Heather Stark and Roohi Jeelani, M.D. both appear to have ambitious plans for growth and productivity.
BY RON SHINKMAN
There’s been a changing of the guard at Canada’s largest network of IVF clinics and a Chicago-based startup, with women taking the reins at both companies.
Heather Stark has been named chief executive officer of The Fertility Partners, a Toronto-based company that operates primarily through partnerships two-dozen clinics, satellite clinics and laboratories, including several sites in Connecticut. Stark assumed the new role in January after being hired in April 2025 as the company’s chief financial officer. She replaced Derek Larkin, who has left the company.
In Chicago, startup ONTO Health has named Roohi Jeelani, M.D., CEO and Founder. The company just opened up a clinic in the Windy City, its second site alongside a clinic in Colorado.
Stark was CFO at Weight Watchers
It’s the first time either have stepped into the CEO role. Prior to joining Fertility Partners, Stark served as CFO for Weight Watchers between December 2022 and December 2024. She ascended to the top finance job after serving in various senior finance positions when she joined the company in 2010.
“Having grown up as a CFO, my experience has always been deeply operational and focused on driving performance, building strong teams, and translating strategy into measurable results,” said Stark, who has returned to her native Canada after a quarter century at U.S. firms, including Bacardi and PwC.
Stark said her long tenure at Weight Watchers prepared her for entering the entirely new world of reproductive medicine: “Building trust, fostering community, and scaling evidence-based solutions were central to our success. Those lessons directly shape our focus at The Fertility Partners,” she said.
TFP Considering Expansion
As for her plans for The Fertility Partners, Stark said it will continue to expand, but declined to give specifics. One golden opportunity would appear to be in Alberta. It has the highest household income of all the Canadian provinces by far, about $7,100 in U.S. dollars per year than second-place Ontario. The Fertility Partners has yet to operate in that province. Most of its Canadian clinics are concentrated in Ontario and Quebec, with a handful of locales in British Columbia and single outposts in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
“I look at us having this incredible opportunity to further build on what we have,” Stark said, noting that plans are likely to solidify over the next year. She noted that despite the chill that has recently descended upon U.S.-Canadian relations, there have been no issues managing the company’s U.S. locations.
But any expansions would be undertaken very carefully, Stark noted.
“Any decision to enter a new province would be grounded in physician alignment and our ability to uphold TFP’s clinical and operational standards,” she said.
After Kindbody Chief Growth Officer Role, Jeelani Takes Over Startup
ONTO was formed two years ago with $5 million in funding from Onward HQ and other investors and incubation by Artis Ventures. Those funds were used to acquire the Rocky Mountain Fertility Center in Parker, Colo. Jeelani is overseeing the opening of its second clinic in Chicago. She left Kindbody as its chief growth officer late last year for the new role. ONTO currently has between 30 and 40 employees, Jeelani estimated.
Jeelani hopes to make ONTO into a company focused not just on IVF cycles, but a holistic understanding of patients and their health.
“What we hope to answer with ONTO is not just fertility, but truly help you understand your body and your biomarkers,” said Jeelani, who wants to push for earlier interventions that would uncover any fertility issues earlier. “It’s not just thinking for now, but delivering overall better care,” she said.
But expansion is also top of mind for Jeelani, who along with her tenure at Kindbody worked as a reproductive endocrinologist at the Vios Fertility Institute in Chicago and Detroit Medical Center.
“We are currently looking at different systems and different companies to integrate with and acquire,” Jeelani said. She added that many patients have traveled from Texas, Florida and New York for her services, which she suggested are likely targets for future expansion.
Jeelani performed 1,600 IVF cycles in 2025. Plans to Scale Other REIs
Jeelani herself has a reputation as an IVF workhorse. She performed 1,600 cycles last year, up from the 1,300 she performed in 2022, itself a remarkable figure. She believes such productivity can be instilled into ONTO’s doctors while also keeping patients at the core of the work they perform.
“It’s the process, not the person. But that being said, any doctor that works with or is employed by ONTO will have the luxury of having that process implemented for them so they can continue to grow and scale their practice,” she said.