Howard Krein

Krein was born and raised in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.[1][2] He is the son of Stanley Krein, an insurance executive and former director of marketing at Aetna, and Brenda Ferne "Bunny" Lipner Krein, a physician assistant in cardiology at Cooper University Hospital.[1][3][4] His family is Jewish.[2]

As a teenager Krein competed in CowTown, a weekly summertime rodeo competition in Pilesgrove, New Jersey.[2][5] He became a volunteer fire fighter at the age of sixteen.[2][5]

Krein graduated from Rutgers University with a bachelor's degree in biology and a master's degree in neuroscience.[1][6][7] He obtained a doctoral degree in cell and development biology from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey's Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in 1996.[1][4][8] He graduated from medical school at Thomas Jefferson University in 2000.[1][4] He completed an internship in emergency medicine and general surgery and a residency in otolaryngology at Jefferson.[6] He completed a fellowship in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Medical College of Virginia.[6][9]

Krein and members of the Biden family at Joe Biden's swearing in ceremony in 2013.

Krein is a board-certified otolaryngologist who also specializes in facial and reconstructive surgery.[10][11][12] He has volunteered at the International Hospital for Children, operating on children with facial deformities in Belize.[2][4][13] Krein also volunteers with Faces of Honor, where he performs reconstructive surgery for victims of domestic violence and veterans of the War in Afghanistan and the Iraqi conflict.[4]

He works at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.[1][8][13] Since 2007 he has been an assistant professor of otolaryngology at Thomas Jefferson University.[1][2] Since 2016 he has served as the Senior Director of Health Policy and Innovation at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center.[14][15] Krein is a founding partner and co-director of the hospital's Herbert Kean Center for Facial Aesthetics.[6]

Since 2011 Krein has served as a Chief Medical Officer at StartUp Health, previously Organized Wisdom, a venture capital and health technology firm.[2][16][17][18] The firm, whose Chief Executive Officer is Krein's brother, lobbied the government on health industry technology regulations in 2018.[19] At StartUp Health, Krein works as a strategic clinical advisor to international digital health companies.[6]

From 2017 to 2019 he was on the Board of Directors of the Biden Cancer Initiative.[17][20] He attended the official kickoff at the University of Pennsylvania and promoted the Initiative at the World Economic Forum in Davos.[21] He was also an investor in the initiative.[21]

In 2018 Krein was an invited speaker at the Pontifical Council for Culture and Roman Curia Foundation's Fourth International Conference In An Effort To Unite To Cure at the Vatican, hosting the panel 10 Health Moonshots: How a Global Army of Health Transformers is Accomplishing One Impossible Dream.[21][22]

Krein has been an advisor to the Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign on its COVID-19 pandemic response.[21][23][24] StartUp Health has been running an initiative to invest in health care startups offering solutions to the global pandemic since March 2020.[21] Krein's role with the Biden campaign while working as an executive of a health technology firm has led to speculation about a conflict of interest.[21][25][26][27] In 2011 StartUp Health had described Krein as an advisor to the Obama Administration.[21] Krein has stated that he does not have a formal role in the Biden campaign but has participated in briefings on the coronavirus based on his experience treating patients and coordinating Thomas Jefferson University Hospital's response to the outbreak.[21][26]

Krein is Jewish and is a registered Democrat.[2][13]

He began dating Ashley Biden, a social worker and daughter of U.S. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, in 2010 after being introduced by her brother, Beau Biden.[3][4] They married in a Catholic-Jewish interfaith ceremony at St. Joseph's on the Brandywine in Greenville, Delaware.[3] The Catholic mass was celebrated by Father David F. Murphy, who was assisted by Rabbi Joseph Forman.[1] Krein and his wife live in Philadelphia.[6]