Kathleen Frey is the founder of Frey Advisory, where she works alongside healthcare leadership teams to shape commercial strategy and advance growth opportunities. She brings 30 years of leadership and commercial experience across financial services and healthcare, including two decades spanning UnitedHealthcare, Optum, Willis Towers Watson, and digital health companies.
Drawing on deep industry relationships, she helps companies navigate complex healthcare organizations, develop strategic partnerships, and articulate their clinical and economic value. Her work spans AI-enabled healthcare, virtual specialty care, and medical technology, including U.S. commercialization strategy. She is also helping launch WBL’s new Peer Circle for independent advisors.
How did your career in healthcare start?
I spent the early part of my career in financial services. My move into healthcare came when the leader I was working for became CEO of a division within UnitedHealth Group and brought me over. Twenty years later, I’d say that was a pretty good move! Healthcare is where I feel at home. Working across large organizations and growing companies has given me an appreciation for what it takes to turn a promising idea into something people can actually access and use. I love helping companies work through that challenge. The opportunity to build a successful business while improving how people experience healthcare is what keeps me here.
With AI showing up everywhere in healthcare right now, what do you think separates the companies that will scale with automation from the ones that won’t?
My work as a strategic advisor to Vi for more than five years has shaped how I think about scaling AI in healthcare. I look for a clear connection between what the technology enables and an outcome a healthcare organization needs to improve. That might mean helping someone take the next step in their care or reducing the work required to get them there. The company also needs to understand who owns the problem, where the budget sits, and what adoption will require of the people using it.
The companies best positioned to scale will make implementation practical, build trust with appropriate human oversight, and demonstrate value that holds up over time. That gives customers a reason to keep investing.
You’ll be leading a new independent advisory WBL Peer Circle launching next month. What tips do you have for fellow advisors when it comes to networking within our community?
Make time to get to know people beyond their titles. Ask what they’re working on and how you might be helpful. For advisors, it also helps to be clear about the problems you solve so others can recognize opportunities to collaborate or refer work. Follow through on the introductions you offer, and stay in touch. Sometimes a simple “How did that meeting go?” means a great deal. That’s the spirit I’m excited to bring to the new Peer Circle, where we can talk candidly about building our practices, share what we’re learning, and help one another along the way.
What might the WBL network be surprised to know about you?
I’m a huge basketball and football fan at both the college and professional levels, and I can quote stats with the best of them! Sports were a big part of growing up with my dad and four brothers. Today, my two adult sons share that passion, and we love going to games together.
I also have a knack for remembering birthdays: tell me yours once, and it’s locked in. Don’t be surprised if you hear from me when the day comes around! 
