Myrtle Potter is a best selling author and one of America’s foremost and accomplished healthcare leaders and experts. Myrtle has dedicated three decades to serving the healthcare needs of millions of consumers through her leadership of some of America’s most successful global healthcare companies. She was a vice president, at Merck, president at Bristol-Myers Squibb and later was named president and chief operating officer of Genentech, the world’s biotechnology powerhouse, committed to developing powerful therapies for cancer, autoimmune diseases most successful biotechnology company.

In 2005 all of that came to an abrupt, shocking halt. Myrtle suffered a tragic, near-death experience in the healthcare system. After recovering and reflecting, Myrtle was inspired to completely change the course of her professional work. She decided to leave her corporate role and embark on a journey to combine her vast experience as healthcare expert, patient and caregiver to champion the needs of individuals struggling to navigate the U.S. healthcare system. Through her broad media presence Myrtle provides guidance, tools and resources that help millions of Americans navigate the U.S. healthcare system.

Myrtle Potter champions the right for people to have control over their unique, personal journey through the healthcare system.

With her deep understanding of the healthcare industry’s inner workings, personal experience of the challenges that confront individuals trying to secure the right resources and make the right healthcare decisions, and a compassionate, compelling personality, Myrtle is uniquely positioned to serve as America’s preeminent consumer healthcare guide. As a result she has earned her reputation as the Trusted Voice in Healthcare ™.

Television, Print & Appearances

Myrtle’s voice is heard by millions of Americans as a featured healthcare commentator and guest host on a number of CNBC television programs including Squawk Box, The Call, Power Lunch and Closing Bell. Myrtle can also be seen on Accent Health Television, the nations largest health education TV network delivering CNN-produced programming to doctor waiting rooms since 1995. Myrtle is also as a sought-after speaker, represented by the acclaimed Washington Speakers Bureau.

Whether on television or on a stage in front of thousands, Myrtle’s girlfriend-next-door style makes big, serious topics approachable and easy to understand.

Myrtle is a woman of humble beginnings. She grew up in the dusty, desert town of Las Cruces, New Mexico – one of six children born to a social worker mother and military veteran turned entrepreneur father.

Armed with a strong family foundation and a solid education, from her first healthcare industry job as a selling adult disposable diapers as a sales rep for Procter and Gamble, to her role as a board director for billion dollar multinational corporations, Myrtle’s thirty-year career has been marked by success. Myrtle’s business leadership has been hailed by America’s most influential business publications, including BusinessWeek, the Wall Street Journal, FORTUNE Magazine, TIME Magazine, Forbes, Black Enterprise Magazine and The Harvard Business Review. Myrtle is also referenced in more than twenty business and leadership books.

Myrtle’s accomplishments have also been recognized by being named to a number of the top recognition lists including three appearances on FORTUNE magazine’s Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Business, Black Health Magazine’s 25 Most Influential African Americans in Healthcare, Glamour Magazine’s Everyday Icon and the Wall Street Journal’s 50 Women to Watch.

Myrtle is the proud mother of two young adults, a graduate of the University of Chicago and a co-author of the Amazon.com #1 best seller, Living Proof: Celebrating the Gifts that Came Wrapped in Sandpaper (2011). She lives in Northern California.