the Empact 100 in September 2013 at the United Nations, honoring the top 100 companies with founders under 35.

Rapp earned a B.A. in political science and the history of art from Yale University in 2000 and an M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 2005. At Yale, she earned the Frank M. Patterson prize for the best essay on the American political system for her senior thesis on public housing reform in Chicago. Rapp was honored to have been appointed by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner  in 2015 to serve a four-year term on the board of directors of the Illinois Housing Development Authority. She served on the organization’s audit committee during her tenure, auditing $1B of assets and $100MM operating expenses in partnership with KPMG. In March 2020, Governor Rauner’s Successor, Governor JB Pritzker, appointed Rapp to the Illinois Humanities Council. In April 2021, Rapp was elected to the School Board of District 36 in Illinois.

When not immersed in business and civic life, Rapp loves to Peloton, do yoga, ski fast, and try as hard as possible to decipher a slider from a curve ball from her husband, 1990 MLB World Series champion and current partner at X10 Capital, Hal Morris. Rapp and Hal are the proud parents of Audrey Margaret Morris and Henriette Daniella Morris.

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