Joseph W. Gough

Joseph W. Gough
Entrepreneur/ Investor / Executive

Hometown: Ann Arbor, MI

EDUCATION
Joe Gough is a product of the Orchard Lake Schools, graduating with honors from St. Mary’s Prep and College. Gough was a scholarship and Dean’s List student-athlete at Wayne State University as well. During his Hall of Fame college football career, Gough left the Warriors as the all-time leading rusher in 1994. His three-time All-American career led to an appearance in the Snowbowl East-West Shrine Game. He holds the national record for rushes per game and was the last player with over 100 tackles and over 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons.
Gough graduated with honors in Communication and Media Arts.

MEDIA CAREER
Gough left academia for the private sector in 2001, where he quickly established himself in multimedia production. Success with artists and athletes from Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow to Justin Verlander and Matthew Stafford led to the development of GoughDrop. With award-winning unscripted content, Gough secured the rights to a variety of professional sports and true crime stories.

Along with his professional accomplishments, Gough started a sports podcast called GOATQUEST and a radio show called Inspire Michigan on WDTK AM-1400. Inspire Michigan is also a charity dedicated to supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in Michigan. Joe lives near Ann Arbor, MI, with his high school sweetheart and their two children.

HEALTHCARE CAREER
Joe Gough is Executive Director at Aledade, managing value-based care operations and growing the ACO market for the largest enablement partner in the country. He is also an owner of the ITC Healthy managed services group, and non-executive Chairman of Wide Awake VR, a company that provides immersive patient experience media for patients with anxiety undergoing medical or dental care.

He was the Founder and CEO of Wellopp and Homeward Health, where he invented and trademarked the “Digital Discharge” for fully interactive patient discharge screenings and care plan education. The company successfully exited and spun-off Wellopp, the first fully interactive Social Determinants of Health survey application.

Gough’s digital health and multimedia entrepreneurship extends 25 years, with other early stage companies such as CCS Robotics (sold to Swisslog in 2011) and Brainstorm Creative (sold to ITC in 2013). Gough was Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Toledo Innovation Enterprises and an IT portfolio manager inside Rocket Ventures. Gough was X-ology magazine’s Start-Up Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008, and has won a variety of awards in digital media and big data experience while consulting for LexisNexis and Reed Elsevier.