A conversation with Ana Schrank, Truepill’s Chief Financial Officer
For more than 20 years, Ana Schrank, Truepill’s Chief Financial Officer, has worked in healthcare finance, advising companies across the industry on financial strategy, operations and more. Before joining Truepill, Ana served as CFO at Collective Health. She also spent over two decades at McKesson Corporation, where she served in seven different positions, including CFO of McKesson Connected Care & Analytics, Chief Audit Executive, and Vice President of Investor Relations.
Ana joined our team in April, bringing with her a deep understanding of the healthcare industry, and a shared passion for making healthcare more convenient and accessible for everyone. In this Q&A, she discusses her career journey and reflects on some of the lessons she learned along the way — from how to build a successful financial strategy to what advice she has for professionals just starting out.
Why did you decide to join Truepill at this point in your career?
First of all, I love healthcare. I’ve been working in healthcare finance for the vast majority of my career. I worked for a very large company, McKesson, for more than 20 years, and then transitioned to a startup called Collective Health. Truepill brings me back to my roots in the pharmacy distribution space. I think what Truepill is doing to aggregate volume across the healthcare industry is a very needed disruption and enhancement to the system. It’s the perfect intersection of my previous experiences.
I have been so impressed by the finance team since starting at Truepill. They are incredibly hardworking, very skilled individuals, and it’s been an absolute pleasure to get to know them. I’ve been extremely impressed by what they can produce, and I’m excited to continue growing and learning together as a team.
What are the principles of a great financial strategy from your perspective?
I think the first step to any successful financial strategy is conducting a very thorough budget process. Once companies establish a budget, I believe very strongly in transparency. Budget owners need to know what their requirements are for the year. And if they don’t have that kind of transparency, access, and support from finance, then it’s really hard for them to meet their targets. I also think it’s important for companies to have finance business partners, the same way they have HR business partners, for example.
What career accomplishment are you the most proud of thus far?
The thing that I’m most proud of is having been a working mom. When I had my kids, there were not a lot of examples for me. I had to figure out how to do that on my own, how to balance career advancement while raising, being present for, and thoroughly enjoying being a mom to my two sons.
The second thing that I’m most proud of is having a 23-year career with a big company, and moving around through multiple roles — many of which were outside my wheelhouse. I moved from investor relations to CFO to Chief Audit Executive. While I had a lot of opportunities, I had to figure out each new role as I went. It was challenging, but extremely rewarding, and I’m proud of all that I accomplished there.
What is one piece of advice you would give to someone just starting out a career in finance or healthcare?
I would say build your base as much as you can because your options narrow as you get further into your career. If you advance your career in a silo, it’s very hard to make a big move to an entirely different sector or industry once you reach the Director or Vice President level. The more experiences that you can have early in your career, the better. What I always tell people is once it’s on your resume, no one can ever take it away from you. You’ve done the work, you’ve spent time in the role, you’ve learned the industry, and you can return to it later in your career if you want.
What leaders do you look to for inspiration? Who have been your mentors throughout your career?
During my 23 years at McKesson, I worked for five different CFOs, and each taught me something different. They each had slightly different workstyles and priorities, but they were all wonderful mentors to me. When I’m faced with a challenge, I find myself channeling different aspects of them at different times.
Additionally, when I was the Chief Audit Executive of McKesson, I reported to the Board of Directors and specifically to the Chair of the Audit Committee. She had been the CFO of ARCO earlier in her career, at a time when female CFOs were rare and, in the oil industry, probably non-existent. I can’t even imagine what it must have taken for her to break down barriers to become the CFO of an oil company at that time. It makes my path look really easy. She was a real inspiration to me and taught me a lot.
Our mission at Truepill is to transform consumer healthcare by bringing innovative experiences to consumers worldwide. What does this mean to you?
The world has changed so much in the last 10 years, even pre-pandemic, and we’re all operating differently now. The example I always give is if you created the banking industry today, you would not create a brick-and-mortar type of industry. We have to think about healthcare the same way. These days, you do not need a huge pharmacy footprint. We’ve seen that through the industry’s evolution to mail order, which was accelerated by the pandemic.
I think that Truepill is incredibly well positioned to further drive the modernization of healthcare. Frankly, healthcare lags compared to other industries in terms of technology adoption. Anything that you can do to make healthcare easier for people is a big deal — and Truepill is supporting that.
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