Michele Kang
Full Name
Michele Kang
Job Title
Majority Owner
Company
Washington Spirit
Speaker Bio
Michele Kang is an American businesswoman, investor, and philanthropist. Born and raised in South Korea, Kang came to the United States as a student to pursue her American dream. She has spent her career building businesses that challenge the status quo—and leveraging her own successes, she has focused on helping others achieve their own American dreams.

In 2022, Kang became the first woman of color to own a National Women’s Soccer League team: the reigning League champions, the Washington Spirit. In addition to building a premier team, she took on this role with a firm commitment to help move the League forward, by ensuring parity in infrastructure, sponsorship, and media as well as diversity among League owners. Kang has become a leading global advocate to create a level playing field between men and women in soccer, starting with equal pay—and she was selected as one of Sports Business Journal’s 2022 Power Players in Women’s Sports.

Kang is also the founder and CEO of Cognosante. A visionary in the field of health information technology, she founded Cognosante to disrupt the U.S. healthcare system. Under Kang’s leadership, Cognosante has grown rapidly and emerged as a trusted provider of innovative health technology solutions for key Federal health, military and intelligence agencies as well as state health programs.

To build on her transformational work in both health IT and women’s sports, Kang invests in early-stage companies that challenge the conventional wisdom. She established Cognosante Ventures to fuel and mentor digital health companies that will profoundly change the way patients experience healthcare. Kang also supports women-led sports startups including Just Women’s Sports, the leading media platform dedicated exclusively to women’s sports.

Kang is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion—and she is focused on expanding opportunity to all by providing meaningful careers to those who are too often excluded from corporate America. Cognosante offers various internship and scholarship programs designed exclusively for HBCU students, first-generation college students, and women in STEM. One of Cognosante’s wholly owned subsidiaries hires only Americans with disabilities offering full-time employment with full benefits. As a result of the innovative and inclusive culture Kang has built, Cognosante is a Great Place to Work-Certified Company.